The British papers just can’t let go of their Sussex obsession, so we’re getting “end of year” summaries of Prince Harry and Meghan’s ups and downs in 2023, with an overemphasis on sh-t like “South Park” and the Hollywood Reporter’s recent nastiness. The same emphasis is not given to Spare selling millions of copies, nor another successful Invictus Games, nor Harry winning his lawsuit against the Mirror. Well, here’s some sh-t from Hannah Furness at the Telegraph, from a piece called “Can the Sussexes really make a comeback?” Why is it any of the Telegraph’s business what two people do in California? They really refuse to ask themselves that question.

Meghan’s recent appearance at the Variety event: “Is that what this was all for?” one former palace source said incredulously at the time. “All this drama, leaving the Royal family for a life of service, just to be back on the showbiz circuit again?”

Omid Scobie’s Endgame: Widely considered as a Sussex sympathiser, despite regularly defending himself against accusations of being “Meghan’s mouthpiece”, Scobie’s account echoed much of what Harry and Meghan said in their own interviews but went further to heavily criticise their British family. Prince William was painted as jealous and angry, the Princess of Wales as a cold “Stepford-like” wife, and the King incompetent. No amount of denials about collaboration could separate the Sussexes from the book in the public imagination. “The credibility of the Sussexes now seems somehow linked to the credibility of Omid Scobie,” said one observer. “The more ridiculous the book seems, the more biased it sounds, the more fuss there is about who said what in which translation, the less people will believe the claims in it.”

No one believes the royals are racist, huh? Even the most powerful accusations, including the accidental naming of members of the Royal family with “unconscious bias”, will not work in the Sussexes’ favour, another expert believes. “It takes away the power of their own story,” he says. “If and when they want to talk about it themselves, the public will feel they’ve heard it all before.”

The business fizzle: Shortly after the Hollywood Reporter pronouncement, Forbes, the respected US business magazine, called the Sussexes a “compelling case study for Harvard Business School on the ultimate brand buzz failure”. A columnist advised readers on how to “avoid Harry and Meghan’s all buzz and no buyers strategy when building a brand”. A second article urged the Prince to stop focusing on a “fading career as a bon vivant philanthropist and B-list celebrity”, and choose not to “continue pursuing an increasingly pointless life of serving as an irrelevant hood ornament for good causes”.

[From The Telegraph]

The Telegraph also cited the recent People Mag story about the Sussexes going for a “total system reboot.” Y’all know my thoughts on all of this, as I’ve said many times this year: the Sussexes have had some big wins but they have legitimately had some tough moments and sh-tty newscycles. Their biggest problem is a terrible communications strategy. They’ve f–ked up their communications and messaging repeatedly, and I hope their “system reboot” addresses that. The Spotify story would not have been half as bad if they had gone on the record when the contract ended AND clapped back at Bill Simmons. This wasn’t some unhinged royal reporter – this was a Spotify executive and it was about their business. They also made significant mistakes in how they communicated what happened with the paparazzi chase in New York. As for the Scobie stuff – it’s hilarious that the one time Harry & Meghan refuse to complain or explain, that’s when the British media demands that they speak up.

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Photos courtesy of Getty, Backgrid.

I missed these (horrible) photos of Prince William from last Thursday, when he visited The Lord High Admiral’s Divisions at Britannia Royal Naval College and he looked utterly awkward and completely out of place. He looks so much like his uncle Edward in these photos, and he also looks unmoisturized. Do the male royals have something against skincare? Anyway, William’s awkwardness reminded me of his big trip to Abu Dhabi and Dubai in 2022, where he awkwardly flailed his jazz hands and looked painfully uncomfortable. I bring that up because William was sent to Kuwait this week to pay the royal family’s respects and condolences to the Kuwaiti royal family following the death of Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

Prince William is making an unexpected trip abroad just a week before Christmas. Kensington Palace announced on Monday that the Prince of Wales is en route to Kuwait on behalf of his father, King Charles, to pay condolences to His Highness Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah following the death of His Late Highness, Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

The British royals have longstanding ties with Kuwait, with His Highness Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah having visited the U.K. three times in 2023: in May for King Charles and Queen Camilla’s coronation, in August as a guest of the government and in October to meet the King.

Prince William was joined on the trip by the Foreign Secretary, David Cameron.

[From People]

I mean, this is what William is actually supposed to do. This is what Charles did constantly, for decades, as Prince of Wales. Charles was always getting sent to foreign allies to pay the family’s respects in person, to attend state funerals and high-level international events. What’s notable is that William has rarely gotten sent to any of that stuff and the man is 41 years old. He still has to tell everyone that he’s a big-boy statesman now because he still doesn’t have those credentials. Will we see more of this? I wonder. If the past is prologue, William will be bragging about this statesman’s journey for months, meanwhile the Foreign Office will probably have to do damage control after Peg inevitably offends someone.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Most years, Prince William and Kate do a final push in December to increase their event-numbers. Not this year – we’ve barely seen them in December beyond Kate’s Christmas carol event. The work numbers were already tallied by the newspapers more than a week ago as well, so maybe Will and Kate were just like “f–k it, we can get away with not doing anything in December.” William undertook 172 engagements in 2023, and Kate did 128 engagements. Even those sad numbers are padded with “private meetings” and “phone calls,” and their numbers mirror the engagement numbers of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, who are 79 and 77 years old. Anyway, the Mail is still deeply upset that Omid Scobie mildly criticized Kate’s laziness in Endgame, and a recent episode of Palace Confidential was devoted to defending Kate’s work-shy honor.

The Princess of Wales shouldn’t be seen as ‘not working hard’ because she is ‘trying to raise our future King’, the Daily Mail’s Richard Eden has told Palace Confidential. It comes after an analysis of public events and official meetings by the Sunday Telegraph showed Princess Anne, 73, was the hardest working member of the British Royal Family this year, carrying out 457 royal engagements, 32 more than the King. The Princess’ workload recently came under fire in Omid Scobie’s new book Endgame, in which he branded her ‘technically a part-time working royal’.

Speaking on the Mail+’s weekly talk show, Mr Eden said: ‘There’s an element of truth in that in the sense that they want to spend more time with their children. Catherine is trying to raise our future King [Prince George], and the children, it’s a very important job so it shouldn’t be seen as not working hard. She’s doing that in addition to engagements. So you would always expect someone like Princess Anne to do more.’

The Daily Mail’s Royal Editor Rebecca English added: ‘The Prince and Princess of Wales, they are always a bit low down and I think this highlights the balance that they are trying to find, which is, they also want to focus on a smaller number of charities and get more intimately involved in those charities. That does mean less public engagements. Queen Elizabeth was always of the opinion that you have to be seen to be believed, royalty has to be seen to be believed, and I think that highlights… questions might rise, are they getting that balance right? They’ve also made very clear that their other really big job is bringing their family up and being good parents.’

‘That’s what we saw in that lovely video of the three children going to the baby bank, is actually they’re bringing up three really happy, well-adjusted kids who are comfortable enough with the spotlight on them without being overexposed to it. So I think those numbers to reflect that balance they’re trying to find.’

[From The Daily Mail]

Yeah, the “she’s raising the future king” excuse is already wearing thin, as we’ve seen from some increasingly critical coverage of Kate. People noticed that she was too lazy to go to the Rugby World Cup semifinal. Even royalists questioned whether Kate is simply too lazy to travel this year. There was analysis in the Mail about how Kate basically only does events within a thirty-mile radius of her home, and only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays. Plus, she disappears every summer and returns with new wigs and fillers. Anyway, we’re going to hear this bullsh-t about “she’s busy raising her children” until Louis’s 18th birthday. Then they’ll invent a new excuse.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

The Daily Express had another unhinged hit piece on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, which is no real surprise. The surprise is that Deadline picked up the story and repeated it without any curiosity about whether the Express’s source was a rancid tabloid editor’s ass. This isn’t the first time one of the Hollywood trade papers has picked up on the “reporting” done by British tabloids, but it’s getting to be a more regular thing and it’s the worst. So, here’s the story: the Sussexes are “worried” that the Windsors have been blocking them from signing big sponsorship deals. Allegedly, WME has been trying to put together some deal but brands are like “no, we’d rather work with Camilla!” Seriously?

The Express can exclusively reveal that parties linked to the Sussex camp have held crisis talks following a succession of failed projects and influential doors being slammed in their face.

“There’s a general feeling that there has been a vendetta waged against them,” the source said. “There have been talks held with high profile brands that didn’t lead to anything but should have done. Those brands then actively courted other members of the family.”

Queen Camilla wore Dior Haute Couture to the Palace of Versailles during an official visit to France in September. It was also revealed in November that Meghan had lost out on the opportunity of a lucrative Dior deal to Meg Bellamy who plays a young Kate Middleton in season six of The Crown.

“Both Harry and Meghan often wore Dior and were at one point huge fans of the brand,” the source said. “Harry wore a [Dior] suit to the Coronation and the Sussexes were starting to build up their partnership with the fashion house.

“Then the focus shifted towards Camilla and other members of the family. To add salt to the wounds, the actress playing Kate Middleton was announced as the new face of the brand. It was all very suspicious timing.”

It was announced in April that Meghan Markle had signed a contract with William Morris Endeavor (WME) in a bid to secure lucrative new deals. However, eight months later, there’s still no sign of any new projects and the Sussexes’ reputation remains in ruins.

Harry and Meghan’s self-titled Netflix documentary was released last December. Since then, they’ve lost out on a lucrative $20 million Spotify deal with exec Bill Simmons calling them “grifters”. Netflix cancelled the development of Pearl; an animated series created by Meghan and the couple are noticeably struggling in Hollywood.

“They [the Sussexes] are thrashing around like a fish out of water,” the source said. “The team doesn’t appear to know what to do at this point. The consensus now is to try and repair the damage done to the Royal Family and hope that link will help them out of the doldrums.”

[From The Daily Express]

Again, it’s really curious that Deadline picked up this story, since it’s clearly in the same vein as all of the other British tabloid stories about how the Sussexes are “desperate” to retain their connection to the left-behind Windsors. This also follows a similar pattern of “royal sources” making up some lie about what Harry and Meghan “want” and then those sources insist that the royals successfully blocked them. It’s actually become clear that the palace has “vendetta blocked” the Sussexes, because the palace is paranoid – the palace has gone out of its way to cry to the Biden administration and beg the Bidens not to do anything with or for the Sussexes. The palace wanted Camilla to get attention for wearing a Dior sack, so they made up a big lie about Meghan’s desperation for a Dior sponsorship.

Now, all that being said, all of us thought that WME would have announced something new with Meghan a lot sooner. We still don’t know what’s going on behind-the-scenes, but I hope it’s big.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar.

These are photos of former rugby player James Haskell. Some of the pics are from 2017, when Prince Harry (then the patron of England Rugby) visited the team and had a chat with James. Some of the pics are from 2018, when James and his wife Chloe attended Prince Harry and Meghan’s wedding. James and Chloe are getting a divorce now, she left him and he’s really bitter about it. James, Mike Tindall and Alex Payne cohost a rugby podcast and James was “joking” a lot in a recent episode, all about how he’s hid his money and Chloe won’t get anything in the divorce. I hope Chloe provides that episode to the court. Anyway, James also had some sh-t to say about Harry, because of course he did.

The Duke of Sussex admitted in his tawdry memoirs that he was slammed by some of his oldest friends for the explosive interview that he and his wife, Meghan, gave to Oprah Winfrey. One friend who loyally stood by him, however, was James Haskell, the former England rugby star who attended his wedding. Haskell said that he and Harry often compare notes on parenting and even defended his friend’s decision to publish his book, Spare.

‘When someone feels like they and their partner have been oppressed, lied about, contradicted and put into a corner, I think it’s very important [to speak out],’ he said.

Now, though, Haskell has let slip what he really thinks, claiming that Harry has changed for the worse since marrying the American former actress.

Referring to how he met King Charles’s younger son at the 2011 wedding of his friend and fellow former England rugby star Mike Tindall to Zara Phillips, Haskell said: ‘Who should be there, wandering around having a good time, but Prince Harry. He hadn’t met her [Meghan] yet, so he was still quite fun.’

Haskell made the comment on stage at Bath Forum, in Somerset, for the World Cup Afterparty: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly – a live version of their popular rugby podcast. His remark was met with cheers and also applause from the audience.

On stage in Bath, Haskell mocked Tindall for his alleged deference to his in-laws.

‘I don’t know how to say this but Tinds is a proper brown-nose around the royals,’ he declared.
‘He’s taken brown-nosing to a new level. They called him “Solesy” at the palace because the only thing you see hanging out of their backsides are the soles of his feet. And he’s also known as a bit of a cuckoo because since he joined up he’s had Harry out and he’s had [Prince] Andrew out [of the family] as well. He’s one big plane crash away from being King.’

With the audience laughing, Haskell joked: ‘He keeps trying to book their travel. Charles will be asking him, “Do we really have to fly to Afghanistan? And all together? And on Ryanair?”‘

[From The Daily Mail]

Eh. Given what little I know about British mindsets, it’s not incompatible to believe that “Harry had every right to tell his story” AND also believe “Harry was a lot more fun before he met Meghan.” I actually think it’s probably true in the sense that in his teens and 20s, Harry was a f–kup, a clown, a boozy mate, cheeky, naughty, what have you. Then he grew up, and people love to blame Meghan for the fact that Harry isn’t that naughty, drunk f–kup anymore. Anyway, this guy sounds like he’s mainlined toxic masculinity and now it oozes out of his pores.

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Photos courtesy of Getty, Avalon Red.

Bradley Cooper’s Oscar campaign for Maestro is just as over-the-top as his campaign for A Star Is Born back in 2018-19. If anything, I’m sort of more offended this time around, given Cooper’s insistence on casting and directing himself as Leonard Bernstein, complete with a comically offensive prosthetic nose. Not only that, but Bradley Cooper is bragging about his “set rules” as a director and they’re completely awful.

Bradley Cooper has a unique set of rules while he’s directing, including “no chairs” on set.

“For me, it was such a natural transition, once I had the courage to write and direct a movie. But when I direct, I don’t watch playback. There’s no chairs,” Cooper, 48, told Spike Lee about filming Maestro in an interview for Variety published on Wednesday, December 14. “I’ve always hated chairs on sets; your energy dips the minute you sit down in a chair.”

Considering filming can typically consist of 12 to 16-hour days, Cooper’s commitment to keeping his actors in the moment certainly seems intense, which he understands. He admitted he “changed” during the process of filming, and he wasn’t surprised if his film wasn’t loved by all viewers.

“I will say this about Maestro: I grew up on this movie,” he continued. “It changed me as an artist. And people may not like it. I’m sure they won’t.

In addition to no chairs, the American Hustle actor also noted that “there’s no video village” on set, which alludes to him doing away with the monitors that usually surround the director while filming.

[From Us Weekly]

*looks at that fake nose again* Maybe if he was watching scenes as he was filming them in a video village, he would have seen that the prosthetics weren’t working? Seriously, I’ve heard bad things about directors who don’t leave the video village and I’m sure that’s a problem too, but you’re literally directing a film and you want to see if the setup works and you want to foster collaboration with your cinematographer, director of photography, etc. “No video villages” isn’t a flex.

As for no sitting… I usually don’t go to “that’s ableism,” but it is. Not every person is physically capable of standing for hours. It’s also not a moral failing for actors or workers to want to sit down in between scenes or setups. It also seems like not allowing seats on set would be a huge legal liability. What if someone faints, etc. Bradley Cooper sounds like such a f–king douche.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, screencap from ‘Maestro’ trailer.

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Taylor Swift made the journey to Boston on Sunday to watch her boyfriend Travis Kelce play the New England Patriots. The Chiefs had a lot on the line – now that they beat the Patriots, they’re likely to make the playoffs, at least that’s what I’m reading? It’s not a 100% sure thing, but it’s very likely. Plus, the Chiefs lost their last two games, both of which Taylor Swift attended. She needed a win, so did Travis.

I also have to say, I like that Taylor wears different Chiefs merch for every game, and most of it is vintage. Someone in her camp made a $1200 order from Westside Storey, a vintage shop in Kansas City, and the Daily Beast spoke to the owner, Chris Harrington. Harrison talked about how everything changed for his business after Taylor started wearing the vintage sweatshirts from his store, and now he’s doing crazy business. He also said that other Kansas City businesses have been putting together free gift packages and trying to get the stuff to Taylor in the hope that she’ll wear something or mention something and their businesses will see an uptick too.

Last week, I went down a Swifty rabbit hole and discovered that the snake fam believes that Travis did get Taylor a ring for her birthday, but not an engagement ring. Like, a cocktail ring with emeralds. Which would be nice, even though there’s certainly a lot of energy around “will Travis propose.” Speaking of, Page Six’s sources claim that Travis has already asked Taylor’s father for his blessing to propose to Taylor, and Scott Swift gave it. Travis is apparently looking at rings and talking to Taylor’s friends about what she might like? Page Six also says that Taylor and Trav will probably spend Christmas together, and Taylor still loves the fact that Travis is more demonstrative and he’s fine with being seen out in public with her.

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Photos courtesy of Getty.

Introduction: Minutes 0 to 6:00
This is our last podcast of 2023 and we plan to be back January 13. Here’s a link to the Buzzfeed article about things that happened in 2023. I watched The Happiest Season on Hulu and loved it. Chandra watched May December and enjoyed it but says it’s a downer. I’m excited for Reacher season two. Chandra will start the final episodes of The Crown. She tried watching Red, White & Royal Blue but it made her feel old. I watched the documentaries The Mission on Disney and Bad Surgeon on Netflix. You can listen below!

Royals: Minutes 6:00 to 23:15
Last week on Friday Kate had her third annual Together at Christmas concert. This was one of her successes that Omid Scobie mentioned in Endgame. Camilla and Charles didn’t go. Sophie, Beatrice, Zara, Eugenie and Kate’s family including her sister and her mom and dad came. The Middletons have been keeping a low profile since their business went bankrupt, owing creditors millions. Kate wore an all white suit that was straight out of Meghan’s lookbook.

In last week’s episode #165 we talked about the fact that the royal racists, Kate and Charles, were accidentally released in the Dutch translation of Omid Scobie’s Endgame. Scobie wrote an essay for iNews in which he explained how that happened.

We also mentioned last week that the royals had crisis talks and were planning a “charm offensive” in response to Endgame. There were some vague legal threats in the press but they plan to just act like everything is fine like they always do.

King Charles visited the court that will preside over Prince Harry’s case against the Mirror just a day before their ruling! Here’s a link to the tweet I mentioned. Chandra doesn’t think Prince Harry will win his royal protection case but that he’s pursuing it so that it’s all on the record.

Part of the “charm offensive” involves the royals doing more charity work, although Kate hasn’t been seen much. There was an article that Kate would get revenge on the Sussexes by getting good press. Camilla Tominey had a series of articles about how Meghan hates Kate and it was clearly projection.

Kate took all three of her children to visit a Baby Bank and they actually brought donations with them. It was one of the best things they’ve done in months, however they were criticized by anti-poverty advocates for normalizing charity instead of advocating for systemic change. William visited a charity for unhoused people he works with called Passages. He was seen hugging people and the Daily Mail reported on that and called him the “Prince of Hugs.” After Omid Scobie reported in Endgame that Prince Edward is a germaphobe the palace released a video where he’s uncomfortably shaking people’s hands.

The Sussexes released a cute video of their charity work with Archewell this year along with the foundation’s impact report. The press poured over the numbers and criticized them for only raising $2 million this year, which is ridiculous. They raised more in their first two years after starting their foundation, and they haven’t “spent” all of that money. They also gave their staffers raises. Here’s a link to one of the tweets Chandra mentions about royal staffers being jealous.

Richard Eden wrote a column calling for Harry and Meghan’s titles to be stripped and for Harry and his kids to be removed from the line of succession. This argument invalidates the whole “magic blood club” reasoning for the royalty if Harry can just be excluded.

The Sun reported that a source said that Charles “will not be emotionally blackmailed by his own son” in regard to the royal racist reveal in the Dutch version of Endgame. Harry had nothing to do with Endgame and these people know how they treated him.

Kate and William and their kids released a black and white Christmas photo. They were all wearing black jeans and white button down shirts and it was giving Olan Mills 1994. We wonder why they didn’t make it more Christmassy. Us Weekly reported that they were embarrassed by that.

Comments of the week: Minutes 23:15 to end
Chandra’s comment of the week is from Nic919 the post about The Crown showing how Carole Middleton meddled in Kate’s relationship with William.

My comment of the week is from atlantababe on the post about Jennifer Aniston saying she didn’t use an intimacy coordinator on the set of The Morning Show.

Thanks for listening bitches! Happy holidays and hope you have an excellent new year!

Photos credit: Avalon.red, Backgrid, Cover Images, Netflix and via Instagram

For years now, we’ve heard about the Princess of Wales’s desire to have all three of her children attend coeducational schools. She’s even wary of boarding schools and would prefer to have her children live at home for as long as possible. Reportedly, Kate and William have argued for years over George’s possible attendance at Eton, an all-boys prep school and William’s alma mater. Kate clearly would prefer the kids to go to Marlborough, her co-ed alma mater. I imagine some of it is simply wanting all three kids to go to the same school, but I’ve always believed that Kate got “her way” on the kids’ education for so long because eventually, she would have to send George away to Eton. Well, it looks like Kate is really pushing hard for Marlborough – she’s now been seen making a second visit to the school.

It has an illustrious reputation for schooling the elite – including Princes William and Harry – but Eton College may not be able to count Prince George among its future pupils. Speculation is growing that the second in line to the throne will, instead, follow in his mother’s footsteps, and be educated at Marlborough College in Wiltshire.

The Princess of Wales has recently toured the £47,000-a-year co-educational school for the second time in as many months – this time accompanied by her husband and ten-year-old George.

Kate is said to not be a fan of single-sex schools like Eton, and reportedly ‘absolutely hated’ her time at Downe House, an all-girls boarding school in Berkshire, where she was allegedly targeted by bullies. However she flourished at Marlborough, where she excelled academically and performed well at sports, including hockey and tennis.

Although it is understood that no firm decision has yet been made about what school George will attend, the Princess took him and William to her alma mater on December 1, having previously visited alone in October. They also all toured Eton back in June. The college, which is a stone’s throw from Windsor Castle, provided a haven for William and Harry, who boarded there during the most turbulent years of Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage. But while William found solace there after his mother’s death, Harry lamented in his memoir Spare that it was not the right choice for him.

George is currently at co-educational prep school, Lambrook, along with his sister Princess Charlotte, eight, and five-year-old brother Prince Louis. Close to the home of their Middleton grandparents, it educates pupils up to the age of 13, meaning George will have to move on in 2026.

Prince George started at Lambrook last year and is currently in Year 6. He has recently been sitting exams that could influence his future education. But if he continues at a mixed-sex school like Marlborough, he could later be joined by his siblings. The Princess of Wales was similarly educated alongside her younger sister, Pippa, and brother James. Founded in 1843, Marlborough’s former pupils also include Princess Eugenie, Lady (Samantha) Cameron and comedian Jack Whitehall.

[From The Daily Mail]

Kate is really putting up a big fight over this, huh? I wonder what cards she thinks she holds, because if William wants George to go to Eton, George will go to Eton. King Charles probably wants it that way too – Charles always wanted to go to Eton, which is why he sent his sons there. That being said, I doubt Charles would put up a fight about it either – he doesn’t seem too involved with any of his grandchildren. Which is another conversation altogether – Charles was especially close to his grandmother, QEII was especially close to William and Harry, and Charles is not continuing that “grandparent taking a special interest in the heir” thing. It would be a coup for Kate and the Middletons if the future king ends up going to his mother’s alma mater and not his father’s.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Josh Shinner/Kensington Palace.

Sydney Sweeney covers the latest issue of Women’s Health, all to promote Anyone But You, the romantic-comedy she did with Glen Powell. The interview has a weird feel to it, probably because Sydney couldn’t talk about the movie during the strike, but the second the strike ended, she called up the magazine and had them add some quotes. At this point, I don’t know what to think about the romance rumors between Glen and Sydney, but I do think this young woman would do almost anything to promote her work. She’s a hustler, and I’m saying that in a complimentary way. Her parents gave up a lot to help her break through and now that she’s arrived, she’s not wasting any opportunity. Some highlights from Women’s Health:

She loves to water ski: “It’s a lot of upper body strength, it’s balance, it’s core, it’s legs—you get tired really fast. I see such a change in my body after an entire summer of [skiing]. My arms are stronger, more sculpted. My abs are rock solid. But I never look at it as a workout because it is so much fun.”

She loves new challenges: “Whenever a new challenge presents itself and I’m not scared to push myself to try, that’s when I’m really proud of who I am… I know that my body can keep going—it’s more just that mental challenge to push myself through. I take that skill into skiing, into acting, into anything I do, because it’s always more mental than physical. Of course you have to train, but it’s mind over matter at the end of the day.”

She deals with social anxiety. “Whenever it feels like the world’s so loud, and there’s so much going on, and I’m trying to balance it all—sometimes, it can feel overwhelming.”

Her parents’ sacrifice: “I watched my parents lose a lot. We filed for bankruptcy, and they lost their house back home on the lake. [Sydney has since bought back her great-grandparents’ home on the same lake so she can return.] We couldn’t afford life in L.A. We couldn’t afford life anywhere,” she recalls. To help pay the bills, Sydney babysat, cleaned restaurant bathrooms, and led tours at Universal Studios. “It was hard because they were supporting my dream, and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. I didn’t want to fail them. No matter how long it took, I was going to be in a TV show or a movie, and I wasn’t going to stop until something happened.”

Working with Glen Powell: “Getting to work with Glen, I’ll never forget this one… I hope the audience can actually feel the love and fun we all shared making this film. That’s something I always feel from my favorite rom-coms—the joy and energy shared amongst the cast and crew, and I was lucky enough to experience that on this film.”

Kindness: “I truly believe that kindness is the most important attribute anybody can have, because whoever you see on your way up, you’re going to see on your way down,” she says. “I try to be as loyal to my people as I can, and I hope they return the favor. I also love watching everyone succeed together.”

[From Women’s Health]

I sometimes wonder if something has to give with Sweeney – she loves to work, she’s a workaholic, she would happily book back-to-back jobs for the next ten years. And then the other side of her is happy in Idaho with her family, and wanting to get married and be a young mom. It’s possible she can do all of that have it all, but I do wonder if there will be a fork in the road and she’ll end up choosing the Hollywood life and the big career for the next ten years.

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Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instagram.