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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.

When Matthew Perry passed away on October 28, many people wondered if he relapsed or whether his passing was in any way related to his long history of drug use/abuse. I believed Perry’s friends, all of whom said that he had found an enormous amount of peace in the years before his death, that he was clean and sober. Jennifer Aniston recently said Perry had even quit smoking. In 2022, he detailed his lengthy sobriety journey in his memoir, and he wrote and said that all told, he spent about $9 million on multiple rehabs and everything else. Well, sad news – the coroner’s report came out on Friday and it looks like Perry had taken ketamine.

Matthew Perry’s cause of death has been determined.

The Friends actor died due to acute effects of ketamine, according to an autopsy report obtained by PEOPLE. Drowning, coronary artery disease and buprenorphine effects (a medication used to treat opioid use disorder) were also listed as contributing factors in his death, which was ruled accidental.

Ketamine is a “dissociative anesthetic that has some hallucinogenic effects,” per the US Drug Enforcement Administration. It “distorts the perception of sight and sound and makes the user feel disconnected and not in control,” and “can induce a state of sedation (feeling calm and relaxed), immobility, relief from pain, and amnesia.”

The autopsy states that Perry — who was “reportedly clean for 19 months” — was on ketamine infusion therapy, with his latest treatment taking place just “one and a half weeks before” his death. However, the coroner noted that “the ketamine in his system at death could not be from that infusion therapy, since ketamine’s half-life is 3 to 4 hours, or less.”

Per the autopsy, Perry’s death occurred by “unknown route of drug intake.” The coroner stated that Perry was found “in a residential pool,” with prescription medications and loose pills present at his residence but “none reported near the pool” or “adjacent to the pool.” The autopsy also notes that there were “no signs of fatal trauma or no foul play suspected.”

“At the high levels of ketamine found in his postmortem blood specimens, the main lethal effects would be from both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression,” the coroner states in the report. “Drowning contributes due to the likelihood of submersion into the pool as he lapsed into unconsciousness.”

[From People]

Just to underline the point – Perry was clean for 19 months before he began “ketamine infusion therapy,” but the ketamine in his system did not come from an infusion therapy session. Ketamine used to be – and perhaps still is? – a popular club drug and it’s also known as Special K. I would imagine that someone with money and access (like Perry) would be able to easily get his hands on it. All of this is so tremendously sad – Perry never hid the fact that he was an addict who relapsed multiple times, and he hoped that talking about all it openly would help other people begin their sobriety journeys. That hasn’t changed. Lots of sober addicts relapse, as Perry did multiple times over the course of his life as well. It’s just sad, I still feel so sorry for his parents and his friends.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images, Instagram.

Behold, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Christmas card. It’s more likely that this is the official card for Archewell, meaning this is the card being sent out to the Sussexes’ professional acquaintances and not family friends. It’s a photo taken at this year’s Invictus Games in Dusseldorf, at the closing ceremony. Meghan wore that gorgeous Cult Gaia cutout dress and Harry wore all-black. The photos were great, and it’s not surprising that they would choose something from Invictus for their card. There are a lot of weird comments about “where are their children?” and again, this is their professional Archewell card. Plus, they are under zero obligation to trot out their children.

The card was released just hours after the verdict was announced in Harry’s lawsuit against the Mirror. Harry won a significant legal victory, one which has a lot of media figures sh-tting their pants. One of those media figures is Piers Morgan, who stormed out of his house, threw a shrieky press conference and accused Harry of trying to “bring down the monarchy.” A weird accusation, given that Harry sued the Mirror, not Buckingham Palace. It’s almost as if Piers is saying that the British media is part of the royal family (which it is). In any case, Harry’s friend Bryony Gordon wrote a sympathetic piece in the Telegraph about Harry and all of the sh-t he’s put up with over the course of his life. Here’s part of her piece:

Imagine what it would be like for this son, nephew or grandchild to realise that what little privacy he had was somehow being penetrated by the country’s media, leaving him suspicious and cynical of everyone around him, even his closest friends. Imagine him learning that strangers had been listening to his most personal correspondence. Imagine him experiencing all of this and then, when he has the guts to rise up and speak out about it, imagine seeing him vilified and mocked and treated like a pariah.

You can’t, can you? It’s like something out of a science fiction novel, or an episode of Black Mirror. Even contemplating it is enough to make your skin crawl, your hands clammy. It is just so unthinkable. I remember mentioning this to Prince Harry, one of the first times I met him, back in 2017. “I can’t imagine what you went through,” I said. “You can’t even begin to imagine,” he replied, perfectly calmly.

But now we have an idea. Most of us would be left at the very least with lasting trust issues; a fair few of us might have sustained some serious psychological damage. And yet critics of the Sussexes – usually from the very section of the media Prince Harry has just won damages from – often accuse the couple of wallowing in victimhood. It is like turning around to someone who has had their home repeatedly targeted by burglars and criticising them for being hysterical.

The truth behind Prince Harry’s actions is far less exciting than some people would want us to believe. It comes not from wanting to bring down the monarchy, but from wanting to help protect future generations from what he went through. The notion voiced by Piers Morgan this afternoon that Harry is sitting in Montecito plotting is as ridiculous as it is fanciful – the reality is he’s hanging out with his wife and two young kids, looking forward to spending Christmas with them.

One would hope that this ruling might actually deliver some peace this festive season, or at the very least elicit some sort of apology. That it has instead caused more petty mud-slinging tells you all you need to know about why the Duke of Sussex felt he had to go down this route in the first place.

[From The Telegraph]

She’s right but, at this point, I hope Harry simply doesn’t care if he “brings down the monarchy.” If the monarchy is going to willingly tie itself to the likes of Piers Morgan and the cartel of mercenary vendetta-journalists, then maybe the monarchy should be brought down. No, Harry isn’t plotting, but hopefully he feels nothing but ambivalence at this point. If the monarchy ends because of its immoral and unethical dealings with the press, so be it. To paraphrase Ivan Drago, if it dies, it dies.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Archewell.

Prince Harry’s lawyers only needed to prove one instance of phone hacking or unlawful newsgathering to “win” his case against the Mirror. At the end of the day, the judge said that Harry proved 15 out of 33 articles of criminal hacking or illegal newsgathering. It’s a really big deal, but you wouldn’t know it from the coverage in the British media. Nor would you understand how massive the judgment was if you were just listening to Piers Morgan. Piers was editor of the Mirror for part of the time period in which all of this criminal sh-t was going down. There’s evidence (including Omid Scobie’s credible testimony) that Piers absolutely knew about the hacking and that he encouraged it. The judge said flatly that Piers knew about the hacking as well. All of which led to Piers giving a huffy press conference outside of his house on Friday:

From the Telegraph’s coverage:

Piers Morgan accused the Duke of Sussex of wanting to bring down the monarchy on Friday and said he “wouldn’t know the truth if it slapped him around his California-tanned face”.

The former editor of the Daily Mirror made the comments after Prince Harry called on the Metropolitan Police to investigate Mirror Group Newspapers following the ruling of a High Court judge that he had been a victim of phone hacking. On Friday, Mr Justice Fancourt said that the practice was “widespread and habitual” at the publisher’s three titles from 1998 and remained “extensive” from 2006 until 2011, “even to some extent during the Leveson Inquiry”.

In retaliation, Mr Morgan said the Duke had ”repeatedly trashed his family in public for hundreds of millions of dollars”.

He added: “Prince Harry’s outrage at media intrusion into the private lives of the Royal family is only matched by his own ruthless, greedy, and hypocritical enthusiasm for doing it himself. He demands accountability for the press but refuses to accept any for himself for smearing the Royal family, his own family, as a bunch of callous racists without producing a shred of proof to support those disgraceful claims. He also says he’s on a mission to reform the media, when it’s become clear his real mission, along with his wife, is to destroy the British monarchy.”

Scotland Yard has not ruled out a criminal inquiry. In a statement released on Friday night, it said: “We will carefully consider the civil judgment handed down today at the High Court. There is no ongoing investigation.”

[From The Telegraph]

Yeah… people are saying that Piers’ statement was not vetted by legal, and the streets are saying the Mirror might tie this around Piers’ neck and make him take the fall for everything. Piers will not go quietly into that good night though. His ad hominem attack on Harry is honestly a bonkers reaction to… Harry winning his case, and a new legal precedent being made so that more hacking victims can seek justice. Again, the judge found “compelling evidence” that Mirror’s editors knew about the hacking and were happy to benefit from it. That includes Piers.

pic.twitter.com/ZX07psVldh

— Rebecca Barry (@BeccaBarry) December 15, 2023

“Utterly implausible.”

Former Mirror journalist Dan Evans says it is “fantastical” Piers Morgan had no knowledge of phone hacking.

Listen on @GlobalPlayerhttps://t.co/SdyBDl7qyY@lewis_goodall pic.twitter.com/cv4iuVqk6z

— The News Agents (@TheNewsAgents) December 16, 2023

“You look very emotional, Mr Morgan. Would you welcome a Police investigation?” pic.twitter.com/fIckGDKQRF

— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) December 15, 2023

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

Back in 2020, following the presidential election, Donald Trump “hired” Rudy Giuliani to travel around the country, fart his way through state hearings and make up some of the most odious lies ever. Rudy seriously criss-crossed the country, spreading variations of “the big lie” and trying to convince states to throw out thousands of ballots based on little more than MAGA vibes. As part of Rudy’s fart-soaked post-election blitz, he said a lot of sh-t about the Georgia election. Rudy, Kanye West and the Trump campaign targeted two particular women, election workers, for weeks if not months. The women sued. On Friday, the women won, and now Rudy will have to pay them $148 million.

A jury on Friday ordered Rudolph W. Giuliani to pay $148 million to two former Georgia election workers who said he had destroyed their reputations with lies that they tried to steal the 2020 election from Donald J. Trump.

Judge Beryl A. Howell of the Federal District Court in Washington had already ruled that Mr. Giuliani had defamed the two workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. The jury had been asked to decide only on the amount of the damages.

The jury awarded Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss a combined $75 million in punitive damages. It also ordered Mr. Giuliani to pay compensatory damages of $16.2 million to Ms. Freeman and $16.9 million to Ms. Moss, as well as $20 million to each of them for emotional suffering.

“Today’s a good day,” Ms. Freeman told reporters after the jury delivered its determination. But she added that no amount of money would give her and her daughter back what they lost in the abuse they suffered after Mr. Giuliani falsely accused them of manipulating the vote count.

Mr. Giuliani, who helped lead Mr. Trump’s effort to remain in office after his defeat in the 2020 election but has endured a string of legal and financial setbacks since then, was defiant after the proceeding.

“I don’t regret a damn thing,” he said outside the courthouse, suggesting that he would appeal and that he stood by his assertions about the two women. He said that the torrent of attacks and threats the women received from Trump supporters were “abominable” and “deplorable,” but that he was not responsible for them. Outside the courthouse on Friday, Mr. Giuliani called the amount “absurd.”

Mr. Giuliani’s net worth is unknown because he refused to comply with the court’s requirement to provide that information. A lawyer familiar with his legal situation said after the verdict that Mr. Giuliani was likely to file for bankruptcy protection. But because the damages he owes Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss are considered an “intentional tort,” bankruptcy would not erase his liability, lawyers said.

[From The NY Times]

You have to understand, Rudy is SOOOOO broke right now. Trump didn’t even pay him for that humiliating display in 2020. Trump threw Rudy under the bus several months after the press conference at Four Seasons Total Landscaping. Not to mention, Rudy is also being sued for harassing and assaulting his former publicist, and she’s indicated that he’s broke too. Rudy used to be flush with cash, then he tied his wagon to the MAGA struggle-bus and now he’s going to be living in a repossessed cardboard box. I hope Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss get every last penny they can get from Rudy.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.

Timothee Chalamet loved that video of his lookalike vogue dancer. [OMG Blog]
Kristen Stewart is friends with Penelope Cruz & Salma Hayek? [Just Jared]
Review of the final episodes of The Crown. [LaineyGossip]
Sydney Sweeney got bitten by a Huntsman spider, yikes! [Pajiba]
Padma Lakshmi looks great in a simple silver dress. [Go Fug Yourself]
Carey Mulligan wore Ferragamo. [RCFA]
A new Khloe Kardashian face just dropped. [Seriously OMG]
Jenna Ortega wore Adeam at the Finest Kind premiere. [Tom & Lorenzo]
Andre Braugher’s cause of death has been revealed. [Hollywood Life]
Elizabeth Debicki is extremely tall. [Buzzfeed]
Glen Powell almost died filming a nude scene. [Socialite Life]

Auteurs want to have everything on their terms these days. They want their films to have movie-theater-only releases before showing up on streamers, but they’re also making the running times of these films increasingly longer. Then when movie theaters add intermissions at the request of their patrons (like many attempted for the 3.5 hour long Killers of the Flower Moon), film directors and distributors balk. “That wasn’t the vision!!” Something’s gotta give. The Hollywood Reporter spoke with various movie theaters who say that they and their movie-going customers are in favor of bringing back intermissions. Are you listening, Scorsese?

Paramount threatened fines over Killers of the Flower Moon: The art house cinema [The Lyric in Fort Collins, Colorado] … inserted an eight-minute break. It wasn’t long before a customer’s photo of an ad highlighting the intermission went viral and The Lyric received a call from Paramount, which is distributing the film, saying it had violated the booking contract and fines could be levied. “We didn’t know we had done anything wrong,” says Lyric manager Aaron Varnell, who recently added “chaos cultivator” to his title in a nod to challenging times.

Make it an event: In Long Beach, California, the Art Theatre — a single-screen theater built in 1925 — likewise hoped an intermission would lure more customers to see Killers of the Flower Moon on the big screen… “Our thinking was, we can really make this an event,” says Kerstin Kansteiner, who heads the board of the nonprofit theater. “It gives folks the opportunity to use the restroom, and it could also make for extra concession sales, which is literally how we pay our bills these days.” The idea was abandoned when Art’s film booker reached out to Paramount before the film opened and was told an intermission wasn’t allowed. “It was disappointing,” says Kansteiner. “We understand that directors have a vision and don’t want to take the viewer out of the film, but it’s problematic if you make a film that’s three hours and 26 minutes long.”

Movie theaters are struggling: Cinemas that survived the pandemic are still trying to find their footing during the streaming boom; as much as 15 percent of the moviegoing population hasn’t yet returned to theaters, according to data collected by Hollywood studios. This applies especially to older adults, the target audience for Killers of the Flower Moon and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which runs three hours. These longer films mean fewer showtimes, too, which compounds concerns for cinemas when it comes to ticket sales.

Moviegoers want intermissions: [Vue Cinemas head Tim] Richards engineered a test in which Vue offered its U.K. customers the choice to see Killers of the Flower Moon in one uninterrupted viewing or with a 15-minute intermission (in Europe they’re known as “intervals” or “comfort breaks”). “It is the first time we’ve had an interval in decades,” Richards says. “Right off the bat, 30 percent of our customers chose to watch the movie with an interval even if it meant staying longer. And 85 percent said they would absolutely come back and watch a movie with an interval.” Vue was also asked to cease the breaks, but no fines were issued.

James Cameron said no to intermissions for Avatar: Late last year, some theaters had reached out about including an intermission with 20th Century’s Avatar: The Way of Water (three hours and 12 minutes) and said they were told no per the wishes of James Cameron, according to exhibition sources. “Imagine being immersed in the world of Avatar and having a sudden break. It would be hard to get back into the movie,” says one Hollywood studio executive not affiliated with the film.

‘I really needed to pee’: There’s evidence to back up the theory that intermissions could boost grosses for all involved. The Lyric saw a bigger turnout than usual on the second weekend of Killers of the Flower Moon — before word got out there were no more breaks during the film. Adds Varnell, “People said after, ‘I just kept waiting for the intermission. I really needed to pee.’”

[From Yahoo! Entertainment]

Oh reader, that Avatar comment did me in. “You can’t break the immersive experience!” What, are they worried that moviegoers running to the bathroom will be shocked to see non-blue people again? Please. Inevitably I think the purse (not to mention the bladder) will win out. If more people say they’ll go to movies with guaranteed intermissions, directors will magically find a way to adapt. Scorsese being such a film historian, I would think the transition wouldn’t be that difficult. Intermissions harken back to classic Hollywood. It’s retro!

Growing up in San Francisco I regularly went to the Castro Theatre to see vintage cinema. Not only did I survive, I thrived with each and every intermission. Even today I go to see rereleases of old films. During the intermission I relieve myself in the little girls room and return to the concession stand to purchase another tub of popcorn. The intermission system works! Embrace the wave, filmmakers. Or, you know, listen to Alexander Payne and learn to tighten your stories.

Photos credit: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon, Brock Wegner on Unspash and Eugene Lisyuk on Pexels