Sebastian Stan isn’t doing Variety’s Actors on Actors series this year because no actor wanted to be paired with Stan to discuss The Apprentice. [Just Jared]
People are discussing this old Britney Spears interview clip. [OMG Blog]
Socialite Life is posting on BlueSky too! [Socialite Life]
Timothee Chalamet covers Rolling Stone. [LaineyGossip]
Thank Blake Lively for the ending of Deadpool & Wolverine. [Pajiba]
Kristen Wiig looks cute in a meh dress. [Go Fug Yourself]
I love Jeremy Strong but OMG he looks horrible here. [RCFA]
Is Jonathan Schaech really 55? Yes, I believe it. [Seriously OMG]
Camille Grammer wonders if the Real Housewives franchise is too “woke.” [Starcasm]
I did not know Luke Bryan has three adopted kids. [Hollywood Life]
What is the worst Thanksgiving side dish? [Buzzfeed]

The collective silence around the Princess of Wales’s non-attendance at the Buckingham Palace diplomatic reception is so telling, right? When the Duchess of Sussex wore a red dress at a charity gala in LA, the Mail was screaming, crying and throwing up about it for WEEKS. But Kate skips the diplomatic reception – a “tiara event” which she has attended for years – and there’s nothing in the Mail, the Telegraph, the Times or anything else. Not even a Mail commentator saying “poor Kate, she clearly didn’t feel well enough, she’s such a stellar future queen!” Instead, the official excuse was that Kate is busy with the preparations for her stupid Christmas-carol show, which is weeks away. I’m surprised they didn’t use this as an excuse though – Kate apparently added a “private meeting” at Windsor Castle to her schedule today.

Princess Kate carried out an important engagement at Windsor Castle on Tuesday, meeting with her Early Years team.

The visit, recorded in the Court Circular, demonstrated Princess Kate’s ongoing commitment to early childhood development.

The mother-of-three has made early years development a cornerstone of her public work, establishing the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood in June 2021 alongside Prince William.

[From GB News]

Do you get the sense that there’s a real disagreement and ongoing negotiations around What To Do About Kate these days? She told the world that she was “cancer free” and that her course of chemotherapy was over. She made that hilarious video. Kensington Palace followed up by heavily emphasizing that she would not be “back to work” in any sense for months. They keep pushing back the date for when Kate will “go back to work.” They benched her from the diplomatic reception, and now she’s making a point of adding some Early Years busywork to the Court Circular at the last minute. One thing is clear… Charles, Camilla and William don’t actually want Kate around. Kate is fine with that up to a point… the point where she doesn’t get to wear a tiara, apparently.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.

Throughout the Sussex saga, I’ve often thought that the left-behind royals use their national press as a kind of ill-conceived therapy session. It’s like the Windsors don’t understand that they look absolutely bonkers as they obsess daily over every little thing Prince Harry and Meghan are doing or not doing. It’s the same thing with King Charles’s near-constant rage-jealousy towards Prince Andrew. Instead of working on their bullsh-t in private, both brothers tend to just leak their drama to any available royal reporter. Well, after Andrew “raised the funds” to stay in Royal Lodge, King Charles was “comprehensively humiliated” by his losing campaign to try to evict Andrew from the spacious property. Instead of just taking the L and shuffling off to some new drama, Charles wants everyone to know that he’s now removing all Royal Collection pieces from Royal Lodge.

King Charles is set to start the process of removing precious artifacts from Prince Andrew’s Royal Lodge home, according to a prominent royal biographer. The disgraced Duke of York, 64, was poised to leave the Royal Lodge, located on the grounds of Windsor Castle, after Charles refused to continue financially carrying his brother’s weight.

However, it sensationally emerged last week that Andrew had found a mystery financial backer at the eleventh hour — allowing him to remain at the royal digs. As a result, the monarch, 76, is removing priceless items from the plush property due to maintenance and security concerns.

“The Royal Collection, which owns quite a lot of the treasures inside there, may say, ‘Well we can’t be confident that this place is safe anymore,’ and they’ll start taking the paintings and the some of the furniture away,” King Charles’ biographer Robert Hardman said on the “Palace Confidential” podcast. He added that Charles has likely accepted the fact that he will be unable to evict his scandal-scarred brother from the home.

“The King is very conscious that [Royal Lodge] is not entirely in his gift,” he said. “It’s a Crown Estate property and the Crown Estate ultimately answers to the government.”

[From The NY Post]

Stay tuned for what’s next on Mad King Charles Devises More Punishments For His Brother. Jesus, they’re taking all of the Royal Collection pieces? Usually that only happens when someone dies. It does make me wonder though… do you think Kate received any Royal Collection art for Adelaide Cottage?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Did y’all know that we haven’t written about Sarah Palin in over two years? She was in the news a lot in 2022, when she tried and failed to sue the New York Times for libel, and kept wandering around New York unmasked while she was Covid-positive. Then she ran in a special congressional election in Alaska and lost… to a Democrat. Good times. It felt like after fourteen grim years in the public eye, Palin had tucked her tail between her legs and finally accepted that she was and is a huge political joke. But the rise, fall and rise again of Donald Trump has given Sarah Palin delusions of glamour. Apparently, she’s really mad that Trump hasn’t nominated her for a Cabinet position.

As Donald Trump quickly fills out his cabinet and top roles in his administration, Sarah Palin asks: Why not me? The former vice presidential candidate and governor of Alaska took to social media to share her frustration at not being selected for any role in the Trump administration.

On Sunday, Palin posted “And… another nominee announced!” on her Instagram story. She followed that up with a screenshot of a message a follower had sent her, which said, “What about you?” Palin thanked the fan in her post. She then posted a cryptic selfie with the caption: “Funny how politics work.”

Palin capped it off by posting a rant the same follower tagged her in.

“Currently, President elect Trump has named his secretaries for the VA, Energy, Interior and EPA administrator. Any one of these positions I hoped Sarah Palin would get,” the follower wrote, which Palin posted to Instagram and X. “Palin was Trump before Trump. I have been saying this for years. Sarah Palin is the Mother of MAGA. Back then [16 years ago], she was the face of the tea party, what would then become the MAGA movement. It is so shocking to me how in 2017, and now it looks like in 2025, she will not get a seat at the table that she helped set.”

Palin’s name has been notably absent from all short-lists for Trump cabinet picks. In 2016, Trump signaled that he was considering tapping Palin as interior secretary, but that never materialized. Now, Palin’s name isn’t in the conversation at all.

“Big tent, big party, but know your history so America can repeat the good parts,” Palin captioned the follower’s rant.

[From The Daily Beast]

Completely excluding the fact that Sarah Palin is an idiot and a bum, I will acknowledge in a very narrow way that she actually has a point: Palin was the proto-Trump, the elevation of the worst of white grievance, white entitlement and white fragility. Trump largely used the Palin playbook, but of course he added even more hate, including profound sexism and violent misogyny which has seeped into all things MAGA. I even partly believe that Palin is a no-go in Trump’s administration simply because she’s a woman.

Big tent, big party, but know your history so America can repeat the good parts: https://t.co/cNzS5AbTLp pic.twitter.com/yx28cfKquD

— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) November 17, 2024

Photos courtesy of Instar and Cover Images.

Hugh Grant is one of those actors who hates watching himself on screen and notoriously sh-ts on a lot of his movies. At this point, it’s somewhat endearing because although he’s not old (64), he’s cultivated this cranky, old man yells at clouds persona. It’s kind of impressive. Anyway, Hugh recently did Vanity Fair’s “Scene Selection” segment, where the reporter replays certain scenes for an actor and then they give their thoughts on it. As you can imagine, Hugh has lots of thoughts.

One of those opinions is about his character, Will, in Notting Hill. I think Notting Hill is my favorite rom-com after When Harry Met Sally. A quick refresher: Will is a normie bookshop owner who gets involved in a relationship with a famous movie star, Anna, played by Julia Roberts. The big struggle for their characters is getting past all of the paparazzi attention that’s suddenly thrust upon them. In one particular scene, they have a romantic evening only to wake up the following morning and find that the paps have unexpectedly figured out where they were. Will discovers them first and when Anna asks him what’s wrong, he does nothing to stop her from opening the door and having hundreds of cameras flashing in her face. Hugh has some harsh words about Will over that scene. He considers him to have been a “despicable” coward.

Hugh Grant is known to not be the biggest fan of his past movies, but he has specific issues with his character in the 1999 rom-com Notting Hill. The actor recently partook in Vanity Fair’s “Scene Selection,” where he shared why he thinks his character William Thacker is “despicable.” Grant stars opposite Julia Roberts in the film.

“Whenever I’m flicking the channels at home after a few drinks and this comes up, I just think, ‘Why doesn’t my character have any balls?’” he said. “There’s a scene in this film where she’s in my house and the paps come to the front door and ring the bell and I think I just let her go past me and open the door. That’s awful.”

The rom-com classic, directed by Roger Michell, sees famous actress Anna Scott (Roberts) fall in love with William, the owner of a bookstore in Notting Hill. However, the paparazzi’s fascination with her complicates their relationship.

“I’ve never had a girlfriend, or indeed now wife, who hasn’t said, ‘Why the hell didn’t you stop her? What’s wrong with you?’” Grant added. “And I don’t really have an answer to that — it’s how it was written. And I think he’s despicable, really.”

[From The Hollywood Reporter]

Well, I didn’t have Hugh Grant giving a somewhat woke take about his most famous rom-com character on my bingo card, but here we are. I also didn’t have me defending Will’s actions either, but here I go. I just rewatched that scene (and then some) and honestly, Will was clearly taken off guard by the hundreds of paparazzi at his doorstep and too stunned to say anything other than a weak protest when Anna goes to open the door. I agree that it was awful to let her open the door and he definitely didn’t have the balls to stand in front of it to prevent her from opening it, but I don’t know if that makes him despicable or just human. I think his passive reaction to Anna’s freakout afterward is way worse! Am I way off base here? Is sentimentality clouding my judgment?

Hugh talks a bit more about working with Julia Roberts in Notting Hill. He also gives his opinions on Love Actually, Bridget Jones’s Diary, A Very English Scandal, and more. You can watch his entire segment below:

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Photos credit: Lounis Tiar/Avalon, Justin Ng/Avalon, Getty and via YouTube

Prince William’s now-infamous “small-r royalty” interview was published two weekends ago. The royal reporters are still talking about it and talking around how much they hated everything William said in the piece. Tina Brown called him a performative pinhead and I got the feeling that most reporters rolled their eyes at this bald dolt saying sh-t like “and I’m also going to throw empathy in there as well, because I really care about what I do.” What few people can bear to admit is that William was trying and failing to copy his brother. Prince Harry leads with empathy, Prince Harry lives his life as a small-r royal, Prince Harry mixes his charitable work with advocacy and business. Basically, as always, William wants everything Harry has and everything Harry is. That’s basically what royal reporter Katie Nicholl had to admit in her interview with the Sun’s Matt Wilkinson.

Prince William is taking a “leaf out of Harry’s book” by trying to modernise the Royal Family at “pace”, an expert says. Vanity Fair royal editor Katie Nicholl spoke on The Sun’s Royal Show about the future King’s attempts to introduce changes to the Firm already.

In one of his most open and candid interviews earlier this month, the Prince of Wales, 42, claimed there was a shortage of “empathetic leaders” around the world. He said he wanted to continue helping people while carrying out his duties “differently for my generation”. He also emphasised how he’s looking at the Firm “with maybe a smaller ‘r’ in the royal”.

Speaking to Sun royal editor Matt Wilkinson, Ms Nicholl said: “One person who’s probably sitting there thinking ‘this is what I’ve been saying all along’ is the Duke of Sussex. Let’s be more open, let’s show more empathy, let’s do things a little bit differently. One of the reasons Harry felt he needed to leave was because he didn’t feel he could bend the institution the way he wanted to do things. I think we have seen the royals take a leaf out of his book.”

However, she said she doesn’t think it will “ever going to become too California… They’re not going to allow that to happen, that’s not them. It’s one thing opening up, it’s one thing seeing the King give a big hug to someone rather than just shake their hand…”

Ms Nicholl referred to King Charles admitting recently that he was “reduced to tears” after watching Queen Camilla’s domestic abuse documentary as an example of something unlikely to have been revealed under the previous reign. “That’s fine, that’s relatability, connectability and empathy, but the backbone of what they do isn’t going to change. That service to others, lifelong commitment to duty, that backbone that props the whole institution up – that’s not going to change.”

Ms Nicholl went on to say: “I think it’s modernising at some pace, but I think it’s only now had the opportunity to do that because the late Queen’s reign was so lengthy, it didn’t have the opportunity to modernise the way it is now….It can’t jump too quickly ahead of the curve, it has to keep up…. [but] it had to change, that’s the point.”

The Sun’s Mr Wilkinson said “it’s just interesting to see” William modernising “within” the Firm, while Harry “has thrown his toys out the pram and is trying to modernise his role outside the Royal Family…I think I know which one will be more successful – I’m really looking forward to seeing how it develops over the next couple of years.”

[From The Sun]

“I think I know which one will be more successful” – I know which brother is already massively successful, which is why everyone in that f–king family is copying him (and Meghan). Nicholl is like, yes, William is copy-keening Harry but hey, William is still going to be the same old dull left-behind Windsor, like all of the rest of them. And Tina Brown attacked William’s interview because (she said) William was forgetting everything his father has done for fifty-plus years. So what exactly is William actually modernizing? Show it to me, be specific.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red.

Cynthia Erivo’s talon-nails have become one of the talking points of the neverending Wicked promotional tour. She’s been doing different nail styles, coordinated with her couture, for the premieres and junkets. Now white people feel comfortable enough to ask her some intimate questions about how she functions with those nails. There’s already a conversation about whether some or all of this is racist or an example of racial microaggressions. It could be, but I will say this… I remember when people had similar questions about how Khloe Kardashian functioned when she had her crazy talon-nails too (and Khloe is white). So, Dax Shepard asked Cynthia THE question: how does she wipe with those talons?

Cynthia Erivo doesn’t think her talon nails get in the way of her bathroom duties. While appearing on Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard and Monica Padman to discuss Wicked, Shepard asked Erivo, 37, if her long talon nails make it difficult to wipe her behind after going to the bathroom. Before Shepard, 49, even finished asking the question, the Oscar nominee knew exactly what was coming.

“I knew you would ask that question,” she said, adding that “no one’s afraid” to ask it. “My answer is that nobody uses just their fingers to wipe their backside. You use tissue, correct? And you wipe!”

Shepard then rephrased his question. “Does the tissue go on the tip of the fingernails, or do you try to get the tissue…” he said before trailing off. “Pads of the fingers,” Erivo said.

“Great, great, great, now we’re getting somewhere,” Shepard said. “Then you’re just feeling the little tickle of the nails on the crack of your butt sometimes?” Erivo said this was not the case because she uses tissues. After joking that he would make a mitten out of toilet paper if he had nails like Erivo, Shepard asked her if she was offended or annoyed by the question.

“I’m annoyed by it. I’m, like, ‘Come on, guys,’ ” Erivo said. “But I get it, but it’s also, like, ‘I’m a functioning adult, and I’ve never walked around smelling like, you know…’ ” Shepard felt that because everyone thinks Erivo smells “so good, it begs the question, ‘How are you wiping your tush?’”

“Very well,” Erivo said, as Padman, 37, explained that the question is likely a reflection of the people asking because they couldn’t properly wipe with nails like Erivo’s.

“Here’s the thing, there are people who do not have nails who need to check how they’re wiping,” Erivo said.

[From People]

Here’s the thing – I understand the curiosity, and my curiosity would have been satiated by asking her one time and then dropping it. There was no need for Dax to go on and on about it. It was like he wanted her to demonstrate her wiping technique. CB brought up something else – Dax is well-known for being dirty and unwashed. There is a different kind of racial element to this. As in, it’s a conversation about how (some/many?) white people are afraid of soap and they can’t wrap their heads around how someone like Cynthia manages to shower daily and stay clean.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Some people are theorizing that the left-behind Windsors are trying a different kind of PR strategy these days: feel sorry for us, woe is me, bad things keep happening to us, we’re so pitiful. It could be, although I don’t think they even needed the deflection because barely any British outlets covered the Dispatches/Times investigation into the Duchy of Lancaster and Duchy of Cornwall. That investigation revealed Prince William and King Charles’s slumlording and profiteering from public services and charities. Who can talk about that when some nefarious burglars broke into the Royal Windsor estate and made off with some farm equipment though? Apparently, this is the bigger story! And Kensington Palace *refuses* to talk about Prince William and Kate’s safety! From Katie Nicholl at Vanity Fair:

Following a break-in on the grounds of Windsor Castle last month, where Prince William, Kate Middleton, and their children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis reside, Kensington Palace has refused to comment on the family’s security.

On Sunday, The Sun reported that police were on the hunt for two suspects who broke into buildings on the Windsor Castle estate on October 13. It is believed the thieves were targeting farm machinery and used a stolen vehicle to crash through a security gate as they sped off with the stolen items. No arrests have been made, and the investigation continues, a Thames Valley Police spokesman told The Sun.

The theft took place a short distance from Prince William and Princess Kate’s home on the royal estate as the couple and their three children slept. However, it is understood there was no threat to their safety, and the family members have no plans to leave Adelaide Cottage, where they have been living since the summer of 2022.

The Sun described the incident as a “major security scare” for the royal family after two men successfully scaled a six-foot fence and gained access Shaw Farm. A source told The Sun that the suspects “must have been watching Windsor Castle for a while.”

While a security force does not live in Adelaide Cottage, the family is protected 24/7 by close protection officers. The break-in follows news that armed police have been removed from Windsor Castle’s two main public entrances because of a shortage of firearms officers in the Met Police.

[From Vanity Fair]

Other commentators are laying it on thick, claiming that the break-in was “horrific” because William and Kate “are under immense stress due to her health concerns, this is the last thing they need.” Something is really weird about this break-in story, you guys. The fact that no one said anything for more than a month about the break-in, the fact that Kensington Palace won’t even confirm if the Wales fam was actually staying at Adelaide Cottage at the time (it’s all assumptions, they haven’t got anything confirmed), and the fact that KP won’t say anything about the security situation. It’s all so odd. They keep saying that the burglars must have been casing the joint for weeks (all to steal two vehicles??) – is that what they’re really worried about? That the burglars might know more about William and Kate’s movements and living situation than the press knows?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Dr. Mehmet Oz became a weirdly conservative figure about five years ago. At the start of the pandemic, Oz began appearing on Fox News, advocating for the schools to be reopened, along with everything else, who cares if 1-2% of the population dies. This newfound pro-death fame gave Oz the confidence to try to carpetbag his way to a Senate seat in Pennsylvania by complaining about crudité prices at “Wegners,” a grocery store that doesn’t exist. He also advocated for abortion rights to be determined by women, doctors and… local political leaders. He lost the Senate seat to John Fetterman in 2022. Now he’s back, because Donald Trump saw him on the teevee. Trump is nominating Oz to serve as the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Oz’s pro-death stance is going to come in handy.

President-elect Donald J. Trump on Tuesday said that he would nominate Dr. Mehmet Oz, the author and former television host, to serve as the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a powerful agency that oversees health insurance programs covering more than 150 million Americans.

The selection of Dr. Oz, who lost to John Fetterman in 2022 in a race to represent Pennsylvania in the Senate, is likely to be seen as a major surprise, even in a health department that could be led by another unconventional pick, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It also continued a trend of Mr. Trump selecting television personalities to oversee federal agencies. His candidates to run the Defense and Transportation Departments have been working for Fox News and Fox Business.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services oversee several of the country’s largest government programs, providing health coverage to more than 150 million Americans. They regulate health insurance and set policy that guides the prices that doctors, hospitals and drug companies are paid for many medical services. About a quarter of all federal spending runs through the centers.

In a statement announcing Dr. Oz as his choice to lead the agency, Mr. Trump said that Dr. Oz would “work closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to take on the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake.” Mr. Trump noted that Dr. Oz had “won nine Daytime Emmy Awards hosting ‘The Dr. Oz Show,’ where he taught millions of Americans how to make healthier lifestyle choices.”

Dr. Oz has frequently clashed with medical experts. In the early days of the pandemic, he promoted the malaria drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to ward off the coronavirus. A decade ago, he went before a Senate panel and was chastised for selling so-called miracle weight loss pills without substantial proof that they worked.

[From The NY Times]

I forgot about the malaria-drug shilling and the “miracle weight loss pills” mess. The Times notes that Oz obviously has zero experience running a complicated bureaucracy like Medicare. In 2020, Oz did coauthor a Forbes op-ed suggesting that America needs universal health coverage in which non-Medicaid recipients would be automatically enrolled in a private Medicare plan. While Oz will mess with Medicare and Medicaid, the incoming Trump administration is also going to try to completely end Social Security.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

In late September, Prince Harry went to New York for a week. He had back-to-back meetings and events at the United Nations and Clinton Global Initiative, he did work around African Parks, Sentebale, Travalyst and Archewell. There were few sightings of Harry beyond his meetings and work events, but paparazzi did catch him visiting East Side Ink. Page Six dutifully reported that Harry was in the tattoo parlor for about an hour, and that he arrived with an assortment of private security and NYPD officers (plainclothes). Some wondered if Harry got a tattoo in honor of his 40th birthday. But no – he was filming a bit for the upcoming Invictus Games. This was the announcement that Jelly Roll will perform at Invictus Vancouver/Whistler.

It’s a really cute skit/video. While Jelly Roll is close to 40 years old, he’s only had a big, mainstream breakout over the past three years. He used to be a rap artist, no joke, but now he does country/pop. He’s known for having tattoos all over his face and body, so I imagine this was something he worked out with Invictus and Harry – let’s do a promo at a tattoo parlor! Harry is very good at these kinds of things. A natural actor, a natural presence on-camera.

I didn’t get a chance to post Harry’s full interview on the field at the Grey Cup game on Sunday:

Screencaps courtesy of Invictus video.