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Celine Dion made a surprise appearance at the very end of Sunday night’s Grammys. She got a standing ovation from the audience as she stepped out to present Album of the Year. It all went sideways soon after, but not for Celine. Celine presented Taylor Swift with the AOTY Grammy and Taylor was too busy dragging Lana del Rey on stage and making faces at her producers to even notice Celine. Taylor snatched the Grammy from Celine’s hands without even acknowledging her. Backstage minutes later, Taylor made sure to pose for photos with Celine, and Taylor’s people put out stories about how there was no drama, etc. Meanwhile, an internet full of Celine-lovers lost their sh-t on Taylor for being so disrespectful to a queen. So what did Celine think of all of that?

Céline Dion made her sensational Grammys appearance to show that her illness is “not a death sentence” — and was unfazed by Taylor Swift’s alleged snub, sources told Page Six. The superstar, 55, has been battling Stiff-Person syndrome, a rare — and incurable — neurological disorder that makes walking difficult and has prevented her from singing the way she’s “used to.”

Dion was greeted with a standing ovation at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles Sunday night as she stepped onstage to hand out the final award of the night, Album of the Year. And despite an alleged snub by the winner, Swift, one music insider said that Dion achieved what she wanted — to show everyone that she’s back.

Swift has been dragged online for not properly acknowledging Dion as she accepted the award, but an insider who knows the latter said Dion brushed it off.

“I don’t think Céline cared and they talked backstage afterwards. But Céline was just gracious and happy to be there,” the insider said. “Of course, the right thing would have been for Taylor to acknowledge her, like Adele did years ago.” When Dion presented Adele the Grammy for Song of the Year in 2017, the two warmly embraced and Adele made an “I’m not worthy” hand motion to Dion.

Backstage on Sunday, other luminaries paid respect to Dion and flocked to her dressing room. Page Six is told she sang with Steve Wonder — “they were just riffing,” said the insider — and caught up with Oprah Winfrey.

“She wanted to show everyone that she’s doing alright,” the insider said of Dion’s surprise appearance. “She has good days and bad days … it’s a painful disease, but it’s not a death sentence. She’s clearly capable of doing things and she wanted to show everyone that she’s back. She looked fantastic. The hope is that she will be able to perform.”

Dion was forced to cancel a world tour after she announced her illness last year, and has made rare public appearances since then. On Sunday night, she flew from her home in Las Vegas to Los Angeles — accompanied by a small entourage including her stylist Jay Roach — landing at 7 p.m. PST. She was escorted onstage by her son René-Charles Angélil, 23, presented the final award of the night to Swift and was on her way home by 9:30 p.m., we’re told.

[From Page Six]

“Of course, the right thing would have been for Taylor to acknowledge her, like Adele did years ago.” Sounds like Celine did notice that Taylor totally blanked her and it might have even bothered her. The thing is, Celine really is a lovely and gracious person (by all accounts) so I’m sure this story is more about Celine’s team being mad on her behalf and trying to refocus the story back on Celine.

Meanwhile, The Town podcast with Matthew Ringer had the inside story on what happened when Taylor and Celine left the Grammys stage, with Taylor’s team “scrambling” to fix Taylor’s mistake. Here’s the thing – if Taylor and her people had just come out and said “Taylor was caught up in the moment and she’s so sorry she didn’t acknowledge Celine properly, Taylor loves Celine and apologizes completely,” that would have been it, story over. But Taylor has an almost Trumpian attitude towards apologizing or acknowledging her mistakes.

not The Town casually confirming that “the Taylor camp knew immediately” her Celine snub was a “misstep” and that this photo was scrambled together as instant damage control https://t.co/OXb7OBhB9Z pic.twitter.com/2MvdY1XRhc

— Who? Weekly (@whoweekly) February 6, 2024

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Photos courtesy of Getty.

Super Bowl LVIII is happening this Sunday and we all know that there are three big components that make up America’s biggest night for sports: the game, the half-time show, and the commercials. When it comes to Super Bowl commercials, it’s like there’s a whole other competition going on to determine which crazy over-priced ad is the best one of the night. Over the years, Super Bowl commercials have gotten more outrageous, nostalgic, and celebrity-friendly. Not even beloved mascots are safe anymore! In fact, a 30-second commercial slot is a whopping $7 million this year!

One of the most-hyped commercials this year involves former Friends co-stars Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer, David and Victoria Beckham, this year’s half-time performer Usher, and rapper Jelly Roll. The minute-long commercial, which you can check out below, is for Uber Eats. The premise is that in order to remember all of the great services Uber Eats provides, you have to forget something else in order to create room in your brain.

Uber Eats’ 2024 Super Bowl commercial is a star-studded 60 second event!

The big game spot features Jennifer Aniston reuniting with Friends co-star David Schwimmer, David and Victoria Beckham, Jelly Roll, and Usher.

The commercial is all about being forgetful, and these stars all seem to be forgetting quite a bit. Jennifer totally forgets who David is, Victoria can’t remember the name of the Spice Girls, Jelly Roll thinks his face tattoos are fake, and Usher can’t remember he is performing in the halftime show.

“Jen! Hey!” David says in the commercial while going in for a hug. Jennifer stops him from hugging her and says, “Have we met?”

David responds, “Well, we worked together for ten years.”

“Ten years? You were great,” Jennifer says, before David responds, “You still don’t know, do you?”

Jennifer walks away and says, “Like I’d forget ten years of my life,” clearly still not really remembering. David then says, “I hate this town.”

[From JustJared]

Honestly, I thought this was pretty cute! I think it’s fun when celebrities commit to a silly joke and poke fun at themselves. Watching the silly Aniston/Schwimmer interaction put a smile on my face. I also laughed at the Beckham scene where they’re trying to remember the name of the Spice Girls. It reminded me that I really need to get on watching their Netflix documentary. I go through phases of interest in Super Bowl commercials, but I do enjoy the nostalgic ones, like the Google Assist commercial with Joe Pesci from a few years ago that spoofed the Home Alone one that Macaulay Culkin did for the 2018 holiday season. The Betty White Snickers one also holds a special place in my heart. This year, there will be commercials starring Ben Affleck, Chris Pratt, Jenna Ortega, Christopher Walken, Quinta Brunson, Aubrey Plaza, Lionel Messi, and more. You can watch the ones that have already been released here.

Note by Celebitchy: Due to the amount of time it takes and the lack of interest I’m not doing a comprehensive Super Bowl commercials post this year! Thanks for understanding!

Lily Gladstone has been nominated across the board for all of the Best Actress awards for her performance in Killers of the Flower Moon. The film came out during the SAG strike, so Lily didn’t really get a chance to do a big promotional tour. As such, it feels like we’re still finding out big chunks of her personal biography, information which usually would have been front-and-center in her first KOTFM interviews. For example, Lily uses both “she” and “they” pronouns. Her rationale is really interesting, and it relates to Native American culture and language.

Lily Gladstone is opening up about pronoun preferences. In an interview with PEOPLE, the Killers of the Flower Moon star, 37, explains why she feels comfortable being referred to as both she and they.

“I remember being 9 years old and just being a little disheartened, seeing how often a lot of my boy cousins were misgendered because they wore their hair long,” explains Gladstone, who has Blackfeet and Nez Perce heritage. She was raised on the Blackfeet reservation in Montana for the first decade of her life.

“It happens to a lot of kids, I think, especially Native boys leaving a community where long hair is celebrated [and then] just kind of getting teased for it,” continues Gladstone, whose profile on X also mentions she/they pronouns. “So I remember back then being like, everybody should just be they. And in most Native languages, most Indigenous languages, Blackfeet included, there are no gendered pronouns. There is no he/she, there’s only they,” Gladstone adds.

“It doesn’t happen as much anymore, but there’ve been several times in my life where I’ve been speaking to a northern Cheyenne-first language speaker [or another] Indigenous-first language speaker where they’ll accidentally misgender you when they’re talking to you,” says Gladstone. “And then they’ll get embarrassed about it, but it’s because they’ve learned English later.”

“So Blackfeet, we don’t have gendered pronouns, but our gender is implied in our name. But even that’s not binary,” says Gladstone, adding that her grandfather’s Blackfeet name meant “Iron Woman.” “He had a name that had a woman’s name in it. I’d never met my grandfather. I wouldn’t say that he was nonbinary in gender, but he was given a woman’s name because he kind of carried himself, I guess, the way that women who have that name do. And there were lots of women historically and still now who are given men’s names. They fulfill more of a man’s role in society as far as being provider, warrior, those sort of things,” she says.

“So, yeah, my pronoun use is partly a way of decolonizing gender for myself.”

Gladstone adds that her pronoun use is a way of “embracing that when I’m in a group of ladies, I know that I’m a little bit different. When I’m in a group of men, I don’t feel like a man. I don’t feel [masculine] at all. I feel probably more feminine when I’m around other men.”

As far as gendered awards categories that separate actor and actress, Gladstone, who is nominated for best actress at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards, has nuanced feelings. “I think it’s really cool that we’re seeing ‘performer’ and we’re seeing everybody brought in together. I do feel that historically having gendered categories has helped from keeping women actors from a lot of erasure because I think historically people just tend to honor male performances more. I know a lot of actresses who are very proud of the word ‘actress’ or are very proud of being an actress. I don’t know, maybe it’s just an overly semantic thing where I’m like, if there’s not a ‘director-ess,’ then there shouldn’t be actresses. There’s no ‘producer-ess,’ there’s no ‘cinematographer-ess.’ ”

[From People]

There have been several conversations recently about gendered awards categories, with Emma Corrin saying that they don’t feel like they should be relegated to “actress” categories. I appreciate that Lily is pointing out the obvious – that the second any awards show makes their categories genderless, only men will be nominated. Which is why 99% of the director, cinematographer and producer nominations DO go to men, because those categories are already genderless. So, just at a representation level, I do think the actor categories should be gendered. But I also think the conversations are interesting, and Lily makes some interesting points about language and decolonizing gender.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

As long as we’re shamefully still in a moment of rampant, draconian book bans from the far right, I feel it’s a good time to remind those conservatives of Maurice Sendak: the beloved children’s author/illustrator and beacon of marriage values, having been with the same partner for 50 years. The fact that said partner was Eugene Glynn, a psychiatrist of the male variety… well they can read up on that detail for themselves. (Because you have to read in order to learn things.) Although Sendak passed away in 2012, the executive director and curator of his estate have just retrieved a count-along picture book from the 1960s vaults and released it posthumously. I can’t wait to see how conservatives object to this story of a boy pulling rabbits out of a hat:

Counting rabbits: In Ten Little Rabbits, a new posthumous picture book by Maurice Sendak, Mino the Magician waves his wand and, poof, a rabbit appears. Another wave and out springs a second and then a third. By the fourth rabbit, Mino yawns. By the sixth, he’s annoyed. Ninth, he’s exasperated, as the rabbits crawl all over him. So back they go, one rabbit at a time, giving readers the chance to count up and back again by the time Mino is done. … Once again, Sendak’s knack for capturing just about every kind of emotion is on full display, 12 years after his death, in this book being brought to the public for the first time.

Portrait of an artist as a young boy: Sendak fans will immediately recognize Mino. While their names and adventures might be different, the boys in Chicken Soup With Rice, Where The Wild Things Are, Once Was Johnny — Mino, Max, Pierre, Johnny — and other Sendak stories look very similar. “Well, he’s Maurice,” says Lynn Caponera, executive director of The Maurice Sendak Foundation. “He” also didn’t look like most of the other boys in children’s books in the 1950s, says curator Jonathan Weinberg. … “The characters of my earlier books are really only sort of cockamamie self-portraits,” Sendak told Terry Gross, host of WHYY’s Fresh Air in 2003. “Unfortunately, I look like Max and the Wild Things, as children tell you in their brazen way. ‘Oh, Mommy, he looks like the Moishe, the big, wild thing.’ And you just want to crack them.”

An industrious night owl: When Caponera was 18, she moved into an apartment on the property and helped take care of the house and the dogs. She quickly learned that Sendak was a night owl. Her apartment was right underneath his studio. “So I would hear him all night whistling and playing music,” she recalls, “And you could hear when things were going right. He would be whistling like crazy. So like actually whistling while he worked.” She adds it was “a really wonderful way to come up in the morning and see what he did.” Weinberg adds that Sendak, “could whistle entire operas from beginning to end” — a claim that is difficult to fact-check. But some of his fantasy sketches actually note on the back what song he was whistling when he was working on them.

His studio has been preserved: Slippers on the floor, sweater draped over the chair, art supplies on his desk. “Cheap…cake paints” like the kind you’d “use in kindergarten,” [Caponera] notes. Among the many photographs by Sendak’s desk is one of Alice Liddell, the girl who inspired the main character in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures Under Ground. She doesn’t look too happy; Sendak loved it. “Maurice used to say that he really identified with that photo because, you know, being an illustrator is a very lonely job,” Caponera says. “You’re usually hours and hours doing tedious work at a drawing table by yourself. So he liked to think that Alice was sort of looking over him and that she looked so dejected because she’s so tired.”

The origins of Ten Little Rabbits: He initially thought the count-along picture book would be part of Nutshell Library, his 1962 collection of pocket-size books Alligators All Around, Chicken Soup With Rice, One Was Johnny, and Pierre. But “he decided to go in a different direction because the other books in Nutshell Library are much more elaborate,” Weinberg says. Eventually, in 1970, Sendak turned Ten Little Rabbits into a 3.5 x 2.5-inch pamphlet for a fundraiser for Philadelphia’s Rosenbach Museum.

[From NPR]

Between his being a night owl and loving a photo that captures someone in misery, Maurice Sendak is a man after my own heart. What a fabulous situation Caponera fell into as an 18-year-old! I smell a film script in there, the young woman coming of age set against the curmudgeonly misfit. Meanwhile, I beseech the irascible, creative, slightly mad artists out there: I am available and willing to be adopted into your home’s mother-in-law suite. I’ll be honest, my housekeeping is abysmal. But I’m great with dogs and am a proficient watercolorist with training in oils as well, so I would be helpful in art studio maintenance. I can also look dejected and tired on command. Easily.

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Photos are from Maurice Sendak at a 2004 appearance in NYC and at the 2009 premiere of Where The Wild Things Are. He is also shown in 1982. Credit: Kristin Callahan/Avalon and Getty

Country singer Toby Keith has passed away at the age of 62. [Hollywood Life]
Zendaya & Timothee Chalamet looked amazing for their Dune 2 promo. [JustJared]
Jacob Elordi is under investigation for assault in Australia. [Pajiba]
Joe Alwyn & Paul Mescal have a group text called the Tortured Man Club, so… you know, is Taylor Swift’s new album a reference to that? [LaineyGossip]
Which artists have called out the Grammys? [Buzzfeed]
Behind-the-scenes photos from the Grammys. [GFY]
Usher looks good in these SKIMS ads. [Socialite Life]
Simon Cowell explains why he wears sunglasses on television. [Seriously OMG]
This Alberta Ferretti suit on Florence Pugh is fire. [RCFA]
Wendy Williams is back! [OMG Blog]

I’m a broken record about this, but it bears repeating: this was never the Windsors’ plan, to see the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stay married and to see them thrive in America. The Windsors had many plans, but the current reality was never an option they considered. They wanted to drive Meghan out of the UK; they wanted a Sussex divorce; they wanted Meghan to disappear or die; they wanted Harry to crawl back to them, penitent and divorced; they wanted H&M to return, broke and desolate. Those were the plans at various points throughout 2018-2022. They cannot comprehend the fact that they can’t figure out a way to get Harry to capitulate or leave his wife or come running back to them. It’s broken their brains. I bring all of this up because of the latest clownery from the Daily Mail: “Is Prince Harry’s return to duty the only way to boost the roster of working royals? He and Meghan have their critics, but they’re the only younger family members cancer-stricken King Charles can call on with experience of public service.” I sh-t you not.

The dwindling number of royals who can carry out engagements has been thrown into sharp relief again as King Charles steps back from public duties while being treated for cancer. While the Firm once boasted a bulging roster of royals to carry out engagements on behalf of the King, the numbers have shrunk in line with Charles’ vision for a ‘slimmed down the monarchy’ – on top of Prince Andrew being forced to step down and Harry and Meghan leaving for America.

With Prince and Princess of Wales also out of action while Kate recovers from surgery, the brunt of the work will be undertaken by Queen Camilla, Princess Anne, Prince Edward and the Duchess of Edinburgh. It begs the question of who can step in, and despite Harry and Meghan quitting as senior royals, they are the only available members of the family with any real experience of public duty.

The late Queen’s cousins, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra also do work on behalf of the King, but are all in their late seventies or eighties, meaning their workload is understandably reduced. With the three most senior royals out of action, the remaining working royals have an average age of 75, royal watchers are questioning who could be brought into the fold to step up – with various younger members looked upon.

Perhaps the most obvious choice is Prince Harry, 39, who has jetted back to the UK to see his father following his diagnosis. While Harry and his wife Meghan are not working royals, after stepping down in 2020, Harry remains a counsellor of the state – meaning he can work on behalf of the King – and is fifth-in-line to the throne. But the pair are seemingly very settled in California, where live in a £15million Montecito mansion with their two children. Nonetheless, Harry and Meghan undoubtedly have the most experience in public facing roles, with Harry undertaking royal duties from the age of 21.

[From The Daily Mail]

If Harry was so vital to the institution, they should have treated him as such from the beginning. I’m a broken record about that too. Harry and Meghan understood that they could still do good, important work on behalf of the crown as well, which is why THEY OFFERED a half-in solution. They were denied that compromise and the Windsors sneered at them for offering it. They sneered because they never considered that Harry and Meghan would thrive. Oh well! I hope Harry has a nice visit with his father and then he heads right back to Heathrow.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

It’s been less than 24 hours and I’m already exhausted by the British media’s insistence on turning King Charles’s cancer into a story about Prince William and Prince Harry. I have no idea what’s coming from Kensington Palace or what’s coming from royalists merely spinning their wheels and creating these bizarre narratives about who needs to forgive whom. As I’ve said a few times now, I absolutely get the sense that some of these royalist newspapers are basically giving a pep talk to William, they’re telling him what they need him to do now, which is show up for his father and reconcile with his brother. William hates being told what to do though. Whenever anyone tries to give him orders, it makes him dig in his heels and refuse to do anything. Well, Richard Kay at the Mail wrote an overwrought piece about William’s emotions right now, as William deals with an ill wife, a father with cancer and a brother who escaped the Windsors’ toxic prison. Some highlights:

William’s sacrifices: It is not hard to imagine the confusion of emotions that will be flooding through Prince William’s mind today: sadness and anxiety at his father’s illness but also bewilderment at the enormity of the challenge now facing him and the inevitable sacrifices he will be forced to make. The parallels with those that confronted his beloved grandmother more than 70 years ago are striking. The then Princess Elizabeth was 25 and a young mother when she so unexpectedly succeeded her father as monarch. She and Prince Philip had every reason to hope that they had a good ten years of family life ahead of them before the responsibility of the throne would intervene. William is 16 years older than his grandmother was at that pivotal moment and his children are older, but his sense of expectation for the future would have been no less. And while he is not about to be king, his life in every other way is going to change.

Harry is a distraction?? Quite how much of his father’s schedule will now pass to the Prince is not clear. But the news that he will step up comes with an added distraction — Prince Harry’s decision to hasten to his father’s side. While it was inconceivable that Harry would not want to fly to Britain once bulletins about Charles were issued, his presence will serve as a reminder of just how fractured the Royal Family has become since the death of Queen Elizabeth in 2022. It will be the first time he has seen his father since the Coronation in May last year. To the relief of courtiers, the Duke of Sussex will apparently be making the journey without his wife Meghan.

William must emulate QEII: The brothers are not thought to have exchanged a word for many months, their relationship apparently shattered by Harry’s memoir, Spare. In the book, published a year ago, Harry accused William of physically attacking him, and Kate of being cold towards Meghan. As he grapples with his new responsibilities, William’s thoughts will almost certainly turn to how his grandmother would have dealt with such a princely incursion. He may also draw some strength from the dignity with which the late Queen confronted her destiny all those decades ago. She did so, of course, from a position of strength. Public affection for her father King George VI for the way he steered the nation through the Abdication upheaval and the dark days of World War II ran deep when she came to the throne in 1952. William comes to the fore with the monarchy in crisis.

William is not a lobbyist: ‘[William and Kate] have a very cosy life down there at Adelaide Cottage in Windsor Great Park, but it does require a lot of moving parts to work well,’ says a friend. Their staff are still based in London and meetings often have to take place at Windsor Castle. The contrast between father and son as Princes of Wales could not be greater. While Charles — like William — is passionate about what he believes in, he was also by nature a lobbyist. William is not. He has his core interests — homelessness, mental health and conservation — but does not spread himself thinly as his father once did. William has no interests in the arts, for example. But, for now at least, William is going to have to cover a lot more ground than he usually prefers. He is almost certain to take on his father’s role in receiving arriving and departing foreign diplomats.

How will William cope?? So how will he cope? And, more importantly, what does this change to his status mean for his relationship with Harry? Certainly, say friends, William has the stuff to be dynamic, and some believe having to take up these additional responsibilities may be the making of him, raising both his profile and his visibility.

William doesn’t trust Harry: Where Harry is concerned, his view has diverged from the King’s. While Charles has been torn by the conflict between his sons and has longed for a rapprochement, William is convinced that trust, the basis of any relationship, has been utterly destroyed. Harry’s arrival will test William’s resolve. Will he agree to see him, and in time agree to a rapprochement as his father surely wishes? Or will the status quo remain? Charles’s illness and his recovery may determine that outcome.

[From The Daily Mail]

“To the relief of courtiers, the Duke of Sussex will apparently be making the journey without his wife Meghan.” We get it, even in a crisis, the Windsors cling to their racism like a security blanket and they want it known far and wide that they despise a Black woman who outshone all of them. As for the rest of it… even Kay couldn’t stick to the William/QEII comparison – QEII became the monarch when she was 25. William will turn 42 years old this year. It’s not the same thing at all and the comparison actually offends me. Anyway, all of this focus on will-he-or-won’t-he reconcile with Harry might end up blowing up in all of their faces if Harry only breezes in for a few days and only sees Charles.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

I’m watching the coverage from afar, safely in America, and I have to ask my British peeps something: is the news over there all about Prince Harry traveling to England? Because that’s how it looks from here. Every national newspaper is doing liveblogs and breaking-news coverage. Granted, the liveblogs have been active since Buckingham Palace announced King Charles’s cancer diagnosis, but every time I check for an update, it’s all about Harry. When will Harry arrive, will he meet with his brother, where will he stay, what does it all mean. Well, Prince Harry has arrived in the UK:

After an overnight flight from LAX – it seems Prince Harry has landed at Heathrow airport. And is now on his way to see his father, King Charles. pic.twitter.com/4lcJKUxivL

— Chris Ship (@chrisshipitv) February 6, 2024

He touched down a short time ago and his motorcade – involving at least two police vehicles – is making its way to London right now. Given the presence of the police vehicles, I feel even more comfortable in my assumption that Harry’s trip was coordinated with the palace and his father. This wasn’t Harry suddenly announcing yesterday that he would travel to the UK and surprise his dad. When Charles called Harry to tell him about the cancer, they discussed this. Charles either asked Harry to come or Harry volunteered and Charles agreed to it.

So, this is Harry’s first time in London since last September, when he made a brief stopover to attend the WellChild Awards and visit his grandmother’s tomb (in Windsor) on the first anniversary of QEII’s passing. Before that, Harry spent a couple of days in England for the coronation, where he was invited by his father but they didn’t speak much (or at all). Beyond all of the tabloid bullsh-t, I genuinely hope that Charles and Harry get some time together alone to just talk. I would assume that’s what Harry wants as well. Which probably means that the courtiers will do everything they can to thwart it. My stomach is in knots just thinking about all of the arcane and petty punishments they likely have in store for Harry.

Prince Harry’s convoy reportedly left the Windsor Suite this afternoon to pick him up from his flight.https://t.co/KoQStBxNHs pic.twitter.com/znm5AgHCtW

— The Mirror (@DailyMirror) February 6, 2024

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Buckingham Palace hasn’t confirmed on or off the record when King Charles was actually diagnosed with cancer. It’s widely assumed that the diagnosis came around the same time as Charles was dealing with an enlarged prostate, for which he was in the hospital from January 26th through January 29th. Charles was discharged on the 29th, and Queen Camilla spent the rest of the week doing events across England. She was practically giddy, she had a Cheshire-cat grin and she was truly glowing with happiness. It would be cold as ice if Camilla was acting like that with the knowledge that Charles has cancer. It would also be cold as ice if she was purposefully spinning those stories about how she’s “practically ruling solo” and she’s “the last one standing.” Which is probably why it’s far more likely that the diagnosis came after Charles’s hospitalization, right? Maybe during the procedure, they found something and tests were run and maybe nothing was confirmed until late last week.

It would also make sense if everything really started happening in the past 72 hours, because right now it looks like the palace is kind of scrambling. Like, they’ve been caught flat-footed, understaffed and unprepared. The Times has a piece about how everything’s in flux or something.

Planned foreign state visits looked in doubt last night as a campaign began at the Palace to reassure the public in the face of the King’s cancer diagnosis. Previously scheduled trips to Australia and Canada may be pushed back and the King’s appearance at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Samoa later this year is not guaranteed.

Yet plans are being made for public appearances from other senior members of the family. Hours before the news of the King’s condition was announced, it was preceded by a statement from Kensington Palace saying that the Prince of Wales would be returning to duties. Prince William was expected to remain off work while his wife continues her recovery from abdominal surgery, yet the surprise announcement in the morning revealed not one but two official engagements for William.

On Wednesday evening, William will travel to London to attend the annual fundraising gala for the London Air Ambulance.William, a former air ambulance pilot who served as a search and rescue helicopter pilot before moving to the East Anglian Air Ambulance service, became patron of the charity in 2020. He had previously supported the charity’s 30th anniversary in 2019, during which he flew with a crew and met staff and patients from the service at a number of fundraising events. The evening is likely to provide an opportunity for William to deliver a speech at a time when the royal family will be looking to him to lead the way.

The diary announcement is quite a change from his previous plan to remain by Kate’s side. His wife departed unseen from the London Clinic a week ago after spending nearly a fortnight recuperating from abdominal surgery.

With Kate absent from duties for many months, the Queen will step up with a Palace spokesman confirming: “Yes, Her Majesty will continue with a full programme of public duties.” Despite learning of her husband’s cancer diagnosis earlier that week, Camilla has indicated that she will carry on with public engagements.

Other senior members of the family will be drafted in to help. The Princess Royal and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh are expected to be seen on duty.

[From The Times]

Is this just awkwardly worded or did they just say that Camilla has known since early last week? “Despite learning of her husband’s cancer diagnosis earlier that week”?? IDK. As for William’s events on Wednesday… so, I thought (and wrote) that William’s sudden schedule was all about Harry and Meghan’s plans to travel to Canada. While I’m sure that was a factor, William’s schedule change was definitely more about Charles. Also: while Charles has a lot of sh-t on his schedule which is “monarch only,” he also has regular old royal events which could be done by any member of the family. This continues to be strange to me, how Sophie, Camilla, Anne and Edward haven’t been sent out to cover for the Waleses and King Charles.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red,Cover Images.

Prince Harry is either en route to London as I write this or he’s just arrived. Harry caught a flight out of LAX yesterday and it’s believed that he flew overnight. It’s a hell of a journey, all to spend some time with the father he adores. When I read and covered Harry’s memoir, I was struck repeatedly by how much Harry loves his father and wants a real relationship with him. Since we learned that Harry flew out of LAX solo, the courtiers and British royalists have fallen all over themselves to claim that everyone in the UK is “relieved” that Meghan isn’t joining him. Which absolutely affects how Harry approaches the coming days. There’s something else too, and I knew it would come up, even if I hoped that the British media would take a f–king break for a minute: where will Harry stay while he’s in the UK? You know, because Harry was evicted from the home he paid for (given to him by QEII) and he was denied one night of lodging at Windsor Castle last year.

Prince Harry has taken off from LAX and is flying to London to be with King Charles after he was diagnosed with cancer – but Meghan, Archie and Lilibet are staying at home. Harry’s father called him person to tell him the devastating news and the Duke of Sussex has jumped on a plane so he could be in the UK later today.

It is not known if he will see his brother Prince William or the Princess of Wales, who is recovering from serious abdominal surgery. But experts have said they hope that Harry’s last-minute trip could bring Harry, Charles and William closer together.

It is unclear where the Duke will stay after he was told to vacate Frogmore Cottage, his former home, in January 2023, just days after his tell-all memoir Spare was published. Last time the Prince flew to the UK was in September, for the Well Child Awards, where he stayed in a hotel. It is understood the Duke asked if he could stay at Windsor Castle to allow him to visit his grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth II’s place of rest, but permission was denied.

Harry usually travels with his own private security team, after being stripped of his right to automatic police protection when he left the Royal family in 2020.

The King contacted both the Duke of Sussex and the Prince of Wales personally to tell them of his cancer diagnosis before it was announced by Buckingham Palace. A source close to Harry said that he had immediately decided to come to the UK as soon as possible to be by his father’s side. Experts have claimed that Harry’s dash to Britain ‘indicates the seriousness’ of the King’s condition. Announcing that Prince Harry will come and see his father, the Office of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex said: ‘The duke did speak with his father about his diagnosis. He will be traveling to UK to see His Majesty in the coming days.’

[From The Daily Mail]

The Mirror also picked up on the “where will Harry stay” commentary, once again claiming that Frogmore Cottage is still off-limits because Charles already gave the keys to Prince Andrew, who then gave Frogmore to Princess Eugenie. Which… probably means that Harry could stay at Frogmore, because Eugenie will always look out for her cousin. Still, I hope Harry stays in an undisclosed location with his security. I also hope that the royals and royal media continue to make a big fuss about how they’re “punishing” Harry by refusing to let him have a room in one of their 100-bedroom castles or palaces. It will make it that much easier for Harry to dip in a day or two.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.