Queen Camilla did three big events last week – she attended the diplomatic reception at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday evening, she received an honorary doctorate on Wednesday, and on Thursday, she hosted an event for the Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition. So, three days in a row, she had events. The flurry of activity came after Camilla skipped all of the Remembrance events earlier in the month, as well as canceling and postponing other, non-Remembrance events. A “chest infection” was cited and Buckingham Palace tried to strike the balance between “she’s really sick” and “but she’ll be okay.” Well, after three days of work, Camilla said no mas. She pulled out of her appearance at the Royal Variety show, which she was supposed to attend with King Charles on Friday. She pulled out just a few hours before the event.

Queen Camilla has canceled her appearance at a major event in the royal calendar, as she continues to suffer the lingering effects of a chest infection. Camilla skipped Remembrance Sunday events in London ten days ago, and—despite attending some engagements this week—Buckingham Palace said Friday the 77-year old would not attend this evening’s Royal Variety Performance, an iconic set-piece of the royal festive calendar which sees the royals attend a central London theatre for a program of popular entertainment.

Over three weeks since picking up an illness shortly after an overseas tour that culminated in a sojourn at an alternative healing clinic in India, Camilla is still unwell with what sources describe as a “nasty bug” and “lingering post-viral symptoms” of a chest infection.

A palace spokesperson and an official source sought to play down the severity of the queen’s condition. The spokesperson said: “Following a recent chest infection, The Queen continues to experience some lingering post-viral symptoms, as a result of which doctors have advised that, after a busy week of engagements, Her Majesty should prioritize sufficient rest.”

The source said that due to the “lateness” of the event, Camilla had “sensibly decided to heed medical advice that there is a risk when recovering patients overstretch themselves.”

The palace source said the “nasty bug” had left the queen—who reportedly smoked 10 cigarettes a day until 2001, when she quit the habit—feeling “a little under the weather.”

The source said the queen was “naturally disappointed to miss the evening’s entertainments, and sends her sincere apologies to all those involved, but is a great believer that the show must go on. She hopes to be back to full strength and regular public duties very soon.”

[From The Daily Beast]

I hadn’t been sick in a few years before I got a cold in September. I was surprised by how long that f–king cold lingered. In Camilla’s case, she’s in her 70s and she’s probably pretty pickled most of the time, and she had just returned from a long international journey. That being said, she looked and seemed fine earlier in the week. Is something going on? Another health-related conspiracy? I honestly don’t know. I will say this though – Charles did not look well at the Royal Variety show (photos below). He was all hunched over and really did look quite sick. I wonder why he didn’t cancel too, and make someone else go in his place. Maybe no one else was available – Sophie, Edward, Anne, Peggington, Waity? Were they all busy on a Friday night?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Earlier this year, after Drake had spent more than a month trying to beef with Kendrick Lamar, Kendrick released the first of his Drake-specific diss tracks, “Euphoria.” It’s a great song which has aged like fine wine. At one point, Kendrick tells Drake/his haters: “Headshots for the year, you better walk around like Daft Punk.” Well… Kendrick chose the 61st anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination to surprise-drop an album called GNX. Kendrick has been doing a lot around specifically American holidays – Juneteenth saw his special concert in LA and he dropped the “Not Like Us” music video on the 4th of July. I never would have thought Kendrick would have chosen JFK’s assassination date as a surprise album drop, but here we are. Headshots for the year.

Obviously, people have theorized for months that Kendrick had an album coming out. His friends in LA have even said that Kendrick was working on the album throughout his beef with Drake in the spring. What’s funny is that Kendrick didn’t include ANY of the Drake-disses on GNX. The only thing we got which was sort of related was “Squabble Up,” the full song which was teased ahead of the “Not Like Us” music video. That’s gonna slap at the Super Bowl Halftime show next year.

Speaking of slapping, Kendrick is calling out people right and left in this album. One of the big stories is about the performative “outrage” about how Kendrick was selected for the Super Bowl in New Orleans. A lot of people were like “what about Lil Wayne??” In the first track, “wacced out murals,” Kendrick addresses the issue: “Used to bump ‘Tha Carter III,’ I held my Rollie chain proud/ Irony, I think my hard work let Lil Wayne down.” And then “Won the Super Bowl and Nas the only one congratulate me.” I’ll admit that I don’t actually care about the Wayne issue, and… um, I kind of think Kendrick doesn’t give a f–k either.

Some cool little items – Kendrick saw mariachi singer Deyra Barrera perform at a Dodgers game and he liked her so much, he put her on the album. SZA – who is basically Kendrick’s little sister – also appears on “Luther” and “Gloria.” Plus, the entire album was produced by none other than Jack Antonoff. Jack produced one of Kendrick’s Drake disses, and Jack is obviously very connected to Taylor Swift. Kendrick and Taylor are tight, and I kind of love that Kendrick is working with someone so closely associated with Taylor and the pop girls (Lorde, Lana, St. Vincent). Jack did a good job with the album too, I have to say. Last thing – apparently, Kendrick and Father John Misty are basically on the same album-drop schedule and have been for over a decade?

Obviously, NSFW for language.

GNX cover courtesy of Kendrick’s social media. Additional photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.

Throughout history, people inevitably ask why various ruling classes eventually go crazy. I always thought the answer was “inbreeding.” Meaning, for centuries, ruling houses, royalty and aristocratic societies were always marrying and having children with their siblings, cousins or various other relatives. The whole idea of “opening up the gene pool” is actually a relatively modern concept. Well, Ridley Scott was asked why the half-fictional Roman emperors in his Gladiator movies are always bonkers. He went in a different direction – it’s not the inbreeding, it’s the lead!!

In Gladiator II, opening this week, twin sibling Emperors Geta and Caracalla, played by Fred Hechinger and Joseph Quinn, come across rather unstable — to say the least. And in 2000’s Gladiator, Joaquin Phoenix’s tyrannical Emperor Commodus was also a bit loopy (in addition to being “terribly vexed”). According to director Ridley Scott, there is a very specific historical reason for this.

“People forget that all the wealthy, high-end senatorial Roman aristocracy would live on water, which was piped through lead pipes and lead tanks,” Scott told The Hollywood Reporter. “People don’t think about that. Your choice is water or wine. When you drink water, it’s through a lead system that by then could be 200 years old by then. No wonder they’re f–king crazy. They’re all going halfway to Alzheimer’s.”

Indeed, according to Science magazine, “High-born Romans sipped beverages cooked in lead vessels and channeled spring water into their homes through lead pipes.” In addition to causing physical problems, lead poisoning can cause behavioral issues such as depression, irritability, altered moods and difficulty concentrating or remembering. Modern-day testing of Roman pipes have shown that Ancient Rome water had 100 times higher lead levels than normal. But scientists have also concluded this wasn’t high enough to — as some historians have speculated over the years — bring down the Roman Empire. Still, regular doses of lead mixed with massive amounts wealth and power could arguably inspire some regal volatility.

[From THR]

It’s true, it would not occur to most people that the Roman Empire was being ruled by people who were all being slowly poisoned by lead. I absolutely believe that was a factor now. Plus the inbreeding, obviously. There are other weird scientific reasons for various questions like “why were people in such-and-such era acting that way?” Like Victorians and arsenic. The Romanovs and… inbreeding.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Ana de Armas was seen kissing the Cuban president’s stepson, Manuel Anido Cuesta. The current president of Cuba is Miguel Díaz-Canel. [Just Jared]
Kaia Gerber in Valentino… I’m going to keep my mouth shut. [RCFA]
Ryan Murphy’s next Monster series will focus on Ed Gein, with Charlie Hunnam playing Gein. I haven’t watched any of these. [LaineyGossip]
Amy Adams at the Nightbitch premiere. [Go Fug Yourself]
Spotlight on male model Josh Fine. [Socialite Life]
Leonardo DiCaprio came out to support Kate Winslet. [Pajiba]
Kesha dropped her new single! [OMG Blog]
Jason Ritter is listening. [Seriously OMG]
What’s going on behind-the-scenes on Project Runway? [Starcasm]
One Direction attended Liam Payne’s funeral. [Hollywood Life]
Some of these #WomenInMaleFields tweets are funny. [Buzzfeed]

Academy Award nominee and movie star Ana de Armas has been spotted with the stepson of Cuba’s president on a romantic stroll. Mi gente latino! pic.twitter.com/yA6OoWA8gO

— Ana de Armas Updates (@ArmasUpdates) November 21, 2024

In September, NewsNation’s Paula Froelich had a curious exclusive about the Windsors. Unnamed sources vented that the Windsors were still consumed 24-7 by everything the Sussexes were doing or not doing, and that the Sussexes’ activities in California were negatively impacting the health of both King Charles and the Princess of Wales. Froelich’s sources also claimed that both Charles and Kate were doing much worse than the palace let on, and that Kate in particular is “not in remission and not cancer-free…She’s not in good shape at all.” While it’s no secret that British royalists regularly vent their Sussex-bile to American outlets, it’s really curious to see NewsNation – like the Hollywood Reporter – go all-in with an anti-Sussex agenda. That seems to be what’s happening though. Froelich’s latest is a bizarre attack on the Duchess of Sussex:

Across the pond in America, former British royal Prince Harry is making inroads to make himself likable again… and it’s working. Earlier this week Harry released a cheeky promo video for the Invictus Games in which he agreed to get a tattoo by JellyRoll if the singer performed at the closing ceremonies for the wounded warrior event in Whistler, Vancouver, on November 20… and ended up with a “I AM JellyRoll” “tattoo” on his neck (rest assured — it’s fake). Barenaked Ladies will also perform at the event.

”It’s what Harry does best,” a friend told me. “He was always the most likable of all the royals and now that he’s focusing on charitable works stopped selling out his family at every turn he’s shining.”

Meanwhile, Harry’s wife Meghan — who is sticking with her commercial activities — isn’t faring so well.

“She doesn’t know what she’s doing,” the friend added. “She may have shot some episodes for Netflix on her cooking show — but who wants to watch her cooking in a ballgown and an impossibly expensive house? And she still doesn’t have a CEO or anyone to head up that venture. I wouldn’t be shocked if Netflix ends up dropping it — they pull a lot of things they’ve spent money on and preshot.”

[From NewsNation]

We were told – through sources – months ago that the tentative launch of Meghan’s cooking show would be December, possibly January. Meghan filmed everything in April and May, so the turnaround makes sense, although I kind of hoped it would come out sooner. I do wonder if the show is going to be a bit like Archetypes, as in… too many cooks in the kitchen at first and everything is sort of overproduced, and then Meghan figures out what she’s doing. And no, I don’t think she’s going to be “cooking in a ballgown.” Netflix will absolutely release the show at some point, but I don’t know when we’ll get the American Riviera Orchard line. That being said, the British media and these “friends/sources” are dying for the Sussexes to come out and dominate the newscycle. Because they don’t want to actually focus on the left-behinds and how weird they’re all acting.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.

Last year, King Charles’s coronation was supposed to be the biggest and grandest occasion of the decade, if not century. Most people weren’t alive for Queen Elizabeth II’s 1953 coronation, so Charles’s coronation was a historical moment for everyone under the age of 70. There were so many problems though – QEII’s coronation was of an attractive young queen just years after the second world war. Charles’s coronation was for a septuagenarian who married his horsey mistress and ran his one charismatic son out of the country. People tuned in, but only to see Prince Harry (who left right after the ceremony). We knew last year that the coronation did not stimulate the British economy, not even locally, within London. We also know that Charles rejected the idea of a “budget coronation,” even if he and Camilla banned everyone else from wearing tiaras, crowns and coronets. So how much did this exercise in narcissism cost the British taxpayer? £72 million.

Last year’s Coronation of King Charles III cost taxpayers £72m, government figures have revealed. Just over £50m was spent by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), which coordinated the event, while policing costs came to almost £22m, which were paid for by the Home Office.

The DCMS described the Coronation as a “once-in-a-generation” moment and the figures came broadly within unofficial estimates, which suggested it would be between £50 and £100m.

The Coronation in May 2023 had been described as a “slimmed down affair”, with the Westminster Abbey guest list only a quarter of the size of Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation at the same venue in 1953.

Being a state event, the Coronation was paid for by the UK Government and Buckingham Palace through the Sovereign Grant – which comes from a percentage of the profits of the Crown Estate revenue – and the Privy Purse, money from a private estate known as the Duchy of Lancaster. By the end of March 2024, the Duchy of Lancaster had £647m of net assets under its control.

There had been criticism aimed at the public funding of the Coronation, which came during a cost-of-living crisis in the UK. A poll carried out by YouGov the month before the Coronation revealed that 52% of Londoners did not believe the Coronation should be paid for by taxpayers. There had been much speculation about the cost to the public purse, which the DCMS said could not be revealed until after the event.

The DCMS annual accounts report released on Thursday said the Coronation reached an estimated global audience of two billion people in 125 countries, saying it “offered a unique opportunity to celebrate and strengthen our national identity and showcase the UK to the world”.

[From BBC]

I won’t place the blame entirely on Charles’s shoulders – I remember reading that Rishi Sunak wanted the coronation to be a big event too, because they were all riding the high they got from the global attention at QEII’s funeral in 2022. But yeah… people didn’t give a sh-t. They especially didn’t want to be billed £72 million for one man’s fancy hat party, historical moment or not. There were so many layers to Charles and Sunak misreading the national mood – it could have been a more businesslike event, done simply with little drama. Or they could have leaned into the inherent drama and asked everyone to wear all of their family jewels and really put on a show. They chose neither and billed the taxpayer for the most boring show in the world. Anyway… given the cost of the coronation AND the 53% raise of the Sovereign Grant, it’s past time for British taxpayers to reel in their mad king. Speaking of, Republic’s Graham Smith had a lot to say:

Republic, which campaigns to replace the monarchy with an elected head of state and more democratic political system, described the coronation as an “obscene” waste of taxpayers’ money.

“I would be very surprised if £72m was the whole cost,” the Republic CEO, Graham Smith, told the Guardian. As well as the Home Office policing and DCMS costs included in the figures, he said the Ministry of Defence, Transport for London, fire brigades and local councils also incurred costs related to the coronation, with other estimates putting the totalspend at between £100m and £250m.

“But even that kind of money – £72m – is incredible,” Smith added. “It’s a huge amount of money to spend on one person’s parade when there was no obligation whatsoever in the constitution or in law to have a coronation, and when we were facing cuts to essential services. It was a parade that Charles insisted on at huge expense to the taxpayer, and this is on top of the huge inheritance tax bill he didn’t [have to] pay, on top of the £500m-a-year cost of the monarchy.”

Under a clause agreed in 1993 by the then prime minister, John Major, any inheritance passed “sovereign to sovereign” avoids the 40% levy applied to assets valued at more than £325,000.

Smith added: “It was an extravagance we simply didn’t have to have. It was completely unnecessary and a waste of money in the middle of a cost of living crisis in a country that is facing huge amounts of child poverty. When kids are unable to afford lunches at school, to spend over £70m on this parade is obscene.”

[From The Guardian]

Yep, I agree. About all of it.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Last Sunday, Angelina Jolie attended the Governors Awards. Her 16-year-old son Knox was her date, and they were adorable together. She was so proud of him, and he’s grown up to look more like her side of the family (Bertrand/Voight). It was a rare outing for Knox – while the kids have walked red carpets with their mom many times over the years, Knox and Vivienne (the twins, the youngest) seem like they’re the ones who are the least into all of it. Apparently, some people think that Angelina “made” her 16-year-old son do something he didn’t want to do, or that Angelina was trying to get under Brad Pitt’s skin. The same Brad Pitt who is estranged from all of his kids after what he did to them and Angelina? The very same.

Brad Pitt thinks his ex-wife Angelina Jolie walked the red carpet with their son Knox Jolie-Pitt at the 2024 Governors Awards “to push his buttons,” a source exclusively tells Page Six.

The 16-year-old was seen for the first time in three years posing for photos arm-in-arm with the “Maleficent” star at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday.

“Brad finds it a bit coincidental that a judge signed off on the [Château] Miraval trial just days before Knox joined Angelina at the Governors Awards,” the insider tells us. “So he really questions her motive for bringing Knox.”

However, a separate source previously told us that the teen made the decision to join his mom on the red carpet.

“Angelina felt so proud having Knox by her side,” the insider explained. “He typically prefers to stay out of the spotlight and Angelina respects that decision, but he asked if he could join her, and of course she was thrilled that he wanted to be there.”

The source added, “She couldn’t be more proud of him, and they had a really memorable evening together.”

[From Page Six]

The part about Knox asking if he could come with her… so sweet. He’s seen Pax, Maddox, Zahara and Shiloh walk carpets to support mom, so he was like… I’m going to do that too. As for Brad… we get it, you’re a sh-tty father. Brad is so out of touch with his kids that he has no idea why they go out of their way to publicly support Angelina. Are we supposed to forget how several of his kids have publicly dropped his surname too? And that Shiloh went so far as legally changing her name to drop “Pitt”? So no, Angelina didn’t arrange this to push Brad’s buttons. Nor was it about the timing of the fakakta lawsuit.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

On November 13th, Donald Trump nominated Matt Gaetz to be his Attorney General. Gaetz resigned from Congress that same day. As it turned out, Gaetz resigned just a few days before the House Ethics Committee was due to release their years-long investigation into Gaetz’s sleazy indecency. The committee heard testimony from some of the women Gaetz paid for sex, and testimony about just how many teenage girls Gaetz abused, solicited, raped and trafficked. On Wednesday, the New York Times released a detailed accounting of just how many women and girls were paid to have sex with Gaetz. Throughout the whole eight-day saga, the Ethics Committee repeatedly refused to release their full report. But all of the detailed reporting on Gaetz’s years of degeneracy began to take its toll – even Republican senators, weeks away from the majority, told Gaetz that his nomination was DOA. So on Thursday, Gaetz formally withdrew.

Matt Gaetz, who faced a torrent of scrutiny over allegations of sex trafficking and drug use, abruptly withdrew his bid to become attorney general on Thursday in the first major political setback for President-elect Donald J. Trump since his election this month.

Mr. Gaetz has consistently denied the allegations, but his prospective nomination ran into trouble in the Senate, where Republicans were deeply reluctant to confirm someone to run the same Justice Department that once investigated him on suspicion of sex trafficking an underage girl, even though no charges were brought.

In announcing his withdrawal a day after visiting the Senate, Mr. Gaetz insisted that he had strong support among fellow Republicans. But two people with direct knowledge of Mr. Gaetz’s thinking said he had made the decision to pull out after concluding that he would not have the votes in the Senate for confirmation. The people asked for anonymity to discuss his private decision-making.

“While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition,” Mr. Gaetz wrote on social media. “There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General. Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1.”

He added, “I remain fully committed to see that Donald J. Trump is the most successful President in history. I will forever be honored that President Trump nominated me to lead the Department of Justice and I’m certain he will Save America.”

[From The NY Times]

I’ve seen the names of at least five Republican senators who confirmed off-the-record that they would not vote for Gaetz as AG. That would be enough – the incoming Republican majority is 53-47. I’m seeing a lot of gross jokes about how dangerous Gaetz is now… dangerous for the high school girls in Florida. Dangerous at all of the quinceanera parties. But I prefer the jokes about how Gaetz’s nomination didn’t even last a full Scaramucci. What a train wreck. Who will be Trump’s next AG candidate? The late, great Hannibal Lector? Ah, that joke isn’t even relevant anymore – Trump has already nominated Pam Bondi as his new pick for AG. She was one of his impeachment attorneys.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Paul Mescal seems to be embracing his movie star moment. [LaineyGossip]
Winners list for the 2024 CMAs. [JustJared]
Carey Mulligan wore The Row to the Elle WIH event. [RCFA]
Donald Trump is mad that Democrats are confirming judges. [Jezebel]
People are raving about Prime’s Cross series. [Pajiba]
Amelia Dimoldenberg gets real about running her own business. [Buzzfeed]
The awards season is in full swing & Mikey Madison is hustling! [Socialite Life]
Morgan Wallen really is teflon, huh? [Hollywood Life]
Seth Meyers was absolutely still hungry in this photo. [Seriously OMG]
The Honest Trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis. [OMG Blog]

As we’ve covered, the Governors Awards happened over the weekend. The awards have become a must-attend event for anyone working a serious Oscar campaign, which is why we saw the likes of Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman, and a slew of other stars and filmmakers hoping to become nominees in January. And Kevin Costner was there, dressed in a look overall best described as, “Colonel Sanders does formalwear.” Kevin was presumably representing the only film he released this year, Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1; The Audience Strikes Back… by not showing up at the theaters. Even after Kevin left his fan-favorite series Yellowstone to self-finance this passion project. The film bombed so badly in July that Horizon 2 was yanked from its August release date. But never fear! Kevin is determined to get the second movie to us, as he told E! News at the Governors Awards, along with his thoughts on the fan reactions to his character’s exit on Yellowstone:

The death of Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone character recently sent shockwaves beyond the boundaries of Dutton Ranch, with many viewers expressing outrage over how John Dutton III was killed off in the Paramount show.

But for the two-time Oscar winner, who said he actually pitched series creator Taylor Sheridan two different endings for his character, he’s not shaking in his boots over the fan backlash.

“Fans have a voice in things,” Costner exclusively told E! News at the 2024 Governors Awards in Los Angeles Nov. 17, “and they choose to follow stuff.”

The 69-year-old added that he had pitched his character’s death to Sheridan “a while back,” but it was ultimately up to producers on the exact way John would meet his maker.

…As Costner quipped, “They do what they want to do. That’s fine with me.”

The actor announced his departure from the Western series in June, explaining that he was “not going to be able to continue” filming due to scheduling conflicts with his four-part movie anthology Horizon: An American Saga.

“It was something that really changed me,” Costner — who starred on Yellowstone for four and a half seasons — said in a statement of working on the series. “I love the relationship we’ve been able to develop and I’ll see you at the movies.”

The first installment of Horizon premiered in June. So, when can fans expect the second chapter of the saga to drop?

“I’m gonna try to figure that out,” he told E! News with a laugh. “I make these things, I will figure out how to get it to an audience.”

Costner added that Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 2 will “tie in” with the first installment, while he’s “trying to figure out” the third and fourth chapters.

“Everybody has an impress that maybe things come to me easily,” he noted. “I think projects do come to me. But when it comes to something I want to do, sometimes it’s a bigger struggle.”

But Costner is up for the challenge.

“If this is what it has to be for me to bring a movie to America and around the world,” he continued, “that’s what I’ll do.”

[From E! News]

Ok, Kevin, the struggle is real. And thank you, Sherlock, for clarifying that the second film will “tie in” to the first. For what it’s worth, I’ve been tracking the saga of Kevin’s American Saga for months now, and this is least certain he’s sounded about Horizon 3 & 4. What does “trying to figure out” mean exactly? Are we talking financing, scheduling/logistics, or story-wise? Because if basic storylines are still up in the air, I’d say it’s time to cut the covered-wagon loose already! But no, clearly Kevin is committed to gifting America — and the world at large — with these films that will stand the test of time, he swears! He’s the Don Quixote of films about American westward expansion, and his quest cannot be stopped. It’s particularly funny after Kevin spoke so clearly about fans having “a voice in things,” and a choice in what to follow. But that’s just for Yellowstone, not Horizon? Perhaps if he builds the movie theater, the audience will come.

photos credit: Avalon.red and Cover Images