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Kourtney Kardashian is currently pregnant with her fourth child, and her first with husband Travis Barker. They’re having a boy. Her three older children with Scott Disick are Mason, 13, Penelope, 11, and Reign, eight. She’s also stepmom to Travis’ three children: Landon, 19, Alabama, 17, and his step daughter Atiana, 24. It’s safe to say that they have a full house! Is it lame to call them the Kar-Barker Bunch? The Bardashian Brood? Eh, maybe portmanteaus aren’t for everyone. Or maybe I’m just bad at coming up with them.

Kourtney and Travis tried to get pregnant through IVF for a while to no avail. They announced that they had stopped fertility treatments on the third season premiere of The Kardashians and finally got pregnant about a year after they stopped trying. Kourtney did an adorable baby announcement at a Blink-182 concert earlier this year, paying tribute to a scene from Blink’s “All the Small Things” music video. She also had an undisclosed medical emergency last month that required her to undergo fetal surgery. That sounds so scary! One of the downsides to putting a lot of your personal business out there to such a wide audience is attracting unwelcome opinions and Internet trolls. So, predictably, Kourtney has had to deal with a lot of comments about being pregnant at 44.

Her pregnancy was “God’s plan”: “Those comments don’t affect me. To those who do them I just say: How dare you question God’s plan?” she told Vanity Fair Italia in a story that was published over the weekend. “Because that’s how I see this pregnancy, which in fact arrived when both Travis [Barker] and I no longer even thought about it and a year after we stopped trying with assisted fertilization,” she added.

IVF wasn’t right for them: “We are officially done with IVF,” Kardashian shared in a confessional during the show’s Season 3 premiere. “We would love a baby more than anything, but I just really believe in what God has in store for us. If that’s a baby, then I believe that it will happen.” She also shared with the outlet that she never felt like IVF was the “right” route for her. “The decision to try assisted fertilization was almost a non-choice, in the sense that I was pushed towards it as if it were the only option,” she explained. “The truth is, I felt like I was doing something that wasn’t right for me. My intuition was telling me that she wasn’t right for me.”

On her ‘terrifying’ medical emergency: The Poosh founder went on to address the medical emergency she suffered last month, which required her to undergo fetal surgery, but admitted she’s not ready to discuss the “really scary” experience yet. “It was terrifying,” she said of the health scare. “And I feel that sooner or later I will go into details because I hope that you can help others, but today I don’t feel ready yet because it was really scary.”

No sexy times right now: She noted that with her past pregnancies she “never had to be careful. No workouts, no Pilates, no caffeine, no plane trips. Even no sex,” she said of her current pregnancy. Kardashian admitted all of the guardrails did make her feel a little nervous at first. “Well, I think all this caution made me a little afraid because in the past I never had to be careful,” she said.

#Grateful: She added, however, that she’s gotten to the point where she has “stopped worrying” and is feeling “more thankful.” “Now I talk to the child every day, have a positive mindset, keep my head straight and say a lot of prayers,” Kardashian shared.

[From HuffPo]

If Kourtney is happy and wants to have another baby at 44-years-old, then it’s her decision. Medical care is also so much more advanced nowadays and she is so fortunate to have the means to make these choices without having to take the financial burden into consideration. We thought about having a third child a few years ago, but life happened when my husband got laid off shortly thereafter. Now, I’m less than six months away from turning 40 and don’t plan on doing it again, but that’s because I’m generally always exhausted and daycare is hella expensive. Childcare, sleeping, and money are not an issue for Kourtney. We made our last daycare payment after nine years at the end of May and I swear, I wanted to throw a full-on party that cost two full months of daycare payments just to celebrate. Instead, we spent a weekend at my aunt’s apartment on the Upper West Side and did a toast with some leftover red wine out of her refrigerator. Adulting, y’all. I hope the rest of Kourtney’s pregnancy goes smoothly and wish her an uneventful, easy birth. Until then, I’ll work on my portmanteaus and eagerly await hearing what they name Baby Boy Bardashian.

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For years, everyone has been talking about Royal Lodge, the current residence of Prince Andrew and his ex-wife. Following Andrew’s catastrophic BBC interview in 2019, there were some calls for Andrew to “give up” his lease on Royal Lodge, a massive mansion within the Royal Windsor estate. Andrew refused. Then he settled out-of-court with Virginia Giuffre last year, and once again, there were calls for Andrew to be evicted from Royal Lodge. He refused. Then King Charles tried to evict him this year, suggesting that Andrew be shunted into Frogmore Cottage (after the king evicted the Sussexes). Andrew refused again, and this time he basically said: I have a valid lease and I’ll sue the king if he really evicts me. Throughout it all, there’s been gossip that Prince William and Kate are desperate to get Royal Lodge, and that William has been the one leading the charge to evict his uncle. That’s the backstory explored in the Telegraph’s “Royal Lodge has become Ground Zero in the war of the Windsors.” Some interesting highlights, plus some new info:

Andrew’s original deal in 2002: When Prince Andrew decided he wanted to move his family into Royal Lodge – and sell the home near Ascot he and the Duchess of York had been given by the Queen as a wedding present – he cut a deal with the Crown Estate for a 75-year lease on the property. Instead of paying market rent, estimated at the time to be £260,000 a year, he would pay for extensive repairs to the property, which ended up costing more than £10m, as well as a £1m “premium payment” to the Estate. That contract with the Crown Estate is still in place, and gives Andrew the legal right to live at Royal Lodge until 2078. When he dies the remainder of the lease will pass to his daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie. Because the Crown Estate is run independently by its own commissioners, the King cannot, officially at least, interfere with his brother’s living arrangements.

Andrew cut another deal in 2022: Andrew reluctantly agreed to settle the [Virginia Giuffre] case out of court, handing Ms Giuffre a reported £12 million which was widely accepted to have been paid by the Queen, and forever losing what was left of his reputation as a result. His price for agreeing to settle the case was to be allowed to stay at Royal Lodge, it is understood. That is still not the end of the story, though. Under the terms of his lease, the Duke is responsible for the upkeep of Royal Lodge, meaning he can only stay there as long as he has the means to keep it in good order. As well as the main seven-bedroomed house, the property has eight smaller cottages and police accommodation, making it eye-wateringly expensive to maintain.

Andrew’s shady finances: He has little income, as the King cut the Duke’s £249,000 annual allowance, in keeping with the end of his status as a working member of the Royal family, which might eventually starve him out….On top of that, the Duke is believed to have inherited money from the late Queen, and it is unclear what happened to the proceeds of the sale of the couple’s former marital home to a Kazakh tycoon and a ski lodge in Verbier. The likelihood seems to be that the couple will, eventually, run out of the sort of money needed to live in such a grand property, possibly moving into the smaller Frogmore Cottage.

Andrew is digging in: “Andrew has been digging in,” says one royal insider. “But it’s not really true to say the King is trying to kick him out. He will have outsourced it to his team. He will be setting them the challenge of rationalising the properties. That will have been the brief that will have gone out to his team….They have a very necessary and well-honed ability to separate out even the most contentious topics away from their time together as a family,” said the insider, “and that is a survival technique for them as a family and it has been very successful.”

Whether William & Kate actually want Royal Lodge: Reports that the Prince and Princess of Wales want to move into Royal Lodge appear to be wide of the mark. Sources close to them insist that they remain happy living at Adelaide Cottage, their relatively modest family home in the shadow of Windsor Castle’s Round Tower, and have no plans to move into Royal Lodge or Windsor Castle itself. Unlike Royal Lodge, which is three miles from the Castle, Adelaide Cottage falls within the security envelope of the Castle itself (despite being outside its walls), making the couple’s policing arrangements far more straightforward than if they lived at Prince Andrew’s current home.

So if Andrew leaves, who would even lease Royal Lodge? And unless the Waleses want to move into it, finding another suitable tenant for Royal Lodge will be difficult for the Crown Estate. Within its grounds is the Royal Chapel of All Saints, otherwise known as Queen Victoria’s Chapel, which is often used by the Royal family. Having a non-Royal tenant of the Lodge would provide the sort of security headache that the police are unlikely to welcome, a fact that the Duke will be well aware of. “The King is pretty pragmatic,” said one who knows him well. “He knows his brother has got to have somewhere to live and he loves his brother, so he was never going to chuck him out on his ear.”

[From The Telegraph]

Basically, nothing is going to change and all of these people are just performing their roles in this entirely fictional drama – Andrew has a completely valid lease which he will never give up; Charles wants to look like he’s punishing his human trafficker brother without actually having to do anything; William wants a big royal property but he’s obviously got his sights set on something else. The only person who is unhappy with this little five-act drama is probably the Princess of Wales, stuck in that sad Separation Cottage while her husband lives wherever he wants now that he has Duchy money. I wish someone would start talking about Will and Kate’s living arrangements rather than rake over this Royal Lodge mess.

Photos courtesy of Instar.

Britney Spears covers this week’s People Magazine, giving the outlet an exclusive preview of her memoir, The Woman in Me. Britney spoke to People, talking about how she had to learn “this new freedom” following the end of her conservatorship in November 2021. She says she loves to travel, play with her dogs and watch Friends. She spoke about reclaiming her voice and finally being able to tell her story without feeling like she would have to face repercussions from her father and other people. One of the biggest stories from her memoir – thus far – is Britney’s description of her relationship with Justin Timberlake. According to Britney, Justin got her pregnant and they decided that she should get an abortion.

In her upcoming memoir The Woman in Me, the pop icon, 41, reveals that when she dated Justin Timberlake, she became pregnant with his baby but had an abortion, PEOPLE confirms.

“It was a surprise, but for me, it wasn’t a tragedy. I loved Justin so much. I always expected us to have a family together one day. This would just be much earlier than I’d anticipated,” Spears writes of the pregnancy in the book. “But Justin definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy. He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young.”

A rep for Timberlake did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

She writes in the book: “If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it. And yet Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father.”

Spears writes of her experience undergoing the abortion: “To this day, it’s one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life.”

[From People]

I suspect that this pregnancy happened towards the end of their relationship, and perhaps this was the beginning of the end. Which would place this in the 2001-02 zone, meaning Britney and Justin were probably around 20 years old. I mean… they were too young, and Justin was and is a terrible person. He was right, he wasn’t ready to be a father and Britney wasn’t ready to be a mother. It does sound like he talked her into having the abortion. The thing that really sucks here is not the difficult decision made between two people who were too immature to be parents, it’s that Justin then smeared Britney as a cheater who broke his heart. When really, he got her pregnant and talked her into getting an abortion, then it’s likely the relationship fell apart soon after.

Previously, “sources” were talking about how Justin is very “concerned” about Britney’s memoir. I feel certain that this is not the only scandalous JT story.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images. Cover courtesy of People.

Chris Evans covers the October issue of GQ, mostly to promote Pain Hustlers, but this also serves as some kind of career retrospective. From the looks of things, Chris will be working a lot less going forward. He wants to be in Boston with Alba and his family, and he’s past the point where he wants to live his life on months-long location shoots. I haven’t read a long interview with Chris in a few years, and he’s pretty much the same as I remember – slightly neurotic and hyper-self-aware. But he also seems to have found his peace and his bliss. Some highlights from this GQ piece:

Life just outside of Boston: It “takes me back to a place when life was not just simpler—that’s too reductive—but to a time where I was more pure, I guess; where my ego and my insecurities weren’t such a dominant force that I had to push against.” At his house just outside Boston, Evans says, “I really take my time…I can’t believe I’m 42.”

He’s not a movie star: “There are some people that you meet and you just think, Man, that’s a movie star,” he says. He is adamant that he is not one of them. “I love to act. But it’s not something that I couldn’t live without.”

Seasons & trees: In Massachusetts, he says, he pays close attention to the passing of the seasons. He will literally marvel at a flower. “The fact that trees are green blows my mind,” Evans says…mostly, these days, he marvels at the universe as a defense mechanism. “I’ve just learned early on that when I go small, I suffer. When I look at my own life and it’s under a microscope, or when I consider my own experience, it leads to cyclical unhappiness.”

His dog Dodger: “What he’s not thinking about is yesterday. What he’s not worried about is tomorrow. He’s actively engaging in the moment in this really, really clean way. And this all feels a little basic, but he’s a little teacher, isn’t he? He’s like a little example of what we should be doing. And he’s just so honest, so pure, so good. He has no idea that I’m famous. He has no idea. And he can’t know, which is like this, it’s like an airtight thing. I mean, he’s famous and he’ll never know. He can’t, it’s like an impenetrable character trait. He can’t be corrupted.”

A Gemini: “It’s funny. I’ve been told that I’m an extrovert. Even though I think we all kind of feel like introverts to some degree. I’m a pretty open person. I like communication. I’m not sure how much I believe in astrology, but I’m a Gemini and I’ve had enough ex–girlfriends tell me, ‘You’re such a Gemini.’ And one of the qualities of Geminis is communication. We like to share and converse and just be candid. I, kind of to a fault, will dump my brain out unapologetically. Sometimes whether I’m asked to or not. But that type of emotional sharing often comes with physicality that I’m comfortable in, you know, body language and cadence. There’s a commonality to that character type”—meaning, the abrasive guy, I gather—“that I think I feel comfortable with.”

Why he took the role of Captain America: So he said no a few times before he said yes. Negotiated down the commitment, in terms of how many movies he was going to owe Marvel. Weighed the positive and the negative—“the pros were that I’d be able to take care of my family forever; the cons were that I would become deeply, deeply unhappy with fame and loss of control”—and then, in the end, put on the suit and became the man. Looking back on it now, Evans says, he mostly just feels gratitude. He did not in the end lose control, or become deeply unhappy. “I love playing that role,” he says. “I feel connected to it in a way that when you revisit a character so many times you can’t help but try to absorb some of their traits and measure yourself against them.”

He wants to work less as an actor: These days, when presented with a new project, Chris Evans might look out the window of his house before deciding whether to do it. “Now it’s really about, well: What time of year are we filming? Am I gonna miss autumn? You know, I don’t want to miss autumn. I only have so many of them.”

He’s got other interests. “I could just make furniture for nobody and be happy… I don’t want to—I’ve got to frame this the right way. I was going to say, I don’t want to waste too much time in this industry, but that doesn’t really feel.… That doesn’t sound correct. I don’t want to occupy too much space in an industry that I’ve already poured 20 years into. Sometimes I wonder if I’m lacking some sort of—like, I think I’m a very driven person. I have a lot of energy. I wake up early, I get a lot done in a day, but it’s not always focused on acting. Sometimes reading a script is the last thing I want to do.”

He has not been on a movie set in 2023. “I haven’t worked all year and I don’t plan to, which has been lovely.” Last year, he worked nonstop on three different movies, an accident of scheduling that he regrets. “My girlfriend that I’ve had for a while, when we began dating”—a couple months after we spoke, Evans and his girlfriend, Alba Baptista, got married—“I was like: ‘Yeah, I do one movie a year. I try to never work now.’ And then, after like a few months of dating, boom, guess what? We’re living in Atlanta for a year. Get ready. And even when that year was happening, I was like, man, never again.”

Whether he’d ever go back to Marvel. “Yeah, maybe. I’ll never say never, just because it was such a wonderful experience. But I’m also very precious with it. It’s something that I am very proud of. And like I said, sometimes I can’t believe it even happened. And I wouldn’t want the black eye if it felt like a cash grab or if it didn’t live up to expectations or if it just felt like it wasn’t connected to that original thing. So, no time soon. And ultimately I really hope to just maybe act a little bit less in my life. I have a lot of other interests. Look, by no means have I climbed any sort of a mountain in this field. I have no Oscars and I’m not lumped with other names that are at the top of the mountain in any way. But I also feel very satisfied.”

[From GQ]

He also expresses an interest in what Seth Rogen is doing, getting high and making ceramics (which is true, although Seth still has a production company too). Basically, all of these words come down to the fact that Chris is sort of burned out on Hollywood and he really just wants to spend the rest of his life in Massachusetts with Alba and probably a couple of kids. It’s not some kind of rebrand – this is who he is, a man in his 40s who figured out the priorities for the rest of his life. In another era, Chris would have been a leading man and he would be booked in back-to-back leading-man projects throughout his 40s. But that Hollywood doesn’t exist anymore, and so Chris is sort of making the right choice.

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Ted Lasso’s Brendan Hunt (Coach Beard) has a two-year-old son, Sean, and another baby on the way with his fiancée Shannon Nelson. He was recently interview by Yahoo Life for their parenting series on the joys and challenges of child-rearing, called, “So Mini Ways.” In the interview, Hunt talks about what it’s like parenting a toddler in the throws of the Terrible Twos, as they’re figuring out their own likes and dislikes and how to be a little person in general. Hunt gave some insight in general on screen time, trying new foods, and having a lot of patience as both parent and child navigate these things together.

Everyone gets their lazy screen time: “We’re among those [parents] who feel like until he’s 3 years old or maybe even 4, when you can actually have conversations with him that employ reciprocated logic from both parties, stressing too much about screen time is kind of a losing battle,” he explains. “If my weekend morning is about watching the game, he can have his weekend morning be about watching Dinosaur Train. “Basically surrendering to what he wants for his lazy time is just fine, within reason … there’s no need [to be] fighting it just yet.”

Toddlers and their changing tastes: Time spent relaxing and enjoying delicious meals on the weekend also presents a chance for Hunt to watch his toddler’s tastes evolve. “[My son] is just fun to watch eat in general,” he shares. “We’re still very much in the stage of like, ‘What does he like? What does he not like? What does he now not like that he used to like?’ His tastes are changing and everything. We watch him with great fascination. We’re like Attenboroughs, and he’s just a tiny dinosaur coming out from the DNA.”

Kids say the darndest things: In fact, toddlerhood is truly entertaining to Hunt. “[Sean] is just funny,” he says. “He has such enthusiasm for things and uses really positive language lately. Even the other day, he was sitting in his mom’s lap, and for no specific reason, he just turned around and said, ‘Mommy, you are beautiful.’ Like what? Oh my gosh. Doesn’t ever say that to me, and that’s fine. We got him some ice cream the other day in our local ice cream shop. And I said, ‘Buddy, is it good?’ [He replied,] ‘It’s perfect.’ Like we didn’t know he knew the word ‘perfect!’”

The struggle to end screen time is real: Of course, Hunt’s son has his “terrible twos” moments, just like any toddler. “The flip side of the screen time thing is we try to give him warnings, like, ‘This is your last episode of Santiago,’ and he’ll nod, and then we’re like, ‘OK, here we go, taking away the iPad,’ and he goes full telenovela: ‘Nooooooo!’” he shares. “It is an unbelievable campaign of screaming that will ensue no matter how hard we try to prepare him for it. The flipside is luckily he’s still at the age where eventually you can just distract him like ‘Hey, look over here.’”

Oh, that virtue patience: Ultimately, the soon-to-be dad of two is proud to be learning to be more patient these days. “Patience is the most important thing,” he says. “Because he’s 2 years old and basically insane, you’re not going to be able to talk him through stuff just yet. So [it helps] just knowing that some day, these things will make more sense to him. You just have to be patient and wise and wait him out.”

[From Yahoo]

Oh man, I have to be honest and admit that I did love that two-year-old stage. They’re able to talk and communicate even more and are little sponges that are into learning everything. Sure, they can be stubborn and “basically insane,” but at least they don’t talk back to you, lol. My nine-year-old has started to refute everything I say or ask of him because he wants his autonomy. I had no idea this pre-teenager stage starts so early! For my kids, TV and screen time is a dopamine thing, so we also have a lot of resistance when it’s time to turn it off. Our solution was to just eliminate screens during the school week with the exception of MLB games and Survivor and it’s been working out pretty well so far.

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Scarlett Johansson was honored at the Golden Heart Awards. [JustJared]
Adam Driver & Penelope Cruz promote Ferrari at the NYFF. [Tom & Lorenzo]
Emily Ratakowski’s podcast got canceled. [Egotastic]
Lainey on Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce. It’s fun! [LaineyGossip]
Marisa Tomei’s suit is actually bad, but she’s so pretty, she pulls it off. [GFY]
A helpful guide to all of Kailyn Lowry’s former partners. [Starcasm]
A great review of The Burial, starring Jamie Foxx. [Pajiba]
Halloween costume ideas. [Buzzfeed]
God, I just despise Glenn Youngkin. [Jezebel]
Sandra Oh’s Elie Saab suit is silly but she looks cute! [RCFA]
Stephen Colbert has Covid?? [Seriously OMG]

I wasn’t surprised by the fact that the Spanish royals and British royals did not send anyone to Prince Christian’s big 18th birthday party/gala over the weekend in Denmark. The gala was well-attended by the Scandinavian royals, including high-ranking princes and princesses of Sweden, Norway, Belgium and The Netherlands. There were also “Greek royals” in attendance, because these people are all related by blood or marriage. The Spanish royals tend to avoid this kind of stuff, but I would assume that King Felipe and Queen Letizia were probably invited to the party. It’s not clear if the Danish royal family invited anyone from the Windsor clan though. Who would they invite? William and Kate? The Wessexes/Edinburghs? Sophie and Edward traditionally get this kind of assignment, so it’s curious to me that they didn’t attend. But the fusspots at the Mail think it should have been Will and Kate, except of course Will and Kate were “too busy” to attend.

It was one of the most glamorous events in this year’s social calendar, with royals from around Europe gathering in Copenhagen to celebrate Prince Christian’s 18th birthday. The glitzy gala at Christiansborg Castle was an opportunity for future Kings and Queens to mingle with one another – yet senior members of the British Royal Family were nowhere to be seen.

It’s not the first time that the likes of King Charles, Queen Camilla, the Prince and Princess of Wales, The Princess Royal and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh have been absent from a celebration held by a European royal household. In September, Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf marked his golden jubilee with a lavish banquet at the Royal Palace, where guests included Queen Anne-Marie of Greece, Norway’s Queen Sonja and Denmark’s Princess Mary – but senior British royals failed to make an appearance.

The late Queen Elizabeth II’s former press secretary Dickie Arbiter told FEMAIL that it’s likely a busy schedule and the slimmed-down monarchy to blame for the lack of British royals at their European counterparts’ festivities.

Prince Christian is a four-times great grandson of Queen Victoria and a distant cousin to Prince William. His grandmother Queen Margrehte was the late Queen Elizabeth’s third cousin and the pair enjoyed a warm relationship. But rather than travel to Denmark for the lavish occasion, the Prince of Wales, 41, journeyed to France with his son Prince George, 10, to watch Wales take on Argentina in the quarter final of the Rugby World Cup on Saturday.

It’s unclear if Kate and William – or any senior British royals – were invited to Prince Christian’s 18th birthday party. But Dickie has said it’s unlikely an invitation would’ve been accepted due to the British royals’ busy schedules.

He said: ‘Royal diaries are generally completed a good six to seven months in advance. There are minor gaps to allow for last minute engagements as we saw this weekend with The Prince of Wales at the Wales Rugby World Cup quarter final and The Princess at the England match. British royals are not fussy – busy, yes. There are only eleven working royals, all with particularly full diaries and even royals are allowed down time.’

‘Of King Carl XVI Gustaf’s Golden Jubilee – this was September when Prince William was preparing for Earthshot in New York, and The King, preparing for his State Visit to France. In the past, the late Queen who was of a similar generation to the Norwegian, Swedish and Danish monarchs, would more than likely have received an invitation and, while not attending herself, would have asked one of her family to represent her depending on the nature of the engagement.’

He added: ‘I believe the UK population at large would prefer to see the royals, whether in the UK or abroad, at work rather than attend birthday celebrations.’

[From The Daily Mail]

It looks like the friendships between the British monarchy and European monarchies died with Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II, honestly. King Charles’s court clearly believes that he alone is the most important monarch and he’s not going to send his family members to be friendly with the other royal families. Once again, there’s a huge gap between what Charles did as Prince of Wales versus what William has been doing as PoW. While Charles probably wouldn’t have attended Christian’s birthday party as PoW, he absolutely would have attended Carl Gustaf’s Golden Jubilee and he would have attended King Constantine’s funeral in January. It’s so bonkers that William is telling everyone that he wants to be a global statesman whilst simultaneously refusing to show up to these big international events. King Constantine was William’s godfather! I still can’t get over that. Anyway, I really wonder if the Danes even invited anyone from the Windsor clan.

PS… I still believe Will & Kate are mad about the lack of special treatment they received at the Jordanian wedding several months ago as well. They were treated like every other royal and they weren’t even put close to the front row. Plus, Charles has good reason for not sending W&K abroad: they inevitably make asses out of themselves.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

It’s genuinely hilarious to watch the Windsors, the British media and the Tory government go back and forth among themselves about “royal tours.” Last year, there seemed to finally be some kind of consensus on the fact that royal tours had outlived their usefulness, especially following Prince William and Kate’s disastrous Caribbean Flop Tour. It was during that tour where we really got to see the whole thing in stark terms: Will and Kate see their jobs as “dressing up in colonialist cosplay and performing skits amongst ‘the natives’ for an entirely domestic/British audience.”

Their Caribbean tour was such a disaster that Kate apparently refuses to travel overseas these days, and William has become solely obsessed with spending time in America. Add to all of that, King Charles doesn’t want to send these two idiots out on the world stage. He knows, better than most, how incapable they are. And yet, the media desperately wants Will and Kate to perform their colonialist skits, and the British government is desperate for some soft-diplomacy from the royals. So, they’re all damned if they do, damned if they don’t. It’s glorious. So, this column appeared in the Daily Express this week: “Prince William and Kate need to schedule a royal tour – and one move guarantees success.”

Princess Kate and Prince William have consistently proven themselves to be two of the most popular members of the Royal Family, both at home and abroad. In the past few years however they have been noticeably absent from the world stage, naturally in part due to COVID-19 travel restrictions and their three children all starting school, meaning they need to be at home more. It is also true that their last big royal tour to the Caribbean did not exactly play out as planned, with many criticising it as a symbol of past colonialist sentiment. But it is now time for the Waleses to shrug off these concerns and see the world again, to nurture important links with the Commonwealth and promote themselves as the future of the Firm for all people to see.

Diplomacy and maintaining international friendships is of course the major reason for these visits, but it cannot be overstated how seeing the Prince and Princess of Wales as normal and accessible future monarchs will help the Firm boost its standing in all countries they visit.

It was this relatability factor which seemed to be the sticking point when it came to the Waleses last tour, a trip to Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas in March 2022. While they were their usual charming selves, an unfortunate image of them greeting Jamaican locals behind a chained fence was slammed as them showcasing their position as colonisers, as the local people made a stand for independence. One planned trip in Belize was called off due to protest fears, and everywhere they went rumblings of reparations for slavery followed them.

It seemed that the royals in this part of the world had come to be seen as at best outdated, and at worst a symbol of the tragic and painful history of racism and colonisation that the Caribbean nations wish to put behind them. Australia too has seen a growing movement for republicanism, with another referendum on the question all but guaranteed if Anthony Albanese wins another term in office.

Which is why it is so vital for them to start touring the world again and promoting the Wales brand as an international one once more. By embarking on more royal tours they can continue to show how the monarchy is moving forward and listening to the people, rather than being subdued by one misjudged photograph. If the royals want to stay relevant they need to show themselves out among all their people, getting to know them and all the countries they represent. With Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis in tow, the Wales clan would be a royal force to be reckoned with.

[From The Daily Express]

“Rather than being subdued by one misjudged photograph.” The Caribbean Tour didn’t flop because of “one misjudged photograph.” They had already been flopping before they even arrived in Jamaica, they had already been criticized and protested and they had already made colonialist asses out of themselves. The chain-link fence photos were just the icing on the white supremacist cake. Anyway, in case you need the point underlined, the media is now openly advising Will and Kate to travel to “white countries” with their children and perform family skits so that the media can have the content it needs. This is more chain-yanking – the invisible contract needs to be serviced, and “Kate’s bandaged fingers” and “lies about George’s test-taking” are not placating their media masters.

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Photos courtesy of Instar.

The thing about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce is that they can be two things at once: a real relationship in its early days AND an incredibly convenient duel-marketing event at the highest level. There are layers to the cross-promotional aspect of Traylor, but I also believe that Travis and Taylor are genuinely happening and they’re into each other. Still, it’s amazing to watch Taylor’s PR go into overdrive this week, following a weekend full of Traylor photo-ops. Travis came to New York this past weekend, and they went to SNL, they partied with the SNL cast, and they went out to dinner on Sunday too. People’s “sources” had all kinds of details about Traylor’s Saturday outing:

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce were “so happy” on their PDA-filled date night at the Saturday Night Live afterparty, a source tells PEOPLE. The pop superstar, 33, and the Kansas City Chiefs tight end, 34, enjoyed their time together at the afterparty at Catch Steak following the season 49 premiere of SNL on Saturday in New York City.

“Taylor and Travis were there all night and they were so smiley, they were so happy,” the source says. “They were so talkative. They were really fun. They talked to every single person in the room that talked to them. They were super cool. Super nice, super happy,” the insider adds, noting that Swift and Kelce stayed at the party “until after 4 a.m.”

The source also says the pair was definitely not shy with each other. At one point in the night, Kelce “takes both her hands and puts them on his shoulder, so they’re face to face, and then he takes both his hands and grabs her waist. They’re leaning in, they’re kissing each other,” the insider says. “They’re whispering. They’re talking, going back and forth about what to order, like, ‘Should we get a steak? Should we get espresso martinis?’ And then they lean in and they’re kissing again. They’re touching each other the whole time.”

Although Swift and Kelce “mingled separately,” the pro athlete “kept going over to her and checking in on her every little while, like, ‘Are you good?’ ” the source says. According to the source, Kelce was “going over and touching her, putting his hand on her lower back or putting his hands on her waist and then they would do a little kiss and then they would go back to talking to whoever they were talking to. He kept checking in with her, but gave her space to talk to other people in the room, both male and female, and he talked to a ton of people in the room too,” the insider adds.

“They were always connected throughout the night,” the source notes of the pair. “They were super comfortable with each other. They were very cuddly; they weren’t awkward. She was really comfortable with him, and he was a total gentleman.”

[From People]

Please, this came directly from Taylor and I LOVE IT. She’s telling us that she appreciates Travis’s whole deal, that she loves that he checks in with her while they’re at a party, that he was being demonstrative in public. This is Taylor’s love language – someone she can be with publicly, someone she can talk about and get pap’d with. “They were very cuddly; they weren’t awkward.” LOL. Meanwhile, People’s “sources” also dished on how Travis thinks this is the real deal.

Dating the biggest superstar in the world may come with a unique set of challenges, but a source tells PEOPLE that Travis Kelce is ready for it as his romance with Taylor Swift continues.

“Taylor’s unlike anyone Travis has dated before,” the source shares as the 34-year-old NFL star hit the town with the “Bejeweled” singer, 33, in New York City over the weekend. “It was very unexpected for his friends, but he’s so into her and very, very happy. Some people thought he was just joking around about the bracelet and having a crush on her earlier this summer, but he was serious about it,” referring to Kelce’s attempt to give Swift his phone number on a friendship bracelet when he attended her Eras tour at Arrowhead Stadium.

According to the insider, Swift and Kelce are “having a great time getting to know one another” and “have introduced some of their friends to each other” in recent weeks. The source adds, “Everyone’s getting along and seeing how much fun they have together. They make a very cute couple.”

[From People]

You know what I think? I think Taylor forgot what it’s like to date an American guy. She got so used to those British guys with all of their hangups and neuroses. To be fair, Travis seems like one of the better versions of an “American guy.” He’s smart, he’s self-assured, he’s chatty and cool. God, I hope they can figure out a way to make it last.

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Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

I still can’t get over the story, this weekend, about a “malicious poster campaign” in Bucklebury. Carole and Michael Middleton’s business, Party Pieces, went bankrupt earlier this year, and the dying shell of PP was sold off for pennies on the dollar. The Middletons stiffed creditors for over £2.5 million, including government loans, bank loans and tons of small businesses which had extended credit to Carole specifically because she is the “future queen’s mother.” Carole left a lot of anger and debt in the wake of her financial mismanagement. Now someone is putting posters up all around Bucklebury, demanding that the Middletons pay their creditors. The Middletons own a £5 million manor home in Bucklebury as well as commercial real estate in the area. Well, I just wanted to follow up with the Sun’s exclusive coverage, which had a couple of other quotes and an interesting aside:

Kate Middleton’s parents are the target of a cruel poster campaign — after the collapse of the family party business. Malicious messages have been put up on lampposts and trees around the couple’s home village, with Kate’s brother James seen tearing some down. Angry suppliers are still owed money after the closure of Party Pieces, which was sold by Kate’s mum Carole, 68, and dad Michael, 74, shortly before it went bust earlier this year. Some want the couple — also parents to Pippa, 40 — to pay debts out of their own pockets.

However locals have been appalled by the posters, plastered around Bucklebury, where the family have lived for several decades, and the neighbouring West Berks village of Yattendon.

A source said: “Carole and Michael are incredibly popular. Everyone is horrified by these posters. It’s unfair to do this in their home village, just yards from where they live. Their son James lives nearby and so does Pippa who has moved around there recently with her family so they all have to be confronted by this. They are doing their best to make things right and don’t deserve this kind of abuse.”

Carole, a former British Airways stewardess, was said by a friend to be “desperately sad” to see the company flounder under “a new management team”. Pals claimed she was trying to make sure creditors were paid. Kate’s parents are believed to have stepped away from the day-to-day running of the firm several years ago.

However suppliers have criticised the couple for the “galling” way invoices were left unpaid before the firm went bust, and have called on them to pay outstanding debts. The administrator’s report made it clear that creditors — including small companies supplying balloons, toys and party bags — were unlikely to be repaid cash owed.

[From The Sun]

Here’s my thing – in all of the analysis and ass-covering after Party Pieces crashed, it was clear that Carole was desperately trying to say that she handed the management of PP over to other people years ago. That was directly contradicted by vendors and creditors, who said Carole was personally contacting them in recent years, promising them that they would be paid eventually. “Suppliers have criticised the couple for the ‘galling’ way invoices were left unpaid before the firm went bust” – in fact, the Middletons continued to rack up even more and more debt because Carole was making personal promises to small businesses, vendors and banks. “Carole and Michael are incredibly popular. Everyone is horrified by these posters.” The Middletons fancy themselves the king and queen of Bucklebury and their house of cards collapsed. There are businesses within Bucklebury affected by PP’s collapse as well, so no, I don’t think the Middletons are really “incredibly popular.” I would imagine the village has been highly amused, actually. I still think it’s interesting that the coronation was the last time anyone saw Carole – she’s been in hiding for months now. She’s humiliated and she deserves it.

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Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.