In April 2022, Politico and TMZ reported that Angelina Jolie had filed (as a Jane Doe) for the FBI’s records on their investigation into the 2016 plane incident. The 2016 incident was the game-changer for Angelina. That was where a likely blackout-drunk Brad Pitt terrorized and assaulted Angelina and their children for hours on and off the plane. In 2022, Angelina was technically getting a Freedom of Information Act request, but really, she was trying to piece together what exactly happened with the FBI investigation and why the FBI didn’t file any charges against Pitt. Angelina did manage to get her hands on some of the partially-redacted records, including the FBI’s records of Jolie’s own statements to them about what Brad did to her and the children. Many of those records were then FOIA-requested by media outlets who then published their own coverage, much to Team Pitt’s chagrin. Well, long story short, after two years of trying to figure out why the FBI didn’t charge Pitt with any crime, Jolie is now dropping it.

Angelina Jolie is ending her legal battle against the Department of Justice and FBI over documents connected to the alleged 2016 plane incident involving her then-husband Brad Pitt.

Under the anonymous “Jane Doe,” Jolie, 49, had requested in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in 2021 that FBI documents about the incident be released to her. Court documents obtained by PEOPLE indicate the Maria star dropped the case on Wednesday, Sept. 25.

The highly redacted documents Jolie had been pursuing detailed an allegedly drunken altercation on Sept. 14, 2016, between Pitt, 60, and his then-wife — which came days before Jolie filed for divorce, ending a relationship that began in 2005.

Their children were reportedly present for the alleged conflict on a private plane that had caused the Los Angeles Department of Child and Family Services and FBI to investigate Pitt. A source said at the time that Pitt became “verbally abusive” and “physical” with one of their kids, which he denied. Later in 2016, the FBI closed its investigation with no charges against Pitt and DCFS also concluded its investigation, concluding no findings of abuse.

Amid the ongoing legal battle over their French vineyard Château Miraval and wine company, Jolie responded to a 2022 lawsuit from her ex with details of the alleged incident, including that Pitt had “choked one of the children and struck another in the face.” A source close to Pitt told PEOPLE at the time, “It’s incredibly sad that she continues to rehash, revise and reimagine her description of an event that happened 6 years ago, adding in completely untrue information.”

[From People]

I don’t know why she dropped this, other than she was tired of being stonewalled by the FBI and she likely achieved some of her goals anyway. It’s also worth noting that back in 2022, Jolie/Jane Doe’s lawyer told Politico that Jolie had been trying to get the FBI records for years without having to file a FOIA action, and the FBI stonewalled her that entire time too. It feels like Angelina has her suspicions that something went down between the FBI and Pitt and both parties are doing the most to cover it up.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid.

Here are more photos of Cardi B in Paris in recent days. She attended multiple Paris Fashion Week shows, and on Friday, she attended the Paris Saint-Germain match. Some of the shows she’s attended in recent days: Vivenne Westwood, Messika, Rick Owens, Mugler, Rabbane and more. Plus, she’s been going to parties. Cardi is definitely giving “happy to be single, at long last” energy. The more Offset rages online, the more Cardi posts fashion stuff on her socials.

When we last checked in on Cardi, she was confirming something – Offset accused her of sleeping with someone else while she was pregnant with their third child, and Cardi responded by tweeting “AND DID.” She also went on IG Live and basically ripped Offset to shreds for his years of cheating and disrespect to their marriage. Offset’s response to all of that was “U will be calling me after couple months u my bm I won.” As in, “you’re my baby-mama, I won.” Cardi was his WIFE. She loved him and had three children with him and he’s throwing that in her face like a f–king clown. Cardi also told that man she regrets marrying him but she doesn’t regret their children:

During her livestreams, Cardi seemingly avoided naming the Migos rapper but spoke directly to him. Cardi, who’s in France for Paris Fashion Week, said “I don’t care” about any other women with whom Offset might be having relations: “I’m too much woman for you. … And I’ve always been too good for you.”

“Nothing surprises me anymore. You’ve done it all, so I don’t care,” she said at a different point in the livestream. “Thank you for my kids, though. All three of them, I don’t regret none of them. But I regret you. I don’t regret my kids; you’re a good daddy. You’re all right.”

“I don’t want you dead because … my kids love you down,” Cardi also said. “So I would never do that. And I really follow street codes.”

Cardi claimed she didn’t want to bring their issues to social media and possibly “turn off” any possible future partners but felt compelled to hop on Instagram because Offset was being “messy” and “petty” “because you’re hurt.”

“Let’s go lick for lick. Let’s go round for round. Let’s go hit for hit,” she said. “I told you: Leave me … alone.”

Cardi also claimed Offset has tried to “threaten” to take what “I worked my ass off for,” seemingly in their divorce proceedings, “because I’m moving on.”

“Now we’re going to court war, right?” she said.

[From USA Today]

Cardi is one of those people I would not want to f–k with in court. She’s got great lawyers and she will fight forever just to make a point. Offset will not come out ahead, but he’s absolutely the type of man who will try to squeeze as much money out of Cardi as he can. Meanwhile, the Toxic Male Podcast Complex has a lot to say about Cardi possibly banging someone else while she was pregnant. Notice that very few women have sh-t to say – it’s because women overwhelmingly feel like “good for you, get yours.” The one thing that’s driving me a little bit crazy is that Cardi is only weeks postpartum and she’s doing all of these couture-changes and parties. I’m sure the baby is with her, but it’s a lot! I hope she’s resting in between shows.

I see dead people…… @rickowensonline pic.twitter.com/jKi8EDJfwR

— Cardi B (@iamcardib) September 28, 2024

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid.

Lana del Rey apparently got married to Jeremy Dufrene, an alligator tour guide she has likely only been dating for two months, tops. [Just Jared]
Analysis of the Sussexes’ media strategy in recent weeks. [LaineyGossip]
Jeremy Allen White is now dating Molly Gordon? [Hollywood Life]
Spotlight on male model Franky Cammarata. [Socialite Life]
Malcolm Gladwell enjoys Joe Rogan’s podcast. Huh. [Pajiba]
Katy Perry is in Australia, for reasons. [Go Fug Yourself]
Don’t do this to your brows. [OMG Blog]
OMG, Oprah’s tie situation is bonkers! [RCFA]
Christina Aguilera & JC Chasez reunited (and both look great). [Seriously OMG]
A feud among Southern Charm stars. [Starcasm]
What is a “shut up ring” and how can we avoid it? [Buzzfeed]

Lana Del Rey got married to alligator tour guide Jeremy Dufrene today. pic.twitter.com/BGEfqenUea

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) September 27, 2024

Even before the Princess of Wales went missing for six months this year, she always had Keen Incognito seasons, where she would seemingly disappear without a trace for weeks, sometimes months, at a time. Traditionally, the Keen Incognito Season features a few “private meetings,” some reported emails or phone calls, the odd tweet. Another feature is that we get “sightings” provided by royal reporters, who were briefed by the palace that Kate was absolutely out in Norfolk or Bucklebury or wherever. I think that’s what’s happening now, especially since we’ve established that Kate is well enough to watch tennis for hours and well enough to travel to Balmoral for a kids-free weekend getaway. We won’t ever see Kate, but we’ll hear about what she’s up to – a private meeting in Windsor! – and we’ll get a tweet. Speaking of:

Congratulations and thank you to @ENBallet and @Sadlers_Wells for the wonderfully powerful, moving and inspiring performance of Akram Khan’s Giselle. Creativity at its best! C pic.twitter.com/YbnMd7j9Pi

— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) September 26, 2024

What’s a little bit funny about this is… The English National Ballet is not even Kate’s patronage. It used to be Diana’s patronage, then it reverted back to the Crown, and I think QEII was technically patron for years. Then in June of this year, Queen Camilla became patron. Camilla just did her first ballet event earlier this month! Kate is stealing Camilla’s ballet thunder!

Anyway, I’m glad Kate enjoyed a day out to watch some ballet. I find it interesting that she publicized it and put it in a tweet. Curious timing, eh? The whole thing is odd, honestly. I really do wonder if there’s ever going to be any energy towards the idea of “if Kate can watch tennis or ballet or put together a commercial for her marriage, she can do some Zooms with her charities?”

PS… I don’t have the patience to look through months of KensingtonRoyal tweets, but purely going from memory, is this Kate’s first “-C” tweet since William tossed her under the bus for that manipulated Mother’s Day photo?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Before Prince Harry arrived in London back in May, he contacted his father’s office about a possible meeting while they were both in town. King Charles and/or his courtiers rejected this meeting privately, and Harry issued a public statement saying that he would not see his father due to the king’s “full program this week.” Charles then pranced around a garden party and handed a military appointment to William. Not only that, but Charles went on the attack for weeks, screaming about how Harry should have begged him for a meeting and even then, Charles still would have rejected him because Charles hates Harry and so does Camilla! It was all very childish and chaotic from Buckingham Palace and a reminder that Charles and Camilla do not have the temperament to be in charge of anything. Well, Harry is due in London on Monday for the WellChild Awards. So obviously, Charles and Camilla are making Harry’s visit all about their immature psychodrama.

Camilla wants Charles to skip meeting Harry: King Charles III would like to meet with his son, Prince Harry, when he visits the U.K. next week, but is weighing counsel from advisers, including his wife, that it would be unwise to do so. Queen Camilla wants Charles to skip a meeting with Harry to avoid stress as he fights cancer, one of her friends told The Daily Beast.

Charles plans to be in Scotland during Harry’s visit: However, Charles will be in Scotland next week, The Daily Beast has confirmed, and has no intention of traveling, while Harry is expected to be based in London. It is not impossible, of course, that Harry could travel to Scotland if invited. He is certainly capable of traveling around the U.K.; last time Harry was in the country he spent a night at his mother’s ancestral home, Althorp, and, as The Daily Beast exclusively revealed, visited her grave, which is located on an island on the sprawling country estate.

Of course Harry’s team would not confirm any of this?? Harry’s team would not confirm to The Daily Beast when he is arriving into the U.K., where he is staying, or how long he is planning to be on British soil. The awards ceremony, which honors seriously ill children and is one of Harry’s most important causes, is scheduled for Monday evening.

Charles wants to heal the relationship he destroyed: Meanwhile Charles, reminded of his mortality following his diagnosis with cancer for which he is undergoing grueling treatment, would like to heal the relationship with Harry both for personal reasons and to ease pressure on the monarchy itself, a friend says. The friend said: “The king has an instinctive impulse towards Christian reconciliation, and his cancer diagnosis has only sharpened that. He wants this settled, not just because he loves both his sons, but because it has been so destabilizing for the monarchy.”

The security issue: However the king is understood to feel his hands are tied by the constitutional awkwardness that might arise if Harry were to directly lobby him over his security provision. His son and heir Prince William’s very clear views on the matter of his brother are also part of the king’s calculations about how and when any reconciliation might be effected. Although William sent birthday greetings to Harry recently, the two brothers are completely estranged and no longer speak as a result of William’s fury of what he sees as Harry’s betrayal of him and wife Kate Middleton in his memoir.

Camilla hates Harry: Camilla is said by friends to be one of those who has not encouraged a meeting with Harry, as she does not want her husband to be subjected to unnecessary stress before his trip to Australia in mid-October, ahead of which he is gathering his strength at Birkhall, his retreat in the Scottish Highlands. The friend of Camilla said: “She has been the principal voice urging Charles to slow down and take things easy. The last thing she wants him to do is to get stressed out over a meeting with Harry.”

Camilla is now telling people that she saw Harry in February too: The Daily Beast understands that Camilla was also present at the meeting, marking the first time they had spoken face to face since he cast toxic aspersions on her in his memoir and in interviews promoting it, saying she was prepared to leave “bodies in the street” in her quest to be made queen. Harry did not apologize to her at that encounter for his remarks, The Daily Beast has been told by a friend of Camilla’s.

[From The Daily Beast]

Camilla has been telling lies and briefing the press about Harry’s February visit since the very day it happened. I still believe that it was one of the rare moments that Charles told Camilla to get out, that he wanted to have a private conversation with Harry. Camilla’s behavior indicates as much – she’s still pissed that she was thrown out of the meeting, and she’s been demanding that Charles refuse to see Harry ever since. And now Camilla is huffing about how Harry didn’t apologize to her. WHY WOULD HE? If anything, Harry went a lot easier on her than he could have. Anyway, all of this is about Camilla and what she wants. Charles is too weak to stand up to Camilla AND the courtiers who want to see him isolated and estranged from his son.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Prince Harry was in New York this week for so many high-level meetings and events, some of which were in and around the United Nations. It was a business trip for him, and his business involved The Parents Network, Sentebale, African Parks, The HALO Trust, Travalyst and more. But he apparently also had time for some fun. He stopped by 30 Rock and prerecorded a bit with Jimmy Fallon for the Tonight Show. Spooky season is coming up – or is it already here? – and Fallon is hosting “Tonightmares,” a mini-haunted-house adventure within 30 Rock. Fallon and Prince Harry went through the haunted “maze.” This reminds me so much of Ellen DeGeneres always sending her most-easily spooked celebrity guests through a haunted house too, but I like that Fallon organized this at 30 Rock. The video is very funny and cute:

I love the part where the two young women are like “who was that? Prince Harry, OMG!!” Harry cursed a few times but midway through the haunted maze, he was the one holding Jimmy’s hand and leading him through it. Adorable. I’m sure Harry stole everyone’s thunder over in Salt Island. How dare he have fun while his father has cancer!!

TONIGHT: Prince Harry & Jimmy experience Jimmy Fallon’s Tonightmares! #FallonTonight #Tonightmares pic.twitter.com/lTBgmltlt3

— The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight) September 27, 2024

Photos courtesy of the Tonight Show’s social media.

Late Wednesday, New York City’s Mayor Eric Adams was indicted on federal criminal charges. At the time, the indictment was sealed, but it has since been unsealed. More on that in a moment. On Thursday, federal agents executed a search warrant on Gracie Mansion!! That’s the official home of the NYC mayor. The search warrant was for all of Mayor Adams’ tablets and phones and anything pertaining to Turkey. The country. Because apparently, Mayor Adams was taking bribes from Turkish officials. He faces five federal charges of bribery, fraud and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations. Here’s the thing: I totally believe he did it and I totally believe the feds have enough evidence on him, but OMG, Donald Trump and Clarence Thomas are RIGHT THERE. Some highlights from the NY Times:

Mayor Eric Adams was defiant on Thursday in the face of five federal charges of bribery, fraud and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations, insisting he would stay in office and imploring New Yorkers to hear his defense. The indictment, which was unsealed on Thursday morning after a search of the mayor’s official residence, Gracie Mansion, followed an investigation that started in 2021. Prosecutors said the scheme began when he was a top elected official in Brooklyn and continued after he became mayor.

The investigation focused on whether Mr. Adams, 64, had conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal foreign campaign contributions in exchange for acting on its behalf. Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said that Mr. Adams had been “showered” with gifts that he knew were illegal.

“This was a multiyear scheme to buy favor with a single New York City politician on the rise: Eric Adams,” Mr. Williams said at a news conference. “Year after year, he kept the public in the dark.”

If convicted of all five counts in the indictment, the maximum penalty under law would be 45 years in prison. But under the federal sentencing guidelines, he would likely receive far less.

According to the indictment, Mr. Adams had “sought and accepted improper valuable benefits” since at least 2014, when he was Brooklyn borough president. The benefits included luxury travel — free and discounted Turkish Airlines tickets and free meals and hotel rooms — from wealthy foreigners and at least one Turkish government official, prosecutors said. He traveled on the airline even when it was inconvenient, they said, including a 2017 flight to France from New York that first stopped in Istanbul. Mr. Adams tried to hide the gifts or make it appear as if he had paid for them, according to the indictment. Their value exceeded $100,000, prosecutors said.

In exchange, prosecutors said, Mr. Adams pressured officials at the New York Fire Department to permit a new Turkish consulate building in Manhattan despite safety problems. A Fire Department official overseeing the safety assessment said he was told he would lose his job if he did not follow the order.

[From The NY Times]

You can read the indictment here, the NYT put the full document online and annotated it. I’m not a lawyer, obviously, but from I read, they really do have an abundance of evidence, not just from Adams, but his staffers who acted as go-betweens with Turkish officials. There are extensive electronic receipts. It shows the equal-parts horrifying and hilarious banality of fraud, the bargaining, the sleaze, the fact that they were so stupid to leave all of this documentation of their crimes.

The ultimate Eric Adams thing is that the feds have this message pic.twitter.com/kFumQJF54t

— David Dayen (@ddayen) September 26, 2024

“You are a disgrace for all Black people in this city!”– Eric Adams’s news conference is not going well pic.twitter.com/Gq0Ui8Yeyh

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 26, 2024

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Pablo Larrain’s Maria was just days away from its world premiere in Venice when Netflix purchased the movie and quickly began to promote the hell out of it. During the film festival season, I kept waiting for a teaser trailer to be released, but they only gave us a small clip, a scene where Maria Callas is talking to her butler about doctors and medication. The film shows Maria Callas at different stages of her adult journey – her early fame, her love affair with Aristotle Onassis, her declining later years. Well, Netflix has just released the teaser trailer and I’m completely sold.

Just the shot of Angelina Jolie-as-Maria walking out into the street in Paris in the 1970s was enough for me. In case you’re wondering why this looks so pretty/beautiful, it’s because Pablo Larrain is an amazing director, but he’s also working with cinematographer Edward Lachman. They know how to f–king light a scene properly. This will “complete” Larrain’s triptych of famous-woman bio-pics – he started with Jackie Kennedy, then went to Princess Diana and now he’s ending it with Maria Callas. I hope that Angelina, like Natalie Portman and Kristen Stewart, gets an Oscar nomination under Larrain’s direction.

I also hope that Netflix supports the hell out of this movie. They just announced the timeline too – Maria will have a limited theatrical release starting November 27, then it will be available for streaming on Netflix on December 11. The right time for an Oscar campaign, although they easily could have moved it up a few weeks. I wonder if Angelina will do some major magazine profiles, or maybe even a 60 Minutes interview.

Photos courtesy of Pablo Larrain/Netflix, Backgrid, Avalon Red, Cover Images.

The photos of Prince Harry and Boris Johnson in this post are from January 20, 2020 in London. Both men attended the UK-Africa Investment Summit at the Intercontinental Hotel London. Note the date – that was Harry’s final day in the UK before he flew to Canada to reunite with his wife and baby boy Archie. Just one week prior to this, Harry met his family in what was dubbed the “Sandringham Summit,” where he negotiated the terms of his exit from the UK. So, after the Sussexes announced their exit and after the Sandringham Summit, the Windsors made a last-ditch effort to try to convince Harry to abandon his wife and child and stay in the UK. The Windsors asked Boris Johnson to intervene and do just that. From the Daily Mail’s exclusive excerpts of Boris Johnson’s memoir:

Boris Johnson made an extraordinary last-ditch bid to persuade Prince Harry not to quit the UK. The former Prime Minister reveals in his sensational new memoir that he was asked to give the Duke of Sussex a ‘manly pep talk’ to convince him it would be a mistake to leave Britain for a fresh start abroad with his wife Meghan.

Mr Johnson’s new book, Unleashed, will be serialised in the Daily Mail from Saturday, and is already tipped to become the political memoir of the century. He reveals that in January 2020, just weeks after his landslide election win, officials in Downing Street and Buckingham Palace believed he might be able to talk Harry out of his seismic decision to quit the UK and walk away from his royal duties.

The ex-PM writes that there was ‘a ridiculous business… when they made me try to persuade Harry to stay. Kind of manly pep talk. Totally hopeless.’

The secret meeting, which underlines the close links between No 10 and the Palace, took place in the margins of a UK-Africa investment summit in London’s Docklands. It came just hours after the duke gave an emotional speech in which he said he and Meghan were leaving with ‘great sadness’ but felt they had ‘no other option’ but to step away from royal life. The two men met for 20 minutes without aides as Mr Johnson tried to persuade the prince to reconsider.

A friend said Mr Johnson paid tribute to Harry’s efforts on the Invictus Games and praised Meghan’s work on their shared passion for promoting the education of women and girls in developing countries.

‘He thought they were a great asset to UK plc and it was a real shame they were leaving when they were doing such great work,’ the friend said. ‘It was a man-to-man conversation, they were totally alone. But Harry wasn’t for turning – he was unpersuadable by that point. Boris succeeded in delivering Brexit but even he couldn’t stop Megxit.’

The following day, Harry flew to Canada to be reunited with Meghan and their son, Archie. The family later moved to Montecito, California, where they remain today, having given up their lives as working Royals.

[From The Daily Mail]

I was going to say “it’s crazy to get a whole-ass prime minister involved in the royal family’s bullsh-t,” but then I remembered that there is a ton of precedent. John Major got involved in then-Prince Charles and Diana’s divorce. David Cameron issued a statement of defense about Hilary Mantel’s critique of Kate. And on and on. But yeah… even after the Windsors rooked Harry at the Sandringham Summit, hoping to force him into capitulation, they still asked BoJo to intervene and try to convince Harry to stay. Judging from the photos, Boris was also acting out the “Freedom Flight.”

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Travis Kelce has his hand in several different pots right now. He’s still playing football for the Kansas City Chiefs, he and his brother Jason Kelce just reportedly inked a $100 million deal with Wondery for their podcast, “New Heights,” he’s starring as the host of the upcoming first season of the rebooted Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity?, and he’s about to make his scripted acting debut on Ryan Murphy’s new series, Grotesquerie, starring Niecy Nash and Micaela Morgan. I respect that Travis works hard, hustles, and keeps busy. Some people just work best when they’re going non-stop, but that doesn’t mean it’s always going to be their best work.

All of that said, Travis and Jason’s mom, Donna Kelce, recently did an interview with Variety. During the interview, she noted that her younger son has the power to “manifest things” (100% agree). She also then had some pretty harsh words about her son’s acting career.

Donna Kelce, mother of Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce, spilled on the advice she gave her son ahead of his scripted TV debut on FX’s “Grotesquerie.” The football star, who has previously hosted “Saturday Night Live” and once appeared in the comedy series “Moonbase 8,” is set to make his major acting debut beginning in the third episode of the new Ryan Murphy horror series.

Donna Kelce, in an interview with Variety, said she knows her son wanted to do the show and that he can “manifest things.”

“He has no fear of trying things, and he has no fear of failure,” she said of her son, who is dating pop superstar Taylor Swift. “You know, sometimes parents want to fix things for their kids. But sometimes it’s better to just let them fail. You learn the most from things you don’t do well. Hopefully, if this is something he wants to do, he’ll get better at it.”

Donna Kelce showed support for her son as she dropped by the New York premiere of “Grotesquerie” on Monday.

The series sees Detective Lois Tryon (Niecy Nash) working with Sister Megan (Micaela Diamond) as the two look into “heinous crimes” where they “find themselves ensnared in a sinister web that only seems to raise more questions than answers,” according to an FX description of the show.

Travis Kelce plays a bed nurse in the series, according to Variety, in a casting decision that “Grotesquerie” co-star and executive producer Courtney B. Vance admits “just helps” the show.

“I mean it would be one thing if he wasn’t a nice guy,” Vance told Variety. “But really, he’s a nice guy. It helps everybody. Ryan [Murphy] is all about publicity, and he does it better than anyone.”

[From Huffington Post]

LMAO. Poor Travis! It’s so funny that not only does his mom recognizes that acting isn’t his thang, but also that Courtney B. Vance basically acknowledged that Travis was only cast because he’d bring some ratings. My motto is always to never be afraid to try new things, so, good for Travis for putting himself out there (even though that role could have gone to a day player who actually needed the money that they’d have made from that gig). That said, there’s also always value in knowing your limits. Like I noted earlier, Travis and Jason just got a $100 million podcast deal, which is absolutely nuts. This all feels like the Universe is telling Travis, hey, maybe just stick to making money off of being yourself.

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Photos credit: Jennifer Graylock-Graylock.com / Avalon, IMAGO/Eibner-Pressefoto/Florian, Robert Bell/INSTARimages, Jesse Bauer/startraksphoto.com, Backgrid and Getty