Many of us were surprised by the timeline laid out for the Princess of Wales’s recovery from her mysterious abdominal surgery. Kensington Palace announcement, which made no mention of a hopeful “full recovery” for Kate, said that Kate would need 10-14 days in the hospital, and then she would recuperate at Adelaide Cottage through Easter. Easter is March 31st. It didn’t even occur to me, but Easter Sunday is generally the only time we see Kate and William for a month – Easter falls during their kids’ school break, and y’all know that William and Kate believe that they can never, ever work during their kids’ twenty weeks of school holidays. All of which means that Kensington Palace just quietly added several more weeks of “convalescence” to Kate’s schedule – now they’re saying that it will likely be weeks after Easter before Kate is seen, because of the kids’ school holiday. It could be May before we see Kate, basically. Some highlights from this Telegraph piece:

Kate is irreplaceable, but not because of her workload: She is, quite simply, irreplaceable. This is not down to her volume of work. Neither she nor the Prince of Wales go in for the relentless daily schedules of his older relatives. Rarely is a ribbon cut or a plaque unveiled on their watch. Instead, she has carved out a unique space in the royal landscape. After finding her passion for early years, she has tailored most of her working life around her mission to change life for the next generation. A glance at the court circular shows a stream of early years engagements and early years meetings, broken up with a visit to highlight mental health and communities here, or supporting the King in his duties there.

No one can step into Kate’s shoes: The Princess’s months-long absence will not see anyone stepping in to fill her shoes to help out. Other members of the family will not be turning up to long-planned engagements about early years. Well-intentioned as it would be, the Princess’s projects are designed around her own expertise and convening power. “The way she has designed and built the early years project means the work can and will continue in the background while she is out of the office,” a source said. When absent, the Princess “can actively follow it from home”.

Back with a bang, well after Easter: The plan, said a source, is for the Princess to be “back with a bang” as soon as is feasible. It is estimated that she will not return to work before Easter, which is on March 31, with the Wales children’s school holidays – usually blocked off in the family diary – extending for a few weeks after that.

She won’t miss Trooping in June: She will miss the Bafta ceremony on February 18, short planned tours to Latvia and Italy, and some day-to-day engagements. There is no sign yet that she will not be fighting fit for Trooping the Colour in June and its customary balcony appearance, after taking the salute at the Colonel’s Review for the first time as Regimental Colonel of the Irish Guards.

[From The Telegraph]

It hasn’t even been a week and they’re soft-launching “actually, Kate won’t be seen until late April, early May at the earliest.” I mean, what the hell is really going on? A question without an answer at this moment. As for “the Princess’s projects are designed around her own expertise and convening power” – it’s a very fancy way of saying that Kate’s schedule is mostly unimportant busywork and word salad speeches that don’t amount to much. Kate’s Early Years “events” are, for the most part, carefully constructed, zero-impact pieces of theater, staged for the tabloids. This is going to be interesting to watch, because after an absence of five months, it will be curious to see if anyone acknowledges that many of Kate’s appearances could have been a three-sentence email. I truly hope she’s okay, and that when she makes a full recovery, she starts focusing on substantive work.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

King Charles’s enlarged prostate and Princess Kate’s surgical mystery have resulted in the most obvious of detours for the British media: wild speculation and commentary about what the Duke and Duchess of Sussex should do or are doing. Harry and Meghan are minding their business in Montecito, as they have been for over three years. What makes it even funnier is that it’s clear that Buckingham Palace likely authorized some of those “where is Harry, why isn’t he coming back” pieces as a way to get a reaction. Well, now “royal sources” have confirmed that Harry and Meghan did send their “support” to the Waleses and the king.

Harry and Meghan have given their support to the King and Princess of Wales following their health scares. It came as Charles prepares for a prostate operation and Kate spent her fifth day in hospital after major abdominal surgery.

The move, which will be considered an olive branch, comes nearly two months after Charles, 75, and Kate, 42, were publicly named in an alleged race row over the skin colour of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s eldest child Archie, four.

A source said: “The King and the Princess of Wales have received support from Prince Harry and Meghan regarding their health. The Duke and Duchess contacted both parties in different ways to pass on their concern and best wishes.”

It comes after months of claims of a severely strained relationship between the Sussexes and the rest of the Royal Family. This week, it was revealed the King has quietly made provision to stop Harry acting as a ­substitute for him if he falls ill or is abroad.

[From The Daily Mirror]

LOL, the palace really rushed out and yelled “Harry called, we got a reaction from him, what does it mean?” Anyway, I believe Harry probably sent a supportive email to his father and maybe sent a sad-face emoji to William’s private secretary and I hope that was the end of that. As for Charles “quietly” making that change – it wasn’t quiet, every outlet covered it:

Prince Harry and Prince Andrew won’t be among the Counsellors of State that King Charles could call upon when he heads to the hospital to treat an enlarged prostate.

Buckingham Palace announced on Wednesday that the King, 75, will have a “corrective procedure” for the benign condition next week, prompting royal watchers to wonder if other family members will be tapped for additional duties in his absence. While a royal source tells PEOPLE that the King 75, will be capable of fulfilling his constitutional requirements and duties during this time, The Times spotted that Prince Harry and Prince Andrew’s Counsellor of State eligibility was quietly nullified soon after King Charles’ accession.

In the second reading of the Counsellors of State Bill 2022-23 in the House of Lords on Nov. 21, 2022, Lord True said that the Royal Household confirmed that, in practice, only “working members of the Royal Family will be called on to act as Counsellors of State.” The bill became law in December 2022 and made headlines because it made Princess Anne and Prince Edward Counsellors of State for King Charles for life. The “working members” stipulation largely flew under the radar — until now.

In another catch, The Times reported that Prince Andrew’s eldest daughter Princess Beatrice is also prevented from acting as a Counsellor of State because she is not a working royal. While Princess Beatrice, 35, is a frequent fixture at royal family holidays and is a patron of several causes, she does not undertake official engagements on a full-time basis on behalf of the crown like Prince William and Kate Middleton do.

[From People]

Whatever. This is just another dumb pseudo-punishment intended for an audience of one: Harry. It doesn’t even matter because Charles is going to be fine and he’ll probably only need a few weeks of recovery.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Roya Nikkhah at the Times of London got a full briefing from Kensington Palace, if not Prince William himself. It seems that there is some awareness in KP that their squirrelly non-disclosures about the Princess of Wales’s vague abdominal surgery and extended convalescence have not gone down the way they were expecting. That’s why so many friends-of-Bill have been called on to write overwrought columns about how William is Kate’s rock and he would move heaven and earth to protect her (and yet he refuses to visit her daily). It definitely feels like there’s been pushback on William in particular for his suggestion that he should also free his schedule entirely for the next three months. So William did what he always does: he pushed it all back on Kate. Per Nikkhah’s new piece, “Kate will work from bed while William does the school run.”

It is understood the King, who will have a “corrective procedure” in hospital this week for an enlarged prostate and will also be out of action with public duties for a few weeks, is fully supportive of William’s decision to prioritise family over monarchy while his wife recovers.

Unless they are on engagements or working overseas, William or Catherine always do the school drop-off and pick-up every day at Lambrook, in Berkshire. William, who visited Catherine in hospital on Thursday morning and over the weekend, is now doing both drop-off and pick-up for their three children, helped at home by their nanny, Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo, who has been with them since 2014 but does not live-in.

Weekends are usually spent at Adelaide Cottage because of the children’s sporting commitments, and they tend to visit Anmer Hall, their Norfolk home, only during the school holidays. Catherine’s parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, who are attentive grandparents living in nearby Bucklebury and “regulars” at Lambrook for sports matches and school events, will also be on hand to help.

Once home in Windsor, Catherine’s diary will be cleared and replaced with rest — something the active princess may find a bit of an adjustment. Until her hospital admission last week, Kate’s days were usually filled with school runs, meetings and calls in Windsor or Kensington Palace with her private office, Royal Foundation team and charities and patronages, official engagements (she undertook 134 last year, William 175, the Duchess of Edinburgh 179, and Princess Anne, with 410, came second only to the King) and usually, some form of exercise. The exception is the children’s school holidays, typically about 19 weeks a year, when the Waleses fiercely guard their family time and aides are loath to disturb them.

Last week, Kensington Palace contacted Catherine’s 30 charities and patronages to confirm postponing and rescheduling engagements. She has been without a private secretary for more than a year, but her assistant private secretary, Natalie Burrows, who has stepped up in the interim, will continue to hold the fort alongside William’s private secretary, Jean-Christophe Gray, a Whitehall mandarin who will return to government in the spring. Kensington Palace is expected to announce a new “chief executive” to lead their team.

While Catherine is unlikely to be in action until after Easter, aides insist her work will not stall. Last January, she launched a campaign, Shaping Us, to raise public awareness around the importance of the first five years of a child’s life. Building on the work from the Royal Foundation’s Centre for Early Childhood which Catherine founded in 2021, the campaign will continue to be her primary focus this year, and work driven by her will be continuing behind the scenes.

Those close to her say that while she will be out of sight for much of the next few months, her interest in her work will be undimmed and she is unlikely to be able to clear the decks completely. An aide said: “Knowing her, I don’t envisage that will be the case. Her passion for the early years is clear, there will be a huge continuation of that campaign and she will be keen to be out continuing that conversation with the nation as soon as possible.”

The Italians, who were set to welcome William and Catherine on an official visit in March, will need to be patient while that tour is rescheduled depending on the princess’s recovery and there will be a short wait for Catherine’s charities until she is back out championing their causes.

[From The Times]

In addition to name-checking Shaping Us, Katie Keen’s Business Taskforce also got a mention, especially since they had a meeting at Windsor Castle last Monday, a meeting which Kate did not attend. They’re also fluffing up Kate’s Keen Early Years Center, which is funding some more pie charts and busywork studies. I appreciate how dramatic Nikkhah tries to make it sound, like Kate’s charities are used to being in constant contact with her and Kate’s absence will reverberate throughout Britain’s charitable scene. It’s also interesting that this medical situation happened when Kate has been without a private secretary for (by my count) fifteen months. Incidentally, KP still hasn’t hired a CEO either. Jeez. Quite disorganized over there, which might explain the briefings around Kate’s hospitalization. Hopefully she will be OK.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Kensington Palace.

One of the highlights of this awards season so far has been America Ferrera receiving the See Her award from the Critics Choice. At this point I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say (except perhaps to Kevin Costner) that America’s monologue on the expectations put on women is the linchpin of the film. It’s the beating heart underneath all the technicolor high jinx we see play out in Barbie Land and the State of Los Angeles. And America delivers it beautifully, so it was especially nice to see her recognized with the See Her award given that she’s looking more and more like a dark horse for a supporting actress nomination, but we’ll know for sure on Tuesday. America posted a video of her acceptance speech to her Instagram — yes girl, celebrate yourself! — and Sharon Stone chimed in with a very unexpected congratulations: in thanking the Barbie team for their “courage and endurance” in making the film, Sharon revealed that she tried to pitch a Barbie movie back in the 90s… only to be laughed out the door. Le sigh, the patriarchy.

Sharon Stone has revealed that she once attempted to pitch a “Barbie” movie to a Hollywood studio during the 1990s and was laughed out of the room. What a difference a couple of decades makes, as Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie’s “Barbie” opened last year and earned a staggering $1.4 billion to become the top-grossing film of 2023 and the biggest earner in Warner Bros.’ studio history.

“I was laughed out [of] the studio when I came [with] the Barbie idea in the ‘90s [with] the support of the head of Barbie,” Stone wrote in a comment to America Ferrera on Instagram, where the latter shared her powerful acceptance speech from the Critics Choice Awards. “How far we’ve come. Thank you ladies for your courage and endurance.”

Ferrera is a supporting actor in “Barbie” and was honored with the See Her award at the Critics Choice Awards. During her speech, she paid tribute to Gerwig and thanked her “for proving through your incredible mastery as a filmmaker that women’s stories have no difficulty achieving cinematic greatness and box-office history at the same time, and that unabashedly telling female stories does not diminish your powers, it expands them.”

Stone is far from the only actor to try and fail to get a “Barbie” movie off the ground. Before Gerwig and Robbie perfected their take at Warner Bros., both Amy Schumer and Anne Hathaway attempted a “Barbie” movie at Sony Pictures.

[From Variety]

I mean, am I surprised to hear that studios didn’t want to make a Barbie movie back in the 90s, no. Not surprising, but still infuriating. When I think of all the iterations we’ve seen of Batman over the decades, and in essentially the same costume each time, I want to fake hurl like the Barbies do at Margot Robbie’s flat feet. Yes, I know that Batman debuted 20 years before Barbie. Batty Boy is coming up on 85 years old in May, and by a conservative estimate has around 12 live action films. Barbie, by contrast, will be 65 on March 9 and has… one film.

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Photos credit: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon and Getty

Ioan Gruffudd separated from Alice Evans in January 2021. We know because Alice’s descent into madness began at that moment. She spent two and a half years ranting and raving about Ioan online, on social media and in interviews. While Ioan is far from perfect, it became clear that his biggest crime was simply leaving his wife. That’s it – he wasn’t happy, and Alice showed us why he was so unhappy with her. Ioan quickly moved on with Bianca Wallace, and Alice began targeting Bianca in her hate campaign as well. The divorce finally came through last summer, but not before a series of last-ditch dramatics from Alice.

Well, at least Ioan and Bianca are getting their happy ending – Ioan proposed and Bianca is thrilled. She posted the engagement photo with the ring – an emerald center stone with two diamonds on either side. It’s a pretty ring, although I’m not a huge fan of emeralds as engagement rings. I’m sure she loved it and they’ve been through a lot. It would not surprise me if they were somewhat trauma-bonded from everything they’ve dealt with over the course of their relationship. Incidentally, Ioan timed the proposal so it was almost three years to the DAY when he told Alice he was leaving (and she freaked out and began live-tweeting through it).

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Bianca Wallace (@iambiancawallace)

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instagram.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Panera Bread (@panerabread)

Back in December, we talked about Panera’s hyper caffeinated Charged Lemonade drink. Charged Lemonades contain almost 300mg of caffeine, which makes one single drink equal to almost three cups of coffee. It also has more caffeine and sugar than Red Bull or a Monster energy drink. In October 2023, the families of 21-year-old Sarah Katz and 46-year-old Dennis Brown filed wrongful death lawsuits against Panera for deceptive advertising. They claimed that rather than promoting it as an energy drink, the company advertised the lemonades as a “plant-based and clean” beverage with the same amount of caffeine as a dark roast coffee. Panera, for its part, denied culpability in both deaths and said it would make sure people were aware of Charged Lemonade’s high caffeine content.

Last week, another lawsuit was filed against Panera over the Charged Lemonade. This time, 28-year-old Lauren Skerritt alleges that despite not having any underlying medical conditions, the drink caused her to have “permanent cardiac injuries.” Skerritt’s incident occurred back in April after she drank two-and-a-half (!!!) Charged Lemonades and ended up in the hospital twice. As a result, she has long-lasting physical effects that prevent her from leading a normal life.

Lauren Skerritt filed a legal complaint against the bakery chain on Jan. 16. The 28-year-old athlete claims that drinking Charged Lemonade caused her to have “permanent cardiac injuries” despite having “no underlying medical conditions,” per the documents obtained by PEOPLE.

On April 8, Skerritt, an occupational therapist, who played soccer and often competed in obstacle course races, consumed two and a half Charged Lemonades from a Panera in Greenville, Rhode Island. After, she experienced several episodes of palpitations, which she says she has never experienced before, causing her to go to the hospital.

While at the hospital, she experienced a syncopal episode. She was moved to critical care as her heart rate was up in the 180s to 190s. She revisited the hospital on Aug. 30 to be treated for early onset atrial fibrillation and testing showed no evidence of underlying structural heart disease, according to the complaint.

Prior to drinking the lemonades, Skerritt “worked out regularly” but now, months after consuming the beverage, Skerritt alleges that she can no longer exercise, socialize or work in the same capacity. The complaint also claims that since drinking the lemonades Skerritt has experienced shortness of breath, palpitations, brain fog, difficulty thinking and concentrating, body shakes, and weakness. She takes daily medication to regulate her heart rate and rhythm.

A representative for Panera did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on Skerritt’s complaint. Elizabeth Crawford of Kline and Specter, PC. who is representing Skerritt, said in a statement that Skerritt was “seriously injured by Panera’s toxic super energy drink.” Crawford is also representing the families of two people who died after drinking the Charged Lemonades.

[From People]

Yikes, that’s quite terrifying that all of that can happen to your body from one triggering event like that. I’m serious. I’m sorry for what Lauren went through and hope that her body is able to recover over time. At what point is Panera going to reevaluate the actual ingredients of this drink rather than just how to market it? What is the target audience for a drink that has that much damn caffeine? If they’re not going to lower the caffeine content, then I really think that Panera just needs to pull Charged Lemonades off the shelf and cut their losses on this one before more people get hurt or worse.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Panera Bread (@panerabread)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Panera Bread (@panerabread)

Not even one full week after the one-two punch of the Princess of Wales’s mysterious “abdominal surgery” and King Charles’s announced prostate procedure, and wouldn’t you know, all of the focus is on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. None of these people can simply come and say with their whole chest “wow, we were wrong, we actually should have treated Harry and Meghan better and we wish they would come back.” That would be too direct, too humble, too psychologically healthy. Instead, they twist themselves in knots to create a tangled web of rage, envy and regret, with lots of attempts to shame Harry and Meghan for not hanging around for just this kind of emergency. From the Telegraph’s latest: “The hole left by the Sussexes has just been mercilessly exposed.” Some highlights:

The Sussexes are happy! The gulf between the two families has never seemed wider. On one side of the Atlantic, a Royal family which could have done with a bit of luck after a rough few years, but has instead seen three of its key members put out of action. On the other, the freedom-seeking Sussexes seemingly living their best lives. The comparison is stark and, to royal-watchers, irresistible. How different it could all have been.

The Sussexes are never coming back: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have gone with no wish to come back. They have expressed no regret about their decision to pursue financial freedom in California. The idea of playing an eternal supporting role in the Royal family was one of their frustrations.

No support: Now, with the King preparing for an imminent operation and Prince William at his wife’s bedside as she heals from surgery to her abdomen, the lack of practical Royal support around them is palpable. The King’s siblings, Princess Anne and Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, are already working with packed diaries. The generation above, the late Queen’s cousins, can no longer be expected to pick up the slack. The York sisters are not working royals; the Tindalls have no desire to be. The departure of the Sussexes has left a hole which has now been mercilessly exposed.

Ingrid Seward has some thoughts: For Ingrid Seward, whose new book about the late Queen and King Charles, My Mother and I, is out next month, this week has highlighted the “vulnerability of those in the top job”. “This is not a constitutional crisis, far from it,” said Seward, who is editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine. “But it does leave the underbelly of the Royal family somewhat exposed. Before the Duke and Duchess of Sussex relinquished their royal duties, they could have stepped up providing the youth and glamour the Prince and Princess of Wales have lent to royal engagements. In a world obsessed with youth and beauty, the Royal family have relied on William and Catherine to lend a bit of royal stardust to events. Without the Sussexes — regardless of their unpopularity — it exposes the vulnerability of those in the top job.”

Phil Dampier thinks the Sussexes could have eased the pressure off Will & Kate: “The late Queen was very much hoping Harry and Meghan would be her biggest ambassador in the Commonwealth, that they would be able to take up a lot of the overseas visits,” he said. “They would have gone down a storm everywhere from Canada to New Zealand and the Caribbean countries. They would have done a fantastic job and it would have taken a lot of pressure off William and Kate, who wouldn’t have to do all the heavy lifting, and Charles and Camilla who are still having to take these long haul flights at the ages of 75 and 76. Harry and Meghan could have taken up a lot of that slack, and now that’s gone.”

I cannot believe Dampier said this with a straight face: The past week, he said, has “highlighted how thin on the ground” the Royal family now are. “I don’t understand why the Sussexes would have felt they were second best [to the Waleses],” he added. “There was plenty of opportunity for all of the ‘Fab Four’ to have starring roles, they didn’t need to be competing.”

[From The Telegraph]

I’m just going to be a broken record about this, so here goes: if Harry was, as it now seems, the linchpin of the whole operation and vital to the success of the royal family, then he should have been treated as such this whole time. In fact, Harry even went out of his way to repeatedly offer the institution a perfectly workable “half in” solution, in which he and Meghan could have temporarily returned to the UK in exactly this kind of situation. Instead, he was mocked, abused, trashed, denigrated and smeared for simply wanting the attacks on his wife to end, and for prioritizing his own mental health. They could not believe that he would DARE suggest that a half-in solution would benefit the Windsors in the long-term. “There was plenty of opportunity for all of the ‘Fab Four’ to have starring roles, they didn’t need to be competing.” Literally as soon as the Sussexes showed the family how successful they could be on tour, representing the crown overseas, that was when William, Kate and the courtiers all unleashed hell on the Sussexes. Nothing was ever the same once the Sussexes returned from their wildly successful South Pacific Tour.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

Are people interested in the Mean Girls musical movie? I genuinely can’t tell if people are like “hell yeah, this will be kitsch fun” or whether it’s just seen as a money-grab. It’s sort of an updated remake with music from the Broadway musical adaptation, with Tina Fey constantly updating the jokes, characters, script and what have you. Tina recently chatted with the New York Times about the new film and how she’s updated a lot of the jokes. I’m still trying to figure out if people are into it?

On the tagline “This isn’t your mother’s ‘Mean Girls’”: “That came from the Paramount marketing department. I want to comfort millennials by telling them that’s just an expression in the English language. And also, when the movie came out, some people who were older than you also went to it. Some people as old as 26 or 27 may have been in the theater with you.

The edits Fey made to many of the less acceptable jokes: “I was writing in the early 2000s very much based on my experience as a teen in the late ’80s. It’s come to no one’s surprise that jokes have changed. You don’t poke in the way that you used to poke. Even if your intention was always the same, it’s just not how you do it anymore, which is fine. I very much believe that you can find new ways to do jokes with less accidental shrapnel sideways.

Name-calling in the modern age: “If we really had people speak to each other the way they spoke to each other in 1990, everyone would go to the hospital. People were really rough. People are still horrible, they’re just more likely to anonymously type it. I would like to take but not teach a graduate school class on the ways in which people are just as divisive and horrible as they ever were, but now they couch it in virtue.

Regina isn’t homophobic: “I know that even Regina would know what wouldn’t fly. She’s going to find a way to inflict pain on people, but she’s not going to get herself in trouble. For example, there’s a joke in the original movie when Janis gets up on the table and Regina says, “Oh my God, it’s her dream come true: diving into a huge pile of girls.” It was mine and Sam Jayne’s feeling that Regina wouldn’t try that now because she knows the kids around her would be like, “That’s homophobic.” She would know not to be homophobic, and hopefully, truly would not be homophobic.

When Regina gains weight in the movie musical, the other students’ initial reaction is positive — but then she’s still shamed. “Look at the famous people that influence Gen Z, and we’re still always talking about their bodies. We’re either attacking other people for talking about it, or commending people for being a size, or we’re questioning how they got to a different size. It felt like a line to figure out. We still want to be talking about how weird and messy everything is for girls, while acknowledging that these standards aren’t mandatory — but a lot of people are still signing up for them.

Cultural shifts since the 2018 Broadway show: “If anything, these behaviors have jumped way beyond just young women. It’s in our politics. It’s in everything. People now like to candy-coat and be very virtuous pointing out why you’re a problem, but it’s the same behavior. It’s still, “Don’t look at me. Look at them. I’m doing great. I might not have nice hair, but she’s fat.”

The idea of bringing back the original cast & making a straight sequel: “I have a feeling Paramount would love that. I have not really thought much about that. To me, part of why the stakes are so high in the story is because everyone’s so young and feelings are huge, love is huge and friendship is huge in a way [that it isn’t with] middle-age moms. I love writing about middle-aged people, but I don’t know.

She did approach the original cast members to make cameos but it didn’t work out: “We’ll never know. They’re busy people, so it didn’t come together, but we tried, and we all love each other.

[From The NY Times]

I find all of the conversations about the changing landscape of comedy writing really interesting, and I like what Fey says about understanding that you can’t have teenagers saying certain things these days, but there’s just a baseline of “these are universal experiences” too. “We still want to be talking about how weird and messy everything is for girls, while acknowledging that these standards aren’t mandatory — but a lot of people are still signing up for them.” That’s exactly what is happening, going hand in hand with people are still horrible, but now they’re couching it in virtue-signaling and they’re doing it online. Girls are still mean to each other, people still call each other names, people still feel uncomfortable and awkward in their bodies, but every generation sucks in different ways.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

The past week has been hellish with mass layoffs in the field of sports and music journalism. Sports Illustrated is not folding, but their corporate owners are firing a huge chunk of sports journalists, writers and editors, and no one knows what the future holds for one of the most important national sports-reporting brands. This week, we also learned that Pitchfork would not continue to exist as a somewhat independent site – Conde Nast is slashing Pitchfork’s staff and the music site is being folded into GQ. Anna Wintour controls a lot of what happens within Conde Nast – her official title is Global Chief Content Officer, which means she oversees content over a vast array of domestic and international media outlets, mostly print outlets. Wintour was in the meetings with Pitchfork staffers as they learned their site is being folded into GQ. Apparently, she never removed her sunglasses.

Anna Wintour, Condé Nast’s longtime fashion doyenne, is famous for a singular style trademark — her sunglasses. Indeed, Wintour didn’t take off her sunglasses the entire time she met with employees of Pitchfork this week to tell them they were losing their jobs after Condé Nast had decided to subsume the music criticism site into GQ, according to one now-former employee in attendance.

“One absolutely bizarro detail from this week is that Anna Wintour — seated indoors at a conference table — did not remove her sunglasses while she was telling us that we were about to get canned,” Allison Hussey, a former Pitchfork staff writer, wrote on X. “The indecency we’ve seen from upper management this week is appalling.”

It’s unclear whether Wintour’s reported decision to not remove her eyewear during the meeting was a deliberate fashion choice or, rather, a way to avoid having to look Pitchfork’s employees in the eye. Reps for Condé Nast did not respond to a request for comment.

Condé Nast on Wednesday told staffers that Pitchfork, the music news and criticism site the company bought in 2015, will merge with men’s magazine GQ. First launched in 1996, Pitchfork has become known for effusively praising favored artists while harshly dinging those that provoke its disapproval. The decision “was made after a careful evaluation of Pitchfork’s performance and what we believe is the best path forward for the brand so that our coverage of music can continue to thrive within the company,” Wintour, Condé Nast’s chief content officer and global editorial director of Vogue, wrote in a memo to staff.

Pitchfork staff members being let go include editor-in-chief Puja Patel and features editor Jill Mapes, who commented on X, “after nearly 8 yrs, mass layoffs got me. glad we could spend that time trying to make it a less dude-ish place just for GQ to end up at the helm.”

[From Variety]

The sunglasses detail is appalling, but am I the only one surprised that Wintour would even sit in those meetings? While I know her position gives her power over a lot within Conde Nast, it feels like Wintour would think that it was beneath her, to deal with Pitchfork music critics and such. Maybe that’s why she kept her sunglasses on – she didn’t want those peasants to see her eyes. I don’t know.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

As someone who reads a lot of British media for my job, I feel like I’m qualified to say that the vibe has been decidedly weird ever since Kensington Palace’s announcement about the Princess of Wales’s abdominal surgery. The announcement came on Wednesday, the day after her surgery (or so KP claims), and from the looks of things, William made his first visit to Kate’s hospital bedside on Thursday. The palace didn’t include any information about “Kate is expected to make a full recovery,” nor did they feel the need to do any kind of meaningful disclosure about what ails the wife of the heir to the throne, the future queen consort and mother of a future king. There’s an unsettled vibe among the royal reporters, and as I wrote on Thursday, it would not surprise me at all if this was another open secret within the rota, much like “Kate was one of the royal racists named by Meghan.” I bring this up because Rebecca English at the Mail wrote an overwrought piece about Kate, but more about William. Some highlights:

The king’s prostate: Who would have thought seeing the King smiling broadly as he drove himself and his wife to church on Sunday that he was concerned enough about his health to seek imminent medical advice. Or that on the very day he was told to scale back royal duties and prepare for surgery for an enlarged prostate next week, His Majesty would break with protocol and allow his diagnoses to be made known in the hope that it might encourage other men to get themselves checked out. I’m told he is ‘genuinely’ in a good place, taking a pragmatic approach to his diagnosis and keeping up with his paperwork before his surgery next week.

William’s one event this year: Last week I was with her husband, Prince William, as he surprised motor neurone disease campaigners and former rugby league professionals Rob Burrow and Kevin Sinfield with their CBEs. He travelled up to Leeds to hand them their honours personally as Rob who – along with his friend, Kevin – has courageously used his diagnosis with the incurable, life-shortening condition, to raise millions of pounds to support fellow sufferers and fund research…At the end of the engagement, I stepped tearfully out of the room to allow William some private time with the families. When he exited a few minutes later he had obviously noticed my distress and, I think, was aware why. He looked at me, smiled kindly and nodded his head. ‘You OK, Rebecca?’ There was no hint that anything untoward was going on behind the scenes in his own life.

The disgraceful online chatter: Which makes the reaction by some to his decision to clear his diary to be at his wife’s bedside and support their three young children disgraceful in the extreme. Social media has been awash with trolls – even those with the letters Dr before their name – decrying his actions. One (I shall not name the individual, as I fear they will only enjoy the publicity) highlighted an article on MailOnline and wrote: ‘Should we clap for him? The PR spin to desperately make Prince William look like a dedicated husband and father juggling childcare and caring when he has an army of people supporting him and zero financial concerns about cancelling work to stay at home is so tone deaf.’ Beyond spiteful.

Quoting Republic’s social media too: Republic, the anti-monarchist pressure group that has spent the past year trying to convince the public it is a credible political force, has also seized on the issue with glee, posting: ‘They could all be off sick with the measles for six months and still fit in more engagements than last year’, and ‘Man visits wife in hospital. Huge if true’.

No pity parties for Peg: William would be the last to encourage a pity party, but it’s worth pointing out that wealth doesn’t mean that your wife or children need you less. The heir to the throne has long made it clear that his three young children are his No 1 priority in life. Of course he is lucky to be able to afford to take time off work, but it would take a particularly bitter individual to begrudge him that.

Daddy’s love: Fortunately he has a close support network around him, particularly Catherine’s parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, who are extremely hands-on grandparents, as well as their nanny Maria. But nothing makes up for a daddy’s love and while he never likes to disappoint the many charities and organisations he supports, he wants to be there for George, Charlotte and Louis, as well as his wife.

English remembers William’s incandescent rage at a French tabloid publishing Kate’s nude photos: What upset him most, he said, was that when he proposed to Catherine he promised her parents he would take care of her. He, more than anyone, knew the personal sacrifices she was making to be with the man she loved. And in allowing this all to happen, he felt he had let them down. It’s why I know he will bend heaven and earth to be at her side now and do the best for their little family. However long it takes.

[From The Daily Mail]

English is not the only royal reporter amplifying the “social media trolls,” nor is she the only one using “random negative tweets about the Waleses” as some kind of evidence that everyone is being hyper-critical of poor, poor William. I think that’s what’s really weird about it – the overemphasis on how hard this is on William, how poor William will have to do the school runs and go to the hospital. All of which draws attention to the fact that William seemingly only visited Kate on Thursday, two days after her surgery? And just last week, KP was making all of these plans for trips to Italy and trips to visit the military and all of that. We’re once again left with more questions than answers, but I will say this: it’s unsettling how William is at the center of the narrative, and the conversation is about how hard this is on him, and there’s actually very little being said about just what the hell is going on with Kate. Why is William being centered here and why does it feel like certain wheels have been set in motion?

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.