View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Emma Heming Willis (@emmahemingwillis)

Emma Heming Willis has been nothing if not heartbreakingly candid in the nearly two years she’s been caring for her husband in his dementia. Bruce Willis was diagnosed with Aphasia in 2022, and his condition progressed to Frontotemporal Dementia early in 2023. While she clearly does not naturally seek the spotlight, being Bruce’s care partner has compelled Emma to publicly advocate for FTD awareness and the families affected by the disease. In yet another instance of empathy and searing honesty, Emma penned a letter for Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper, in which she shared lessons she’s learned during this time. She also acknowledged the guilt she feels over having resources other families don’t:

Lesson No. 5: There is power in giving back. Recently, I met someone who had just learned about FTD in her life. When I first learned about the condition, I didn’t have someone in my corner who understood this experience. The fact that I was able to help connect this woman to the right information and resources was a moment I won’t forget. Even though I can’t change her situation, I can help guide her, tell her where to start, and help her feel a little less lonely.

I struggle with guilt, knowing that I have resources that others don’t. When I’m able to get out for a hike to clear my head, it’s not lost on me that not all care partners can do that. When what I share about our family’s journey gets press attention, I know that there are many thousands of untold, unheard stories, each of them deserving of compassion and concern. At the same time, I see that what I share matters to others who may be struggling, and in a small way makes them feel seen and understood. I want people to know that when I hear from another family affected by FTD, I hear our family’s same story of grief, loss, and immense sadness echoed in theirs. It’s important to me to be an advocate on behalf of those families who don’t have the time, energy, or resources to advocate for themselves.

[From Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper via Just Jared]

It is refreshing to have a celebrity acknowledge their privilege and really mean it. Nothing about Emma’s language feels like prescribed PR lingo. It’s about as far from that as you can get. I just want to give her the biggest hug! Her pain is real and it is valid. In a more perfect world, the focus would be not on resenting those who have more resources, but on figuring out how to make those resources available to everyone. I believe Emma is trying to do just that — to give back to the community that has given her strength, in ways that she can. And all while still caring for her husband. (LaineyGossip had a thoughtful piece yesterday on this topic, discussing Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan.)

I thoroughly recommend reading Emma’s piece in full. She organizes her thoughts into six main lessons she’s learned, the connecting thread being: talk about what you’re going through and find your community. They are vital lifelines. She ends with saying “As much as I grieve this experience daily — as I know so many others do — I also know that it has made me stronger than I ever thought possible.” Oh, yes. Whatever your specific hurdle is, life has a way of making you discover your own strength. I have no doubt that Bruce is proud of her for that.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Emma Heming Willis (@emmahemingwillis)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Emma Heming Willis (@emmahemingwillis)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Emma Heming Willis (@emmahemingwillis)

The Crown Season 6 is out this week. Before the SAG-AFTRA strike was over, Dominic West and Olivia Williams – who play Charles and Camilla – spoke last week about what Season 6 will bring for the royal dirtbags and more. I haven’t seen it yet so no spoilers, but I do love Olivia Williams in this role. She brings a real unmoisturized, horsey energy to Camilla.

Dominic’s ear plumpers: “I used to have little plumpers that made my ears go out and we kept looking at it because it was quite a faff and they were quite uncomfortable and they were made specially, and actually they didn’t make much difference. They didn’t make me look any more like Charles, unfortunately.”

West played some difficult scenes with “William”: “It’s another way in which Charles is being punished, and I think all parents are punished eventually by their children.”

West on Charles’s sadness: “[Charles] is very emotional and he’s got real anger and I think he’s got real sadness to him and real compassion and so I think he is very emotional. What’s great about The Crown is that you see these public figures in private and I suspect in private he’s quite emotional, well that’s the way I played him anyway. I’ve sort of assumed that Charles is an emotional and rather open hearted guy in spite of his buttoned up exterior, which he obviously has to have in public.”

Olivia Williams says there’s a clash between Camilla and Diana in Season 6: ‘There seems to be a sort of Camilla or Diana clash, whereas I don’t think it has to be that. It was a dreadful situation. It’s like a subject at school, the causes of the Second World War. How did we get to a place in society where Charles ended up marrying Diana? That was just an extraordinary anomaly that was no particular person’s fault. But moving forward, Charles and Camilla have shown that their marriage is an excellent one, and that she is the perfect companion to our King and so I did feel that deserved some credit, and also the fact that she really still hasn’t written– You know, where is the book, Camilla, her Story, Camilla, in her Words, you know? She has been provoked and provoked and provoked, and has never risen; she’s a better woman than I.’

[From The Telegraph & The Daily Mail]

The more I hear from Dominic West, the more convinced I am that West is hellbent on a knighthood and he demanded that the show go easier on Charles. Casting West as Charles was always such a terrible choice as well – the vibe is decidedly off and no amount of ear plumpers will make any difference. As for what Olivia says about Camilla… is that really the sentiment among British people these days? “How did we get to a place in society where Charles ended up marrying Diana? That was just an extraordinary anomaly that was no particular person’s fault.” Charles and Camilla decided that Diana would be the perfect broodmare and once she had provided the heir and spare, Charles continued to carry on with Camilla and everyone else.

Photos courtesy of Netflix/The Crown.

Chris Appleton (Kim Kardashian’s hair stylist) filed for divorce from Lukas Gage after only six months of marriage! [Hollywood Life]
That Sydney Sweeney rom-com needed some reshoots, oh no. [LaineyGossip]
Tom Hiddleston was on the Tonight Show?! [Tom & Lorenzo]
Republicans should be terrified of a second Donald Trump term. [Pajiba]
Yeah, it’s a whole ordeal for women to change their names when they get married. It feels like more women are opting out? [Buzzfeed]
The White Lotus Season 3 will start filming soon! [JustJared]
Brie Larson was able to do some last-minute promo for The Marvels. [GFY]
Zodiac signs of the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. [Starcasm]
Network comedies are getting back to work! [Seriously OMG]

Last week, we talked about DoorDash warning its customers that anyone who doesn’t tip when they place their orders risks it taking longer to deliver than those who tip up front. We also discussed how tipping has increasingly become a hot-button issue in America, as it seems like everywhere you turn, there’s the option to add a tip, and most of us feel badly saying no. Well, I do, at least. You should give a gratuity for good service, but it is kinda crazy to add a tip for the cashier at the grocery store. It feels like companies that refuse to pay their employees a living wage are passing the burden of their employees’ cost of living onto consumers.

A recent study done by Pew Research Center reveals that Americans are divided and confused over when and how much to leave in gratuities. TThe study also showed that 72% of the 11,945 surveyed aren’t into recent trends that add service fees and suggest tipping amounts. Basically, Americans are frustrated by “tipping culture” and feel the same way that many of you do: that it’s getting out of hand. Tipflation is real y’all!

72% are against the added “service charges”: Most don’t like the addition of “service charges,” the amounts that many restaurants and other businesses have tacked on to customers’ tabs under various names, often to cover the higher costs of things like food and labor — without having to raise their prices. An overwhelming 72 percent of people oppose them, with only 10 percent saying they favor them.

They also don’t like the “suggested tip” screen: They are also more likely to oppose a suggested tip amount than favor it, something businesses have recently taken to putting on touch-screens at takeout spots or on printed bills — ostensibly to make calculating them easier, but often used as a prod to get customers to shell out. Forty percent of Americans oppose such suggested tips, while 24 percent favor them. (About a third neither oppose nor favor them.)

Confusion over knowing when to tip: But with more opportunities to tip, and with some restaurants and other businesses offering prompts, there’s still plenty of confusion about whether customers should leave a gratuity — and if so, how much. Thirty-four percent of U.S. adults say it’s “extremely” or “very” easy to know whether to tip for different kinds of services these days, and a similar share, 33 percent, say the same about knowing how much to tip.

Tipping as an obligation vs. choice: While these recent and fundamental shifts in tipping might be confusing and unwelcoming, the survey also indicates that the practice in the bigger picture is divisive — Americans are not even on the same page about what tipping is. Twenty-nine percent of Americans think of tipping as an obligation, while 21 percent see it as a choice. Forty-nine percent, though, say it depends on the situation. Younger and more highly educated and wealthier people were more likely to see a tip as an obligation, Pew found.

Technology is contributing to the confusion: Advances in technology — like delivery apps and tablets at counters where you can tap to leave a gratuity — might be convenient, but they are contributing to the uncertainty. “It’s different than having a jar on the counter — people feel like they are presented with all these tipping options — but does that mean you are expected to tip?” DeSilver said. “We haven’t as a society settled on the rules for that.”

Gratuities by demographics: But apparently, not everyone abides by that, according to the Pew poll. Given a scenario in which they experienced “average, but not exceptional” food and service at a restaurant, 57 percent of people said they would tip 15 percent or less. Two percent said they would leave their server nothing. Just about a quarter said they would leave 20 percent or more. Wealthier people tend to be better tippers, the survey found, while older people are slightly more likely to tip 15 percent or less — perhaps reflecting a holdover from the earlier standards on a sufficient gratuity.

Systemic inequalities: It’s not just customers who seem dissatisfied with the American tipping system, in which workers who regularly receive tips have an hourly wage that’s lower than standard minimums. Some labor activists say the system creates inequities and leaves workers more vulnerable to the whims of their employers. They also argue that relying on tips makes women — who make up the majority of the tipped workforce — more likely to suffer sexual harassment or abuse from customers and managers.

[From WaPo]

I have mixed feelings about suggested tips. I do like when the amounts are written down on the bottom of the receipt and I can think it through privately. There’s a lot of pressure when the person who I’m tipping is standing in front of me, holding up the screen, watching what I pick. At restaurants, I generally tip 20% because that’s what I was taught. 20% is also an easy amount for me to figure out in my head. (I love math!) When we go to the movies, there’s a tip screen for the concession workers. We always leave a tip, but I honestly don’t know what the proper etiquette is in that situation! This came up when we talked about leaving credit card vs. cash tips for DoorDash drivers, but when in those non-restaurant situations, I always wonder who actually gets the tip left via card. Do those employees actually see any of that money at the end of the day?

I completely emphasize with workers who are reliant on tips. Last month, WaPo did an eye-opening story that chronicled the very long day of an Instacart/UberEats worker and shed light on gig-economy workers. That’s so stressful. How much money you make at your job should not be dependent on the goodwill or toleration of harassment from others. Gratuities should supplement income, not make up the bulk of it. It sucks that the waters have become so muddied that people are confused and fed up by the whole thing. You know what would solve this problem? We need to raise the minimum wage for all workers.

Photos credit: Tom Tillhub on Pexels, Antoni Shkraba on Pexels, Nathana Rebouças on Unsplash

In 2021, Prince William and Kate started their own YouTube channel. The original idea was possibly to get into a “content war” with the Sussexes, given Harry and Meghan’s Netflix contract. But really, the YT channel ended up like everything else Will and Kate touch – kind of boring, handed off to other people, and unappealing to the public. The Kensington Palace media team still dutifully post “slick,” expensive-looking videos, and it’s clear that William has hired some videographers and commercial directors who know what they’re doing. Speaking of, the KP YouTube channel just got around to posting a video made in 2022, during the Waleses’ Caribbean Flop Tour.

They brought along a whole-ass commercial director to film this video in The Bahamas. It features an eco-project, Coral Vita, which won an Earthshot Prize in 2021. Here’s what I don’t understand… why did it take a year and a half to post this video? And why are they spending money to hire a commercial director to travel with them and make these videos? Who or what is paying for that?

Also: Will and Kate spent a lot of time in the water during that flop tour. They also went scuba-diving in Belize, in addition to snorkeling in the Bahamas. Is that why they sat on this video for 18-19 months? Because they didn’t want to remind people how f–king tone deaf that whole tour was? And to think, they hired a commercial director to travel with them and capture all of this behind-the-scenes footage of their snorkeling and scuba diving.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Instar.

Here are some photos from King Charles’s “birthday party” at Highgrove on Monday. Charles invited a few dozen 75-year-olds to join him at a reception thrown by his foundation ahead of his 75th birthday today. Charles was in his element – surrounded by old farts and posing with a big cake. There are no photos of Charles eating that cake, but I hope the guests all got a slice. Today, Charles will be launching his Coronation Food Project. He wanted as many eyes on his launch as possible, which is why Charles is once again using his son’s name for added clout. It’s become quite a regular thing, Charles using Prince Harry’s name to draw attention to himself. The palace leaked some news to the BBC:

King Charles is celebrating his 75th birthday with a business-as-usual approach and the launch of a project to help people facing food poverty. But it’s understood that he will be getting a birthday greeting by transatlantic phone call from his younger son, Prince Harry.

The King’s birthday plans will also see him hosting a reception for NHS nurses and midwives.

Ceremonial gun salutes will mark the day, including at the Tower of London.

Public service rather than glitzy partying is being emphasised in the King’s birthday engagements, although it is expected that there will be a private dinner for close family and friends.

Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, will not be there, but well-placed sources say that the US-based duke will be putting in a birthday phone call to his father. The plans for a phone message might be seen as an olive branch, after claims that there had been no contact with Prince Harry about the birthday plans.

[From BBC]

There was no public contact and no social media posts from the Windsors for Harry’s birthday, which he celebrated in Germany at the Invictus Games. But was there actually “no contact” between Harry and Charles on or around Harry’s 39th birthday? If that’s so, Charles really is the sh-ttiest of dogs-t fathers. Couldn’t even send Harry a birthday card or a birthday text? And now Charles is using Harry’s name AGAIN. Harry shut it down when Charles briefed the media that Harry had been invited to his birthday party but Harry “snubbed” the invite. I hope Harry skips the call and just sent his father some rude “over the hill” card.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Hilarie Burton thinks Travis Kelce & Taylor Swift will be engaged by May. [Just Jared]
Lupita Nyong’o looks incredible in green/teal. [Go Fug Yourself]
Gordon Ramsay & his wife welcomed their sixth child. [Seriously OMG]
Austin Butler is still talking like Elvis in Masters of the Air. [LaineyGossip]
Review of The Marvels. [Pajiba]
Sofia Richie also went to the Baby2Baby gala. [RCFA]
Trailer for HBO’s Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God. [OMG Blog]
Jinger Duggar-Vuolo put her daughter in a “Christian hybrid” school. [Starcasm]
Britney Spears has a girl crush on Taylor Swift. [Hollywood Life]
Timothee Chalamet spoofed Troye Sivan on SNL. [Socialite Life]
These people are having the toughest week ever. [Buzzfeed]

They are gonna have the most flannel lined, pie and red ribbon kinda Christmas….and then these babies are gonna be engaged by May. https://t.co/e01on1aLJs

— Hilarie Burton Morgan (@HilarieBurton) November 12, 2023

Here are some photos from Remembrance Sunday in London, where the Windsor men laid wreaths at the Cenotaph as the royal women looked on from the balcony of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Keeping with Kate’s recent style theme, she repeated a coatdress from a previous Remembrance Sunday – this is her “Sgt. Pepper” coatdress, as I like to think of it. It’s from Catherine Walker, back when Kate would regularly drop thousands of dollars on a coat with loads of buttons and tassels. Her hat is a repeat too – a Philip Treacy hat she previously wore in 2006, 2012 and 2017.

The real news is that Kate seemingly got to “borrow” a particularly gaudy pair of earrings from the royal collection. These are diamond-and-pearl earrings which are part of a suite including an equally gaudy brooch, which Kate wore at one of QEII’s funeral events. QEII rarely, if ever, wore any of these pieces but the earrings are being called a “tribute to QEII.”

Kate got to stand beside Queen Camilla and they spoke to each other a few times. Kate didn’t pull a face or indicate that she was not happy with Camilla. Which shows that she can act when she wants to – I’m absolutely sure that Camilla and Charles have authorized a big part of the Middletons’ downfall this year.

(Before now, I never realized that someone has to actually put tape down on the road to show the royals their “marks” for the wreath-laying.)

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

So many people completely ignored this year’s Earthshot Awards. It was amazing. I love that for Prince William. The stupidest part about the Singapore awards was that William really was faced with one of the biggest dilemmas of his soft, lazy life: bring Kate and get more attention OR be able to launch himself as a sexy single statesman with significantly less attention. If he truly wanted to get the most attention for himself or Earthshot, he should have brought Kate along. But he can’t stand to be around her and he didn’t want his ass groped in Singapore, so here we are. People paid such little attention to Earthshot that we forgot that William was supposed to announce where next year’s Earthshot would be held. Well, the big news: Earthshot is going to China.

The Prince of Wales will take his annual Earthshot prize awards to China in an attempt to engage with the country and fast-forward change to its environmental policies. He will visit the world’s biggest polluter despite severely strained relations between China and the West, a decision that is in marked contrast to his father’s approach.

The King, who will be 75 on Tuesday, has never visited mainland China because of his views on the regime’s treatment of Tibet and its human rights record. By comparison, William is said to believe that you “can’t exclude a big chunk of the planet when thinking about fighting for its future”.

William, 41, discussed his plans for China with the prime minister and president of Singapore last week, during his three-day visit to the country which hosted this year’s Earthshot prize awards ceremony.

A royal source said: “Prince William believes that when it comes to the climate and the environment, Asia is critical. He’s of the view you can’t exclude a big chunk of the planet when thinking about fighting for its future. To fast-forward the change and impact he wants, he knows he has to engage with China and India — two of the world’s biggest economies and biggest emitters of carbon dioxide. This is not him commenting on government policy. This is about his approach to the environment and ability to create real global change. It is him thinking, ‘Where can I deliver impact and change not just here but around the world?’ That is his longer-term view.”

A Kensington Palace spokesman said: “Scale and ambition is something the prince thinks a lot about. He wants to make Earthshot truly global.”

[From The Times]
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/prince-william-earthshot-prize-china-p2qk5z77h

While I know there are many American politicians who use China as one of their go-to boogeymen, I don’t think I realized until just now, with this Times piece, that British politicians are so wary of even going to China or doing any kind of diplomacy. When your country is stuck in an isolationist rut, perhaps “sending a dumb, lazy prince to China” is groundbreaking or important. But… it’s not 1955 anymore. China has opened up in some ways. The rest of the world is in China, and China has reached out to the rest of the world. That being said, given China’s strict social media and media censorship policies, next year’s Earthshot is going to get even less attention.

Meanwhile, Peggington posted these “behind-the-scenes” photos on Instagram where he was preparing for his big Invictus speech. He made sure to pose like Prince Harry at Invictus. It’s just sad that Will and Kate are so insecure, so obvious and so unoriginal.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Prince and Princess of Wales (@princeandprincessofwales)

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Instagram.

After four years, even royal reporters are starting to understand that they’re stuck in a holding pattern of their own creation. As much as the Windsors expected the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to fail, to capitulate, to come crawling back “to heel,” so to were the expectations of the royal media. They can’t believe that they ran two attractive royal superstars out of the country and now they only have (strained) access to the lazy, ashy Royals. Some reporters try to play make-believe, pretending that they still have a say in what the Sussexes do, or that Harry and Meghan’s lives are their business. At least Katie Nicholl – the Wig’s biographer – is acknowledging that Harry will not be “home” for Christmas.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will be planning for a Christmas in California as their feud with senior members of the Royal Family continues, according to an expert. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have spent the last three Christmases in the US. Meghan Markle has not returned to the UK since Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in September 2022.

Royal expert Katie Nicholl told GBNews.com that there is zero chance of the Sussexes returning to Britain during the festive period this year.

Nicholl said: “He [Harry] is getting used to a California Christmas. I don’t see that this Christmas will be any different. Relations with his family are very strained. He does not speak to his brother. He barely talks to his father. There is absolutely zero chance of him coming back to Britain for a British Christmas.

“He seems to be enjoying his Californian life and everything that the lifestyle affords him. California is home, his children are growing up very much steeped in their culture, speaking in American accents, and enjoying Thanksgiving before Christmas. I think that is what we will see them enjoy again this year.”

[From GB News]

I know Nicholl probably said this in a perky, matter-of-fact way, but the way GB News reported it, it comes across as seething. Like, four years later, their worlds are still being rocked. “You mean to tell me that he hasn’t enjoyed a British Christmas since 2018? You mean he celebrates American holidays now? What do you mean, the children open gifts on Christmas morning??” I would absolutely love to know the holiday traditions Harry and Meghan have made for themselves these days. I want to know if Meghan cooks for Thanksgiving, and whether Harry wanted to carry on some of his family’s Germanic Christmas traditions. Anyway, yeah, lmao, they’re not coming back. They weren’t asked and they probably would have laughed if they were asked. Nicholl and the rest of them have to make do with leaks from the Kensington Palace bewigletted gopher.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images, the Sussexes’ 2021 Christmas card.