Summer is more than halfway over, and school districts around the country are starting to open back up for the new school year. My children are already back in school because we go to a year-round school, where every nine weeks, they get three weeks off plus a few extra weeks around Christmas/New Years and 4th of July. We love it. Our kids really benefit from getting a “brain break” every nine weeks. It’s also great that they’re not out of school long enough to forget what they’ve already learned. Another huge benefit is that we don’t really ever lose that school routine where we have to all do a stressful readjustment.

Jessica Biel has two (possibly unvaccinated) sons with Justin Timberlake. Her older son, Silas, is eight and her younger one, Phineas, is three. School is starting back up soon for Silas, and Jessica gets how stressful back-to-school time can be for parents. She’s been out there doing the “relatable mom” thing while hustling new bento-inspired pre-packed lunches that she teamed up with DoorDash to create in order to help parents during those hectic first few weeks back at school.

Back-to-school season presents plenty of challenges that families just don’t have to think about during the summer. And that’s something Jessica Biel says she’s absolutely experiencing in the ramp-up to her oldest son Silas’s return to class. And one of the most stressful conundrums is figuring out what to pack the 8-year-old for lunch.

“I was just griping to my friends and family and even on my social media, like, ‘What am I going to do about lunches? How am I going to handle this?’” admits Biel. “It’s so chaotic, the first couple of weeks of school, and it’s stressful. Your kids are feeling the stress, and you’re feeling the stress, and all you want to do is be on your game and be like one step ahead.”

It’s for that reason that she was inspired to partner with DoorDash to create Grab & Go Bento, bento-inspired lunches for stressed parents. The lunches were such a success that they sold out quickly, but the app is also touting their convenient grocery delivery, which makes it easy to stock up on groceries for the week or refresh what’s running out.

The way the app can simplify meal prep is particularly useful to Biel as she strives to find balanced breakfasts and lunches for her boys. “If I don’t ask [my son what he wants to eat, he] comes back and says, ‘You didn’t tell me what I was gonna have in my lunch,’” she shares. “So, he feels surprised by what I’ve put in there. Even though I think, ‘Oh, these are his favorite things. He’ll love this.’ It’s so funny. I feel like I can never win. I’m really all about trying to make my life a little bit simpler and trying to help other parents do the same just because I deeply know how hard it is.”

Biel adds that anything that takes the thinking out of creating balanced meals is “such an incredible help when you’re trying to get back in your rhythm to get back into school.”

[From Yahoo]

I understand what Jessica is saying here. Like I said above, we’re lucky that we never quite get to a place where we completely fall out of routine, but starting a new school year can still be stressful and chaotic. Honestly, when I first heard about Jessica’s Grab & Go DoorDash boxes, I assumed that it would be some overpriced Goop-adjacent thing. I looked it up on DoorDash’s website and turns out it’s five meals for $25, which seems fairly reasonable to me? The lunches also seem pretty standard: a bagel, sunflower seed butter and jelly, salami, fruit snacks, white cheddar puffs, etc.

However, I have to admit that I sort of snort-chuckled at, “What am I going to do about lunches? How am I going to handle this?” I know she’s shilling her product but she sounds soooo melodramatic. Bish, you aren’t worried about how you’re going to afford to feed your kid. You’re worried about figuring out how to throw some fancy PB&J, gluten-free goldfish, and organic apple slices together. FWIW, DoorDash does say that they’ll donate five meals per purchase to the All Peoples Community Center to “aid in the organization’s commitment to help children succeed at each stage of development.” It would be great if Jessica and Justin could at the very least match that donation since nothing says, “I want to help relieve parents who are stressing over lunches during the chaotic first few weeks of school” quite like donating to an organization that will help parents stressing over providing lunches to their kids during (and beyond) those first few weeks of school.

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Photos credit Faye’s Vision/Cover Images, JB Autissier/Panoramic/Avalon

Vanderpump Rules cast-member Scheana Shay said something on her podcast that I thought was worth covering. She shared about her experience auditioning in Hollywood when she was younger. On one audition a casting director told Scheana that her face moved too much for the type of role she wanted, on the 90210 reboot that aired from 2008-2013. Being expressive was right for “Disney,” but if she wanted to be on such prestigious programming as a teen soap on The CW, she was going to have to stop moving her eyebrows. Scheana says she was advised to get Botox by this casting director–in her mid twenties.

Scheana Shay is opening up about her decision to get Botox.

The Vanderpump Rules star, 38, revealed on her Scheananigans podcast with guest Shenae Grimes-Beech this week that casting directors on The CW’s 90210 spinoff series — which aired between 2008 and 2013 — were “some of the reasons why I ended up getting Botox.”

“They told me that for Disney, my facial expression was great. But for a more dramatic type of role, that I needed to learn how to control my eyebrows,” Shay said. “They were like, ‘The role is yours. Here is your callback. We want you for this but we are bringing in a couple more girls as well because if you can’t control your facial features then we’re not going to give it to you.’ They were like, ‘Maybe try some Botox,’ ” she continued.

Shay — who played the character Cassandra in one episode of the series, according to IMDB — then noted that she started getting Botox around ages 24 or 25, as she thought it would provide her with “the resting bitch face.”

“In my interviews, I don’t want my face moving,” Shay said on her podcast. “But back then, they were like, ‘Bitch, control your eyebrow.’ Because it was just like a mind of its own.”

[From People]

I have a renegade eyebrow too, my right eyebrow. It raises up whenever I’m questioning somebody’s judgment, even if I don’t mean to, which is why I’d really like to be able to turn my camera off in work meetings. It’s asinine that a casting director told Scheana she needed Botox for the part. Actors are supposed to be expressive! They won’t tell you this, but I believe that most actors/actresses in Hollywood who get Botox will let it wear off while they’re doing movies and seasons of shows. They do this so that they can be expressive (and good at their jobs). Then once the filming has wrapped they get Botox again. Botox only lasts 3-4 months, and you really notice it wearing off by the end of month 2, so it’s easy enough to strategically plan around filming. Anyway, maybe the casting director was trying to say that Scheana was playing the role too big and needed to tone it down, but it just sounds like typical image-obsessed Hollywood. No one in their mid twenties “needs” Botox unless they use it for medical purposes like treating migraines.

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

photos credit: Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon, Getty

Beyonce paid to keep the DC Metro trains running late after her concert was delayed because of the weather on Sunday. [Just Jared]
Reality stars want to go on strike too. [LaineyGossip]
Check out the trailer for Dicks: The Musical. [OMG Blog]
Review of Meg 2: The Trench. [Pajiba]
Lily Allen’s London theater fashion show. [Go Fug Yourself]
Angus Cloud’s mother spoke about her son. [Socialite Life]
Adults are lining up to use the “cop slide” in Boston. [Jezebel]
Ed Sheeran does gender reveals now. [Seriously OMG]
Heidi Klum loves Capri! [Egotastic]
Celebrities at the age of 40, and how much has changed over time. [Buzzfeed]
Rest in peace, Mark Margolis. [Towleroad]
Gwen Stefani’s Naeem Khan outfit is bonkers. [RCFA]

I was going to link to this in another story, but I decided to devote a post to it because I actually find it sort of interesting, and people love to analyze the Duchess of Sussex’s fashion choices. While Meghan is not a full-on Taylor Swift-esque dresser, i.e. leaving a trail of breadcrumbs and easter eggs with how she dresses and what she chooses, Meghan does dress with purpose and you can tell that she loves fashion. She’s making deliberate choices and sending certain messages with her style. So, last week, the Sussexes appeared in a video announcing the winners of the Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund. In the video, Harry and Meghan coordinated in browns. Meghan’s look was a t-neck sleeveless top and skirt by Bleusalt, a sustainable label out of Malibu. The Telegraph had a whole-ass style-section piece about whether Meghan’s love of brown was about “quiet luxury” or simply part of the “Sad Beige” trend.

Looking remarkably polished and glowing, Meghan was dressed in a £145 sleeveless turtleneck top and £165 tube skirt by Malibu-based label Bleusalt, which manufactures its designs sustainably in the US – a choice made with their American audience in mind, no doubt. She finished her look with a pair of Lanvin earrings. Meanwhile, Harry’s trousers were a similar shade of beige and teamed with a white shirt with Barack Obama-esque rolled-up sleeves. Beige has always been a signature colour for Meghan and there are competing explanations as to why she loves it so much.

You may have assumed that Meghan would use the freedom of her new life in California to experiment with colour, but she has remained faithful to the sludgy coffee shades which have come to epitomise the “quiet luxury” trend of recent years. It’s a look fuelled by the stealth-wealth style crystallised in TV shows like Succession and in the courtroom by Gwyneth Paltrow during her ski incident trial earlier this year. Where beige was once a tool for Meghan to blend in, it’s now a hallmark of her alignment with the 0.01 per cent – beige speaks of private jets, dry cleaners and generally never having to do anything that could risk a smudge or a stain.

Dressing in the tones of your favourite Starbucks order became so ubiquitous earlier this year that there has been a backlash against the look. In some quarters, it is now called “sad beige”, a term that originated from the trend among wealthy parents more interested in aesthetics than enjoyment to dress their children in neutral, minimalist colours rather than the cheerful brights usually associated with fun and childhood. There’s also the fact that the look is so easy to copy that you can now source it as easily at Brunello Cucinelli, where a beige coat costs £5,400, as Boohoo (now selling a beige off-shoulder top for £13.65).

Whether you are team “quiet luxury” or team “sad beige”, there’s no denying Harry and Meghan’s commitment to the look. It’s a way of visually joining a tribe of A-listers for whom sad beige life is sacrosanct, like Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Aniston and Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, founders of The Row (a label where you can buy a skirt like the one Meghan wears in this video for £1,380). Indeed, when the Duke and Duchess appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 2021, they enlisted Aniston’s stylist Nina Hallworth to dress them (they went for black and white, not beige, on that occasion).

[From The Telegraph]

The Telegraph also quotes Meghan herself, from the Netflix docuseries, where she explained why she wore so many neutrals while she was in the UK, describing how she was trying not to stand out. While that is very likely true, I think it’s also true that during her years in the UK, Meghan wore a lot of pieces which were already in her closet (her pre-royal closet). Meaning, she already had a neutral-heavy style with lots of creams, whites, blacks and browns. I think her post-royal appearances have backed that up too – while she pops up with a bold color here and there (as she did in the UK), her baseline aesthetic is California White and the Sad Beiges (a terrific band name, if you ask me). Now, it’s a matter of opinion for the viewer as to what Meghan is actually projecting here: quiet luxury or that dull, sad, Kardashian-esque beige-heavy color palette? Well, Meghan and Harry do look rich, but to be clear – I was also sort of disappointed to see her in another sad beige outfit. She looks so good in green! And red, and blue and purple.

Photos courtesy of Vimeo, WENN, Backgrid, Avalon Red.

Real question: were any of you aware of BetterUp before Prince Harry joined the company as Chief Impact Officer in 2021? I was not, but I’m sure other people were, especially people in the corporate world (BetterUp has a lot of corporate clients) and people who like life-coaching stuff. Personally, I think Harry’s main work as CIO was to give the company a global platform and global hype – soon after his position was announced, BetterUp;s valuation skyrocketed and the company massively expanded in North America and Europe. Their client roster includes multiple Fortune 500 companies and they went on a hiring spree. What happened next was predictable: they grew and expanded too fast and demand for the “product” stabilized rather than increased. As such, the company has laid off 16% of staff, and the Daily Beast made sure to talk to disgruntled former employees who blame Prince Harry.

Last valued at $4.7 billion, BetterUp is perhaps best known for its chief impact officer: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, who joined the corporate team in 2021. But even with a former royal among its ranks, the startup has struggled to maintain its footing. Last year, its vast roster of contractor coaches staged a revolt after the company modified their pay; the relationship remains fraught, several coaches told The Daily Beast. And this week, BetterUp laid off 16 percent of its staff, the culmination of what multiple workers described as months of turbulence, filled with outbursts from executives, mysterious staff departures, and declining morale.

“We’re all there because of the same bullsh-t story they keep telling us: ‘We’re mission driven, and the mission is going to change the world,’” a recent employee said. But inside the business, he added, “they treat us like sh-t.”

Under Robichaux’s leadership, BetterUp steadily expanded, and the pandemic accelerated its ascent. “I think you’ve got a company that was kind of at the right place at the right time with the rise of employee health and mental wellness coming out of COVID,” a former staffer said. “BetterUp just saw a tremendous amount of growth.” That trajectory has seemingly flattened, however. Two people familiar with BetterUp’s finances said that, during the last fiscal year, the company fell more than 20 percent short of its initial revenue targets. “They were counting on really big expansion numbers,” one of them said. In reality, “they were nowhere close.”

As BetterUp struggles to regain momentum, recently departed staffers are eager to assign blame. Three employees described Robichaux as capricious and prone to flying “off the handle,” and alleged that he insulates himself with loyalists known as FOAs, or “Friends of Alexi.”

Amid the tumult, Prince Harry has become an easy target for aggrieved staffers as well. One former employee, mirroring statements by several peers, assessed the Duke’s day-to-day responsibilities: “I’m going to go with zero things.” Other staffers were more charitable, suggesting that he has helped the company increase its reach in Europe and has lended his celebrity to help close major deals.

Indisputably, though, Prince Harry has become a fixture of tabloids on both sides of the Atlantic, creating the risk that BetterUp’s reputation will be linked with the drama. “At first I was like, ‘This is cool,’” a recent staffer said of the Duke’s corporate position, but increasingly “it’s been more of a distraction.”

“Every article mentions his role at BetterUp, then goes on to roast [him and Meghan Markle].” At some point, the employee argued, “the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.”

[From The Daily Beast]

I’m not aware of Prince Harry taking the CIO position to work there 9-5, with the kind of daily responsibilities of a manager? It was always pretty clear that he took the position to help raise BetterUp’s profile and build the BetterUp brand because he legitimately believed in the company and wanted people to have access to the kind of coaching BetterUp provides. Of course, it also sounds like the business itself is being poorly run, and that the business model is somewhat flawed. Are you trying to actually support workers by giving them life-coaching and mental-health coaching, or are you just doing corporations’ bidding to squeeze as much as possible out of stressed, overworked and strung-out workers? What is the actual business model here, and is it aggressively staking out the “mental health coaching to Fortune 500 companies” franchise?

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, BetterUp’s Instagram and screencaps from BetterUp videos.

Dianne Feinstein is 90 years old and in seriously ill health. She had to take months off, away from the Senate, to recover from shingles. When she came back, she looked and acted noticeably unwell and senile. The thing is, if she was a powerful senator from a swing state, I would understand Feinstein’s need to keep both hands on her Senate seat. But she’s from California! There are literally four generations of Democrats waiting to take her seat. Well, Feinstein will retire next year – she’s not running for reelection, so there’s that. Still, there’s a lot of talk about how she needs to resign right now, given her inability to effectively work as a senator. What’s even worse is that Senator Feinstein has now given power of attorney to her daughter. Good lord.

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein has relinquished power of attorney to her daughter — even as she continues to serve in Congress at the age of 90, according to a report. The Democratic senator — who is the oldest member of Congress — has faced calls to resign after health complications kept her away from the Capitol for months earlier this year. Since returning to Washington DC, she has appeared frail and has had a number of public mental lapses.

Feinstein handed over power of attorney to her daughter, 66-year-old Katherine Feinstein, in part to help handle legal battles over her late husband Richard Blum’s estate, the New York Times reported on Thursday. In one dispute, Katherine, Feinstein’s only child, is at odds with Blum’s three daughters over the ownership of a luxury beach house owned by Feinstein, according to the paper. In a separate lawsuit, the two families are feuding over Blum’s life insurance, which Feinstein claims she needs to cover her increasing medical costs, The Times reported.

Feinstein, who has represented California for over 30 years, announced earlier this year that she would not seek re-election in 2024. Several longtime colleagues have leaked to the press that her mental acuity has significantly declined.

[From The NY Post]

I understand the legal reasons for a 90-year-old woman to hand power of attorney to her daughter to deal with various estate and lawsuit issues… but it’s plainly absurd for this to happen while Feinstein is still a sitting senator. This isn’t a case of whataboutism – cold and clammy Mitch McConnell should also resign, because he is also clearly unwell and unable to do his job. It’s just that I’m personally glad that the Republicans have someone senile in the job of minority leader. So, I’ve come around on this – Feinstein really does need to go. Gov. Newsom should be able to appoint someone in the interim, between now and the 2024 election.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

These are photos from Prince William and Kate’s appearance at the Commonwealth Games last summer, almost a year ago exactly. In 2022, the games were held in Birmingham, England. Will and Kate brought Princess Charlotte out for one day to enjoy the swimming and the gymnastics. The Commonwealth Games are sort of like the Olympic Games, except that at CG, only athletes from “British commonwealth countries” participate. And even then, most elite athletes (if they happen to be from Commonwealth countries) avoid it, preserving their bodies for the World Championships, their regional or national competitions or the Olympics. All in all, the Commonwealth Games absolutely lack a certain buzz. Following QEII’s passing, it looks like no country even wants to host the Commonwealth Games anymore.

The government of Alberta has pulled its support for a bid to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games due to rising costs. Tourism and Sport Minister Joseph Schow said the bill was estimated at C$2.7bn (£1.5bn; $2bn) – a burden “too high for the province to bear”.

The organiser of the Games has said it is “sorry to hear that Alberta is no longer developing its bid proposal”.

Last month Australia pulled out of hosting the 2026 Games in Victoria due to budget blowouts.

Alberta’s withdrawal means there are currently no other firm bids to host the 2030 Games. In a statement, the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) thanked all of those who worked on the application and said it believed the Canadian province “could be a fantastic host” for the Commonwealth Games in the future.

Alberta’s initial plan was to host the games over 11 days in August 2030 with competitions and events spread between Calgary and Edmonton, as well as the Tsuut’ina Nation and Enoch Cree Nation. The CGF said dialogue with other potential hosts was “on-going”. In a statement on Alberta’s withdrawal, Mr Schow suggested the corporate sponsorship model and limited broadcast revenues would have put 93% of costs and risks on taxpayers.

He insisted the authorities wanted to be transparent about funding and demonstrating a return on investment. “That is why we have made the decision not to continue pursuing the bid for the 2030 Commonwealth Games.”

[From BBC]

Ouch. The 2026 games aren’t completely canceled – there’s talk that the games might be hosted in London, or maybe even Scotland. There’s no talk about what will happen with the 2030 games though, as in, what country would take over. It doesn’t sound like any country is eager to bid for the games. Which is funny because haven’t there been multiple bids every year to host the Invictus Games? Wasn’t New Zealand trying like hell to host the games in multiple years? LOL. Anyway, most people aren’t even that aware of the Commonwealth Games, honestly – they do not have an international reputation, IMO. I wonder if they’ll just do away with the games altogether in the next few years, especially now that the British Commonwealth is at death’s door.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Introduction: Minutes 0 to 13:00
We took two months off, thanks for understanding! Get the Top 8 stories about Princess Kate’s Early Years Business Initiatives when you sign up for our mailing list! I only send one email a day on weekdays. While we were off DListed shut down and I took that hard. We respect Michael K so much and we miss Dlisted. We have three new writers, Carina, Kismet and Rosie, and you can see their bios here. We both saw Barbie and loved it. Neither of us have seen Oppenheimer. I liked The Blackening and Chandra saw the movie Showing Up with Michelle Williams and can’t stop thinking about it. You can listen below!

Celebrity divorces: Minutes 13:00 to 23:30
We talk about the recent celebrity divorces including Kevin Costner, Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello, and Ariana Grande. Here are the mailing list signups for each divorce! Top 10 stories about Kevin Costner’s divorce. Top 8 stories about Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello’s divorce. Top 8 stories about Ariana Grande’s messy affair.

Royals: Minutes 23:30 to 32:00
Omid Scobie’s Endgame is coming out in November and we’re looking forward to that! He is one of the only royal reporters who fairly reports on Harry and Meghan. The British press is going after him and we hope he’s living his best life.

Suits, Meghan’s USA series that aired from 2011 to 2019, is one of the top shows on Netflix. People are like “wow Meghan can act, she’s incredible” and the British press are trying to spin it like Americans hate her, which is ridiculous.

We just got a new video of Harry and Meghan in their courtyard congratulating the winners of the Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund over the phone. It’s really cute and they both look so rich and unbothered. I’m sure we’ll get articles about how they’re trying to pull focus from Prince William serving veggie burgers. Chandra thinks Kensington Palace is trying to bury the veggie burger video because it was all staged.

The Sussexes are covering both People Magazine and US Magazine this week. They’re said to be having business problems, which surprises me because they have so many successes. The Spotify debacle highlighted their need for a communications team. They’ve been speaking through sources instead of issuing official responses to Spotify’s trash-talking. We hope they get an excellent communications team.

Comments of the Week: Minutes 32:00 to end
My comment of the week is from Peanut Butter on the post where Stephen Amell tried to dial back his anti-union comments at a fan convention.

Chandra’s comment of the week is from Kitten on the post about Trump being indicted.

Thanks for listening bitches!

Photos credit: Avalon.red, Cover Images, Backgrid and via Instagram

Zachary Levi, of anti-vaxx, Evangelical douche fame, appeared at Comic Con Manchester in the UK on July 29. That was a full two weeks into the SAG-AFTRA strike, and while he was there he called the strike regulations “so dumb.” Unlike scab Stephen Amell, Zachary wasn’t promoting a new project. Like Stephen Amell, Zachary is now claiming that his comments were taken out of context. This past Friday he released a statement to put them “in context” for us:

Zachary Levi is clarifying his viral comments about the SAG-AFTRA strike.

The Shazam! star’s jokes from a fan event went viral after he called the guild’s restrictions on promoting studio content “so dumb.”

“It’s come to my attention that an offhand remark I made in jest last weekend is being taken out of context,” Levi said in a statement Friday. “So let me be very clear. I fully support my union, the WGA, and the strike. I remain an outspoken critic of the exploitative system that us artists are subject to work in since I started my journey in this business 25 years ago. This strike is necessary to protect ourselves, our writers, and all those working in production who make the industry move.”

Levi added: “But we also cannot forget our fans during this strike. Fans that spend their money and energy traveling far distances to talk with us about our work that means so much to them, we should be able to engage. Our business exists and succeeds because of the fans, and I think it’s imperative we appreciate them for their support of our careers.”

Appearing at what appeared to be Manchester Comic-Con—which took place in the U.K. late last month—Levi talked about how he couldn’t discuss his work on projects like Chuck, Tangled and the two Shazam! Films.

“I’m not allowed to talk about… this is so dumb. I’m not allowed to talk about any of my previous work,” Levi says in the clip. “I’m not allowed to talk about movies that I may be a superhero in. I’m not allowed to talk about TV shows that I may have been a nerd who worked at a Best Buy. I’m not allowed to talk about any animated princess movies that I was fantastic in—as the best prince ever! I’m not allowed to talk about those things.”

[From Yahoo! Entertainment]

You know what I think is dumb? Showing up to a union-restricted event during a strike where you know you won’t be able to talk about anything! And then his trying to pin his actions on the fans is just lame. The more he digs into saying it’s all for the fans, though, the more it seems he fundamentally doesn’t understand the purpose of a strike. “Our business exists and succeeds because of the fans, and I think it’s imperative we appreciate them for their support of our careers.” Yes, that is true. But that’s why boycotting events, including those driven and beloved by fans, puts pressure on AMPTP. It’s all part of the disruption cycle of a strike. Isn’t this like Strike 101? And while we’re at it, let’s reeducate Zachary on something else: no, he is not the best Disney prince ever.

Photos credit: Backgrid and Avalon.red

The Duchess of Sussex celebrated her birthday on August 4 (Friday). Two nights before her birthday, Prince Harry took her out to dinner in Montecito. They went to an Italian restaurant called Tre Lune. I looked up the menu as soon as the photos came out on Friday. Hilariously, the Daily Mail did the same thing, and they ran a stand-alone story all about the restaurant, who owns it, the wine selection, the “lavish brunches, the over-$30 main course menu, everything. I love how every salty commentator is in lock-step about how unimportant and insignificant the Sussexes are, meanwhile they pore over every single little thing the Sussexes do, where they go, who they see, who they speak to and what they eat. Speaking of, Page Six ran an exclusive about another thing Meghan did during her birthday week: she went to see Barbie with some girlfriends.

She’s Meghan Markle… he’s just Ken. The Duchess of Sussex celebrated her 42nd birthday early by going to see the “Barbie” movie with pal Portia De Rossi and a couple of other girlfriends, Page Six is told. The group watched the Margot Robbie-led feminist hit at a Santa Barbara theater earlier this week, sources say, while Prince Harry remained home at their $14 million Montecito, Calif., estate.

The “Suits” alum kept the festivities going by joining friends at the posh San Ysidro Ranch hotel in Santa Barbara Monday night. We hear the controversial royal posed for photos and made videos with a bachelorette group that was celebrating at the hotel. One onlooker tells us, “Meghan went over to wish the bride good luck.”

While Harry, 38, stayed behind while his wife had fun with her friends at the start of the week, he made sure they still celebrated her special day. On Wednesday, the Sussexes were spotted grabbing dinner at celebrity hot spot Tre Lune in Montecito.

As for the couple’s plans for her actual birthday, which falls on Friday, we hear Markle and Harry will spend the day at home with their two children, Prince Archie, 4, and Princess Lilibet, 2. An insider tells us the prince is “purposely staying behind to be with Meghan,” as he is slated to appear at the ISPS Sports Values Summit-Special Edition in Tokyo next Wednesday.

After arriving in Japan, Harry will head to Singapore with Argentinian actor Nacho Figueras, where they’ll play in the 2023 Sentebale ISPS Handa Polo Cup at the Singapore Polo Club on Saturday. It is unclear if the former actress plans to join her husband in Asia, but the pair are confirmed to attend the Invictus Games together in Düsseldorf, Germany, in September.

[From Page Six]

If this is true and Meg went to see Barbie with her girlfriends, I think that’s nice? Harry would have enjoyed the movie too, but I understand why Meghan wanted to see it with her girls. It’s a great movie! I bet she enjoyed it! It basically sounds like Meghan and Harry spent Meghan’s “birthday week” like they spend most weeks: in and around Montecito, being quiet, going to the movies, going out to dinner. This Barbie has a simple beach-community life.

Predictably, none of the royal-affiliated social media accounts wished Meghan a happy birthday. Honestly, not surprising? The real surprise was that Clarence House and Kensington Palace posted birthday messages to Meghan last year. New king, new social media strategy – no more birthday wishes for the Sussexes, no more being nice to the king’s son, daughter-in-law or grandchildren. All of those same royal accounts also failed to wish Archie and Lili a happy birthday this year. Imagine being nasty like that to children.

EXCLUSIVE Meghan Markle’s birthday date night with Prince Harry! Smiling Duchess of Sussex leaves trendy Montecito restaurant to celebrate turning 42 in couple’s latest loved-up display https://t.co/bRPzL5r3oD pic.twitter.com/a2FbG4thAY

— Daily Mail U.K. (@DailyMailUK) August 3, 2023

Photos courtesy of Netflix.