Jessica Simpson has an extraordinary new interview in Bustle. She’s in her 40s now, timeless yet always changing. She’s been sober for six years, she’s had three children and seen her weight fluctuations splashed all over the tabloids for years. She’s happily married and contemplating a return to music. Gen Z loves her now – TikTokers have discovered Newlyweds and they’re obsessed. In 2021, Jessica and her mom Tina bought back Jessica’s eponymous clothing line, and now they fully own everything and they’re trying to expand it. In some ways, Jessica is struggling for money, over-leveraged and in debt. In other ways, this is the most successful she’s ever been, because she’s betting on herself and coming out on top as an author, entertainer and fashion mogul. Some highlights from Bustle:

The rumors that she’s on Ozempic: “Oh Lord. I mean, it is not” — Ozempic, she means — “it’s willpower. I’m like, do people want me to be drinking again? Because that’s when I was heavier. Or they want me to be having another baby? My body can’t do it.” The scrutiny “hurts… Am I going to let the negativity derail me? No, I’m too old for that. I am too connected to myself right now to let that derail me. It doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt.”

Her weight fluctuations: “I am fortunate to have been every size. For [my] brand, understanding the women [who buy our products], and for my psyche.”

New generations discovering her. “It boggles my mind that I’ve stayed relevant and that people are curious because I have not entertained. I have not entertained at all.”

She’s considering a move to Nashville to reboot her music career: “I’m doing this as a mother now, as a wife. I was a wife last time, but this is a very different marriage. And they’ve never seen me do this.” Perform, you mean? She nods. “I have my daughter taking a private plane with North West to go see Katy Perry in Vegas. And inside I’m like, She was supposed to see me first. Then I’m like, This is not competitive, Jessica. Let your daughter enjoy Katy Perry. But there’s moments that make me want to do it — for them to see that color of me.”

She doesn’t regret buying back her company: “I talked to my mom in-depth about it and I was like, I think it’s time for us to do this on our own. We either sink with the ship, or we jump and hope to find a lifesaver. And really that lifesaver was ourselves.” I ask Jessica if she ever regretted buying back the company. “No,” she says, admitting: “I did have to ask my mother for money not too long ago.” She isn’t kidding.

When she found her power: “What gave me control was people seeing me vulnerable on Newlyweds. My power is in my vulnerability.” Reality shows are famously manufactured, but, when it came to Newlyweds, she says: “That’s me.”

That “Movie Star” essay, a blind item about her affair in the early-’00s: One prominent gossip column pieced the clues together — the actor was religious and wore denim to an awards show — and surmised Mark Wahlberg was the most likely suspect. I ask if she’s heard from Wahlberg since the story came out. She laughs — like a deafening, throw-back-your-head-and-cackle laugh — before saying she would absolutely not confirm the subject’s identity. “There’s a lot of Catholics out there,” she offers.

Her alcoholism: She has more to say as an artist, she explains, but she has been “muted” by alcohol, which she gave up in 2017. “It dumbed down my creativity,” she says. It made me more insecure. When people say it gives you liquid courage, it absolutely does not. It just makes me hold back instead of letting go.”

She is about to embark on a new docuseries: It’s a collaboration with people previously involved with Newlyweds. The series will chronicle her return to music. “We’re about to start shopping it around,” she says. Talking to the producer, she says, “I felt like it was the first conversation we ever had, because everything was always through my dad.” (What would the new music sound like? “I am genre-less,” she says.)

[From Bustle]

In the piece, she also jokes about probably having to sell off the jewelry she’s wearing because she doesn’t want to borrow money from her mom again, and how she was recently shopping in Louis Vuitton and they had to call her mother to authorize her purchases. I sincerely hope Jessica is okay financially, my God. While I think her move to Nashville and this new docuseries is mostly about wanting to record and create new music, I would also imagine that she simply needs the revenue stream. I’m not sure music is the way to go though, but the docuseries could be profitable for her.

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Cover & IG courtesy of Bustle.

Last year, Sophia Bush married Grant Hughes in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Hughes is from Tulsa, and they did a big wedding showcasing Tulsa’s history. They gave/sold the photos to Vogue, and Vogue did a huge wedding spread. While I’ve never been particularly invested in Sophia as a person or celebrity, I don’t have a problem with her either – she’s fine and I wished her well. The thing is, I’m starting to suspect that Sophia is just chronically unlucky in love. Just thirteen months after their big Tulsa wedding, Sophia and Grant are done.

Sophia Bush and Grant Hughes have called it quits. The One Tree Hill actress, 41, filed for divorce from her husband on Friday after 13 months of marriage, PEOPLE can exclusively confirm.

“Sophia and Grant were friends for 10 years and bonded during COVID through their love of community service,” a source close to the couple tells PEOPLE. “They continue to run their nonprofit together and remain good friends.”

The news comes seven weeks after Bush celebrated their wedding anniversary in a post on Instagram.

“Today marks 365 days of calling you ‘husband,’” she captioned a black and white throwback photo of the two on their wedding day. “Best decision of my life. It still feels just like this. Ecstatic. Running toward the future, grinning and laughing, together. I love you, my favorite. Happy Anniversary.”

It also comes nearly two weeks after Bush had to leave her 2:22 A Ghost Story West End production early after catching a virus that was going through the company.

[From People]

The thing about that anniversary post is that… she deleted it as soon as she filed for divorce. I checked through her Instagram – it looks like she’s deleted some of her posts with Grant, although she left a few of the wedding posts up – the ones where you can’t see much of Grant (lol). So… like, what happened here? They spent a decade as friends, did that big wedding and one year later, they realized they weren’t right for each other? Or something else? My Spidey sense is tingling. PS… Someone said all of these breakups are happening because of Venus Retrograde??? OMG. That’s such a good theory. I also think this is just the summer of splits – it just happens that way some years, where it feels like everyone’s breaking up.

Photos courtesy Cover Images, Avalon Red.

When Lisa Marie Presley passed away earlier this year, she was survived by her three daughters and heiresses, Riley Keough and twins Harper and Finley Lockwood, who are still minors. Lisa Marie always made it clear that she wanted Riley to take over her estate and deal with the web of financial dramas set up by Priscilla Presley. Lisa Marie’s body was barely cold when Priscilla marched into court and tried to invalidate LM’s will and block Riley from taking over her mother’s estate. What followed was several months of legal shenanigans. Everything seemingly ended in June, when Riley gave her grandmother a one-time lump sum payment of about $1.4 million and Priscilla dropped her attempts to invalidate the will. It felt like Graceland – Elvis’s former mansion, now a massive tourist attraction – was still going to be under Priscilla’s purview in some way, but as it turns out, not so much. Riley now owns everything from her mother’s estate.

Riley Keough, the grandchild of Elvis Presley, today was named the sole trustee of the estate of her late mother, Lisa Marie Presley. The appointment was approved during a hearing Friday before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lynn Healey Scaduto.

Priscilla Presley had filed a petition to challenge the validity of her late daughter Lisa Marie’s will in January. The legal action disputed a 2016 amendment to Lisa Marie’s will that excised Priscilla as trustee of the estate. Priscilla Presley’s attorneys said she only became aware of the “purported 2016 amendment” after Lisa Marie’s death. Lawyers also contend the amendment was never delivered to their client during Lisa Marie’s lifetime. The amendment removes Priscilla and Lisa Marie’s former business manager, Barry Siegel, as co-trustees and replaces them with Lisa Marie’s eldest children Riley and Benjamin Keough. The latter died in 2020.

The Daisy Jones & the Six star filed a 73-page petition on June 12 in support of her bid for the appointment to head what the family has dubbed the Promenade Trust. Keough had earlier reached a settlement agreement with Priscilla Presley and Michael Lockwood, the guardian ad litem for her two younger half-siblings, 14-year-old twins Harper and Finley Lockwood. Lockwood was Lisa Marie’s fourth husband before they divorced.

The 34-year-old Keough, whose real name is Danielle Riley Keough, also will preside over the sub-trusts for her half-sisters. Priscilla Presley will be a special adviser to the trust and receive a monthly payment for her role. Priscilla Presley also will be allowed to be buried at Graceland, the Memphis, Tennessee former home of Elvis Presley, which Keough will now own.

[From Deadline]

All of this makes Riley the sole owner and guardian of Graceland. I’m surprised by the news that Riley reached an agreement with Michael Lockwood as well – Lisa Marie and Lockwood were engaged in a long-running custodial battle over Harper and Finley. I suspect that Riley is simply a good person with great lawyers – she never seemed to “go to the mattresses” with her grandmother or Lockwood. She dealt with everything privately and quietly and she walked away with all of the power. And, I mean, this is actually what Lisa Marie wanted – she wanted Riley to inherit everything, despite what Priscilla claims now. I feel so sorry for Riley though – she gave birth to her daughter late last year, then she was deeply grieving for her mom, and dealing with all of this family and financial drama.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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Jeremy Allen White almost caused a riot at the Dodgers game. [Go Fug Yourself]
Sigh… a new Khloe Kardashian face just dropped. [Seriously OMG]
Andrew Garfield continues to enjoy his single, rich life. [LaineyGossip]
Why is Peacock so bad? The streamer is really struggling. [Pajiba]
Lizzo has lost over 150,000 Instagram followers this week. [Buzzfeed]
Erika Jayne says she is not on Ozempic. [Socialite Life]
Is the Duchess of Sussex getting back on Instagram? [Just Jared]
Rita Ora returned to The Voice. [Egotastic]
Florida is just Idiocracy now, only somehow worse. [Towleroad]
I can’t believe Khloe Kardashian’s son is already one year old. [Starcasm]
Emma Roberts wore Ralph Lauren at a party in the Hamptons. [RCFA]

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Over the weekend, Cardi B performed an outdoor concert in Las Vegas. While she was on stage, a woman in the crowd threw her entire drink at Cardi, and without skipping a beat, Cardi whipped her microphone at the woman. The mic not only hit the drink-tosser, it also ricocheted off the woman and hit another woman. That second woman went to the police and tried to convince them to charge Cardi with battery. The cops investigated, but it looks like the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department is Bardigang.

Cardi B is in the clear after throwing a microphone at a fan … because the criminal battery investigation has been dropped.

Cardi’s lawyers, Drew Findling, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, tell TMZ, “This afternoon we were notified by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Dept., that as a result of their investigation, there will be NO charges against Cardi. On behalf of Cardi, we appreciate the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Dept’s diligent and prompt resolution of this matter.”

As you know, Cardi was performing at Drai’s Beachclub last Saturday when she asked the crowd to splash water on her to cool her down in the burning Vegas heat … but when someone threw a cup with an unknown liquid and ice, she hurled the mic at the person. It ricocheted and hit another person, who filed a police report.

Cardi was then listed as a battery suspect but the case has gone nowhere. It was never ever referred to the D.A. The cops concluded Cardi did not commit a criminal offense.

We learned an audio production company that owns the mic decided to auction off the piece, with the money going to charities like the Wounded Warrior Project and Friendship Circle Las Vegas, which helps teens and young adults with special needs. FYI, the bids have hit $100,000.

[From TMZ]

Auctioning off the microphone for charity was a nice touch. Cardi should bid on it too. Anyway, I’m sure someone in the crowd will probably end up suing Cardi, but give her some credit: she has great lawyers. The fact that she had three lawyers protecting her on a mic-throwing situation tells you all you need to know.

Cardi B throws microphone at audience member who threw a drink at her. pic.twitter.com/alLgHMFshb

— Pop Base (@PopBase) July 30, 2023

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

I really love the gossip world’s apathy about Tom Brady and Irina Shayk. We were supposed to be scandalized, I guess? Or we were supposed to really care about this “hot new couple.” To be fair, it’s not like people hate Tomrina or Trina (or whatever we’re calling them) – we wish them well on their grown-up adventures. News at seven, Tom is dating another beautiful model months after the last model divorced his ass. Well, here’s more news: Irina and Tom had another date, this time in New York. Their previous dating adventure was in LA.

Tom Brady and Irina Shayk went on a romantic sushi date mere days after their romance was exposed, Page Six can exclusively reveal. An eyewitness tells us the former NFL star and the supermodel enjoyed a “private and ensconced” dinner for two at Sushi Azabu in New York City’s neighborhood of Tribeca on July 28.

“I was dining at the sushi counter, and as I was finishing my meal, Tom Brady was coming in,” the spy shares, adding that restaurant employees immediately escorted the retired athlete to a “private room.” A few minutes later, as our source was “outside, chatting with some friends,” they saw “Irina come in, and she was taken to the exact same private room.”

“It was just the two of them,” our insider explains. “They were just in their own little world. They clearly didn’t want to be around people.”

Our observant informant says the other patrons did not fuss over the celebrities. For the secret outing, we’re told Brady was “dressed very casually, like in a T-shirt, jeans and sneakers.”

Shayk, however, arrived “much more formal and elegant, like [it was] a date kind of situation.”

A staffer at the posh eatery tells us they do not disclose information about their guests, and reps for the stars did not immediately respond to our requests for comment. The famed quarterback, 46, and the runway vixen, 37, made headlines on July 24 after having a sleepover at Brady’s Los Angeles pad.

[From Page Six]

Irina is New York-based, as is Tom’s son Jack (Jack lives primarily with his mom Bridget Monyahan). Tom is a regular in New York because he often visits Jack, rather than making Jack constantly come to him. I would imagine New York hookups are much easier for Irina, and since Tom is regularly in town, they arranged this. I kind of enjoy the pretense of “dating” for these two – I mean, Irina probably spent the night with him on their first date, and it also would have been pretty easy for them to keep their New York dates out of the public sphere. Instead, he’s making a point of wining and dining her. I guess that’s the signal that it’s not just a hookup, they’re actually interested in each other. I find Irina to be very funny in a blunt-Russian way. I wonder if Tom enjoys that side of her? I’m genuinely trying to imagine what their conversations are like.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instagram.

Roger Federer is enjoying his retirement. He retired last year, just weeks after Serena Williams played her final match in New York. I still love that the two GOATs went out within weeks of each other – they’re the same age, they came up at the same time, and they are two of the biggest stars tennis will ever see. Roger has spent his first retirement year traveling, hanging out on stage with Coldplay, developing a new fashion line with his sponsor Uniqlo, and visiting Wimbledon for a special Royal Box honor last month. Roger was asked to come to Wimbledon and sit in the Royal Box with the Princess of Wales (and his family). Afterwards, all people could talk about was how much Cauliflower Kate flirted with Roger, how they would make a good couple (??) and how Roger’s wife Mirka looked “over” Roger and Kate’s flirty energy. Well, Rog was in NYC this week to promote his new fashion line, and he chatted with the NY Times about retirement, fashion and “Princess Catherine.” Oh, lord.

His retirement: “I always feel like I’ve reached a high point, and then it keeps going. Life without the game, and life without the fans, and life without the schedule that has dominated my life for 25 years has definitely been something I didn’t know how I would take. For the longest time I tried to come back and give it one more shot and leave the game healthy, but it was not doable. But the good/bad thing about Covid, and with my knee surgery, is that everything started to slow down in the past three years, so it wasn’t like I came from playing 100 matches and then boom, it’s over. At the end I was relieved, I think, and happy to retire. It ended in the most perfect way at the Laver Cup. I was surrounded by my biggest rivals, and my family was there and my friends. For me it felt like, “OK, I’m good now. I don’t need to chase that itch anymore.”

What it was like to come back to Wimbledon & sit in the Royal Box: “Last year I walked out on Centre Court for the 100-year anniversary celebration. It was beautiful but painful. I was injured. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to play again, so it was a very emotional moment. But this year was totally different. My dad whispered to me, “Don’t you wish you were playing on court instead of sitting and watching?” and I was like, “No. I feel content watching and enjoying the game.” It was so fun sitting next to Princess Catherine. I know her quite well. She is an avid tennis fan, and she plays herself. Sometimes we have to be careful we don’t speak too much. You can talk, and then it’s super-quiet, and then you have to applaud.

Eating burgers in NYC & the buzz in the city: “I’ve always been strict and serious about being a professional athlete, but I would eat burgers, I would eat desserts, I would have a glass of wine. For me having a burger was nothing out of the ordinary, but this one was perfect looking, so I had to post a picture of it. I was so busy when I came for the Met Gala. I feel the buzz is back.

[From The NY Times]

True story about the 2022 Wimbledon centenary event on Center Court: I am still shocked that the royal patron of Wimbledon skipped it entirely. Kate just… didn’t go. It was this huge moment for the tournament, they brought back so many of their former champions, including Roger, and Kate didn’t give a sh-t. As for Roger referring to her as “Princess Catherine” – I’m sure she loves that. I doubt Mirka loves it, which is probably why Roger says “Sometimes we have to be careful we don’t speak too much.” Because Kate was trying to get in his face the whole time.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

The past few months in the Sussex trenches have reminded me a bit of Prince Harry and Meghan’s last year in the royal fold, 2019. By that I mean, Harry and Meghan are being attacked and smeared wall-to-wall, so much so that constructive criticism made in good faith is seen as all part of the larger blanket of negativity. When Harry and Meghan stepped away from royal life, one of my biggest hopes was that they would figure out a way to operate, exist and thrive in an entirely new way and never play by those “royal rules” ever again. Yet here we are, four years later, and they’re still under siege, just in a different way. This time, it’s about their business and their refusal to be proactive to protect themselves professionally. Their non-response to the nastiness of the Spotify divorce has led to all of this: months of speculation in the US and UK about their business. People Magazine has another exclusive as part of their cover story and this one is all about their business:

In 2020, they were overvalued. “The attention, commotion, and hubbub was wrapped up in the fact that Harry is a royal, and people threw money at them with hopes and dreams that it would translate into success,” a Hollywood insider tells PEOPLE exclusively in this week’s cover story. “But I think it’s been a rude awakening for everyone — it’s like they built a house with no foundation. The royal element, and the in some ways the drama around them, inflated the price, deals and expectations.”

Their Netflix docuseries was a big success for Meghan: Harry & Meghan broke streaming records, and a different Hollywood source says that Meghan displayed a keen marketing sensibility and was closely involved in the promotional plan. “She was fully engaged and had actionable ideas,” says the source. However, Prince Harry and Meghan’s Netflix projects without a royal component haven’t shared the series’ success. The docuseries Live to Lead, about various global changemakers, debuted to indifference, and an animated project called Pearl, about a little girl inspired by female leaders, was quietly dropped last year, although other scripted projects are reportedly in the works.

Archetypes: One veteran podcasting executive says Spotify is partly to blame, pointing out that the Obamas have since moved their podcasting operations to Audible: “No one stuck it out [at Spotify], because the shows weren’t done well, or they overpaid and they couldn’t bring in audiences,” says the executive.

But critics hated Archetypes’ execution. “What works in podcasting is authenticity and intimacy and revealing things either about yourself or about a topic that says something that [listeners] haven’t really thought about,” says the executive. “None of that happened. And Meghan wasn’t prepared to do that, because she lives an incredibly guarded life.”

Unsteady footing & overstaffed on one end: A source close to the Archetypes production says the couple was not set up for success at Spotify: “They were given no formal lay of the land to kick things off, so they were already on unsteady footing even before the ink was dry.” But the protective web spun around the Duke and Duchess of Sussex did not help. “Things moved very slowly on both ends,” the source says. “It was rare to have a direct conversation with them, so everything had to flow through a million middle persons.”

Meghan signing with WME: Up next? Meghan signed with recently signed with powerhouse agency William Morris Endeavor — something a top Hollywood insider describes as “really smart, because they can put her in touch with filmmakers and creative people and producers and people who know how to make a TV show or a film.” With the right projects and people around them, the insider says, a second act is within reach: “I think within Hollywood, people are rooting for them.”

[From People]

“What works in podcasting is authenticity and intimacy and revealing things either about yourself…None of that happened. And Meghan wasn’t prepared to do that, because she lives an incredibly guarded life.” Again, Archetypes was a huge success and while I would have loved for Meghan to get more intimate and personal, she had a steep learning curve as a podcaster and she hit her stride within a few episodes. Spotify was stupid to let her go and it was disgusting for a Spotify executive to publicly bad-mouth them on their way out the door. Which… is why the pushback shouldn’t be from various unnamed sources in People or Variety – the Archewell spokesperson needed to go on the record with the Sussexes’ perspective the moment Bill Simmons’ “f–king grifter” comments got picked up. Did anyone at Archewell tell H&M that? Did they listen? You can yell at me forever for saying that they need to overhaul their communications strategy, but the whole reason People Magazine and the trade papers are still talking about the Spotify mess is because Harry and Meghan refused to communicate their side and push back with a different narrative.

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

Would it shock you to learn that Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater’s affair began well before they separated from their spouses? LOL. Of course it did. Ari’s people did the most to claim that Ari and Ethan only started “dating” when they were separated from their spouses, Dalton Gomez and Lilly Jay. In Ari’s case, it might even be true, although there’s a growing body of evidence to suggest that Dalton was still in the picture when Ari began screwing around with Ethan. Meanwhile, Ethan absolutely blindsided Lilly Jay with his affair and divorce filing. Now the Mail is running an exclusive with details about Ethan and Ari’s “sloppy” affair and their lies about when they started up:

Ariana Grande and her boyfriend Ethan Slater went on ‘multiple double dates’ with their respective spouses even while carrying on their own romance, an insider has revealed – as images and video show the pair looking incredibly intimate, months before their relationship was made public. The couple’s surprise romance was revealed to the world just a few weeks ago – days after it was announced that Ariana, 30, had split from Dalton Gomez, her husband of just two years.

However, a source has now alleged that Ariana and Ethan, 31 – who recently filed for divorce from wife Lilly Jay, with whom he has an 11-month-old baby – were involved romantically for months before the world found out about their relationship, having grown close while on the set of their upcoming movie. Furthermore, the insider says that the pair were so open with their romance during filming that the majority of the Wicked cast were aware that they were in a relationship.

‘They were sloppy on set,’ the insider shared. ‘They were seen being all over each other while he was still supposedly happily married to Lilly. They were seen making out at a pub in Hampstead, and they were all over each other at Michelle Yeoh’s Oscar party [in March].’

Social media video posted from that party – which took place on March 27 – shows Ariana and Ethan looking very intimate while preparing to take a photo with their fellow Wicked co-stars, while other images snapped on the set of the movie capture them heading towards the trailers together, where the source alleges they spent time away from prying eyes.

However, even as these images and videos were being captured, the source further alleges that Ariana and Ethan went on ‘multiple’ double dates with Dalton and Lilly whenever they visited their spouses on the set.

‘Ariana and Dalton went on double dates with Ethan and Lilly several times – and they were seen out by cast members,’ the source said. ‘Lilly and Ethan also met Ariana’s family together, including her mom and her brother.’

A source close to Ariana and Ethan has previously claimed that the singer ‘hung out’ with Lilly and her newborn baby multiple times before her romance with her co-star was revealed – and even told those around her how much she ‘wanted a baby one day’ after bonding with Lilly and Ethan’s.

Shortly after her last visit to London, Lilly learned that her husband was dating Ariana. They allegedly tried to fix their broken marriage for a short time after Lilly learned of his feelings for Ariana, to no avail.

‘There was a period when they were all going to try and work on their marriages and put the whole thing behind them,’ the source said. ‘She thought they were happy. But that did not work out [because Ariana and Ethan] kept the affair going despite [that].’ The insider said that Ethan then blindsided his wife by filing for divorce, insisting that the decision to officially end the marriage was made entirely by the actor. ‘Lilly did not file for divorce from Ethan, he filed for divorce from her,’ they continued.

[From The Daily Mail]

Page Six had several stories with other sources (or the same sources) confirming all of this too – that Ethan and Lilly went on double-dates with Ariana and Dalton, that Ari and Ethan’s affair was pretty much conducted publicly for months before Ari’s people confirmed it two weeks ago. I get the feeling that Ariana just operates that way, like she doesn’t give a f–k who notices that she’s having affairs or carrying on with married men. It’s very “Miranda Lambert before she married that cop.” Miranda Lambert had salad-tossing drama, Ariana had donut-licking drama. Anyway, despite the fact that Ethan is apparently still in New York dealing with his family drama, all of these stories have the feel of Lilly Jay continuing to brief the tabloids. Good for her, truly. I love that she isn’t going away quietly.

Note by CB: Get the Top 8 stories about Ariana’s Grande’s messy affair when you sign up for our mailing list! I only send one email a day on weekdays.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Instagram.

Byline Times has now run seven different pieces in their seemingly unending series about Dan Wootton, the current GB News personality and former tabloid writer and editor. Most of Byline’s reporting is from the period of time when Wootton was a powerful gossip columnist and editor for The Sun. In 2020, he was finally pushed out of The Sun, which is when he moved over to GB News and the Daily Mail. Byline has extensive evidence and sourcing to back up their claims that Wootton is a serial blackmailer, a serial sexual harasser, a credibly accused sexual predator and one of the biggest bullies in British media. Even the details about his catfishing operation are ludicrously sleazy. With each passing day, Byline gathers more evidence and with each passing day, there’s been little to no movement from Wootton’s employers. Until now – Wootton has been suspended from the Mail:

Dan Wootton has been suspended by MailOnline after allegations emerged that he used a pseudonym to secretly offer his colleagues tens of thousands of pounds in return for sexual material. The GB News presenter has had a lucrative job writing a twice-weekly column for MailOnline since 2021 but it has not appeared since the allegations were made public by his ex-boyfriend last month.

Wootton is also under investigation by his former employers at Rupert Murdoch’s News UK, where he worked for more than a decade as a celebrity journalist. The company has hired an external law firm to investigate claims Wootton targeted current and former Sun employees with offers of money in return for explicit images.

A spokesperson for DMG media, the parent company of MailOnline, confirmed Wootton would not be working for them for the foreseeable future. They said: “We are continuing to consider a series of allegations which Dan Wootton – who has written columns for MailOnline since 2021 as one of several outside freelance contributors – has strenuously denied. The allegations are obviously serious but also complex and historic and there is an independent investigation under way at the media group which employed him during the relevant period. In the meantime, his freelance column with MailOnline has been paused.”

The spokesperson did not immediately clarify whether Wootton would continue to be paid by MailOnline. The journalist is running a crowdfunder to pay for his legal fees.

Wootton continues to present a nightly primetime show on the rightwing GB News channel, rallying supporters against a supposed leftwing plot to have him cancelled. In a statement two weeks ago he accepted having made mistakes in his past but denied criminal wrongdoing.

Wootton’s lawyer has since told the Guardian Wootton denies many of the allegations that have been levelled against him by his ex-boyfriend and reporting in Byline Times.

The lawyer said: “For the avoidance of further doubt, our client did not at any time contact current or former colleagues at the Sun with offers of money in return for sexually explicit images, he did not engage in inappropriate behaviour in the workplace, and he did not misuse News UK funds.”

[From The Guardian]

When the Sun/News Group Newspapers announced that they were investigating Wootton’s time within Murdoch’s papers, they made a point of saying that they hired someone (likely a law firm) to conduct the investigation as a neutral third-party. This is the same thing the Murdochs had to do at Fox News when the Roger Ailes mess exploded, and it’s actually an incredibly effective method of getting victims to come forward to speak to someone seen as a neutral arbiter. It does not sound like the Mail is doing the same. It sounds like the Mail is fake-suspending Wootton until the heat dies down and then they’ll bring him back in a few months, just in time to foam at the mouth about How Woke Barbie Is All Woke Meghan’s Fault (you know he’s itching to write that column).

Screenshots courtesy of GB News.