When Joe Manganiello and Sofia Vergara’s split was first announced this week, my first instinct/guess was “I wonder if this was about kids.” Sofia was a young mother – her son Manolo is already 31 years old. She has repeatedly expressed her lack of desire to do any of that again. Considering all of the crap she went through with Nick Loeb, I always assumed she put her cards on the table with Joe and let him know that she had no interest in having another kid.

Well, as TMZ reported, Joe was the one to file for divorce. His lawyer is Laura Wasser, there’s a prenup in place and neither party seems interested in contesting it. I would imagine there will be a minor fight over real estate, but overall this will probably be a pretty cut-and-dry divorce. At the end of TMZ’s piece, they noted: “Speaking of kids, we’re hearing a big reason Joe has filed is their conflict over having children — he wants them, she does not.” Page Six’s source said the same thing:

Joe Manganiello chose to end his seven-year marriage to Sofía Vergara because they disagreed on the topic of children, Page Six has learned. A source close to the “True Blood” star, 46, tells us he’s always wanted to be a dad and that those feelings have only intensified in recent years.

It’s unclear where Vergara, 51, stood on the subject when the two said “I do” in November 2015, but we’re told she may have been open to it at the time. The “Modern Family” star is already mom to 31-year-old son Manolo, whom she shares with her ex-husband, Joe Gonzalez.

She was also dragged into a lengthy court battle over custody of two frozen embryos from her 2013 IVF treatments with then-fiancé Nick Loeb, who sought to bring them to term. Though a judge ultimately ruled in the actress’ favor in March 2021, we’re told the experience may have affected her view on having more kids.

Our insider tells us this disparity in the estranged couple’s relationship is the real reason for the split, noting that the “irreconcilable differences” Manganiello cited in his divorce petition – which he filed Wednesday – is accurate. Despite reports claiming the actor’s longtime sobriety negatively impacted the marriage, our source does not believe that to be the case.

[From Page Six]

In case you’ve blocked out the Nick Loeb saga, that a–hole kept dragging Sofia into court for years after she broke off their engagement. Loeb wanted “custody” of the embryos they created while they were together – he wanted to implant the embryos into another woman and raise Sofia’s biological children as a single father. It was truly bonkers. Loeb’s other aim was to be a nuisance, a thorn in Sofia’s side, and attempt to do damage to her marriage to Joe. If Sofia was originally open to having a kid with Joe, and then the Loeb stuff affected her, I don’t really blame her. Although, as I said at the beginning of the post, I kind of think Sofia was always done with having kids. That’s her right. And Joe can change his mind too.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

It’s a regular thing, where the British tabloids get these really strange and random stories involving Prince William and Kate. The “padel tennis” story was like that – I don’t believe that William and Kate are regulars at a luxury club in Windsor, playing padel tennis together, but I do believe that the story was meant to encourage the belief that “all is well” in the Wales household. A good rule of thumb for most gossip stories: if they’re trying that hard to convince you of something, you know the opposite is true. Speaking of, the Sun has another random story about Prince William: he bought himself an electric scooter so he can travel around the Windsor estate, because he 100% lives at Adelaide Cottage, remember?

The Prince of Wales has treated himself to an electric scooter to zip around the vast Windsor estate. Eco-friendly Wills, 41, has swapped his love of motorbikes for short trips on the 10mph two-wheeler.

A source said: “It just makes sense. He whizzes up to the castle when he needs to see the King.”

E-scooter sales have soared in recent years. They are illegal to ride on public roads – unless part of an approved hire scheme – but they can be used on ­private land, as Wills does.

The source added: “It’s a two or three-mile round trip from his family home at ­Adelaide Cottage to Windsor Castle so it’s easier by scooter than car or walking.”

The 655-acre estate also includes a golf course, ­­Frog­more House and the Sussexes’s former home, Frogmore Cottage. Last year The Sun on Sunday told how the Queen was getting around the estate on a six-seater golf buggy.

[From The Sun]

None of this is true, I’m sure. William doesn’t live at Adelaide Cottage, nor does he spend much time on the Windsor estate, and King Charles is rarely in residence at Windsor either. I also just refuse to believe that William would tool around on a two-wheel scooter… when surely a fancy (and electric) golf cart would be much more his style. Plus, I don’t even think there are many paved roads and paved paths around Windsor? There are a lot of gravel roads and dirt paths, not the best for two-wheel scooters.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Whenever I read about the “anti-woke” legislation aimed at public schools and public libraries, I reflect back on my own public school education in Virginia. It was dreadfully incomplete when it came to the American history of slavery, colonialism and genocide of Native Americans, but also… there were actual conversations about those sensitive topics, real historical context about what happened during the Trail of Tears, the Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement. Like, of course there was a lot of sugarcoating and a lot of “and then Dr. Martin Luther King Jr flew in with a cape and saved everything,” but it’s shocking to realize that my incomplete and sugarcoated public school education in Virginia three decades ago was probably much more nuanced and historically accurate than whatever is happening in Florida right now. Speaking of, Florida Gov. Meatball Ron DeSantis has now mandated that Florida public schools teach kids that enslaved people were actually learning skills for personal benefit. This piece of sh-t.

Newly approved academic standards from Florida’s Board of Education will require middle schools to teach that enslaved people “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit” — a line that has ignited significant controversy among teachers’ groups.

The standards, which were approved Wednesday, come in response to the state’s 2022 “Stop WOKE Act,” which stated that race must be taught in “an objective manner” that does not “indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view.” The measure pushed far-right lawmakers’ rhetoric that teaching Black history makes White people feel ashamed, instructing that no student should be made to feel “guilt” or “responsibility” for actions previously committed by members of the same race.

According to the new education guidelines, middle school teachers must now teach students about “the various duties and trades performed by slaves (e.g., agricultural work, painting, carpentry, tailoring, domestic service, blacksmithing, transportation).” A benchmark clarification listed in the standards includes the note that teachers should also instruct that enslaved people developed skills, “in some instances… for their personal benefit.”

Another guideline directs teachers to instruct high schoolers about “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans” when teaching about the rebuilding of Black communities during Reconstruction. The standards list the 1920 Ocoee Massacre, in which more than 30 African Americans were killed by a White mob while attempting to vote, among the examples of “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.”

According to the Florida Education Association (FEA), a statewide teachers’ union, several organizations and individuals spoke in opposition to the proposed standards in a public hearing Wednesday, and asked the board to table the standards until they could be revised. But, “when public comment ended, the board voted to adopt them. There was no discussion,” the FEA wrote on Twitter. In a press release sent immediately after the standards were adopted, the FEA called them “a big step backward.”

[From People]

Can someone stop white people? My God. Here in Virginia, our governor basically successfully ran on a platform of banning books written by Black authors. That’s happening all over the country too, in states with Republican governors and Republican-majorities in their state houses. This is the battleground they’ve chosen: indoctrinating children on a false American history, a literal whitewashing of Black American history, a censorship of Black authors and an erasure of Black experience. The whole thing is so offensive and grotesque.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

I knew Ariana Grande had someone waiting in the wings as soon as she turned up at Wimbledon without her wedding ring, and within 24 hours, we found out that she was divorcing her husband of two years, Dalton Gomez. The only thing I was wrong about was my theory that the jumpoff was Andrew Garfield. It’s NOT Garfy!! Please, Ariana doesn’t have that kind of taste in men. She likes… um, dudes who don’t have the raw sexual magnetism of Andrew Garfield. Her jumpoff is very much her type, with a new twist. The new guy, as confirmed by TMZ and People, is Ethan Slater. Y’all, he’s married with a baby at home.

Ariana Grande is moving on after her split from husband Dalton Gomez. The “Thank U, Next” singer, 30, is dating Broadway alum Ethan Slater, her costar in the upcoming film adaptation of Wicked, sources confirm to PEOPLE.

“Ariana and Dalton separated in January,” one source says. “She and Ethan recently began dating, and he is separated from his wife.”

Reps for both stars have not returned multiple requests for comment. TMZ was first to report the news. Grande is set to play Glinda in Universal’s film adaptation of the beloved Broadway musical, while Slater, 31, will play Boq, the love interest of Elphaba’s sister Nessarose.

The movie began shooting in the U.K. last year and was scheduled for release in November 2024, though it remains unclear if the SAG-AFTRA strike will affect its premiere.

[From People]

Ariana basically moved to London late last year to work on Wicked, which is when (we now know) her marriage was pretty much over. Dalton apparently tried to win her back, but she was done with him. So… I wonder when Ari and Ethan Slater started? They’re established/comfortable enough of as a couple where Ari’s people are openly telling People Magazine that he left his wife. The same wife he gushed over just two months ago. The wife’s name is Lilly Jay. Lilly and Ethan married in 2018 – they were high school sweethearts. Lilly gave birth to their son last year. This is giving me strong Miranda Lambert vibes!! Oh, Ariana, what the hell did you do???

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

A few days ago, I read this interesting and sad piece in the Hollywood Reporter about why the British actors’ union, Equity, can’t and won’t strike in solidarity with SAG-AFTRA. Equity actors basically cannot strike whatsoever, per British laws. Various British industries have unions and those unions can collective-bargain for their rights as workers, but there are really strict laws about strikes. Which sort of renders most unions toothless and their threats hollow, which is the point. THR mentioned that many British productions with Equity actors will continue to work throughout the strike, even if SAG actors and WGA writers walked off the production.

Well, speaking of, Brad Pitt’s Formula 1 movie has been filming in the UK for weeks/months already. This is the movie where Pitt, who turns 60 years old in December, plays a Formula 1 driver. The production filmed at the British Grand Prix a few weeks ago and Pitt was doing scenes with Damson Idris. Well, earlier this week, it was confirmed that Apex halted production because of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Pitt is SAG member and he said some sh-t about how he’s a “good union member” and he won’t cross the (non-existent British) picket lines. Apex is being produced by AppleTV, which is (you guessed it) one of the streamers responsible for breaking the residuals system. Well, funny story – Pitt may not be filming anything, but the production has not halted.

A strike led by the Screen Actors Guild over pay and residuals has disrupted work on a number of movies involving some of the industry’s biggest stars. With legend Brad Pitt understood to be showing solidarity for the action, there were inaccurate reports last week that production of the new F1 film would be halted until the strike was over.

However, while Pitt himself may be absent, filming for the Apple movie is still carrying on within the F1 paddock as there remain opportunities for track action and paddock footage to be obtained even without the main stars.

Ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, the garage of the fictional Apex team that Pitt drives for in the movie has been set up once again in the pit lane. Furthermore, there are plans in the Hungaroring timetable for more high-speed action footage to be captured with the modified F2 cars that appeared for the first time at the British Grand Prix.

It is understood that there are plans for footage to be captured of Apex pit stops, parc ferme reaction and grid activity over the Hungary weekend.

[From MotorSport]

It sounds like they’re going to film all of the car-stunts and driving scenes while Pitt’s on strike. What’s interesting about that is… um, stuntmen and stunt drivers are SAG-AFTRA union members too. Unless Apex is only using British scabs – Equity actors and British stunt drivers. Which is possible. But it certainly makes me question the initial statements from Pitt about how the production would be shut down during the strike. It also makes me question if Pitt actually will cross the metaphorical picket line. When in Rome, or in this case, when in union-busting Salt Island.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Byline Times released Part 2 of their “three-part exposé” on Dan Wootton on Thursday. Although by Byline’s own admission, they now have so many people coming forward to speak about Wootton’s work conduct, their exposé might end up being much more than a trilogy. Byline’s Part 2 is exclusively about Wootton’s conduct at the Sun, where he worked from 2013 through 2020. He ran the Sun’s Bizarre column, which is the outlet’s signature entertainment/gossip column. But as we saw in real time, Wootton found ways to stretch his purview and, in his final years at the Sun, he was constantly covering the royal beat, politics, major entertainment stories and more. He was not only a writer but an editor with the newspaper, which meant he had a lot of power within the tabloid – power over men and women. He was a terrible boss – he sexually harassed people, he bullied subordinates, he tried to “out” coworkers, he stole coworker’s sources and much, much more. Byline Times reveals that six people received out-of-court settlements from the Sun because of the toxic workplace culture created by Wootton.

Wootton left behind a trail of destruction at the Sun: Byline Times has now spoken to multiple former editorial and support staff at Britain’s biggest tabloid, many of whom are fearful of being identified after their experiences working at Murdoch-owned News UK – with one left suicidal, another suffering stress-induced hair loss, and others deserting the industry. For that reason, we are protecting their identities, although they are known to their former employer which, last night – in response to a request for comment sent by Byline Times – contacted all staff at The Sun, announcing that it was looking into our “allegations urgently”.

Six employees received settlements after complaining about Wootton’s bullying & harassment: In one of the cases, a very senior member of The Sun team took a kitchen knife to a meeting with a former editor of the newspaper with the intention of slitting their own wrists in front of the executive, who had sided with Wootton in a dispute ultimately settled for a six-figure sum. The Sun made the pay-out at the eleventh hour ‘at the steps’ of an employment tribunal in 2018, at which emails from Wootton disclosed to the employee’s lawyers would have entered the public record and led to judicial findings of fact.

Sexual harassment: Former staff have told Byline Times’ investigators how Wootton “continually tried to make people admit they were bisexual or gay – he challenged people on their sexual orientation all the time”. Several sources have spoken of the sexual harassment of male colleagues, while at least two female colleagues were reduced to tears daily by his conduct. Naming three particular targets of “very inappropriate behaviour”, they said: “He sexually harassed these male colleagues all the time. One would come in and Dan would often comment on the way he looked and goad him, saying ‘are you sure you want to be married? We all know you’re gay’. He was pressurising them to turn [gay] and acting like it was a joke but people – men, women, everyone who heard – were visibly uncomfortable especially as it was coming from a boss.”

Wootton controlled the payment system for sources: The staffer said: “It was ridiculously stressful. He was constantly condescending and sarcastic. Diaries of his behaviour were kept – the things he was doing. As the boss, he had control over the company payment system. He would sabotage other journalists. He would go into the payment system and find out the names of contacts. He would then get in touch with them himself and make them deal with him directly. It was impossible to do your job. The most valuable thing a journalist has are their contacts. They are our stock in trade. It was a classic campaign of constructive dismissal. He knew what he was doing.”

Everything changed when the Sun brought in the current editor, Victoria Newton: In February 2020, on her first day in the role, Wootton left Newton furious by “demanding” she promote him, prompting a “cute” move by the new editor, who reached out to Wootton’s “best remaining royal contact” and placed them on a special retainer ensuring that they dealt exclusively with her. A source said: “This was the beginning of the end for Dan at The Sun. He didn’t like having the same move pulled on him that he had done to so many contacts of other people.” Less than a year later, Wootton left News UK for his current position at GB News.

[From Byline Times]

“The new editor… reached out to Wootton’s ‘best remaining royal contact’ and placed them on a special retainer ensuring that they dealt exclusively with her.” Meaning Wootton had been paying a royal contact for some time, then Victoria Newman went behind Wootton’s back, and put that royal contact on retainer, dealing with her exclusively? If the royal contact actually works in, say, Kensington Palace, this is not only unacceptable and unethical, it’s against the law. Note the timing too – February 2020, weeks after Wootton broke the Sussexit story in January of that year. And months after Newman defanged Wootton, the Sun then gave a seven-figure secret settlement to Prince William. In 2019, Wootton was also the one to break the infamous “rural rival” story.

Remember Prince William’s former private secretary Christian Jones? He suddenly resigned in early 2021, after many, many rumors about his connections to Dan Wootton?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, GB News.

We’re coming up on the one-year anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s death. King Charles will want people to think that he’s still grieving (he’s not) and that the changing of the guards was seamless and there were not many changes made. Unfortunately, the numbers show a different story: King Charles is a landlord and one of the first things he did was raise the rents. That has meant a windfall for the Duchy of Lancaster, a real-estate conglomerate solely owned by the monarch.

Rents in the United Kingdom are rising at a record pace, a trend that helped the nation’s most famous landlord, King Charles III, make a big payday. Charles received 26.2 million pounds, or about $34.3 million, this year from his vast property empire, known as the Duchy of Lancaster. Charles inherited the estate when his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, died last fall.

The 45,000-acre estate is roughly the size of Washington D.C. and generates millions of dollars a year in rental income, without paying corporation taxes like most businesses in Britain are obliged to. (Charles voluntarily pays an undisclosed amount of tax on his private income).

The Duchy recently published its first records since Charles took the throne. They show that he has weathered the financial woes faced by his nation, raking in a bigger private income than his mother ever did. Those profits came in part thanks to increased rents on tenants living on royal land. The Duchy also saw increased earnings from commercial properties.

Charles’s private income from the Duchy was £26.2 million, about £2 million more than his mother last made. Charles has fewer family members to support than his mother did. This money is separate from the annual £86 million (around $112 million) taxpayer-funded Sovereign Grant, which pays for most official royal expenses.

Records show that the Duchy raised rents by 3 percent over the last fiscal year, which is just below the pace of private rental increases that have contributed to a cost-of-living crisis. Private rents are increasing at their fastest rate on record across the United Kingdom, though the official figures only go back to 2016. The Duchy’s rent hikes accounted for an extra £8.2 million for the royal coffers. The Duchy said that “refurbishment and restoration” had led to “improved rental values.”

[From The NYT]

This was one of the shadiest royal articles I’ve ever read in the Times. The Times emphasized that the Duchy raised the rents in a time of widespread financial hardship for the country, in a time of falling wages and rising food costs. The Times also pointed out that while Charles promised a “slimmed down monarchy,” the Duchy of Lancaster has been on a spending spree. The Duchy’s operating costs have increased, and the chief executive of the Duchy gave himself a pay raise – he’s now making £275,000.

Not only all of that, but Charles has also leased royal land commercially for “royal windfarms,” and it’s been a huge financial success, generating record profits for the Crown Estate. The government isn’t going to let Charles have those profits though – the Sovereign Grant will remain the same, but it will be effectively a “lower percentage” of the Crown Estate’s profits. They had to recalculate the formula so Charles, already a billionaire landlord who raised rents on his tenets, wouldn’t also benefit from the windfarm scheme.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

I am a huge fan of film scores (well, to be more precise, good ones). I’m not a musician, and I think the fact that I know nothing about the inner workings of composition actually contributes to the interest: it’s an experience that is purely visceral and non-verbal. Over the years I’ve taken note of composers; which ones I liked, what kind of movies they tended to score, and what directors they often worked with. Among the most prolific of contemporary film composers is Danny Elfman, who came up with the theme music for The Simpsons and has worked numerous times with Sam Raimi, Gus Van Sant, and Tim Burton. Not only did Elfman write the songs for The Nightmare Before Christmas, he also is the singing voice for Jack Skellington himself. He is the Pumpkin King! Which makes this news in New York Post–that he settled sexual harassment charges for $830,000 with a young composer, and has been delinquent in payments–all the more heartbreaking and infuriating:

Celebrated composer Danny Elfman settled a sexual assault with former friend and composer Nomi Abadi in 2018 for a whopping $830,000 after she accused him of multiple instances of sexual harassment, according to a report.

Now she is suing Elfman again, claiming that he failed to make two installments worth $42,500 in each July 2019 and 2021 as required by terms of the settlement, Rolling Stone reported.

Elfman, 70, and Abadi, 35, met in 2015, according to the lawsuit, and the pair became fast friends.

In November 2017, however, the former child prodigy who had performed with orchestras since the age of 5, filed a report with the Los Angeles Police Department accusing Elfman of “indecent exposure,” the magazine reported.

For over a year, Elfman had exposed his genitals in front of her and masturbated multiple times without her consent, Abadi claimed.

Elfman denied the allegations in a lengthy statement to Rolling Stone.

He said their relationship was platonic, and Abadi became frustrated with him after he declined her romantic advances.

“How do I respond to accusations so serious that being innocent is not a valid defense? It is excruciating to consider that a 50-year career may be destroyed in one news cycle as a result of vicious and wholly false allegations about sexual misconduct,” he said in a statement to the magazine.

“Ms. Abadi’s allegations are simply not true. I allowed someone to get close to me without knowing that I was her ‘childhood crush’ and that her intention was to break up my marriage and replace my wife. When this person realized that I wanted distance from her, she made it clear that I would pay for having rejected her,” continued Elfman, who has been married to former actress Bridget Fonda since 2003.

“I allowed an ill-advised friendship to have far-reaching consequences, and that error in judgment is entirely my fault. I have done nothing indecent or wrong, and my lawyers stand ready to prove with voluminous evidence that these accusations are false. This is the last I will say on this subject,” he said.

A representative for the Oingo Boingo frontman subsequently told Rolling Stone that all of Elfman and Abadi’s “limited interactions” did not involve sexual contact and “were fully consensual.”

[From New York Post]

“How do I respond to accusations so serious that being innocent is not a valid defense?” What does this even mean?! Is he suggesting that if he were accused of something less severe, all he’d have to say is “I’m innocent” and that would be enough? But what’s really telling is the second sentence where he reveals the only thing he’s actually worried about–his 50 year career. A tip for men worried about their legacies: don’t emotionally, physically, or sexually abuse people you encounter.

The band rep’s quote had me pinging too. Why note that there was no sexual contact between Elfman and Abadi, and then go on to say all their meetings “were fully consensual.” Is it common to point out that meetings with friends are consensual? And of course there’s the question, like Kaiser raised when Tenoch Huerta released a statement in response to allegations last month, how can a third party attest to something being consensual? This is so disgusting and disappointing.

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Greta Gerwig covers the current digital issue of Elle UK. The shoot is very… British. That’s not a slam nor a compliment, it’s just a statement of fact. They made her look like a lady who lunches (in London). They made her look like she’s one of King Charles’s goddaughters and she also might have had an affair with him when she was 19 and platinum blonde. Gerwig’s interview is in support of Barbie, which she co-wrote and directed. The details about the movie are slim, but that’s not even the point anymore. Some highlights:

She didn’t play with Barbies growing up: ‘My mom wasn’t crazy about Barbie. It wasn’t something that felt, necessarily, approved, which made it more intriguing.’ Her family didn’t have a TV, she wasn’t allowed to wear logos: this was not a world of Barbie Dream House-style all-American consumerism. ‘Part of the reason I think I was so intrigued [by this project] is because, not even intellectually, but from deep inside, I understand the counter-arguments. That feels rich.’

She hopes the film subverts sexist stereotypes. Barbie, she says, is, ‘literally plastic. She’s unchanging. If you threw her out, she just wouldn’t disintegrate. If I could give that persona some humanity, some falling-apart-ness, that – in and of itself – would be be meaningful… In this sort of double mirror of the movie, Margot Robbie is also a person we expect to be perfect. What does that mean that we also do that? Is she allowed to fall apart and be vulnerable?’

Biblical inspirations: ‘It starts off in a place where there is no aging, no death, no shame, no separation. That’s an oldie but a goodie. Because I went to Catholic school, that story of Eve and Adam suddenly realising they are naked really stuck with me,’ she says. She talks about John Milton’s Paradise Lost, and the idea that there is no poetry without pain.

She just had her second baby: She retires to a private room to pump a bottle of breast milk, which is handed to her assistant, between the shoot and the interview. ‘I’m about to be 40. And there’s something about that where you’re like: Oh! I’m properly middle aged now.’ All parts of life feel extremely activated.’ She shows me a picture of her baby on her lap, at his four-month checkup the previous day. ‘He’s a little Schmoo. I don’t know if you can tell energy from the picture, but that’s very much his energy. He’s a wise little baby…. The little guy is sleeping through the night. But I’m still doing that thing where I wake up, every hour to 90 minutes, and just hover. You just keep wanting to look at that baby. So I’m slightly in a twilight state.’

She wore the same boiler suit, in different colours, every day on the ‘Barbie’ set: Now, she says, as she approaches her forties, ‘I want to start being more playfully outrageous.’ She talks about how fun it was to wear long nails and high heels for our shoot. ‘I don’t want to be 80 and look back and say I could have really done it, from 40 to 60, but I chose to be practical! But we will see how far I get with this,’ she says. Either way, it feels as though she is grabbing the current moment with both hands. ‘I’ll probably look back and say, “That was a really an amazing time. And I don’t know how all of it was possible.” But it’s filled with a lot of happiness.’

[From Elle UK]

The second baby is months old and Greta has been wearing shapeless sack dresses throughout the promotion, so it’s not like it’s huge breaking news that she gave birth before the Barbie promotion started. I like how low-key this announcement was though – like, oh by the way, I need to go pump because my baby is four months old. No one pressed her about it either, no one was really talking about it at all. I do wonder about her relationship with Noah Baumbach, especially given that he left Jennifer Jason Leigh when their son was just months old and he abruptly took up with Greta, and now Greta just had two babies back-to-back. I don’t know! It just feels…like none of my business, I know.

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I wholeheartedly support the writers and actors striking right now, they’re fighting the long overdue fight to structure fair payments in the era of streaming and protect against AI taking their jobs. Speaking selfishly, though, I must admit that the withdrawal symptoms from the cold turkey stop in Last Week Tonight episodes have been intense. I miss the once a week dose of someone telling the truth on TV without worrying about making it palatable for all sides, and then abruptly pivoting to absurdist statements like “Pandas don’t want to be here,” as in on Planet Earth. I know I’m not alone right now in missing John Oliver and his superlative, Emmy award-winning team of writers, so I take some joy in this story of Reddit activists protesting new policies… by flooding the network with photos of Oliver:

What the protestors are doing: Several of Reddit’s largest self-moderated communities, including r/pics and r/aww, have turned spaces that were once devoted to images of everyday life, or cute and cuddly animals, into what may now be the internet’s biggest repository for pictures of the comedian… There have been numerous pictures of Oliver posing in sharply tailored suits, and screenshots of humorous moments from his show. There is Oliver as a koala. There are images of his face superimposed on the Mediterranean fruit commonly used to garnish martinis (“John Olive”). And an AI-generated image of Oliver as a “Game of Thrones” character (“John Oliver Snow”).

What the company is doing: Reddit users are protesting a decision taking effect next month that will introduce fees for apps to access Reddit data, much in the way Twitter has erected a paywall for third-party access to its own platform. Reddit, for its part, is looking to bolster its revenue ahead of a rumored initial public offering. Reddit’s critics have said they object to the suddenness of the change, as well as the steep proposed fees, which are expected to force multiple app makers out of business… more than 6,000 Reddit communities went dark to protest the move, including some of the platform’s most popular forums, which claim to have more than 25 million members.

Reddit Co-founder & CEO Steve Huffman adores Elon Musk: Huffman has staunchly defended the coming move as necessary to help make Reddit a profitable enterprise. He has also sharply criticized Reddit’s volunteer moderators who are committed to the protest, describing them as out of touch and unrepresentative of the forums they lead. And he has praised Elon Musk for his handling of Twitter, citing the company’s billionaire owner as an inspiration for Huffman’s own business decisions.

John Oliver approves: In selecting Oliver as a main object of obsession, however, Reddit users are also appealing to a man with a history of wading into tech topics on-air and causing real-world effects with his show’s coverage. Over the past week, many Reddit users have expressed hopes that Oliver might air a future segment about suddenly becoming the face of the revolt, and perhaps feature their content on his show. Oliver has not committed to using any of the material, but true to form, he himself gave users his blessing to continue posting his image on Reddit and provided even more fodder for them to plaster across the site. “Dear Reddit,” he tweeted last week, “excellent work.”

[From CNN]

Of course he would be covering this if they were on air right now! This is a man who has, over his Last Week Tonight tenure, seen the openings of the John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant and the John Oliver Koala Chlamydia Ward. And this is the second time in the span of a year that Oliver has been inserted into the intersection of art and technology: just last August he wed a cabbage on air after learning there was a vast catalog of AI-generated images devoted to the subject (it was a lovely, if brief ceremony officiated by Steve Buscemi). Reddit’s CEO Huffman sounds like a dick and I’m sure Oliver would expertly read him for filth while also managing to raise funds for the app-owners who will suffer.

photos credit: Getty and Sara De Boer/startraksphoto.com. Screenshots of Reddit.com