Wimbledon coverage is so enjoyable for me because it’s a perfect Venn diagram of my overlapping interests – royalty, tennis and celebrities. I love when tennis drama or celebrity drama invades royal coverage and vice versa. I loved when there was a story about Priyanka Chopra “snubbing” the Princess of Wales. I loved when a joke-tweet about Kate being “drunk” at Wimbledon went viral last year. And I loved how many tennis-watchers noticed that all is not well in Prince William and Kate’s marriage. This year, there were several high-profile comments about how William and Kate looked sort of miserable with each other at the men’s final. They used Charlotte and George as buffers, they barely acknowledged each other and their body language screams “we don’t even live together.” The vibe is well and truly “off.” Which is why the royal media has been in a rush to make it sound like there’s nothing to see here, folks.

Prince William was ‘happy to let Kate Middleton take centre stage’ at Wimbledon as they have ‘struck the perfect balance in public’, a royal expert has claimed. Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams told FEMAIL that Prince William and Kate Middleton’s dynamic at Wimbledon shows how they ‘work superbly as a team’. When the couple arrived at SW19, the Prince of Wales was pictured walking behind his wife and children – with Kate leading the group while holding Charlotte’s hand. What’s more, Kate also led the family into the Royal Box – while Prince William followed Prince George.

Commenting on the family’s engagement yesterday, Richard said: ‘The Prince and Princess of Wales work superbly as a team. Catherine was centre stage because she is Patron of the All England Lawn Tennis Club. A tennis enthusiast herself, the role is ideal for her. There is no question that Catherine radiated confidence. It has been a delight to see this grow over the years.’

The expert then went on to highlight how the Prince and Princess of Wales don’t try to outshine each other in public – something that is believed to have been an issue in King Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage. Richard continued: ‘There is no comparison whatever to the desperately unhappy relationship between Charles and Diana and the perfect balance William and Catherine have struck both publicly and privately. She was the Patron and presented the trophy and the runners up plate and was centre stage, [Prince William] seemed totally relaxed without an official role.’

He continued: ‘They enjoy competing in games for fun and often do when on tour to the delight of their hosts, but they do not compete with each other. This was a glorious Wimbledon final and the Waleses were undoubtedly happy to be a pivotal part of it given Catherine’s role as Patron. Their chemistry together is ideal, it is also imperative that it is, as the future of the monarchy largely depends on it.’

[From The Daily Mail]

Oof – “Their chemistry together is ideal, it is also imperative that it is, as the future of the monarchy largely depends on it.” The royal reporters are like: we’re trying as hard as we can to put a bow on this mess because the whole thing falls apart if the Wales marriage collapses. Not even two weeks ago, William truly ran away from his wife when she tried to touch him at a polo match. He also looked like he despised her when she tried to grope his ass at the Scottish coronation. And now William and Kate looked like miserable strangers at Wimbledon and now we’re supposed to believe that’s a good thing, that William needs to be three seats away from Kate, lest she try to grope him on camera again?

Note by CB: Get the top 5 stories about Prince William’s 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.

I basically only know of Jason Aldean because he’s married someone Maren Morris referred to as Insurrectionist Barbie. It’s honestly difficult to keep some of these country bros straight, because it feels like they’re all going to end up disappointing everyone. That being said, the cheatsheet is: Chris Stapleton is a good guy, Luke Combs covered Tracy Chapman and Jason Aldean and his wife are MAGA. Well, we can add something new to our country music crib sheet: Jason Aldean wrote an ode to small-town lynchings. I’m not joking. Here are some of the lyrics to Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town.”

Cuss out a cop, spit in his face
Stomp on the flag and light it up
Yeah, ya think you’re tough

Well, try that in a small town
See how far ya make it down the road
Around here, we take care of our own
You cross that line, it won’t take long
For you to find out, I recommend you don’t
Try that in a small town

Got a gun that my granddad gave me
They say one day they’re gonna round up
Well, that sh-t might fly in the city, good luck
Try that in a small town

See how far ya make it down the road
Around here, we take care of our own
You cross that line, it won’t take long
For you to find out, I recommend you don’t
Try that in a small town

Full of good ol’ boys, raised up right
If you’re looking for a fight
Try that in a small town
Try that in a small town

Try that in a small town
See how far ya make it down the road
Around here, we take care of our own
You cross that line, it won’t take long
For you to find out, I recommend you don’t
Try that in a small town

[Lyrics from Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town”]

There’s nothing quite like a white dude in 2023 mythologizing the most despicable parts of American history. Yes, he’s absolutely describing lynchings and their modern equivalent: violent, targeted hate crimes. Sundown towns still exist, there are still many parts of this country where Black and brown people are targeted for harassment and hate crimes simply for their skin color. Check out where Aldean shot his music video too. Despicable.

Jason Aldean shot this at the site where a white lynch mob strung Henry Choate up at the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tenn., after dragging his body through the streets with a car in 1927.

That’s where Aldean chose to sing about murdering people who don’t respect police. https://t.co/gBL7FlaBS2 pic.twitter.com/eGfmMc8HAI

— Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman) July 17, 2023

Just a reminder that Jason Aldean grew up in a city (population approx. 160,000) and now lives in Nashville, TN (population 692,000).

He has no idea what “happens in a small town”, he’s just a racist who writes barely concealed lynching songs. https://t.co/5JvfucZ5cN

— Kendall Brown (@kendallybrown) July 17, 2023

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Prince George has been photographed a lot in recent weeks, ahead of his tenth birthday on July 22. He seems, to me, like a cautious kid who does not appreciate being photographed constantly. There’s a world-weariness to him already, which I think is the result of his parents using George and his siblings as little buffers from each other and buffers from the media. Reportedly – and it seems like this is coming straight from Kensington Palace briefings – George is a quiet, sensitive kid, and there’s a sense that maybe when he goes to Eton, the boarding school experience will “toughen him up.” Again, I’m not saying I agree with any of that, I’m just repeating the reporting, all of which seems to be coming from KP’s briefs. Now it looks like the Windsors won’t “expect” George to join the military when he gets older. This too is coming straight from KP – they want credit for allowing George to find his own way, but the reality is, they’re creating a narrative where British military officials are “disappointed” in George already… and he’s not even ten years old yet.

Prince George will not be expected to serve in the military before becoming King, breaking centuries of tradition. The second in line to the throne will be allowed to sidestep the usual stint with the Armed Forces if he wishes, The Mail on Sunday understands, leaving him free to shape his own destiny. It would be a significant departure for the Royal Family as the monarch is Commander-in-Chief of Britain’s forces. George’s father, uncle, grandfather, great-grandmother and great-grandfather all served with the military, sticking to a centuries-old precedent.

Writing in this newspaper today, historian Dominic Sandbrook said: ‘The tradition of royals joining the Armed Forces, even for brief periods, lends crucial legitimacy to the monarchy.’ But speaking ahead of Prince George’s tenth birthday on Saturday, a long-time friend of George’s father, Prince William, said: ‘In theory, there is nothing to stop George from pursuing a career as an astronaut, for example, if that’s what he wants, and then becoming King later. The rules are different now, he wouldn’t necessarily have to follow the old formula of going into the military and then Royal life. So, could Charlotte qualify as a doctor, for example? I don’t see why not. It’s less of a fishbowl now than when William and Harry were growing up.’

Historian Hugo Vickers said: ‘This is significant because it shows that times are moving on. I’m all for people keeping up with the times providing they don’t throw tradition out of the window. Maybe the military won’t prove to be the best course for Prince George, although I would hope that he might do something like the Duke of Edinburgh gold award instead, which is non-competitive. For King Charles, his naval service in the 1970s was very helpful. It showed the country that he was gainfully employed and it was a role where he would not be using his title for commercial gain.’

‘Military service allows members of the Royal Family to have a sense of normal life, grants them a certain amount of freedom and teaches them all sorts of timekeeping and presentation skills which prove to be important for Royal duties. What clearly doesn’t work are those cases where members of the Royal Family go into commercial ventures. That always goes wrong.’

Mr Sandbrook added: ‘Military service is the last tradition that takes Royal youngsters outside their sheltered lives of impossible privilege.’ But he acknowledged: ‘Times change, and institutions change with them… who can blame him if he would rather pursue a different vocation?’

General Sir Richard Barrons, former head of Joint Forces Command, said: ‘I think the Armed Forces will think that’s a bit of a shame but that’s all they are going to think.’ But he added that a military stint was a useful way for a young Royal to serve in ‘the years between you becoming an adult and when you take on the mantle of King’.

And Royal biographer A. N. Wilson came out against the idea, saying: ‘This is a very great change to the way it has always been done and I think he should be told, “Sorry, you can’t choose.” It does feel like a bit of a snub to the Armed Forces. There could be another way in which Prince George does a stint in the Army and then goes on to be an artist or a pastry chef or whatever interests him. On a point which may seem trivial, it is also helpful to have a uniform, otherwise we may as well have a President in a suit as our head of state.’

[From The Mail on Sunday]

Sigh… my guess is that William and Kate thought this piece of news would make them sound like perfect modern parents, but the thing is… if you take away the Windsors’ connection to the military, they really don’t have anything else going on. Like, that’s one of their biggest “things.” The monarch is head of state, but also the head of the British Armed Forces. It IS insulting, even if I agree that royal kids’ whole futures shouldn’t be set in stone. Instead of saying “wait, the whole system is kind of broken and we’re being really unfair to all of the royal kids,” Will and Kate are like “George can become a mime instead of going to Sandhurst, look at us, we’re modern parents!”

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Eight or nine years ago, Dan Wootton was seen as just another creepy entertainment reporter and gossip columnist in the British tabloid media. He worked his way up from the News of the World, to a brief stint at the Mail, to the Sun’s entertainment gossip column, to breaking some big royal stories – especially in the 2018-19 time frame. Eventually, Wootton was pushed out of the Sun (or did he jump?) and he moved back to the Daily Mail. The Mail gave him a column where he spreads bile, disparages the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, rage-shrieks about all things “woke,” and writes love letters to Prince William. He’s still employed by the Mail, but he also has a side gig as a presenter/commentator on GB News too. He talks about royals, politics and more. For years, there’s been gossip about how Wootton gets certain scoops and just how sleazy he is behind-the-scenes. Well, that gossip has started to go mainstream, following a few viral Twitter-threads. Now Byline Times has put everything together to paint a portrait of Wootton as a serial blackmailer and catfisher.

GB News presenter and MailOnline columnist Dan Wootton hid behind fake online identities to trick and bribe scores of men into revealing compromising sexual material, Byline Times can reveal in the first part of a three-year special investigation. The 40-year-old broadcaster and self-styled voice against ‘woke’ culture – whose show Dan Wootton Tonight is the biggest ratings winner on the UK’s fourth-most watched news channel – targeted journalistic colleagues, friends and members of the public for at least 10 years.

Byline Times has extensive evidence to show that, between June 2008 and 2018, Wootton – who is gay – posed as a fictitious showbusiness agent called “Martin Branning” to offer sums of up to £30,000 “tax free” to his targets, many of whom were heterosexual men.

Among them are a very senior executive at Rupert Murdoch’s News UK alongside at least six other staff at The Sun newspaper – one with close links to News UK CEO Rebekah Brooks – friends, Facebook associates and users of the dating apps Grindr and Gaydar. Two of the targets made criminal complaints to Scotland Yard without knowing the real identity of their tormentor with detectives aware of the activities of Branning – whose name is a portmanteau of EastEnders characters Martin Fowler and Max Branning – since 2019.

Our journalists handed a 28-page dossier of evidence to the Metropolitan Police for investigation on 20 June 2023, however last week criminal claims started to emerge on social media, with the posts rapidly attracting more than 18 million views, causing Wootton to trend on Twitter for several days.

As a result, this newspaper is today publishing some details of our findings. We have identified five co-conspirators, along with a representative group of around a dozen victims. However sources suggest the true figure extends to many, many more men. Byline Times knows the names of those involved but, in order to protect the victims and the course of justice, it will not be revealing them publicly.

During the established period of his activities, Wootton was initially an influential editor for Murdoch’s News of the World before moving, once that paper closed in 2011 after the phone-hacking scandal, to the Daily Mail and then, from 2013, to Britain’s biggest-selling tabloid The Sun, at which he edited its ‘Bizarre’ showbiz column before becoming an associate editor.

Tonight, a representative for Dan Wootton declined to provide Byline Times with an on-the-record response. It is understood that he strongly denies all allegations of criminality. The representative did not clarify, when asked, whether Wootton also denies being Martin Branning.

[From Byline Times]

Byline gave anonymity to some of Wootton’s alleged victims and allowed them to tell their stories, which were all variations on the same theme – random solicitations of money for nude photos, always using the same pseudonym of Martin Branning. “Branning” would solicit photos and videos night and day, text after text, all from an untraceable phone. These victims who spoke to Byline were, by and large, Wootton’s male, heterosexual colleagues at the time of the harassment and solicitation. One victim was catfished by Dan using the profile of a “Maria Joseph,” and that scheme was actually somewhat successful, in that the victim did end up sending photos before he realized Wootton was behind it. Byline also confirms that they gave their dossier on Wootton to the Metropolitan Police.

Byline also summarizes the accusations made by Wootton’s former boyfriend Alex Truby, whose Twitter thread about Wootton went viral last week. Truby put together the “Martin Branning” thing as well, and Truby was also Wootton’s victim – Wootton was tracking Truby’s email and social media and he made Wootton sound emotionally abusive and deeply unstable.

GB News presenter Dan Wootton used multiple fake identities to trick and bribe scores of men into revealing compromising sexual material.

The victims included members of the public, his own colleagues and a senior executive at News UKhttps://t.co/qzux8U19uN

— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) July 17, 2023

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, GB News screencap.

Ariana Grande divorcing her starter husband was not shocking at all to me, but THIS? This floored me. I thought Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello were happy together! Joe and Sofia are divorcing after seven years of marriage. They first met when she was with that utter douchebag Nick Loeb. There was an infamous photo, at the time, of Joe eyef–king Sofia while she was on Nick’s arm. Soon after, Sofia and Nick were done and Sofia and Joe were together. They seemed especially well-suited for each other – they are close in age (she’s 51, he’s 46), he made it clear that Sofia was his dream girl, she enjoyed being adored, and they actually seemed to have a fun relationship and a lot of compatibility. More than most Hollywood couples. Well, it’s over now.

Sofía Vergara and husband Joe Manganiello have separated and are divorcing after seven years of marriage, Page Six can exclusively reveal.

The couple tell Page Six in a statement: “We have made the difficult decision to divorce. As two people that love and care for one another very much, we politely ask for respect of our privacy at this time as we navigate this new phase of our lives.”

The “Modern Family” beauty is currently celebrating her 51st birthday in Italy with a posse of friends — but with no Manganiello or her wedding ring.

A source added: “Sofía and Joe have been growing apart for a while now and are taking some distance from each other to contemplate their future.”

The couple was last seen together last month in Hoboken, N.J., as Vergara visited Manganiello, 46, on the set of his new project “Nonnas” with Vince Vaughn. Vergara, a judge on the NBC hit “America’s Got Talent,” is in Capri with her best friends and living her best life, posting a series of sexy photos on Instagram. But Manganiello’s absence has not gone unnoticed by fans on Instagram, as Vergara later posted a photo with the message: “When life gives u lemons u come to Italy to squeeze them.”

[From Page Six]

I can’t even imagine having the dual heat-score of these two and deciding to throw away this collective sexiness. This was sexiness for the people! As I said, this news floored me because they always presented as happy and well-suited for each other. The Mail has a very weird piece about “what went wrong” and it basically sounds like Joe is getting his side out there – that he loves fun and adventure, while Sofia is kind of stuck-up and obsessed with a luxury lifestyle…? I don’t know, y’all.

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Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Getty.

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As much as Taylor Swift can be annoying, one thing she’s right about is how absurd it is that music artists don’t typically own their master recordings. So I support her re-recording her back catalogue. She’s been operating at a breakneck speed since 2020, releasing Folklore, Evermore, and Midnights, along with three re-records of earlier work. This is obviously a strategy to devalue the masters that currently belong to Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun. Her most recent re-release, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), hasn’t gotten as much buzz as Red (Taylor’s Version) or Fearless (Taylor’s Version). At least it hasn’t felt that way to me and I would consider myself adjacent to, if not a part of, the Swiftiverse. But people are still buying it, and now Taylor is setting another industry record. I’m sure she’ll be thrilled–whatever she may pretend to the contrary, she cares deeply about awards, sales numbers, and industry recognition. She’s now the first woman to have four albums on the Billboard Top 10 at the same time, and one of only three artists to do it, period. The other two are Herb Alpert (of all people!) and Prince. She also has the most Number One albums in history for any woman, besting Barbra Streisand.

Taylor Swift is setting some high chart benchmarks with the release of her “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” album, becoming the first woman to have four albums on Billboard’ Top 10 list at once.

Her latest release debuted at No. 1 with the biggest numbers of the year so far for any release. According to Billboard, that’s the first time a woman has done that in the entire six-decade history of there being an album chart — and she’s one of only three artists to ever accomplish the feat.

Swift also set a record for the female artist with the most No. 1 albums in history: She now has a dozen, moving ahead of Barbra Streisand, with whom she was formerly tied with 11 each.

“Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” bowed on top of the Billboard 200 with 716,000 album-equivalent units. That number ensured that it wasn’t even a photo finish in this year’s opening-week derby, as the previous best figure was held by Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time,” which debuted in March with 501,000.

The other three albums Swift has in her triumphant quadrilogy in the top 10 are 2022’s “Midnights” at No. 5, 2019’s “Lover” at No. 7 and 2020’s “Folklore” at No. 10.

[From NBC]

In the current music ecosystem, Taylor is one of a vanishingly small number of artists who still sells a lot of records (along with Morgan Wallen apparently, a person whose name alone triggers my gag reflex, to say nothing of his music). It’s impressive that Lover is still charting so high after four years. I wonder, though, if the numbers for Speak Now (TV) are somewhat inflated by concert tickets and a shadowy little gambit I’ve caught onto in recent years. I sound like a tinfoil hat person, but go with me on this: when I went to see Lana Del Rey at the Hollywood Bowl in 2019, I apparently opted into getting a CD of her album Norman F–king Rockwell mailed to my house as part of the ticket price. The album had just been released that summer. I do not remember opting into this at all but it arrived anyway! Thank you, Ticketmaster! That album is a masterpiece so I’m happy I was hoodwinked into getting a physical copy. But then, a similar thing happened when Harry Styles’ second solo album came out. I bought tickets to his tour but that time I remember opting in to getting a CD of Fine Line added to the ticket price and it was mailed to me sometime later. I think those concert ticket add-on albums get counted as album sales–why wouldn’t they? My point is, given how massive Taylor’s Eras tour is, and just how many stadiums she’s selling out all over the world, it would not surprise me at all if there is a covert or overt Speak Now (TV) CD add-on with her concert tickets. If anyone reading this was lucky enough to survive “several bear attacks” via Ticketmaster to get Eras tour tickets, please let me know if I’m onto something. But even without my concert-ticket conspiracy theory, Taylor has an extremely dedicated fan base who will happily buy an album where most of the songs on it are ones we’ve been listening to for 13 years and sound nearly identical to the originals.

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Did you know that HGTV is doing a series to tie in with the release of Barbie? I did, because my mother has been sounding the alarm, sending me weekly reminders of its imminent arrival followed by more frequent ones this weekend in the lead-up to Sunday’s premiere. Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge is a Mattel-Warner Bros-HGTV brainchild that will conveniently fill in for the lack of actor promotion in the wake of the SAG-AFTRA strike. It’s your typical reality competition show, and though the rules are a bit overwrought, here is the basic gist: two-member design teams are each given 1-2 rooms to redecorate to turn a Southern Californian home into Barbie’s Dreamhouse, and each team will be assigned a specific decade of Barbie fashion to imbue their room(s) with.

Hosting the series is supermodel Ashley Graham, who’s been immortalized as a Barbie doll herself and proved her hosting chops earlier this year when attempting an interview with Hugh Grant at the Oscars. Ahead of the show’s Sunday premiere, Ashley spoke with Yahoo about the show (for the record, hosts fall under the entertainment/broadcast journalists SAG-AFTRA category and are NOT on strike right now, that’s only members with a TV/Theatrical contract) and she shared her thoughts on Barbie’s ability to champion body positivity:

On her relationship with Barbie growing up: “It was a fun doll to play with, and I think like many women my age, I grew up thinking, ‘Why aren’t my thighs touching? What are her breasts so perky? Why does she look so perfect?’” she shares. “It was a conversation that I had a lot growing up with my mom.” In 2015, Mattel focused on making Barbie more diverse in every way. It manufactured dolls with different skin tones, hair textures and four different body types (original, curvy, petite and tall).

What it meant to have Mattel make a Barbie of her: “I screeched,” she recalls. “I wish that there was a Barbie that looked like me when I was younger and so that was such an honor.” Graham says she felt “no pressure at all” over the fact there was going to be a Barbie in her likeness. Instead she was relieved there would “finally” be a doll out there “that young girls who are curvy can relate to. I was like so many other young girls. I just wanted to see my body type portrayed, but you don’t know how to express it. You’re just a moody little girl, and you look in the mirror, and you’re upset because there’s nobody talking about back fat. There’s no one talking about cellulite,” she explains.

Just wait for America Ferrera’s monologue in the movie: The social media star says she absolutely thinks the movie showcases body positivity and reflects various beauty standards. “I’m not giving away anything, but America Ferrera has this whole monologue that I have told all of my friends [about],” Graham teases. “When she is done with that monologue, all you say is ‘Hell yeah!’ It’s like you’re in church and you just start screaming because she just preached for all of us. It was that part I really felt [seen].”

On hosting the HGTV show: Graham is partnering with the iconic brand once again for Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge. The show features eight teams of HGTV stars and one Food Network chef as they transform a Southern California home into a life-size Barbie mansion. “Every room is dedicated to a different era of Barbie. There’s ‘90s, ‘80s, past, present, future… Graham says Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge will leave viewers feeling equally uplifted. “I want people to feel like they had a bit of nostalgia, that they had fun, and also just feel the Barbie magic again because there are so many of those magical moments that they put throughout the show. And I know as I was filming it, I had such a great time. So, I really hope the people that watch it feel the same,” she reveals, adding: “Barbie is all of us.”

[From Yahoo! Entertainment]

First off, I love Ashley saying “I’m not giving anything away, but I’ve told all my friends about this monologue from the unreleased movie.” Cracks me up. Moving on to (slightly) more serious matters, having watched the first episode I can say that the issue of representation is front and center, but not in a preachy way! Obviously the producers are prompting the discussion, but it felt natural when the designers would talk about what the debut of a certain kind of Barbie meant to them. And from what Ashley teases, it sounds like the movie also drives home the themes of representation and body positivity. I don’t see how, in 2023, you could approach Barbie any other way.

As for the actual design part of the show, that’s where Barbie sells herself. It is SO GOOD! The first episode had 2 teams vying off (again, I cannot explain all the rules to you, all I know is the house will be fully done by the end) and their assigned decades were ‘60s and ‘90s, respectively, and the details those designers crammed in everywhere… I don’t do drugs but this is what makes me high. I may spontaneously combust when the movie finally comes out.

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Megan Rapinoe called out Martina Navratilova for Martina’s (underreported) transphobia towards trans athletes. Martina responded by digging in her heels. Way to tarnish your legacy as a LGBTQ icon, Martina. [Jezebel]
These Bennifer photos are so sweaty! [Just Jared]
Michael Cera’s Big Allan Energy. [LaineyGossip]
A big spoiler for Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning. [Pajiba]
Rita Ora looks bored with herself (I agree). [Go Fug Yourself]
This moment between Emily Blunt & Florence Pugh was so cute. [Seriously OMG]
Jordyn Woods’ desert photoshoot. [Egotastic]
Janelle Eason’s ex has been arrested again. [Starcasm]
I’m glad this plastic surgeon lost her license, OMFG. [Buzzfeed]
Meatball Ron DeSantis is firing campaign staff! [Towleroad]
Jenna Coleman wore Alessandra Rich to Wimbledon. [RCFA]

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer comes out later this week. His cast only had a few days to promote the film in Europe before SAG-AFTRA called the strike, a strike which shut down all film promotions. Granted, Nolan could single-handedly promote the film for the rest of the promotional tour, but I don’t think he will. Nolan is a member of the Directors Guild, obviously, but I would imagine that he’s also a member of the PGA (Producers Guild) and WGA (Writers Guild). The DGA already struck a deal with the AMPTP and they reportedly capitulated to studios and got a dogsh-t deal, leaving it up to the actors and writers’ unions to demand fair pay. Now Nolan says that he’s standing with the striking actors and writers:

Christopher Nolan is joining his “Oppenheimer” cast in stepping out from Hollywood as the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes ensue. A day after the ensemble of his upcoming J. Robert Oppenheimer epic — including Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., and Florence Pugh — walked out of the film’s London premiere as the SAG-AFTRA strike began simultaneously, Nolan told BBC News that he will not attempt another film project until the work stoppages are resolved.

“No, absolutely. It’s very important that everybody understands it is a very key moment in the relationship between working people and Hollywood,” Nolan told the outlet amid SAG-AFTRA protesting the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers’ (AMPTP) refusal to offer a more solid residuals structure for streaming content and to protect actors and other talent against the threat of artificial intelligence.

“This is not about me, this is not about the stars of my film,” Nolan said. “This is about jobbing actors, this is about staff writers on television programs trying to raise a family, trying to keep food on the table.”

SAG-AFTRA has claimed that its now-expired contract with the AMPTP ignores how studios compensate talent for content that streams well beyond its initial release date. Nolan said that studios associated with the AMPTP have not taken account of “this new world of streaming, and a world where they’re not licensing their products out to other broadcasters — they’re keeping them for themselves.”

The five-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker added, “They have not yet offered to pay appropriately to the unions’ working members, and it’s very important that they do so. I think you’d never want a strike, you never want industrial action. But there are times where it’s necessary. This is one of those times.”

[From IndieWire]

I find it interesting that Nolan is effectively going on strike as well – the DGA already got their deal and DGA has made a point of not striking in solidarity with their sister unions. Granted, it will be hard for any director to get anything done without actors or writers, so Nolan’s commitment to “not working through the strike” isn’t so much an act of solidarity as much as a logistical reality. Now I wonder how many big-name directors actually think the strike is a good thing, and how many directors feel like their union got hosed.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Two weeks ago, the judge ordered Christine Baumgartner to vacate Kevin Costner’s Carpinteria mansion. The same mansion where she’s lived and raised their children for the past nineteen years. Last week, the same judge set a temporary child support number too – Costner will have to pay $129K a month to Christine in child support. The divorce bickering is far from over, and Christine still plans to contest the prenup. I thought this whole divorce would be slow-going and methodical, so I’ve been shocked by how quickly the judge in this case has taken Costner’s side. It’s bonkers to me that Christine apparently has to be out of the house by the end of this month. It’s even crazier that the judge ordered Christine to not remove any furniture or anything beyond her clothes & jewelry from the home, at least not without getting Costner’s permission first. YIKES.

Kevin Costner claims estranged wife Christine was calculating an exit plan in their marriage months before their separation. In a new court filing obtained by PEOPLE amid the ongoing divorce, Costner, 68, and his legal team write that Christine, 49, has allegedly “been taking cash advances” on “credit cards, issued not to her but to staff members” without his knowledge or consent. Additionally, Costner claims a car purchase Christine made prior to their separation could indicate she was thinking ahead to an eventual split.

“Months before separation, although the parties had always leased their automobiles, without [Costner’s] knowledge or consent, [Christine] bought an expensive vehicle for her personal use (probably because the [prenuptial agreement] allows her to take that vehicle with her),” the documents read. “Thus, it appears that [Christine] had been planning her exit long before she told [Costner] in April 2023.”

The filing also claims Christine “has shown a disturbing propensity in the last several months, both before and after separation, to take Respondent’s property without his knowledge or consent, especially since this case was filed.”

In her own response to Costner’s filing, Christine said Costner’s “request includes a myriad of false statements that are no doubt included to play to the press and ‘smear’ me in the media. I will not address each one.”

As she prepares to move out, the latest filings show Costner is concerned about what items from the home Christine will take with her, down to who gets what silverware, kitchen items and electronics. In documents filed by Kevin’s lawyers, the actor asked the court to “prevent [Christine] from removing [Kevin’s] separate property from his home, and to insure an orderly process for the removal of her separate property (if any).” He alleged that under the terms of the premarital agreement they signed before marrying in 2004 there is “no community property.”

Christine wrote in her response, “With the exception of my clothing, jewelry, toiletries and handbags, Kevin wants to have the final say as to whether I can remove my personal items from the house or my storage unit. For example, under Kevin’s proposed order, I could not remove my mother’s childhood dresser without first meeting and conferring, and then obtaining his approval. Nothing in Kevin’s proposed order precludes Kevin from simply withholding his consent or acting arbitrarily.”

The judge, however, granted Costner’s request for a motion that would block Christine, 49, from removing certain items from the home. “Christine shall be permitted to remove her toiletries, clothing, handbags and jewelry,” according to the Friday order. She is prohibited, however, from taking “any other items of property including, but not limited to, furniture, furnishings, appliances, and artwork.”

[From People]

Christine is getting hosed in this divorce and it’s shocking. I hope she was planning for this and getting some cash squirreled away – the way Costner is treating her now is so controlling and vindictive, it would not shock me at all if Christine was being financially abused throughout their marriage. How many times did he hold that prenup over her head during their marriage? How many times did he tell her that she would be left with nothing if she ever left? This man is worth tens of millions of dollars and he’s complaining that his wife bought a car which she will “get” in the divorce? She’s the mother of three of your children!! Jesus H.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.