On a long list of typical teenage behavior that I eschewed, is the fact that I had zero interest in getting my driver’s license (or learner’s permit, for that matter). I ended up not learning until I was 25, when I had a quarter-life crisis and convinced myself there was something metaphorically positive about driving myself to therapy sessions. I actually felt pretty comfortable once I got behind the wheel, but of course the thing with driving is that you constantly have to worry about everyone else on the road with you. And apparently, we should be the most worried when driving in the commonwealth of Massachusetts. Insurance company LendingTree has released a study comparing driving habits across America, and Massachusetts came out on top in two categories: worst drivers and highest accident rate. Congratulations! But to be fair to the sixth state in the Union, nearby Rhode Island was a close second in both those categories, with California not far behind. Some more vehicular findings:
Massachusetts has the worst drivers in the United States, according to a recent study from the finance site Lending Tree.
Per the study — which collected data from all 50 states, plus Washington, D.C., from Nov. 5, 2023 to Nov. 4, 2024 — Massachusetts ranked first for the highest number of reported incidents, including speeding, DUIs and citations, with 61.1 incidents per 1,000 drivers.
Within those incident types, the state also had the highest accident rate, with 44.4 accidents per 1,000 drivers — marking the only state to rate above 40.
Massachusetts also holds the 11th-highest DUI rate in the country, the study said.
According to WalletHub, Massachusetts has some of the highest car insurance rates in the country due to these factors.
As to why the Bay State is seeing these high numbers, CBS affiliate WBZ attained data that shows an increase in traffic in the state between 2022 and 2023, with 5% more cars on the road in Boston, over 10% more in Newton and about 15% more in Framingham — to name just a few cities.
CBS News, meanwhile, attributed this growth to the fact that many employees returned to offices after the COVID-19 pandemic, but less of those same workers are using public transportation, instead opting for cars.
This, combined with the state’s hazardous winter weather conditions, creates an environment primed for traffic incidents, the outlet reported.
On a positive note, Massachusetts drivers have the fifth lowest speeding-related incident rate in the country, at just 1.3 speeding incidents per 1,000 drivers, per the Lending Tree findings.
Additional findings showed that D.C. ranks highest for DUIs at 3.6 per 1,000 drivers, while California comes in at a close second with 3.5.
North Dakota, meanwhile, ranked first for highest incidents of speeding, with 8 incidents per 1,000 drivers.
Elsewhere, Arkansas ranked first for best drivers overall, with the lowest number of reported incidents at 14.7 per 1,000 drivers, as well as the lowest accident rate at 8.2 per 1,000.
Well, I’m sure Arkansas is very proud to have won best drivers status. Good for them. I’m a little surprised New York didn’t show up higher on any of these lists, considering NYC has been declared as the worst US city for traffic, but the Empire State placed middle of the road in all categories. As for Massachusetts, it’s been years since I’ve been in the state myself, but I did spend a sizable portion of my youth in a car driven by my greater Boston-area bred grandmother, and… yeah, I totally buy them as worst drivers. I love my grandmother!! But being a passenger in her car was taking your life in your hands, for a variety of quirky yet terrifying reasons. Like the time we were listening to dulcet classical music, returning home after a summer day spent at the pool. We pulled into her parking space, and as she turned off the radio my grandmother said, “I was almost asleep!” Or the time we were on the highway and my grandmother glanced over to me, with a sly, conspiratorial look in her eye, and said, “When I see three trees on the right side of the road, and one tree on the left, I mentally imagine taking one tree away from the three and moving it over to the left, so both sides are balanced.” Or the fact that at a certain point she just decided that every single intersection had a stop sign.
Lastly, what’s with all the speeding in North Dakota? Are people trying to zoom towards or away from something? Whatever the answer is, I feel like FX could get another season of Fargo out of it.
Photos credit: David Tonnessen/PacificCoastNews.com/Avalon, Backgrid
Who are your picks for Best Dressed of 2024? Zendaya’s Challengers promo tour had so many good looks, but the awards show fashion this year was kind of blah. [RCFA]
Bhad Bhabie’s relationship is full of drama and now there’s a situation with Alabama Barker? Please don’t make me cover this. [JustJared]
Harris Dickinson has such a jolie-laide quality. [LaineyGossip]
Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearings will be awful. [Jezebel]
Review of September 5. [Pajiba]
Billie Eilish had a lot of “good sex” in 2024. [Buzzfeed]
Mariah Carey autographed Rihanna’s chest. [Socialite Life]
Updates on the new Superman movie. [Hollywood Life]
Who will compete on Celebrity Jeopardy? [Seriously OMG]
These “taxidermy fails” are too funny. [OMG Blog]
Yes, the British media is still obsessing over the blurry, low-res photo of Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. The photo – which did not show Archie and Lili’s faces – was included in a set of six photos for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Christmas card. The British media cannot decide what upsets them the most about the photo, but I tend to believe that the level of nitpicking obsession would not be as high as it is if Prince William and Kate had already released their Christmas card. What’s the hold up?? In any case, the Daily Mail wants everyone to know that the Sussexes are horrible for dressing Prince Archie in jeans (terribly unroyal) and dressing Princess Lili in knee socks (terribly royal!).
From Princes George and Louis to a young Prince Harry and Prince William, young royal boys are often spotted wearing shorts – rather than trousers – when accompanying their parents on official duties. Yet Prince Archie, five, was dressed much more relaxed in the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Christmas card, with the King’s grandson sporting a pair of blue jeans and a green jacket. Likely thanks to his parents, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, no longer being working royals, and the casual nature of the snap, Archie was dressed in a pair of trousers, rather than shorts.
His cousins, Princes George, now 11, and Louis, six, would often be photographed sporting adorable shorts and knee-high socks when they were younger. Prince Louis, for instance, opted for that ensemble when he attended Sandringham in 2022 for Christmas Day alongside his family members.
Speaking to PEOPLE magazine previously, Editor-in-Chief of Majesty magazine Ingrid Seward explained: ‘It is considered very suburban for a little boy to be in long trousers when he is just a little boy. It is shorts until you’re 8 and then “woo, you’re in long trousers”. They suddenly feel very grown up,’ added the royal expert.
Previously, etiquette expert William Hanson told Femail that Kate put her son exclusively in shorts as it’s an aristocratic way to dress. He claimed that shorts on young boys are, in fact, a silent British class marker and trousers are deemed ‘suburban’, which no self-respecting royal would want to be considered. ‘Catherine has to dress her own children and find a balance between royal tradition and heritage and more proletariat customs, such as the “suburban” habit of making young boys wear trousers,’ he explained. ‘Although I don’t really think that the sartorial rule of shorts for young boys would be a new one for Catherine. I would suspect that her own mother and mother’s friends knew this – as more well-heeled middle class mothers do – and dressed their own boys accordingly.’
Yes, they’re trying to make it into yet another class thing, as in Middle-Class Kate is clever and upwardly mobile for dressing her sons like Little Lord Fauntleroy while Meghan is terribly low-class for letting her five-year-old son wear (gasp) jeans. Nevermind that American boys would never wear those posh-British-boy getups. Meanwhile, the Mail makes it sound like Meghan is purposefully copying Princess Charlotte’s style for Lili.
Princess Lilibet appeared to be taking inspiration from her older cousin Princess Charlotte in Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s new holiday card. The season’s greetings from the Archewell Foundation featured a new photograph of the couple’s rarely-seen children Prince Archie, five, and Lilibet. It made for the first time the public have seen Lilibet in two years, since a photo was last released for her first birthday in 2022.
Now aged three, a very grown-up Lilibet was seen with her mother’s long flowing hair, and also sported a very familiar dress. Though the photo was taken from a distance, Lilibet could be seen lovingly running towards her father Prince Harry, and was wearing a sweet spotted dress in baby blue with white socks.
It’s a style that is beloved by Princess Charlotte, nine, who has often been seen in a very similar take on the patterned dress, with a similar cut. However, it’s not known if the cousins have ever met. In 2018, Charlotte was seen wearing a light-blue dress with a floral pattern and white collar as she visited St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington to visit her baby brother Prince Louis.
You mean to tell me that two girls, thousands of miles apart, both wore patterned dresses? I’m flabbergasted! Honestly, the knee-high socks on Lili surprised me a little bit because I do associate that with how Kate dresses her kids, but it’s also just… how a lot of girls dress. Like, that’s legitimately a popular style for little girls.
Christmas card courtesy of Archewell, additional photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid, SussexRoyal social media.
King Charles still doesn’t live in Buckingham Palace. He and Camilla have never “moved in.” They got away with it because BP is still undergoing a costly, decade-long renovation project, which became the perfect excuse for Charles and Camilla to just stay put at Clarence House, which they prefer. In the past two years, it’s always funny to hear reports of “the king has arrived at Buckingham Palace,” or seeing photos of his short “commute” to work at the palace. All of which to say, Charles was driven to Buckingham Palace today, where he’s hosting the Windsors’ annual pre-Christmas lunch.
These are some photos of Charles’s arrival, along with some of the other family members. Charles notably arrived with his private secretary Sir Clive Alderton and not Camilla? Tina Brown claims that Alderton is on the way out as well. It also looks like Prince Edward and Sophie arrived pretty early, which is nice because it feels like we can go months without seeing poor Edward. I assume that the rest of the family will attend, minus Prince Andrew, Sarah Ferguson, Prince William, Princess Kate and the Wales children. And obviously, minus the Sussex family too. Wow, a Christmas lunch where both of the monarch’s sons are absent. It’s absolutely what Charles deserves. I’m sure Princess Michael of Kent and her racist blackamoor jewelry will make another appearance. I’ll add more photos of the arrivals if they come in.
Updated to add Queen Camilla (who arrived separately), Princess Beatrice, Frederick Windsor and his wife Sophie Winkleman.
Quelle surprise, the Prince and Princess of Wales are not going to today’s pre-Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace. I figured as much when all of the reporting started this week about the lunch. In 2022 and 2023, King Charles switched up his mother’s long-standing habit of hosting the lunch at Buckingham Palace. Charles hosted it at Windsor Castle, and the lunch was well-attended, although I still believe that William and Kate skipped the lunch in 2022 and 2023. There was no reporting about their absence, probably because most people assumed that since they “live” at Adelaide Cottage, it would have been easy enough for them to slip into the castle. They did not – they were already in Norfolk in 2022 and 2023. That’s where they are right now, and they’re not taking the helicopter back to London for today’s lunch.
The Prince and Princess of Wales will not join the rest of the Royal family for its traditional pre-Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace today. The couple and their three children are already in Norfolk, where they will spend the festive period at their country home, Amner Hall.
The decision not to attend the lunch was made some time ago, according to a Kensington Palace source. The couple are said to be looking forward to spending time with the family as usual at Sandringham over Christmas.
It is thought to be the first time the Waleses have opted not to join the wider family at the annual event, which offers the monarch a chance to gather together those who are not invited to Sandringham.
It comes after Prince Andrew pulled out of the lunch, a highlight in the royal calendar, after becoming embroiled in a scandal over an alleged Chinese spy.
“It is thought to be the first time the Waleses have opted not to join the wider family at the annual event.” I swear it isn’t the first time. It’s the third time by my count, although it’s possible they also skipped a few lunches when QEII was alive. I’ve believed for years that William and Kate aren’t very popular within the family, and I would honestly imagine that the wider family will probably enjoy the lunch more in the Waleses’ absence. That being said, it’s yet another thing that William refuses to do. When Charles was Prince of Wales, he believed (correctly) that it was his duty and responsibility to always attend these kinds of family events.
For months, the world has watched a criminal trial in France: the trial of Dominique Pelicot, a 72-year-old French man who spent years drugging and raping his wife Gisèle Pelicot, and inviting dozens of men to rape her while she was unconscious. Not only that, but Dominique Pelicot documented the assaults on his wife with videos and photos. Gisèle Pelicot has become a national and international icon of survival and grace, as she wanted the case publicized. She authorized the use of her name and image to get justice. Well, after a lengthy, shocking trial, Dominique Pelicot has been convicted. Fifty other rapists were also convicted.
Dominique Pelicot, 72, who admitted to drugging his wife for almost a decade and inviting dozens of strangers he met on the internet to join him in violating her, was convicted on Thursday of aggravated rape and other charges and sentenced to the maximum 20 years in prison. The verdict capped a trial that has horrified France, prompted profound discussions about rape culture and toxic masculinity, and turned Gisèle Pelicot, his wife of 50 years, into a feminist hero.
Five judges also convicted the 50 other defendants, with the head judge, Roger Arata, reading out guilty verdicts, one after the other, to a packed courtroom in Avignon, in southern France. In addition, Mr. Pelicot was found guilty of raping the wife of one of the men who was convicted, and of taking and distributing photos of Ms. Pelicot; his daughter, Caroline; and two daughters-in-law.
The case has reverberated worldwide as its shocking details came to light. From the moment of his arrest in late 2020, Mr. Pelicot has admitted to crushing sleeping pills into his wife’s food and drink before he and other men raped her as she lay nearly comatose in their bedroom in the town of Mazan. He took thousands of video clips and photos of the encounters, which the police later used to identify and track down other perpetrators.
Ms. Pelicot, 72, who has divorced her husband, waived anonymity to make the trial public, and her poise and courage have made her widely admired in France. Her face has appeared on nightly TV newscasts, the front pages of newspapers, graffitied walls and signs held up by protesters around the country. She has renounced her former surname but has used it during the trial.
How did Dominique Pelicot not get a life sentence? He was guilty of thousands of crimes, thousands of violations. As for the other men… their sentences were mostly for eight-to-ten years (the prosecution asked for 10-18-year sentences). The sentencing and the whole case has set off a debate about France’s criminal code, and whether France needs to redefine “rape” to include sex without consent. The 50 other convicted rapists were called “Monsieur Tout-le-monde” (Mr. Every Man) in the French media because they really were just “regular guys,” neighbors of the Pelicots, “truck drivers, carpenters and trade workers, a prison guard, a nurse, an I.T. expert working for a bank, a local journalist.” Horrific.
Angelina Jolie covers the LA Times’ Envelope Magazine (their in-house entertainment mag), all to promote Pablo Larrain’s Maria. The Maria team was included in the profile, and they adore Jolie and she loves them right back. There’s not a lot of new information here – Jolie has given herself talking points and she’s been good at adhering to them – but I just love how much she’s been hustling this fall and winter. She’s already gotten a Critics Choice and Golden Globe nomination, and she’s picked up several special recognition awards at the Gotham Awards and various film festivals. Some highlights:
Whether she harbors any desires to perform opera on stage: “My God,” she answers, as if she’d been asked to sample a cup of sour milk. “That would be my nightmare. That would be terrifying.”
Her kinship with Maria Callas: “We’re both very emotional women who probably are seen as quite strong but are quite vulnerable, emotional artists who are alone a lot.”
A big swing: “I admire people that take a big swing, even if they fall. When I see people who are careful — too careful — I’m more uncomfortable for them.” But “if I see somebody being emotionally brave or creatively brave, I root for them. I don’t judge them.”
Callas’ line, “I took liberties all my life, and the world took liberties with me.” Did the actor, herself a constant target of media scrutiny and speculation, feel any connection to Callas in that way? Jolie simply turns the question back at me: “I think journalists of the world watch this film a little differently. When they see the film, they’re very conscious of maybe how their work affected both of us.”
Jolie does not share Callas’ professional angst as an aging woman: “My motherhood is the only thing that I couldn’t live without. Truly, you could take everything else. I’d be fine.”
She loves telling stories with “slightly broken” and “sensitive” people. “I’ve been one my whole life. Sensitive people feel a lot, and they worry a lot. They also create a lot, and they connect in beautiful ways. One of the most beautiful things about being on a film set is you’re with hundreds of others. You’ve all found each other. You’re all sensitive, you’re all creative, and you’re all a little — you know, unusual. And not necessarily the most stable.”
“You’ve all found each other. You’re all sensitive, you’re all creative, and you’re all a little — you know, unusual. And not necessarily the most stable.” There’s that old goth girl. Honestly, Angelina’s instability used to be front and center back in the day, and then motherhood changed her and she became a grown-up. But she still has that sensitive-artist side to her which is “unusual” and “not necessarily the most stable.” This feels like a comeback for her in that regard, even though she’s had acting roles in the past decade. This is a comeback for Angelina really pouring herself into a character and playing a role which she relates to so much.
Guy Pearce has had an up-and-down career for many reasons. Back in the ‘90s, he could have been a leading man, the next big thing. But nowadays, he’s something more interesting – a character actor who pops in and out of TV projects and films, and is consistently one of the most underrated actors out there. Currently, he has a supporting role in The Brutalist, and he’s already picking up supporting-actor nominations for his performance. He recently chatted with Vanity Fair about the film and about his career. Some highlights:
He didn’t do any research on 20th century American industrialists for The Brutalist: “No. Maybe I copped out? But I just didn’t need to. I read the character and I could see who this guy is….I felt there was a voice I’d used before on Mildred Pierce that I could tap back into, mixed with the lovely voice of my friend Danny Huston, plus some gravel to give him some age. It was intuitive, but also an intellectual process…”
Working with Adrien Brody: “He is a very serious person, in the best possible way. He’s all business, but warm and engaging and considerate. He wants to know you are as serious as him with the work, as I am, and when the time was right we could natter about other stuff. I was aware he was carrying the film, so I didn’t want to get in his way. He was the one with all the work to do, but he’s lovely and really good at what he does. One of the best things about being an actor is working with better actors, and when you’ve got someone three feet in front of you offering a performance, you’re just going “wow, wow, look at him go. Oh sh-t, I have a line of dialogue now.”
His attitude towards the awards season hype: “My attitude is mixed. You are dealing with your ego and just doing good work. If I watch a finished film and think “f–king ‘ell that’s great,” that’s the be-all and end-all. I’ve seen some things win over others and think, “I don’t get that, am I missing something?” So I can’t be objective. It also makes me awkward and uncomfortable. I’ve been nominated for things, and when I don’t win I’m relieved I don’t have to make a speech. Then later I think “it might have been nice!”
Whether he had a good experience working with Kevin Spacey: “No.”
Working on ‘Memento’: “[Carrie-Anne Moss] was good fun. I’ve lost touch with her, unfortunately. She had a good sense of humor, but it’s hard to compete with Chris Nolan. He’s such a towering intellect. When my friend Piper Perabo was working on The Prestige, I called her to see how it as going, and she said “oh, Chris Nolan, he’s this towering intellectual, a total cinephile, and Christian Bale is all internal and actor-y and method, and then Hugh Jackman is hosting a dinner party.” But me and Carrie-Anne and Joey Pants [Joe Pantoliano] were having a lovely, fun time together. [Pantoliano] taught me so much about film acting, just by riffing. I’m not an improviser, but he is. So I had to learn to deal with it, and it was a great experience. A good teacher.
He hasn’t spoken to Nolan much over the years: “Not really, but he spoke to me about roles a few times over the years. The first Batman and The Prestige. But there was an executive at Warner Bros. who quite openly said to my agent, “I don’t get Guy Pearce. I’m never going to get Guy Pearce. I’m never going to employ Guy Pearce.” So, in a way, that’s good to know. I mean, fair enough; there are some actors I don’t get. But it meant I could never work with Chris. [Warner Bros. has not responded to a request for comment.] I think he just didn’t believe in me as an actor.
Which roles he was up for in Nolan’s films: “They flew me to London, to discuss the Liam Neeson role for Batman, and I think it was decided on my flight that I wasn’t going to be in the movie. So I get there and Chris is like “hey, you want to see the Batmobile and get dinner?”
Unpopular opinion, but I actually don’t think Nolan is great at casting. He’s made some good choices (especially for lead roles), but sometimes his films are full of actors in supporting roles and it’s like he picked their names out of a hat. This is like a glimpse of what Nolan was dealing with at Warner Bros though – executives who used their power to shut down Nolan’s original casting choices. Now, that being said, Pearce in the Liam Neeson role in Batman Begins would have been weird. I could have seen Pearce in The Prestige though. As for the other people Pearce worked with… he had lovely things to say about everyone other than Kevin Spacey, who he clearly loathes. It’s funny. Imagine that’s your big introduction to American films, working with Kevin Spacey. Ugh. Poor Guy.
Mikey Madison declined the offer of an intimacy coordinator on Anora, which is really bonkers if you’ve seen the movie. [Just Jared]
Keanu Reeves has some comedies coming out next year! [LaineyGossip]
Nicole Kidman’s Babygirl tour continues (now with t-shirts). [Go Fug Yourself]
Bill Skarsgard in a puffer jacket! [Socialite Life]
I watched most of this VF video with Hugh Grant & Nicholas Hoult and they are both so charming and weird/lovely. It’s a rizz-off. [Pajiba]
Harris Dickinson & Drew Starkey on Variety’s Actors on Actors. [OMG Blog]
I love & support Elle Fanning’s fashion choices. [RCFA]
Will you guys try Taco Bell’s chicken nuggets? [Seriously OMG]
A Love During Lockup woman stabbed her husband. [Starcasm]
Happy birthday, Billie Eilish! [Hollywood Life]
A Jewish woman tried to navigate her boyfriend’s Greek Orthodox family. [Buzzfeed]
Mikey Madison reveals why she decided not to have an intimacy coordinator while shooting #Anora. #ActorsOnActors https://t.co/0VAXCVmN3R pic.twitter.com/Bi3Z9JQq12
— Variety (@Variety) December 17, 2024
Tory Lanez shot Megan Thee Stallion on July 12, 2020. He shot her feet while telling her to “dance, bitch.” In 2022, Lanez was finally convicted of the felony shooting, and in 2023, he was sentenced to ten years in prison. In the months and years following the shooting, Tory waged one of the worst gaslighting campaigns I’ve ever seen. Tory and his allies spread rumors about Megan, they called her a liar, they attacked her friends and family, they paid off people to lie about Megan. It was insane, and it’s still f-king happening, even though Tory has been locked up for more than a year. Well, Megan has had enough. She’s just filed a restraining order against Tory because he and his family are still defaming her.
Tory Lanez being in prison isn’t stopping his harassment of Megan Thee Stallion … at least according to her, so, now she’s back in court to battle him once again. Megan filed a request for a restraining order Tuesday, detailing for the judge several months of abuse she’s endured from Tory … who, of course, is serving a 10-year sentence in California for shooting at Megan’s feet back in 2020.
According to the docs, Megan says Tory’s got an army of bloggers who he employs to spread defamatory statements about her — including a woman named Elizabeth Milagro Cooper, who Meg actually sued a couple months ago.
In her new filing, Meg says prison phone call logs prove a “conspiratorial relationship” between Tory and Elizabeth. She says the calls include a convo between Tory and his father, who asked about payments to Cooper for harassing Megan.
Megan says Tory’s continued “psychological warfare” against her has ruined her life and thrown her into a deep depression — one that’s left her estranged from friends. While she doesn’t say she’s suicidal, Megan does say she sometimes wishes Tory “would have shot and killed me, if I would have known I was going to go through this torture.”
Tory is appealing his conviction, and Meg says he continues to make false claims about her as part of his efforts to get out of prison. She’s asking the court to issue a restraining order that would force Tory to stop contacting, harassing, or intimidating her — whether directly or through third parties.
Updated by TMZ: Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ … Megan Thee Stallion’s legal team has more proof connecting Tory and the blogger who’s been bashing MTS. We’re told they’ve obtained financial records of a handful of payments Tory’s father allegedly made to Elizabeth Milagro Cooper between October 2020 and March 2022, and totaling $3,000. We’re told Megan’s attorneys will bringing receipts to court … for the restraining order case, and also for the lawsuit she filed against Cooper.
Lanez has been doing this the whole time, working with/paying bloggers to spread defamatory lies about Megan. Although I’ll just say, from what I’ve seen for years, there was a real willingness by many men in the music industry to take Tory’s side and defend him. There were so few people standing up for Megan or protecting her in any way. She’s spoken about how alone she’s felt as she’s tried to get justice. I feel so sorry for her. There are a few women who have made a point of having her back (Cardi, GloRilla, Beyonce), but she’s lost a lot of friends in the past five years.