For weeks/months now, everyone has been obsessed with the one-two-three punch of summer blockbusters – this week, the latest Mission Impossible movie is out now, then the double-billing of Barbenheimer will come out next week. That’s Barbie and Oppenheimer, both released on the same day. Oppenheimer will take over the IMAX theaters, but Barbie will take over people’s souls. Tom Cruise decided to promote all of the July blockbusters, posting photos of himself holding tickets to Barbie and Oppenheimer. Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig did the same – they posted photos with tickets to Mission Impossible and Oppenheimer. We were waiting to see if the Oppenheimer cast would get into the same “we support the movies, all of the movies” vibe. Cillian Murphy especially, since he’s so serious and… well, he just doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who wants to talk about the Barbie movie. But he was asked and his answer is lovely (this is Google-translated, so it’s slightly wonky).

“I can’t wait to see Barbie. I love Margot Robbie, I love Ryan Gosling, I want to see them now. I don’t know what the debate is about, although it’s not that I have an overwhelming opinion about it either. My advice would be for people to go see both, on the same day. If they are good films, then that’s cinema’s gain.”

[From La Vanguardia]

Yay! Cillian really said “one ticket for Barbie, please!” The Barbenheimer discourse has pleased me to no end, and I actually loved that Tom Cruise got involved too. It is a win for cinema, a win for “going to the movies.” Now, will someone force Cillian and Christopher Nolan into a photo-op holding tickets in front of the Mission Impossible and Barbie posters?

This summer is full of amazing movies to see in theaters.

Congratulations, Harrison Ford, on 40 years of Indy and one of the most iconic characters in history.

I love a double feature, and it doesn’t get more explosive (or more pink) than one with Oppenheimer and Barbie. pic.twitter.com/udWHHj4fAe

— Tom Cruise (@TomCruise) June 28, 2023

Mission: Accepted! pic.twitter.com/DJ2gm5e4XU

— Barbie Movie (@barbiethemovie) June 30, 2023

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

There are a historic number of Russian and Belarusian players in the Wimbledon quarterfinals this year, the year after the tournament banned players from Russia and Belarus. Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, Roman Safiullin are Russian men’s quarterfinalists at Wimbledon, and Aryna Sabalenka (a Belarusian) is into the women’s QFs. Not to mention last year’s champion, Elena Rybakina, a Russian-born woman who plays for Kazakhstan, is also a quarterfinalist and her title defense is going very well.

Many of these players are in the top ten, so it’s not *that* remarkable that they’re playing well at a big tournament. It’s also worth noting that in Medvedev and Rublev’s case, they’re two of the most popular and charismatic players on the tour, and Wimbledon has acknowledged that by scheduling them on major show courts (Rublev even played on Centre Court in his fourth round). But trust the British media to once again make everything about Wimbledon’s royal patron, the Princess of Wales. Last year, the British press suggested that Wimbledon banned Russians and Belarusians specifically because of Kate, because Kate was too precious, delicate and important to (gasp) hand a trophy to a Russian, as if the mere act of handing a trophy to someone is an endorsement of the player’s national politics. So here’s some of the latest chapter of “OMG, Kate is going to have to speak to a Russian!!!” From the Telegraph: “Russians and Belarusians are taking over Wimbledon — it could be the Princess of Wales’ worst nightmare.”

Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev might not have flags next to their name, nor the three letters RUS, as a result of their president’s bloodthirsty war in Ukraine. But with both men through to the quarter-finals, along with Belarus’s world No 2 Aryna Sabalenka, it’s easy to imagine the All England Club’s worst-case scenario coming to pass next weekend. That’s the one in which the Princess of Wales ends up presenting a trophy to one of these officially stateless players.

Such a conclusion would represent a nightmarish escalation of last year’s awkward plotline, which found Her Royal Highness shaking hands with Elena Rybakina – a Moscovite who plays under the Kazakh flag.

The desire to avoid these sorts of images – which could potentially be used as a propaganda tool by Vladimir Putin or Alexander Lukashenko – lay behind the AELTC’s original decision to ban Russians and Belarusians last summer. But the furious response from the two professional tours, who stripped rankings points from Wimbledon in 2022, left the club with no alternative but to back down.

[From The Telegraph]

Just like last year, I wonder why everyone is so desperate to include Kate into this storyline. Kensington Palace should have shut it down last year and they should shut it down this year as well – Kate is a grown woman, and her official position should be that “handing someone a trophy or plate is not an endorsement of the national politics of the player receiving the trophy or plate.” Kate did fine handing the Venus Rosewater dish to Rybakina last year – it was not a thing, the conversation was not “Kate endorses Russian and Kazakh politics!” Anyway, fingers crossed for Medvedev and Rublev, I love those Russians and I’m really rooting for them.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.

I’m still swooning from Margot Robbie’s pitch-perfect vintage Barbie ensemble at the big premiere in LA on Sunday. So permit me to use that as a segue into saying that I’m sure Singer Barbie, like Adele, would absolutely NOT stand for this shit of people throwing stuff at performers on stage. Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell were at the Barbie premiere since they wrote a song (“What Was I Made For?”) for the soundtrack, and they each chimed in on the sorry state of affairs:

As a growing list of musicians–including Harry Styles, Drake, Kelsea Ballerini, Pink, Lil Nas X, Bebe Rexha, Ava Max and Blackpink’s Lisa–have been hit onstage by fans throwing objects at them during recent weeks, superstars Billie Eilish and Finneas have given their thoughts on the troubling trend, though Eilish say it’s nothing new.

“I’ve been getting hit onstage with things for like, literally, six years, I don’t know why this is like new,” Eilish told The Hollywood Reporter at the world premiere of Barbie on Sunday in Los Angeles. “People just get excited and it can be dangerous.”

Finneas noted that often fans aren’t trying to actually hit the artist, and they aren’t throwing things like tomatoes and oranges in protest but usually phones to get pictures, though Eilish admits, “It’s absolutely infuriating when you’re up there.”

“I have mixed feelings about it, because when you’re up there it blows. But you know it’s out of love and they’re just trying to give you something,” Eillish continued. “You’re in a vulnerable position, but I’ve been getting hit with stuff for like years.”

Finneas then turned with a direct message to camera, saying, “Don’t do it–we get it but don’t do it,” as Eilish echoed, “Don’t throw things onstage, but we love you, it’s very sweet.”

[From The Hollywood Reporter]

I get where they were going at the end there, trying to communicate that they understand where the impulse is coming from, but I wish they hadn’t concluded with “it’s very sweet.” It’s not sweet, it’s assault. And speaking of, of course there’s a new incident to report. Harry Styles was hit in the eye again too while performing in Vienna. I’m pretty soon these singers are gonna get their own versions of the Israeli Iron Dome to block incoming missiles. Or they’re gonna enter witness protection for their own concerts. This is why we can’t have nice things.

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photos credit: Backgrid, Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon and via Instagram

The upcoming Barbie movie is the first movie that I’ve been excited about all year. (And Oppenheimer, but mostly because it’s always a pleasure to see Cillian Murphy looking gorgeously miserable in his special way). It’s been a long time coming, this movie–remember back in 2014, Amy Schumer was attached to the project? There was also a time when screenwriter Diablo Cody was involved. She wrote the screenplay for Juno and Jennifer’s Body, the former earning her an Oscar. People panned Jennifer’s Body initially but it’s become something of a cult classic now. But her attempt to write a script for the Barbie movie didn’t go well–she didn’t even turn in a draft. Diablo talked to GQ about the upcoming Barbie movie, and where she thinks it went wrong for her. A big factor is the change in the cultural conversation about hyper-femininity and embracing “bimbo culture.”

The bimbo is now a valid feminist archetype (on TikTok): “I think I know why I shit the bed,” she tells GQ over the phone from Los Angeles. “When I was first hired for this, I don’t think the culture had not embraced the femme or the bimbo as valid feminist archetypes yet. If you look up ‘Barbie’ on TikTok you’ll find this wonderful subculture that celebrates the feminine, but in 2014, taking this skinny blonde white doll and making her into a heroine was a tall order.”

The Amy Schumer Barbie would have been an ‘anti-Barbie’: The plan had been to package Cody’s affectionate and idiosyncratic take on the character with an unconventional leading actress—specifically Amy Schumer, whose crass, confessional work as a stand-up and sketch comic gave her a certain counterculture credibility. It was, in theory, a terrific idea, but Cody recalls that the concept was ultimately less liberating than it seemed. “That idea of an anti-Barbie made a lot of sense given the feminist rhetoric of ten years ago,” says Cody. “I didn’t really have the freedom then to write something that was faithful to the iconography; they wanted a girl-boss feminist twist on Barbie, and I couldn’t figure it out because that’s not what Barbie is.”

It was hard to walk a fine line between satire and positive branding: Cody notes that part of the problem was that The Lego Movie made for a daunting template, having managed so voraciously to have its cake and eat it too in terms of being both a satire and an act of brand extension. “I heard endless references to The Lego Movie in development,” she says, “and it created a problem for me because they had done it so well. Any time I came up with something meta, it was too much like what they had done. It was a roadblock for me, but now enough time has passed that they can just cast [The Lego Movie antagonist] Will Ferrell as the antagonist in a real-life Barbie movie and nobody cares.”

[From GQ]

Barbie is one of those cultural artifacts with so many possibly meanings–often contradictory meanings. To the children who play with them, Barbie dolls represent creativity and self-expression and imagination. Barbie has had almost every job, I think–even entomologist. And yet for all of the possibilities of Barbie–for all her jobs and outfits and make-believe story lines–she also continues to reinforce a narrow definition of beauty. So I see why Diablo got stuck. It’s hard to make that character into a “feminist girl-boss” and I’m glad they abandoned that approach altogether. And I wonder if Diablo’s style of dialogue would have worked. It has its own flaws, but I kind of like aspects of “bimbo culture”. So many of the interests that are coded as feminine–makeup, beauty, fashion, etc–are seldom taken as seriously in our culture as masculine-coded interests like sports and cars and things like that. I think that’s why so many people like Barbie, because she celebrates those “girlie” interests without a trace of irony.

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

The Barbie movie doesn’t come out until July 21, but the promotion has been happening for months and it is outstanding. I’m being completely serious – the marketing departments from Mattel and Warner Bros are going to win awards for what they’re doing to market and promote the film. Margot Robbie is going to get tons of credit too, since she put the film together and produced it through her company, LuckyChap. People Magazine has done a special Barbie issue, with a cover story full of Barbie gossip. As in, gossip about what it was like to make the movie. They had a lot of fun!!

Barbie sleepovers: Simu Liu says Margot Robbie hosted a sleepover for her fellow Barbie actresses. “Margot was so great. She had a sleepover with the Barbies before photography started, and the Kens were allowed to either visit briefly or to phone in and say hi,” he says. “So we made sure to show our support but not be overbearing with our presence. And all the Barbies and Kens got in a group chat.”

Michael Cera’s Allan kept separate from the Barbies & Kens: That group chat didn’t include Michael Cera though, but he was fine with the omission. “I don’t have an iPhone myself. … I have a flip phone,” says Cera, 35. “But I still think I wouldn’t belong on [the group chat] anyway, because [my character] Allan is sort of in his own little world. Greta’s gift for me when I arrived was a picture disc of NSYNC’s No Strings Attached, which felt like somehow a real guiding light in the backstory of this character.”

Issa Rae missed the sleepover: “I got there late. I was so sad [to miss the sleepover],” says Rae, 38. “But there were so many bonding activities. Simu’s birthday happened there. And Margot and Tom [Ackerley, Robbie’s husband and co-producer] would have movie nights.”

Ryan Gosling on Margot’s once-a-week pink dress code on set: “Margot had this pink day once a week, where everyone had to wear something pink. And if you didn’t, you were fined,” says Gosling, 42. “She would go around collecting the fines, and she would donate it to a charity. What was really special was just how excited the male crew members were. At the end of the film, they all got together and, with their own money, made pink crew shirts with rainbow fringe. It was this opportunity for them to show their respect and admiration for what Margot and [director] Greta [Gerwig] were creating. It was almost like that scene at the end of Dead Poets Society, where they all get on their desk and say, ‘O captain! My captain!’ ”

Robbie on Ryan Gosling: “Ryan is the most comedically gifted actor I have ever worked with. He really is,” says Robbie of Gosling. “He’s known for his dramatic acting, and rightly so. But he is unbelievably gifted with comedy, and I ruined most of his takes because I was laughing through all of it.”

[From People]

I’m exhausted just thinking about how much Margot did to keep everyone going, to keep the vibe happy and exciting, to keep everyone motivated. Granted, we haven’t heard of any disputes on-set or anything, so maybe it wasn’t that difficult for her, but still – it’s really rare to see actors so committed to telling everyone that the whole production experience was amazing and that everyone loves each other. It must have been a magical experience for all of them.

Photos from the Mexico City photocall, where Margot recreated Totally Hair Barbie, from the 1990s. She’s either wearing a wig or those are some crazy extensions. It’s really cute how she’s creating all of these Barbie looks for the promo.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, cover courtesy of People.

What’s going on with Ryan Murphy & the WGA strike? [LaineyGossip]
First photos of Jenna Ortega on the set of Beetlejuice 2. [Buzzfeed]
The Las Vegas Sphere is freaking me out. [OMG Blog]
OMG, would they really reboot Bones with the same cast?? [Just Jared]
Someone threw something at Harry Styles during his concert. Stop doing this, it’s a felony and extremely rude. [Seriously OMG]
Reservation Dogs’ third season will be its last. [Pajiba]
The PFW Schiaparelli show was insane. [Go Fug Yourself]
Was Madonna given Narcan? [Jezebel]
Doja Cat gets “patriotic.” [Egotastic]
Of course the Kentucky cops released an armed KKK member who threatened LGBTQ people. The KKK member probably was a cop. [Towleroad]
Helen Mirren was also at the Dolce & Gabbbana event. [RCFA]

Every single time the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are seen or photographed, the British papers call in their “body language experts,” all of whom describe Harry and Meghan’s affectionate, adoring body language as pathetic, immature, performative, etc. The experts usually say that Meghan is “dominating” Harry, and that Harry “looks to Meghan for approval.” The body language experts are just tabloid fantasists, but it’s always crazy to see how many stories the tabloids get out of their so-called “body-language analysis.” Only once in a blue moon will those same experts be called in to even begin to untangle Prince William’s balled-up fists, clenched jaw and his visible disgust with his wife. On those rare occasions, the experts will declare William and Kate a true love match because they’re so visibly awkward and uncomfortable with one another. That’s the way it works! All of which to say, I was surprised that the body language experts were called in for William and Kate’s appearance at a polo match last Thursday.

While the Princess of Wales has made a habit in recent years of offering a supportive pat – often on the rear – to her husband at formal occasions, judging by an awkward kiss at the polo yesterday, it seems Prince William isn’t quite so comfortable with overt PDAs, says a leading body language expert.

Kate Middleton, 41, watched the Prince, also 41, play in the Out-Sourcing Inc. Royal Charity Polo Cup 2023 at the Guards Polo Club in Windsor on Wednesday – and the couple partook in a rather formal embrace after the match had finished. As the Princess of Wales strolled over to congratulate her husband on his performance, with others looking on, he offered the kind of greeting you might give a business acquaintance – an awkward peck on both cheeks.

Body language expert Judi James told MailOnline: ‘Kate looks so much more comfortable greeting her husband with an air kiss here but, despite approaching the ritual looking emotionally needy, hunching his shoulders, leaning forward and performing an embrace announcement gesture to register his delight, he keeps things more formal once he docks in.’

James said that while it’s clear ‘the couple are increasingly less reserved about their PDAs recently, this moment shows William can still be rather self-conscious about them.’

And it may be that gender roles are at play, says the expert.

‘There are three quite practical reasons for his reservations here, firstly the air kiss is a difficult ritual that often mystifies men, then there is the macho spirit of polo, where PDAs with wives are less common, and lastly he must be sadly aware of his father’s iconic but telling miss-kisses with his mother at similar events, putting pressure on him to get it right.’

Kate had offered a supportive pat on William’s lower back earlier in the day, something she’s been seen performing a number of times in the past few months. She playfully tapped him on the behind during their day at the Royal Ascot last month, and sent royal fans wild when she performed the same gesture on the red carpet at the BAFTAs in February.

[From The Daily Mail]

“The marriage is fine because Kate gropes her husband’s ass in public while he is visibly uncomfortable” is a strange message. I also find it strange that William is supposed to be super-aware of his parents’ polo greetings, like the infamous time Charles actually tried to kiss Diana on the lips but she moved away at the last minute on purpose. That… is not what happened between William and Kate. They greeted each other as work acquaintances because they don’t actually know how to be affectionate and loving with one another. They really are such a toxic pair – I’ve said this before, but I genuinely believe that bullying Harry and Meghan out of the country probably brought Will and Kate closer together… at first.

Eat your heart out, body language experts!

Kate tries to be discreet but her anger and frustration are becoming harder and harder to hide. William can’t even pretend anymore.

How long before their cheerleader and mouthpiece Camilla Tominey writes a new rumor about H&M’s marriage to distract from this crumbling facade? pic.twitter.com/CAQnA18GwH

— Julia (@Julia44993) July 7, 2023

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Breaking my silence: I dislike sharing a bed. For my entire life, I just have a high internal body temperature, and I can’t stand having a (temperature) hot body beside me or sleeping near to me or on me. It has to be a very cold night for me to even sleep with extra blankets – usually one blanket will do, and I kick it off and on several times throughout the night. I need my space, even when I’m sleeping (especially when I’m sleeping). So, I perfectly understand the more “traditional” custom of spouses sleeping in different bedrooms. That’s simply the way it’s done in the British aristocracy and among British royals – married couples rarely sleep in the same room. Well, I tend to think the Daily Mail is making a point of directing everyone’s attention to that fact:

A restful night’s sleep – on one’s own – could be the key to the King’s successful long-term love with Queen Camilla, a royal expert has speculated. The monarch, 74, and Camilla, 75, spilt their time between places, and although Buckingham Palace is officially their place of residence, their London base is thought to be Clarence House.

It is not unusual for members of the royal family to retire to different bedrooms for the evening. The Prince and Princess of Wales slept separately when they lived in Kensington Palace. And it was speculated that the late Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip even had rooms in completely different areas of the Palace.

However, it has been said that the reason behind Charles and Camilla separating for the evening is due to the King’s health. He suffers from back pain and it has been speculated that sleeping alone can ease the pain and would therefore be beneficial for the royal.

Royal expert Joshua Rom suggested that Charles and Camilla kipped in different rooms because of their ‘hectic schedules’, as reported in The Mirror. A source has previously told the Daily Mail that the new monarch and his wife share three bedrooms at Clarence House.

‘His Royal Highness has a room with a double bed, decorated to his own taste, then Camilla has her own room with a double bed, decorated just the way she likes it,’ says the royal pal. ‘In addition, they have a shared bedroom with a double bed that they can use whenever they like. The arrangement suits them perfectly.’

But the couple don’t just sleep apart at Clarence House, but also when they travel to the countryside in Gloucestershire. Camilla is also said to have her own room at Highgrove Mansion but she prefers to spend time at Ray Mill as it is closer to her family.

The royals are not the only ones to sleep apart, as it has been reported that around 25 per cent of all US couples sleep in separate bedrooms and four in ten UK couples now sleep apart most nights. UK sex expert Tracey Cox says that despite the stigma around sleeping separately, choosing to sleep in separate beds could actually improve your love and sex life dramatically.

[From The Daily Mail]

Again, I understand the logistics of why married couples would sleep separately and I’m not judging – I would do the same if I was married. Charles and Camilla’s sleeping arrangements make sense for them, and they’ve probably always had that kind of arrangement. It’s especially clear that Camilla likes to have her own space, and that Charles doesn’t actually need or want Camilla around him constantly. It works for them. It’s hilariously out of touch – oh, darling, just get three bedrooms and 13 homes like the king and queen! – but again, it works for them.

Note the part about how William and Kate had separate bedrooms in their KP apartment – that’s interesting. Especially because the family supposedly moved into Adelaide Cottage, which simply doesn’t have the space for that kind of arrangement. William probably does maintain a separate bedroom… somewhere else entirely. I saw that tweet about a helicopter flying into KP every evening too – maybe William likes his private bedroom in KP while Kate enjoys her private bedroom in Adelaide Cottage.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Last week, the Daily Mail’s editors wept as they described Prince Harry’s absence from his friend’s wedding in the UK. The friend is Jack Mann, and his wedding was somewhere in the English countryside. It happened during the Fourth of July holiday weekend here in America, and clearly, Harry’s bigger priority was going to the Independence Day parade in Montecito with his wife and children. Harry’s absence was the headline in the Mail, just as his absence was the framing device for King Charles’s Scottish coronation. They truly believe that Harry should be desperately flying back and forth to the UK for every little thing. Well, Harry’s absence from Jack Mann’s wedding was the lead story for the Mail’s Palace Confidential thing, where they anxiously discussed the idea that Harry might not have the same BFFs he had six years ago. Gasp.

The Duke of Sussex’s absence from the wedding of one of his closest friends reflects the ‘sad situation’ Prince Harry finds himself in when it comes to those formerly closest to him, according to the Daily Mail’s Diary Editor Richard Eden.

‘We don’t know if Jack Mann’s become estranged from Harry or not, but in Harry’s memoirs, at the end he talks about how he was “chastised” – in his words – after the interview by some of his closest friends,’ he tells this week’s episode of Palace Confidential. ‘He’s done a lot of damage to those old relationships.’

The Daily Mail’s Royal Editor Rebecca English says that the fallout from his former friends has been profound.

‘From what I hear there are a lot of people who are genuinely disgusted by what he’s done since leaving the Royal Family. They feel very hurt by some of the revelations that he’s made. As they were growing up William and Harry created a very close-knit circle of friends around each other. There was almost a kind of omertà between them. There are people who said “we’ve been very loyal to him over the years and we don’t feel that loyalty’s been repaid”’.

The Duke of Sussex stood shoulder to shoulder with Jack Mann and his other closest confederates in the ‘band of brothers’ photograph at Windsor Castle on the night of the royal wedding. Also in the snap were financier Adam Bidwell, PR guru Lord Vivian, car collector Henry Warhurst, nightclub entrepreneur Charlie Gilkes, Mann and Prince Harry’s long-time mentor Mark Dyer. And, after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s nuptials, it was suggested that Mann was not just one of the ushers but was, in fact, his ‘real’ best man, rather than Prince William. So there was disappointment at the weekend among royal fans that Harry and Meghan were not present at Mann’s own big day.

[From The Daily Mail]

Let’s be real: the only “disgust” is coming from the palace and Windsor loyalists, because those are the people in Harry’s crosshairs. He hasn’t said sh-t about his friends, he hasn’t been “disloyal” to those people. The code of omerta he “broke” was the Windsor omerta, not the “Harry’s BFF omerta.” That being said, it’s abundantly clear that over the course of the past six years, Harry has learned which friends genuinely love him and want the best for him and which friends… aren’t like that at all. It would not surprise me if Harry used to have a lot of friends who expected him to be Peter Pan forever, to always be the funny, damaged guy who could never really get it together. I get it – it’s tough when your friend grows up and moves on and you haven’t. But again, that’s not Harry’s fault.

Photos courtesy of Netflix, Avalon Red.

I would absolutely love to hear President Joe Biden discuss, without filter, what he really thinks of the British Conservative Party and the British royal family. Those people despise him, openly and vehemently, and they’re all so f–king mad that Biden isn’t playing their reindeer games. He has never made a big deal about the British-American “special relationship,” he’s called out the British government for their shenanigans when it comes to Northern Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement, and seems to maintain good relations with the European Union and many European leaders. All of which has led to some really negative press for President Biden in the “niche” British media. They think he’s woke! They think he’s too friendly with the Sussexes! LOL.

President Biden is in the UK today before he heads off to the NATO Summit in Lithuania. When Biden turned down King Charles’s invitation to the coronation, the White House said something about a state visit, but this does not qualify as a state visit. This is basically a whirlwind stopover which was tacked on at the last minute. These are photos of President Biden outside of 10 Downing Street, where he had a somewhat brief meeting with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. After Downing Street, Biden headed straight to Windsor Castle to do a brief photo-op with King Charles. Keep in mind, both Downing Street and Buckingham Palace have been openly seething about Biden for months. It came to a head during Biden’s lovely trip to Ireland and Biden’s refusal to attend the coronation. The palace and the Tories were crying to the press about how Biden is too old to travel and how he’s being so mean to them. This was how the Telegraph greeted Biden’s stopover:

When President Biden arrived in Britain on Monday, with much pomp and circumstance rolled out to make him welcome.

Nobody will mention the fact that he did not come to our first Coronation since 1953. He slighted Charles and Camilla by sending Jill Biden, the First Lady, instead. Was that a petty act of revenge for their refusal to give him pride of place at the late Queen’s funeral?

As a guest at Windsor on Monday, we may be certain that the President will be warmly greeted by the King and Queen, and the meeting is being viewed as an olive branch offering on behalf of Biden. Joe will turn on his folksy charm and crack a joke and Charles will chuckle politely.

Rishi Sunak will be cordial too, even though the King’s octogenarian guest has the devil of a time getting his name right.

So far, the Prime Minister’s diplomacy has made little impression in the Biden White House. Luckily we don’t play cricket with the Americans.

There is the usual waffle in our media about the “Special Relationship”. Across the Atlantic, the President’s visit will be treated merely as a stopover en route to the Nato summit at Vilnius, the real purpose of his trip.

[From The Telegraph]

So, I often get stuck in my mindset of “these people are unhinged about Harry and Meghan.” It’s somewhat comforting to see that they’re cruel and unhinged about everything, especially everything about America. They believe President Biden got his feelings hurt over… funeral seating, and that’s why he skipped the coronation? They’re mad that Americans view this visit as what it is: a brief stopover. They’re also really mad that Biden didn’t put his support behind a British guy for NATO secretary general – Biden threw his weight behind Ursula von der Leyen rather than Ben Wallace. They imagine this is a very specific snub to all of Britain, rather than Biden understanding European diplomacy better than the Brexit clownshow.

Pres. Biden is welcomed to Windsor Castle by King Charles III and a rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner.” https://t.co/Cy7IumTTRG pic.twitter.com/SNQSVuANiW

— ABC News (@ABC) July 10, 2023

Pres. Biden inspects the Guard of Honour, formed of The Prince of Wales’s Company of the Welsh Guards, as he meets with King Charles III at Windsor Castle. https://t.co/Cy7IumTTRG pic.twitter.com/NqkscKFTj0

— ABC News (@ABC) July 10, 2023

Embed from Getty Images

Photos courtesy of Getty, Avalon Red.