There was a terrible incident involving Britney Spears this week. Britney was in Las Vegas, at the Aria Hotel. She saw San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama at the hotel, with his security. Britney decided to go up to Victor and ask him for a photo. She walked up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder (that’s her version) and one of Victor’s security guys backhanded her in the face. Britney has filed a police report and both she and Victor issued statements on Thursday:

Recent No. 1 overall draft pick Victor Wembanyama has already reached his first NBA drama, and it involves Britney Spears. The San Antonio Spurs phenom confirmed that he was involved in an incident Wednesday that allegedly saw a member of his security team slap the pop icon at the Aria Hotel in Las Vegas, according to the Associated Press. Per TMZ, Spears filed a police report that identified Spurs director of team security Damian Smith as the person who backhanded her, with conflicting reports on whether the matter will be subject to a criminal investigation. There are also photos showing a person identified as Spears walking up behind Wembanyama and Smith.

Spears reportedly wanted to ask Wembanyama for a photo as they were walking into a restaurant and tapped him on the shoulder, which allegedly resulted in the slap. Spears then went to her table, where Smith approached her to apologize, which she accepted. Wembanyama somewhat corroborated the account while speaking with reporters Thursday, though he claimed that Spears grabbed him instead of tapping him on the shoulder and said his security “pushed her away” instead of slapping her:

“Something did happen, a little bit, when I was walking with some security from the team to some restaurant. We were in the hall. There was a lot of people, so people calling me, obviously. There was one person who was calling me, but we talked before with the security. I couldn’t stop. That person was calling me, ‘sir, sir,’ and that person grabbed me from behind,” Wembanyama said. “I didn’t see what happened because I was walking straight and didn’t stop. That person grabbed me from behind, not on my shoulder, she grabbed me from behind. I just know the security pushed her away. I don’t know with how much force, but security pushed her away. I didn’t stop to look so I could walk in and enjoy the nice dinner.”

He added that he didn’t know the other person was Spears until hours after the incident: “I didn’t know for a couple hours, but when I came back to the hotel … I didn’t forget about it, but I thought it was no big deal, and then the security of the Spurs told me it was Britney Spears. At first, I was like, ‘You’re joking.’ But yeah, turns out it was Britney Spears. I never saw her face. I just kept walking straight.”

Spears later released a statement via Twitter in which she pushed back on Wembanyama’s claim that she grabbed him and emphasized the force with which she was hit.

“Traumatic experiences are not new to me and I have had my fair share of them. I was not prepared for what happened to me last night. recognized an athlete in my hotel lobby as I was heading to dinner. I later went to a restaurant at a different hotel and saw him again. I decided to approach him and congratulate him on his success. It was really loud, so I tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. I am aware of the players statement where he mentions “I grabbed him from behind” but I simply tapped him on the shoulder. His security then back handed me in the face without looking back, in front of a crowd. Nearly knocking me down and causing my glasses off my face.

Spears also noted that she was swarmed by a group of 20 fans the same night and didn’t have her security team hit any of them. She requested a public apology from Wembanyama, the Spurs and their security: “This story is super embarrassing to share with the world but its out there already. However, I think it’s important to share this story and to urge people in the public eye to set an example and treat all people with respect. Physical violence is happening too much in this world. Often behind closed doors. I stand with all the victims and my heart goes out to all of you!!! have yet to get a public apology from the player, his security or their organization. I hope they will…

[From Yahoo Sports]

TMZ reports that the Vegas police are taking this seriously and they might pursue charges, not against Victor, but against this security guy. Like… I realize that there are a lot of fans who don’t know how to act right and it can get really scary for celebrities and athletes. I get that there is a genuine need for people to have security around them in public areas. But when your security guy is backhanding women who merely tap you on the shoulder? That’s wrong. It should not be normalized, this casual violence.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Every single royal reporter knows who said what to whom within the Windsor clan. They’ve all been briefed and they all have palace insiders and royal sources too. They all know who told Prince Harry to avoid getting serious with Meghan because of what skin color their children would have. They all know who made Meghan cry. They all know when, where and how William assaulted Harry. They all know that Meghan was suicidal and desperate for help, and that she was turned away and left to fend for herself. They know a lot of even worse stories, stories which Harry and Meghan haven’t even spoken about publicly. That’s part of the reason why the rota is so mad at Harry and Meghan: they’ve been dying to report on all of this stuff, and they need H&M to say it first. All things considered – especially given what Harry included in Spare – I think we can safely say that Harry and Meghan have withheld a lot, especially in the Oprah interview in 2021. I remember the post-interview atmosphere in the British media – outrage, performative angst, lies, and a very strange undercurrent of relief. As in, the Sussexes’ accusations were nowhere near as bad as they expected. Well, speaking of guilty consciences:

Prince William was “sick with worry” over Prince Harry’s bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey. The Prince of Wales reportedly “cut himself off from the world” in the lead-up to his brother’s explosive sit-down alongside wife Meghan Markle in March 2021.

“I’ve heard this for a long time now from many different sources … in the lead-up to that Oprah interview, William was quite literally sick with worry,” Charlotte Griffiths, Editor-at-Large for the Mail on Sunday, said Tuesday on Dan Wootton’s GB News.

“He was not eating, and he became – not reclusive – but he definitely was hiding away,” she alleged. “He went to a royal residence for a period of time to cut himself off from the world. He was just in bits, basically.”

Griffiths also alleged that William’s wife, Kate Middleton, stepped in to “protect” her husband.

“And what Kate was doing was standing by her man. Kate was like: ‘I’ve got to stick up for this guy and protect him. He’s being destroyed by this,’ and that probably made her quite steely, even though she has this reputation for being shy,” the journalist explained. “But when it comes to protecting her husband, she’s going to step in and protect him.”

[From Page Six]

As I said, they all know. They all know exactly why William was “literally sick with worry.” They know that William was constipated with rage and engorged with sorrow because he believed Harry and Meghan would detail exactly what he did to them, every racist thing he said, every act of violence he committed, every one of his rage-tantrums. What’s curious is… why is Charlotte Griffiths going out of her way to say this now, and why frame it as “William was sh-tting himself out of fear, which is why Brilliant Keen Kate stepped in to protect him?” What is the play here? Is it just to remind William that they all know exactly how much sh-t he did to the Sussexes? To remind William that the Sussexes really could have exposed him even more?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Harpo/CBS.

Cardi B loooooves Paris Fashion Week. [Go Fug Yourself]
Did Indiana Jones & the Dial of Destiny really “flop”? [LaineyGossip]
Jack Schlossberg’s rant about restaurants is so… weird. [Jezebel]
July horoscopes! [OMG Blog]
David Zaslav is such a 2023 Villain. [Pajiba]
Jeremy Allen White looks attractive in LA. [Just Jared]
Charisma Carpenter gets some sun in Miami. [Seriously OMG]
Sofia Richie celebrates Independence Day in the British Virgin Islands. [Egotastic]
The worst of men on Reddit’s AITA. [Buzzfeed]
Bud Light has lost the war for America’s soul??? [Towleroad]
Dakota Johnson wore Versace for a Martini event. [RCFA]

While I think Chris Pratt is a douche most of the time, I kind of like his wife. Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt seems like a very uncomplicated, easy-going person. She hasn’t struggled and she doesn’t pretend to. She grew up in a wealthy and famous family, fashioned a career for herself as an author and influencer, married a movie star and gave birth to two daughters. She’s religious but not fundamentalist and overall, she just seems harmless and kind of boring. She’s currently promoting her latest children’s book, Good Night, Sister. She chatted with the New York Times about writing, raising her two girls and being married to Pratt. Some highlights:

She created a version of her own childhood for her daughters. Like her mother, she has built a career as an author and media personality, and also married a famous actor. She lives minutes from where she grew up and regularly visits both parents, who separated in 2011 and finalized their divorce in 2021. Ms. Shriver hosts a weekly mommy-and-me class for Lyla and her friends, and Mr. Schwarzenegger keeps a miniature pony in his backyard that the girls love to pet.

She loved her childhood: “I know this sounds crazy, but I really would love to just do exactly what they did. I look back on how much of life my parents kept private, and I have a lot of respect for it. I think they kept a lot of their relationship private, they kept us kids private — you know, they didn’t take us to red carpets, they didn’t have us parading around in front of everybody.”

Where she met Chris Pratt: She shared that the two met in church. Ms. Schwarzenegger Pratt is Catholic — she is the granddaughter of a Kennedy, after all. Mr. Pratt, she said, was baptized Catholic but grew up going to other Christian churches. The two eventually crossed paths at Zoe Church, one of the hip evangelical churches in Los Angeles frequented by Justin Bieber. Ms. Schwarzenegger Pratt had been going to Zoe with her brother Patrick, an actor, who was friendly with the pastor, Chad Veach. Though they have Zoe to thank for their connection, they returned to the church where Ms. Schwarzenegger Pratt was baptized, St. Monica Catholic Church, in Santa Monica, Calif., to baptize their daughters.

Daily life with Chris Pratt is not particularly glamorous. “If you would ask anybody how I was at home, they’d be like, ‘She walks around with her hair in a banana clip and a box of crackers with one of the children on her hip’,” she said. Eating too many crackers, she said, is “a constant thing that my husband is always making fun of me for. I should have bought stock in Mary’s Gone Crackers.”

She doesn’t want to respond to all of the criticism of her husband: “Growing up, hearing people say certain things about my parents, my siblings, my extended family” was difficult, she said. Her mother cautioned her to avoid the “never-ending” trap of correcting the record, however. “I see what people say. But I just know that it’s so far from the reality.”

Whether she’ll get into politics: “No. It’s really hard, it’s a lot of work, and I think if you grew up in it, you either see it and say, ‘Oh that’s something that I want to do,’ or you look at it and say, ‘I have respect for it, but it’s not for me.’ And I have respect for it, but it’s not for me.”

What she would do if her husband decided to run for office: “I mean, I think I would probably have to tackle that when and if that ever happened. I’ve just learned so much from my experience having my dad and my mom be in that, that I would really want to talk about that.”

[From The NY Times]

I respect that she knows that politics isn’t for her, but I think she should run for office! More women should, and I would prefer to see her run for office than her husband. When they got married, a lot of people believed (and still believe) that Pratt was setting himself up to eventually run for office as a Republican, just like his father-in-law. At this point? I don’t think he is. I think Pratt knows his limitations and while the desire might be there, he’d rather make tons of money in Hollywood and raise his family. Katherine would be a good “first lady” though – she has the kind of bland innocuousness which works as a political asset. Also interesting to me: they baptized their girls in the Catholic Church, not the hippie-dippy evangelical (cult) church.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Instagram.

Here are some photos of Brad Pitt at the British F1 Grand Prix. He’s currently filming there, he’s making Apex, a film based on a fictional F1 driver. Pitt’s playing the driver, Sonny Hayes. Lewis Hamilton is producing it and it’s being directed by Joseph Kosinski, who directed Top Gun: Maverick. Pitt’s been getting into F1 for months now, trying to show off how cool he is, like he’s not an almost-60-year-old man with a recent history of alcohol abuse, financial abuse and physical abuse. I also have to say… I kind of wonder if they had to delay the filming schedule to allow Pitt’s plastic surgery to settle. That jawline was carved by a surgeon.

It feels like it’s been forever since Pitt’s team gave us an update on his relationship with Ines de Ramon, the jewelry designer who used to be married to Paul Wesley. Ines and Brad have a performative showmance happening and I’m pretty sure they can go weeks and months without seeing each other. Well, last week, she was seen wearing a “B” necklace. So we are supposed to believe that they are still happening.

The other stuff around Pitt has been relatively quiet, at least in the English-language media. French media and European media have been covering some of what’s happening at Chateau Miraval and all of the legal problems Pitt has now. Pitt’s cracked-out team messed with the wrong Russian when they began attacking Yuri Scheffler, the man who bought Angelina Jolie’s half of the Miraval estate. Scheffler is burying Pitt in lawsuits and legal actions in French courts, and reportedly, Scheffler is openly accusing Pitt of squandering something like 60 million Euros through mismanagement of Miraval. Pitt’s also in deep sh-t with the French water board because Miraval now has five pools, and there are drought conditions in the South of France. Oh, and there are some big tax issues for Pitt in France as well. It will be curious to see if any English-language media picks up on the French reporting.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

Kevin Costner had to pay his first wife $80 million in their divorce. That was back in 1994, and it was one of the costliest celebrity divorces of all time. After that, Costner slowly rebuilt his career and his finances, and he basically only married Christine Baumgartner after years of stringing her along and after she gave him an ultimatum about wanting to get married. So, he had time to protect his assets this time around, and he made Baumgartner sign a pretty strict and kind of insane prenup. Part of the prenup was that, in the case of divorce, she would have to move out of all of Costner’s homes, which are solely in his name. Not only that, but he only gave her 30 days to move out! Well, I thought Christine had a good plan in place – she refused to move out of the Carpenteria mansion, she brought in the forensic accountant, she lawyered up. But things are not going her way.

Kevin Costner’s estranged wife Christine Baumgartner will have to move out of their shared $145 million compound by the end of the month, a judge has ordered. The couple, who are going through divorce proceedings, was scheduled for a conference management hearing on Wednesday where Judge Thomas Anderele denied Baumgartner’s request to move out of the home in August, according to Fox News and Yahoo.

Baumgartner, 49, who arrived by limo at the Santa Barbara courthouse, was photographed ahead of the proceedings. Costner attended the hearing via Zoom, remaining on mute, according to Entertainment Tonight.

The meeting comes after PEOPLE obtained court documents filed on June 30, in which Costner’s legal team claimed that Baumgartner allegedly “grasps at straws with one baseless argument after another,” as to why she should be allowed to stay in his Santa Barbara home.

Costner, 68, “respectfully requests that Christine be ordered to vacate his separate property residence forthwith and no later than July 13, 2023,” the document states.

These latest documents from Costner, who purchased the property in 1988 before he wed Baumgartner, come in response to his estranged wife’s own June 28 filing, in which she stated his claims that she will not vacate the home are “simply not true” and that she will move out of their beachfront property by Aug. 31 if a child support agreement has been made.

The exes share three children together — Cayden, 16, Hayes, 14, and Grace, 13 — who has lived in the Santa Barbara compound their whole lives. In order to set up a “suitable separate household” for them, she has reportedly requested $248,000 per month in child support, a number Costner has rejected as “inflated.”

[From People]

Yeah, I have a bad feeling about this for Christine’s sake. Maybe she’s not going to be able to nullify that bonkers prenup. Maybe Costner really will kick her out of all of his properties and she’ll be forced to raise their three minor children in some beach shack rental. I thought Christine’s position was perfectly reasonable, by the way – she argued that she would move out as soon as they came to an agreement about child support. Plus, I honestly didn’t think the court would force a mother (of three minor children) out of the home she shared with her husband for 19 years before they had even come to any kind of financial agreement.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Over the weekend, the Daily Express had a big story on how the Windsors haven’t been doing the same number of events this year, given the decreased number of “working royals.” The problem isn’t just that there are too few working royals, it’s that the two youngest working royals are incredibly lazy. Don’t forget that they’re stupid too – Prince William and Kate think they’re reinventing the wheel by creating schemes in which they… do f–k all and claim that their events are more important. Not only that, but the Windsors can’t travel anymore, because they’re mostly despised in other countries. All of which brings me to this Mail story about how the Princess of Wales basically only does events “close to home” and only Tuesday through Thursday. This is not the first time the close-to-home work has been noted by the Mail, but this piece is an attempt to put a positive spin on how little Kate does and how few hours she works.

Juggling a full-time job with being a hands-on parent isn’t easy for any of us. Meetings, work calls, drop-offs, pick-ups… the to-do list is endless, and that’s when everything goes without a hitch. Spare a thought, then, for the Princess of Wales, who is rising up the ranks as a senior royal, while simultaneously trying to raise three children under ten.

How does she do it? Well, aside from a rota of assistants and Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo, her devoted Norland nanny, behind the scenes, it’s all down to careful planning, especially in terms of timing and location. In the past eight weeks, almost every single one of Kate’s engagements has been within a 30-mile radius of her home — Adelaide Cottage in Windsor, Berkshire. The family moved there from Kensington in September last year. What’s more, they have all taken place between the hours of 9am and 4pm, meaning she can be around both before and after school (all three children attend Lambrook prep school, near Ascot) and never miss her children’s bedtime.

Ingrid Seward, royal biographer and editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine, says this clever timetabling is an example of Kate’s ‘extremely logical mind’.

‘Any mum will be wondering how on earth she does it,’ Ingrid adds. ‘From the very start, Kate has been organised and disciplined. She gets up very early in the morning, and she is able to have a say on which engagements she will and won’t do, and discuss in advance which days she wants to work. It’s extraordinary — somehow she also manages to fit in working out, getting her hair and make-up done, and still being there for the children. But don’t forget she can delegate, and she has a lot of help, which most women don’t.’

Kate rarely appears at a royal event on a Monday or a Friday, although she does seem happy to work weekends, when she’s free of the school run. Tuesdays to Thursdays, by contrast, are her busiest days when it comes to engagements — and the ones on which she’s willing to travel farthest from home.

She has only been abroad for work once this year, to attend the wedding of Crown Prince Hussein with William in Amman, Jordan, and has taken just three trips outside the 30-mile radius of her home (to Bath, Southampton and Nuneaton) since the start of last month. Her focus has shifted, too, to daytime openings, meetings and walkabouts: far more school-friendly than the glitzy dinners, galas and premieres she and William used to frequent.

And the working window is likely to get narrower still as the school holidays approach, with the Princess’s official diary currently showing nothing at all for July and August.

[From The Daily Mail]

“The Princess’s official diary currently showing nothing at all for July and August” – lmao. She’s going to Wimbledon next week and then after that, no one will see her until late September, maybe early October. Remember that summer when she completely disappeared for like eleven weeks? “It’s extraordinary — somehow she also manages to fit in working out, getting her hair and make-up done, and still being there for the children.” Is that meant to be shady? It feels like it, because Kate barely does two events a week (usually on a Tuesday or Thursday!) and the rest of the time, all she does is catch up on TV, hang out with her mother, pamper herself, play tennis and God knows what else.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.

There’s still no follow-up reporting on the collapse of the Middletons’ house of cards. In May and June, Carole and Michael Middleton “sold” Party Pieces in what was more like a bankruptcy-mandated liquidation. Carole was exposed as a serial grifter who defrauded banks and small businesses out of millions of dollars. We haven’t heard anything more about any of that in nearly four weeks. What was also interesting about the whole controversy is that the Middletons have wealthy in-laws – Prince William has private money, Pippa’s husband is terribly moderately wealthy, and James Middleton is financially supported by his wife Alizee Thevenet.

I always thought James was the black sheep of the family, the one Middleton with no hustle or business sense, just staggering from one financial disaster to the next. Now I know he’s a chip off the ol’ block. I have no idea what James’s latest failed business is – probably dog food? – but Alizee seems to make good money and she seemed fine with supporting their lifestyle. Except she’s going on maternity leave soon! Alizee is preg! James announced it on his Instagram, with photos of a bumped-out Alizee and their dog Mabel. Congrats to them, I guess. I really hope Alizee has a prenup. I hope she keeps her money completely separate from James and his grifter family. Anyway, Carole’s got another grandkid coming. She only seems to care about the royal grandkids, so who knows.

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Photos courtesy of Instagram, Backgrid.

As I’ve mentioned in my previous posts, I’m looking forward to seeing Joy Ride. The movie looks absolutely hilarious and all I knew about the concept was that it’s a raunchy comedy in which four Asian American leads head to China on a business trip that turns into a search for the biological mom of Ashley Park’s character, who was adopted by a white American family. Early reviews show Joy Ride at 92% on Rotten Tomatoes: critics love it and say it’s just as funny and raunchy as the trailer looks. Some highlights:

From The Washington Post: If it sounds odd to call a film in which characters shove cocaine into various orifices earnest and beautiful, that is the line that “Joy Ride” straddles (and I mean “straddle” quite literally at times). On the one hand, Audrey struggles to come to terms with feeling neither White enough nor Asian enough. Believe it or not, the juxtaposition is expertly handled. On the theme of identity, “Joy Ride” pays attention to small but crucial details: using chopsticks to eat bagged chips, Audrey hating the smell of oranges (which in Asia are said to bring good luck and happiness), or Kat and Lolo hilariously lamenting the frustrations of visiting family in China. Without these rich tidbits, the story would be just another hollow road trip. The intricacies and complex relationships elevate the story, painting a full picture of the first-generation Chinese immigrant experience.

From The Chicago Sun-Times: Female-fronted ensemble comedies are still relatively rare, but with “Bridesmaids” setting the tone some 12 years ago (!), we’ve since had “Trainwreck” and “Booksmart” and “Girls Trip” and “The Heat” and now comes “Joy Ride,” which had a working title of “The Joy F— Club” and that would have been amazing and absolutely accurate. This is a ferociously funny, raunchy, bold and original buddy comedy with a mostly female, Asian American lead cast that teams up with director Adele Lim to deliver the funniest movie of 2023 so far.

From The Seattle Times: Drugs and sex ensue, in vast and creative quantities and combinations, and yet with “Joy Ride” something else emerges as well: a surprisingly gentle story of friendship and identity.

From The Austin Chronicle: Joy Ride slides comfortably into the tradition of hard-R road-trip movies while also demonstrating that American culture still has many areas to open up in terms of representation.

From Tribune News Service: Hilariously daring, deeply moving, and stereotype-busting in equal measure, “Joy Ride” is also the raunchiest movie to most likely to make you shed a tear.

I didn’t read every single review because I didn’t want to learn too much in advance, but the ones I did read filled in some of the blanks about the plot and the characters. But I’m not spoiled yet and I’m super excited to see this movie. Honestly, I was sold when I saw the first trailer and even more so when I learned that the working title was the “Joy F*ck Club.” Apparently the movie lives up to its original name, while conveying a deeper and more meaningful message about friendship, family, identity, and belonging. I’m glad that a movie like this will broaden Asian American female representation, showing more facets of people in all their wild, complicated glory. A lot of the reviews mention raunchy buddy comedies like Bridesmaids, Girls’ Trip, and The Hangover, but from what I’ve heard so far it seems like Joy Ride is its own very unique thing.

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Ricky Martin and Jwan Yosef are getting a divorce. They met in 2015 and married in 2018, although it feels like they’ve been together for a lot longer than that. They have two children together, and Ricky also has sons Matteo and Valentino – he was a single dad when he met Jwan. Jwan and Ricky were a hot couple, but they’re both single now and back on the market.

After six years of marriage, Ricky Martin and Jwan Yosef are divorcing.

“We have decided to end our marriage with love, respect and dignity for our children and honoring what we have experienced as a couple all these wonderful years,” the Puerto Rican superstar and the Syrian-Swedish artist tell PEOPLE in a joint statement.

“Our greatest desire now is to continue having a healthy family dynamic and a relationship centered on peace and friendship to continue the joint upbringing of our children, preserving the respect and love we have for each other,” continue the ex-couple, who share two kids: daughter Lucia, born in 2018, and son Renn, born in 2019. (Martin previously welcomed twin sons Matteo and Valentino, born in 2008, whom he’ll continue to raise as a single parent.)

[From People]

I’ll be curious to see if we ever find out if there was something which triggered the divorce, an affair or a fight or something else. Ricky keeps his personal and professional business on lockdown for the most part, and he has a huge team helping him with every aspect of his life. Which is probably draining on a marriage, but it will probably mean that Ricky has the money and power to dictate terms about what comes out next. It was just last year when Ricky leveraged that machinery to shut down his nephew, who made some heinous claims about Ricky. I also kind of wonder if that whole “nephew story” played a role in the end of Ricky’s marriage.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.