Intro: Minutes 0 to 7:45
We have two new writers, Carina and Kismet, and two new comment moderators. Everyone is so great! I watched Somebody Somewhere on HBO and loved it. I also saw the Duggar documentary on Amazon, Shiny Happy People. It was well done but hard to take. Chandra loved Succession but found Ted Lasso lacking. She also liked Cocaine Bear but hated Scream 6. You can listen below!

Royals: Minutes 7:45 to 23:15
This week Prince Harry testified in his case against The Mirror Group newspapers. He was composed under cross examination, he made a compelling case and he made so many headlines. His witness statement was heartbreaking. A lot of these details were left out of Spare, probably because of his ongoing lawsuits. He called out Piers Morgan for publishing hurtful stories about his mother in the months leading up to her death and for harassing him and Meghan recently. This lawsuit covers up to 2011 so that’s why Meghan isn’t included, which is confusing to the British media. This case is about 33 articles published about Harry. His side only has to prove that hacking was involved in one of them.

While Harry was testifying the firm sent out Princess Kate to try to pull focus. She went to the Windsor Family Hub on Tuesday and apparently the women at the center were only given a half hour notice that she was coming with photographers. Then on Wednesday she did a rugby event.

In an obvious move to avoid Harry, Charles announced to the press ahead of time that he would be at his place in Transylvania this week. He came back to London after five days though.

William and Kate went to Crown Prince Hussein’s royal wedding in Jordan last week and looked just as pissed off at each other as they always do. I play a clip where we talked about that on Zoom.

The Middletons are getting exposed for their shady business dealings. They owe millions to creditors and had to sell Party Pieces in a fire sale. We mention how Kate pulled focus from Charles and Camilla at the Chelsea Flower Show.

Taylor Swift: Minutes 23:15 to 28:15
Taylor Swift and Matt Healy broke up this week just about a month after we first heard about them. It’s very likely he was the reason for her breakup with Joe Alwyn. He’s the frontman for the band The 1975 and he’s said and done some racist and anti-Semitic things recently that there’s no way Taylor didn’t know about. Taylor did a collaboration with Ice Spice, whom Healy was racist about, which makes it seem like Taylor and Matt were together longer than they claimed. There were a bunch of stories about how close they were until their breakup, when outlets made it sound like it was a fling. It’s been amazing to watch Taylor’s fans hold her accountable.

Comments of the Week: Minutes 28:15 to end
Chandra’s comment of the week is from Aud on the post about the Middletons stiffing their creditors. Chandra wonders why neither William nor James Mathews, Pippa’s husband, has helped the Middletons out.

My comment of the week is from Slush on the post about Martha Stewart telling people to go into the office while she works from home. Chandra remembers Martha’s interview where she said her workers needed to be available to take calls at any time. I read that interview and she fired a guy for not talking to her on a Sunday – when he was taking a bath!

Thanks for listening bitches!

Roya Nikkhah had a lengthy article in the Sunday Times. Nikkhah is one of the most recent “favorites” of both Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace, although I tend to associate her more with Prince William above the other royals. Nikkhah has gotten some very curious and Peg-specific exclusives in recent years, that’s all I’ll say. In any case, Roya’s palace sources were exceptionally chatty last week, and wouldn’t you know, it’s all about Prince Harry. The palace is scared sh-tless, as is the British media. Instead of just saying that, these people are whining and crying about the fact that they have no way to control Harry anymore and he’s doing real damage to them. Hahahahaha. Some highlights:

Exasperated sighs: Since leaving the royal fold, Harry has repeatedly claimed “the institution” refused to stand up for him and Meghan with the British press, a claim that induces exasperated sighs and rolling eyes in the royal households. It also prompts former aides who worked with the couple and who pushed their relationships with the media to the limit defending them to recall Elizabeth II’s phrase: “Some recollections may vary.”

Palace courtiers swear that Harry never asked about being hacked when he was a kid: But his claim last week that alleged phone hacking by MGN was “contained within the palace” left a senior former courtier who worked with William and Harry during that period scratching their head. “Did we keep things from him? No. At no point did it come up that the Mirror was doing it while I was there, it never came across our desk. I never had any conversations with either of the princes about ‘where are the Mirror getting those stories from?’”

How dare Harry sue the press when he’s gotten positive coverage!! The prince said he would feel it “an injustice” if phone hacking cannot be proved, but the former aide says: “It’s a means to get revenge on the tabloids and an opportunity to pursue that mission, win or lose. He won’t want to lose, but he will have had his chance to say ‘this is what it was like for me, my family, my girlfriend’. He said much of it in his book, but putting it in court adds an extra layer of credibility. Perhaps all those millions from his book and Netflix deal was to build a war chest to pursue the tabloids until the end. Of course he forgets he’s had a lot of positive coverage over the years. Like an actor, he only remembers the bad reviews.

Harry’s political comment: One barbed comment in Harry’s 55-page witness statement last week got Palace aides particularly hot under the collar, given the constitutional requirement for the royal family to be “above politics”. The fifth-in-line to the throne wrote: “Our country is judged globally by the state of our press and our government, both of which I believe are at rock bottom.” Has the prince, who travelled the world for years representing the UK, so soon forgotten that Britain is also judged internationally by its royal family? To many, his comment was woefully misjudged, others saw it as unconstitutional. Either way, what must the royal family make of their unelected, exiled prince launching attacks on this country’s elected representatives?

Why are they so worried about what an “exiled prince” has to say?? A royal source says: “The Palace will find that extremely difficult and uncomfortable, because you can never fully separate yourself from the institution and it will have raised eyebrows on both sides of the park — at Westminster too — not least because it wasn’t necessary for the core of his case. But it only underlines the wisdom and importance of [Elizabeth II’s] decisions taken at Sandringham [the family summit in January 2020], that you cannot be half-in and half-out. Those decisions are now the royal family’s insurance — when one of its members continues to break with convention, they can point out that he is speaking as Harry Windsor, not as the Duke of Sussex, working member of the royal family representing the nation. Then, there is the deep irony of a member of the royal family talking about how the country is judged around the world, which is often by and through the royal family. It shows a deep misunderstanding by him.”

Harry is embarrassing Britain!! A source who knows Harry well, says: “I think he’s been sitting in the Californian sunshine for a long time, hanging out with James Corden [the actor and TV host] and has lost all the instincts on how to do this, how to conduct himself carefully, still as a member of the royal family. He’s lost the knack of what he can and can’t say and there is no one around him to say, ‘No, Harry, you can’t say that, take that bit out’. It’s embarrassing for him and for Britain, for a prince to be saying, ‘We’ve got a sh-t government’.”

Harry has shrugged off the monarchy’s “threats”: The reality is Harry cares little about any of this, because he knows there are no consequences to his actions and the monarchy has no more levers to pull. He has continued to shrug off raised royal eyebrows and veiled threats. The King might have booted his son out of Frogmore Cottage and relegated him to the third row at Westminster Abbey for his coronation behind Princess Anne’s plumed hat, a detail that a royal insider says prompted “much hilarity among the family about where the plume ended up and what it ended up obscuring”. But the Sussexes have kept hold of their titles and those of their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, proving that however unconstitutional their words or deeds, the punishment is unlikely to be heavier than fiddling with seating plans for the occasional state occasion.

King Charles is exasperated: Those close to Charles, 74, say he is becoming increasingly exasperated. A source said: “The King brings Harry up every time I see him. I don’t think we’ve moved past sad and bewildered, but there’s a bit more frustration at his behaviour, because it just keeps going.”

They’re shocked that Harry is free: A former courtier says: “We would have been terrified to have a member of the royal family cross-examined on the stand, but Harry thinks ‘bring it on’.” A friend of Harry’s says: “He’s free from the shackles of that mentality. In Meghan he has found someone supportive of that stance and he’s emboldened by that. But the bigger picture is that he believes there are some very significant wrongs that need to be righted. It’s deeper than just wanting his day in court.”

How dare Harry go against the British media: A former courtier has another theory on why Harry is willing to endure the torment: “I think he is seeking inner peace and this becomes the target — he thinks if he can bring the media to heel, it will cure his pain. Sadly, I don’t think it will. He’s still defending his mother. Nothing will take that pain away.”

[From The Times]

“I never had any conversations with either of the princes about ‘where are the Mirror getting those stories from?’” Harry was a child and he already understood that his dogsh-t father was briefing the media about him. Why would he go to the courtiers who were briefing against him? Especially when he was under siege and didn’t know who to trust? As for the rest of it – the palace is shocked that they’re finding out after f–king around for so long. They’re shocked that Harry is, in fact, free to say whatever he wants, sue whoever he wants and criticize the British media’s stranglehold on the British government. The Windsors and the courtiers soothe themselves with their pettiness – oh, Harry was in the third row, what hilarity! – while basically admitting that the jig is up, they’ve done everything to threaten Harry, marginalize Harry and punish Harry and he still rises like a phoenix from the ashes.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

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Scandoval might have turned Ariana Madix into a legit celebrity, elevated in the the upper levels of reality star fame instead of just part of a large ensemble cast. She had a profile in The New York Times, she was on the Today Show, and now she’s snagged a Glamour cover and detailed profile. They really give her the full reflection and new beginning treatment, complete with a light-makeup, light-colored clothing, backyard photoshoot. (My only quibble is that it’s dog-only, what is this cat erasure?!) The profile also has the most detail I’ve seen about Ariana’s backstory, including her childhood in Florida and her early adult years in New York. And of course, the affair scandal and her plans for the future. Some highlights:

On why people are so obsessed with Scandoval: “There are layers to it. The best-friend layer, the fact that [he] and I were together for so long and so many people, including myself, saw us as endgame. It’s the deception, the trying to manipulate a narrative, the fact that so many people have been through this themselves and they recognize parts of it.”

On her immediate reaction to discovering the affair: “I think the shock prevents you from being sad immediately. It was like the air was sucked out of my lungs. It was shock, disbelief on some level, but then also anger. When you’ve been caught red-handed like that, there’s no denying it. It’s cold, hard evidence. So I think he was struggling. I think he was really mad that his little house of cards was crumbling.”

On feeling free now: “I definitely feel this sense of freedom because I was the adviser, the sounding board. And he didn’t like that he wasn’t getting constant validation from his adviser. Now I feel like I don’t have to worry about anybody but myself.”

On the taking the new opportunities she has access to: “We have no generational wealth in our family. I want to make enough money to be able to take care of my mom and my brother and any other family members who may or may not need it. I never want to worry about it ever, ever, ever. So I will work as much as possible to not have to.”

On how she hopes this will help fans and herself: “I feel close to a lot of people who watch the show or who will come to BravoCon or who I’ll message with on Instagram. I know maybe it sounds silly—we’re strangers—but I do feel close to them. I feel like we’re a community. And so with this, I hope that in talking about it and allowing [Bravo] to capture it, maybe I’ll be able to connect with a community of people who will be able to say, ‘This is how I got through this. This is what worked for me.’”

On the theory that it’s all fake: “If I was not a fan, like I wasn’t really paying attention, I might think that about any given show at any given time. If someone says that on my page, they get blocked immediately. If they tag me in a comment that says that, I’ll block them immediately. I’m kind of like, ‘F-ck off, this is my real life.’”

[From Glamour]

I do think Ariana hit the nail on the head with why people are so obsessed with Scandoval. Despite being on a reality show, they seemed like a pretty normal, stable, and relatable couple. And Ariana herself seemed more normal and less like the other delusional fame-hungry strivers on the show, so I think a lot of viewers already related to her. Everything but the fact that it was filmed for posterity is all a very human experience. Also, she says that Tom hid affair evidence in their shared laptop! Either this man wanted to be caught or he’s so dumb. You can definitely see that Ariana feels free now after the end of that relationship. She may not have realized how much it was dragging her down, but now it seems like she has a million opportunities for partnerships and sponsorships and she should certainly capitalize on that for her career and her family’s future. It’s nice that Ariana wants to provide for her family instead of asking her mom for her retirement money to fund her bar. As for connecting with fans over this, I think it’s a two-way street. She’s hoping to learn how others got through this, but also setting the blueprint for even more people about how to move on after a breakup. And it probably really bites Tom’s ass that this has legitimized Ariana’s fame, but turned him into even more of a joke.

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While Carole Middleton likes to portray herself as a matriarch out of a Jane Austen novel, she more closely resembles a trashy, debt-ridden Real Housewife on the verge of bankruptcy. The Teresa Giudice of Bucklebury. Since Carole’s business, Party Pieces, accumulated £2.6 million worth of debt and had to be sold off by the bankruptcy court, suddenly people have a lot of say about the mother of the future queen consort. While Carole always managed her press in a very obvious and unhinged way, suddenly Carole is not the one in control. The sharks smell blood in the water. Carole has just left too much damage in her wake. The Times of London did a lengthy piece where they interviewed some of the business-owners who are owed thousands by Carole. Some highlights:

Sell Middleton Manor & pay your debts: Their suppliers said it was “galling” that the Middletons left invoices unpaid before the firm went bust, and called on the couple, who bought a £5 million manor in Berkshire on the back of Party Pieces’ success, to pay from their own pockets.

Sultani Gas is a small business owned by an Afghan refugee: An Afghan refugee and small business owner has accused the Princess of Wales’s parents of “betrayal” for failing to pay thousands of pounds of debt before their business went bust. Mohamad Pardis, owner of the helium supplier Sultani Gas, said the £20,430 he is owed, which he is “unlikely” to receive, was equivalent to a year’s profits. The father of four, 38, started his business after arriving in the UK as a refugee from Afghanistan. “I thought I was in safe hands and that I could trust the royal family. I’m completely shocked,” he said. “She should pay us out of her own pocket. She’s living in a £5 million house, so it’s next to nothing for them, but for me it’s my profit for a year.”

Carole’s mismanagement has led to a trail of destruction: The report by administrators, Interpath Advisory, said it was “unlikely” that trade creditors, including small companies supplying balloons, toys and party bags, would be paid the £456,000 they are owed. One of those companies is Playwrite Group, a toy importer founded in 1911, which was owed £2,375. James Cornelius, 44, the fourth generation of his family to run the firm, said: “It’s galling when they’re so wealthy. I’m sure they could have made some effort to pay off their creditors, but we haven’t heard anything from them at all. They owed an awful lot of money, luckily not a huge amount to us, but enough that it still hurts. We have supported Party Pieces for many years. It was a bit of a shock that they’ve gone, but now we have to bear the brunt and carry the can.”

They swindled a small toy-making business too: Another firm that supplied goods that were never paid for was Dr Zigs, a toy-making firm, that Paola Dyboski-Bryant started from her kitchen table in north Wales 12 years ago. The mother of three, 53, who employs five staff, said: “It’s completely unfair — obviously there’s money there to pay suppliers. We’re small. We’re dependent. If Party Pieces had chosen they could have helped a small brand like mine. Unpaid invoices make a huge difference to our cash flow, and what we can do. Maybe it’s a small invoice for them, but for us it matters.”

The bank loans: Party Pieces was sold using an insolvency process that allows firms to be sold without its debts, called a pre-pack administration. The documents filed with Companies House show it owed more than £612,000 to HM Revenue & Customs, which will be partially repaid by the firm’s assets, which totalled £196,939. It had £2.1 million of loans, on top of a £218,749 Covid loan with the Royal Bank of Scotland, four fifths of which will be covered by the taxpayer.

[From The Times]

The trail of destruction, my God. So many businesses were providing services or supplies on credit too – Party Pieces was months in arrears in many of these situations. That’s not all – the Mail had a story about how Party Pieces didn’t pay high-end baker Fiona Cairns and “sources” told the Mail that the outstanding £3,880 debt will be “extremely awkward and embarrassing” for the family, especially given that Cairns baked William and Kate’s wedding cake. Bitch, are you not embarrassed by the entire f–king scandal of it all? You mismanaged your company into the ground. You’ve hurt dozens of businesses and left the British taxpayer on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Are you not ashamed? Jesus.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

We learned last week that Donald Trump is now under federal indictment for his many crimes in association with mishandling of classified documents and his large-scale theft of sensitive material after he left the White House. He violated the Espionage Act in like fifty different ways. Or rather 38 ways, since the indictment was unsealed on Friday, and Trump is looking at a 38-count indictment. Within the newly unsealed indictment, the Department of Justice also included visual aids of how they discovered some of Trump’s many stolen classified files – he had them packed up and he “stored” them in various Mar-a-Lago bathrooms. Did we know that MAL’s bathrooms have chandeliers? And cheap-looking shower curtains? And a sh-tload of documents about America’s nuclear weapons too.

Federal prosecutors laid out an evidence-packed case in an indictment unsealed on Friday that former President Donald J. Trump had put national security secrets at risk by mishandling classified documents he took from the White House and then schemed to block the government from reclaiming the material.

The 49-page, 38-count indictment said the documents held onto by Mr. Trump included some involving sensitive nuclear programs and others that detailed the country’s potential vulnerabilities to military attack. In some cases, prosecutors said, he displayed them to people without security clearances and stored them in a haphazard manner at Mar-a-Lago, even stacking a pile of boxes in a bathroom at his private club and residence in Florida.

The indictment included evidence vividly illustrating what prosecutors said was Mr. Trump’s willingness to hide the material from investigators.

In one of the most problematic pieces of evidence for the former president, the indictment recounted how at one point during the effort by the government to retrieve the documents, Mr. Trump, according to an account by one of his lawyers, made a “plucking motion” that implied, “Why don’t you take them with you to your hotel room, and if there’s anything really bad in there, like, you know, pluck it out.”

Jack Smith, the special counsel who is bringing the case for the Justice Department, cast the investigation during a brief statement in Washington as a defense of national security. He urged Americans read the indictment to understand the “scope and gravity” of the charges, which he said were necessary to preserve “bedrock” democratic principles.

“We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone,” he said. The investigation had been conducted with utmost integrity, he added, and, in an implicit nod to the election calendar — Mr. Trump remains the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination — promised to seek a speedy trial.

[From The NY Times]

If you’d like to see the NYT’s annotated copy of the indictment, go here. I trust the online lawyers, all of whom have been laugh-crying all weekend about how Trump is absolutely going to prison for this sh-t. The federal case is very, very strong, let’s say it that way. It’s bigly strong. Jack Smith took his time and put together a bulletproof case and Trump will absolutely be prosecuted.

Page Six had a story about Trump’s public and private bluster when he learned about the indictment. He had diners cleared out of Mar-a-Lago, and he’s been screaming at his lawyers (more on that in a moment) and telling everyone around him that it’s a “political witch hunt” and “he’ll fight it all the way to the Supreme Court.” Sources also claim that he “seemed shaken” and “rattled” away from the cameras. As for his lawyers… two of them quit shortly after the indictment was unsealed. James Trusty and John Rowley walked away from Trump. It’s more than likely Trump was lying to them too.

Vox and other outlets are running stories about the Republican freakout over the indictment, but from where I sit, President Biden is playing this correctly. Biden has barely said anything on the record about Trump’s stolen files, and Biden (a longtime politician, who understands the office of the presidency) isn’t the one calling the shots at DOJ.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

In March and April, we got a blitz of information from and about Melania Trump. Melania doesn’t give a f–k about anything anymore – she lives in a bubble of privilege, she spends time with her son and her parents, she goes shopping and gets spa treatments and that’s it. She lives a separate life from her husband and she “lives in an ivory tower of denial.” Well, now her husband is facing a 36-count federal indictment for stealing all of that classified material. Will Melania Trump finally divorce him? Probably not, according to Page Six’s sources.

Melania is standing by her man: “She is used to this,” says an insider. “They are used to dealing with this stuff.” Another source tells us, “Melania is standing by her husband, but quietly and privately. He’s been on the phone with Melania, who’s supporting him 100 percent. They both knew this — and more — was coming.”

Melania was in NYC when the story broke: Donald Trump was at his private golf club in New Jersey, where he reportedly DJ’d opera from an iPad, when news of the indictment broke. Melania was spotted looking stone-faced in NYC. “[Melania] flew to the East Coast to see her mother in the apartment she personally decorated for her with a designer,” says another source. “She even chose the fabrics herself at the D&D building. She will meet up with Donald at Trump Tower, where he has legal meetings.”

Melania will not go to court with him: The source close to the family tells us they will both then head back to his Florida fiefdom. “Trump will be back at Mar-a-Lago, where his security is [better] and she will be with him,” says a source. “But she won’t be with him when he surrenders himself to authorities.” Trump is expected to surrender in federal court in Miami on Tuesday, when he will be fingerprinted and booked before facing a judge who will will set conditions for his release after hearing from lawyers for both sides.

Melania’s outlook: Another source tells us, “Melania knows what she signed up for. She is in a wait-and-see position. He’ll either be in prison or be President. Or both. It’s not a time for fighting within the family.”

Ivanka is in the wind: Ivanka Trump who lives in Miami, meanwhile, “Will be staying far away from daddy,” says a source. Another insider tells us, “Ivanka has disappeared.”

[From Page Six]

Ivanka has disappeared. She’s in some gated community for billionaires, and I would assume that Ivanka and Jared are worried that the DOJ might come for them too, especially given how much money the Saudis (and others) “gave” to Jared. As for Melania… yeah, I know people are like “sure, Melania wants to be the widow,” and maybe that is her outlook. But I would have hoped that a shiver ran down her spine when Ivana “fell down the stairs” at a convenient moment for Donald. Like, Melania is expendable. Her husband truly doesn’t care if Mel lives or dies. And Melania knows a lot.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

Boris Johnson resigned as the UK’s prime minister last summer as he faced down a tidal wave of scandal. From what I gather (I’m American!), the biggest issue was that BoJo, his staff and his cabinet were all constantly throwing parties during the pandemic lockdown, and then they all lied about it repeatedly and tried to cover up all of their drinking and partying. Mind you, Boris Johnson’s government was in utter shambles well before that controversy, but sure. After Johnson resigned, Liz Truss took over for 44 days (not even two menstrual cycles) before she resigned in disgrace as well, in October of last year, ensuring a victory for a head of lettuce. That set off a Tory Party crisis and I swear to God, Boris Johnson tried to pull some kind of power play, like he should have been allowed to be prime minister again, 44 days later. No one bought the idea that he had been politically rehabilitated in that short amount of time, but he did stay on in some kind of leadership position within the party, as he was still an MP. Well, now BoJo has resigned from his MP seat.

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will give up his parliamentary seat amid a long-running ethics investigation that is expected to produce a report into his behavior as prime minister next week.

In a blistering statement announcing his resignation from the legislature, Johnson described as a “kangaroo court” the parliamentary committee tasked with examining whether he lied to fellow lawmakers about social gatherings inside government buildings that had flouted his own COVID-19 social distancing regulations.

The committee had provided him with a preview of its report, apparently prompting his decision. His departure statement, the investigative committee responded, had further “impugned” Parliament. Opposition parties termed the turmoil a “soap opera” and wished Johnson “good riddance.”

He and others — including current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak — had previously received criminal fines for their behavior during the pandemic. But Johnson has long insisted that incorrect and misleading accounts he gave on several occasions to Britain’s legislators denying these “lockdown parties” — as they became known — had not amounted to intentional lies.

[From NPR]

Given what I know about all of the crazy sh-t Boris was up to politically and personally, I still find it remarkable that this is what took him down. Like, British people can excuse racism, misogyny, fathering an unknown number of children, international clownery, national buffoonery and Brexit, but there will be hell to pay if someone threw some parties during lockdown. Anyway, I’m glad that you’re finally rid of him, although he always seems like he’s plotting some new political reinvention.

Also: BoJo got to put together an “honours list” even though he’s been out of Downing Street for ten months. He gave away honors to various former staffers and political allies, many of whom were part of the “Partygate” scandal.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Natalie Portman was out at the French Open this week (she went to Coco Gauff’s QF match). Natalie wore her wedding ring but her husband was not with her. [Go Fug Yourself]
Priyanka Chopra wore pigtails to a Bulgari event!! [RCFA]
Lewis Hamilton & Shakira really are happening! [Just Jared]
Leo DiCaprio & Gigi Hadid are still dealing with each other in some way, because they keep “hanging out” in NYC and London. [LaineyGossip]
Yeah, the Taika Waititi backlash is real. [Pajiba]
Would you eat Pizza Hut’s pickle pizza? [Dlisted]
Chris Hemsworth looked good at the Extraction premiere. [Tom & Lorenzo]
In praise of Never Have I Ever’s portrayals of teen sex & teen weirdness. [Jezebel]
Selena Gomez’s ice cream cone looks good as hell. [Egotastic]
What people did with their game-show winnings. [Buzzfeed]
Jana Duggar “felt worthless” because she wasn’t married. [Starcasm]
SCOTUS made one good decision. [Towleroad]

Prince William did have a public event this week, his first since he and his wife attended a royal wedding in Jordan. He stepped out at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London on Thursday, where he officially opened up a new cancer center. William and Kate put up such a huge fight about doing these kinds of “bread and butter” events, like opening new hospital wings or cutting ribbons at various store openings. For years, they swore up and down that they could reinvent the wheel and do things their way. And now, William just takes the path of least resistance. But only a few times a month. Apparently, there was something else on Peg’s schedule this week though. From Eden Confidential:

Awkard timing for Prince William, who, I hear, held his first private talks at Kensington Palace on Wednesday with Sir Keir Starmer. The previous day, Prince Harry had breached royal convention at the High Court by making an extraordinary attack on Rishi Sunak’s Government. ‘The timing was pure coincidence,’ a royal source insists.

[From The Daily Mail]

Interestingly enough, Ephraim Hardcastle (another Mail columnist) claimed that William’s meeting with Keir Starmer is actually scheduled for next week, so maybe William will meet him again? I have no idea. Starmer is the leader of the Labour Party and possibly the next prime minister, whenever the next general election happens. It’s interesting because William is a Tory stooge – his office is full of people who are in and out of Tory governments, and I’ve often gotten the impression that William is the Conservative Party’s useful idiot. I also think it’s funny that these people wail and cry about Harry being “woke” and “political,” meanwhile William is in a rush to prove that HE is political too, Harry! So competitive!

Lastly, William and Kate are now on the schedule for Royal Week in Edinburgh in July. They’ll go up to Scotland on or around July 5th alongside King Charles and Queen Camilla. Wimbledon starts on July 3rd, but Kate rarely goes to matches in the first week, so she should be fine.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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There’s a Variety “Actors on Actors” conversation between Ellen Pompeo and Katherine Heigl that I was very surprised to see. It was titled as “The ‘Grey’s’ Reunion We’ve Been Waiting For,” which, uh, sure. I guess so since Sandra Oh doesn’t seem interested in revisiting the show. Apparently Katherine and Ellen are great friends with the former even throwing the latter a baby shower back in the day, which was also news to me considering I didn’t think Ellen was friends with anyone in the cast aside from Jesse Williams and I don’t think she said a public word in support of Katherine until recently. But anyway, their conversation did have some interesting insights for longtime Grey’s fans such as myself.

On Ellen leaving Grey’s Anatomy

HEIGL: With Meredith, are you letting her go, or is she coming with you?

POMPEO: Oh no, I’ve been on the show so long, I’m happy to let that go. We’re past that point. I think it’s OK for Meredith to stop making bad decisions. One of my frustrations is the Nick and Meredith of it all. Scott Speedman plays Meredith’s love interest, Nick Marsh, and I love Speedman. Somehow, Meredith can’t figure out how to make a relationship work, still, after all this time. I felt so happy to be able to step away, and I felt like I accomplished something incredible.

On Grey’s being a surprise hit

POMPEO: We came into work the next day, and everybody was freaking out. The ratings were huge. I don’t even know if people can count that high anymore. Then we went on hiatus, and the show was airing. I’m so grateful there was no social media then. We would’ve lost our minds, even more than we already lost our minds.

HEIGL: It didn’t take a lot. I just remember that I was nervous that they were not going to air it. There was a moment when it was unclear. They didn’t like it.

POMPEO: We’ll be very nice and not name the executive who almost took a nap on Shonda Rhimes. I’m not saying it, but he almost slept on Shonda Rhimes — almost didn’t air that pilot! You can do your research and find out who it was. Imagine being that guy.

On intimacy coordinators and supporting younger talent on set

POMPEO: This is not specific to the character of Izzie leaving, but stress on sets … I’ve only been on one set my whole entire career, so I guess people could critique this comment, but I hear a lot of stories; I don’t hear about a lot of support. That’s one of the things I try to do now as a producer, specifically on “Grey’s,” is try to offer support — try to have a place for people to talk through things. There was no one to tell me, “This is OK. This is not OK.” There’s a very exploitive nature to what we do. Intimacy coordinators create a whole other slew of problems, but the intention behind it is good.

HEIGL: I had this experience on “Firefly Lane,” because I was like, “I’m an old Hollywood broad, bitch. You don’t have to tell me how to make out on camera.” And I ended up loving this woman so deeply, and being so grateful for her, because she protected us in a way that I didn’t realize how unprotected we were. And I was so grateful to her as well, because we did have young girls on the set. There was a rape scene. And for her to be there protecting them, I felt this weight off of me in a way that I didn’t feel like I had to find a way to fight those battles for these girls. I’m always the bad guy. People like me to be the bad guy.

On women being the victim or villain

POMPEO: You know what I love? There’s two roles women fit into, victim or villain. And the women who are victims are only victims because they don’t have the guts to be the villain.

HEIGL: I was so naive. I got on my soapbox and I had some things to say, and I felt really passionate about this stuff. I felt really strongly. I felt so strongly that I also got a megaphone out on my soapbox. There was no part of me that imagined a bad reaction. I felt really justified in how I felt about it and where I was coming from. I’ve spent most of my life — I think most women do — being in that people-pleasing mode. It’s really disconcerting when you feel like you have really displeased everybody. It was not my intention to do so, but I had some things to say, and I didn’t think I was going to get such a strong reaction.

POMPEO: Listen, nobody likes a super confident woman. And that’s why they’re taking away reproductive rights, and voting rights all over this country, is because they don’t want women to find their power. They don’t want women to have a voice. They don’t want women to have control because they know that we can do it better than they can.

[From Variety]

In their conversation, they also mention that Grey’s showed an ectopic pregnancy for Sandra Oh’s character back in the mid-aughts, noting that Republicans should learn more about that stuff and give kudos to Shonda Rhimes for including it. But they also leave out that years later the same character later has an abortion just because she wants to and it’s her right, when not a lot of shows were doing that at the time. And the current iteration of Grey’s is focusing a lot on abortion activism and work in the wake of the fall of Roe.. As much as I complain about the show’s recent switch to hitting viewers over the head with very obvious and too realistic narratives (e.g. the covid storylines), it doesn’t change the fact that a lot of viewers need to see this stuff. Anyway, they are right about what they say about women and Katherine was treated badly at the time because she “stepped out of line” and was punished for her. I just find it curious that Ellen is so supportive now, but I guess she felt she had to toe the line back then and feels more empowered to speak up now that the show is entering its 20th season and she’s not even on it anymore? The whole thing is worth a read if you’re a Grey’s fan.

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