This story came out last week but I just saw it, so I apologize for my tardiness. Jennifer Lopez appeared on Live with Kelly and Mark to discuss her large, blended family. Although Jen and husband Ben Affleck are enjoying a big, happy family vibe, the fact is, when they united their two fronts, they ended up with a whole house full of teenagers. Of all of the things you want doubled when you merge households, teens are likely not your first choice. Jen told Kelly and Mark that it was kind of a shock to go from babies, who tend to listen to their parents, to these pre-teens and teens who “start challenging you.” I imagine if you multiple that by five, yeah, that would be “tough.”

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have their hands full.

During a new guest appearance on Live With Kelly and Mark, the “Let’s Get Loud” singer opened up about her and her husband’s blended family. Between them, the couple share five children in total, four of whom are teenagers.

“That’s almost five teenagers. The youngest is 11, so he’s not quite [a teen], but preteen,” Lopez told hosts Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos. “He’s an angel.”

She added, “The teenage years are tough. They start challenging you and everything. You have this baby for a while and then it’s like your best little friend who loves being with you all the time, and all of a sudden they’re like, ‘Get out of my room.’”

Consuelos—who shares three children with Ripa—offered a few words of comfort to the multi-hyphenate: “But, you know they come back when they’re in their 20s.”

“Twenties?!” Lopez replied. “Jesus Christ! I’m so depressed.”

“It’s crazy, I feel like I had them yesterday. They were just babies a little while ago,” Lopez continued. “It’s the time when they are individuating and they are challenging everything you say and everything you do and everything you are. And that’s what it is. And you have to kind of just ride the waves. I feel like it’s like surfing. I’m just riding the waves—whoops, just got knocked over. Now, I’m back! I’m back!”

She also described the struggles of being a mother of teenagers.

“I think it’s particularly hard on moms a little bit. Because they always kind of love Dad,” she said. “They are always kind of like, ‘Dad’s the best.’ And I was like that with my dad too. My mom told me—and I’ll say it to you right now on TV in front of everybody—I understand you so much more now.”

[From Yahoo!]

Jen and Ben’s problem is numbers. Once they got five, it became mob rule. I’m kidding. Five teens sounds overwhelming to me and so far, teenagerdom is my favorite phase. Maybe because mine challenged me from the start, the little brats. No! Again, I’m kidding – kind of. I don’t know how to communicate with younger kids. I tend to approach things through discussion and four-year-olds don’t really have many counter arguments I can relate to. So once my kids brought their own viewpoints into the picture, our relationship took on a larger dimension. It’s just different for everyone, I think. But again, I have two and there are two adults. We’re not outnumbered.

I love Jen likening raising kids to surfing and getting knocked over by the waves of challenges. It’s an apt description. I also related to Jen telling her mom how much she understood her own mother now. I call my mom all the time and apologize for stuff I did as a kid as a result of having to deal with my own offspring doing it. What comes around goes around. I so get it now.

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A post shared by Jennifer Lopez (@jlo)

Photo credit: Cover Images and Instagram

Here are more photos from the Princess of Wales’s surprise visit to Bath on Tuesday. Kate visited Dame Kelly Holmes’s youth program and participated in some kind of round-table conversation. As I noted yesterday, it did not look like the youths were excited to see or spend time with Kate. The youths know a photo-op when they see one. Still, Kelly Holmes got some good exposure for her charitable work, and she happily briefed the media about what was said by Kate and others. Some highlights of what Kate said (via secondary sources, of course):

Holmes on the differences between Kate’s children: “I asked her, ‘You’ve got three children — do you see different traits in them?’ And she said, ‘Oh yes!’ She said that’s the thing — learning how to handle the different traits and different needs and abilities even with three young children.”

Holmes asked Kate about being a royal and whether it was something she’d wanted. “She said she ‘had to learn and she’s still learning every day,’ ” Holmes tells PEOPLE, adding that Princess Kate cited public speaking. “Doing public speaking isn’t a natural thing for lots of people, and she said she’s still working that out, how to project. She humanized everything to show not everyone’s perfect. It doesn’t matter what you’ve got or perceived to have as an individual, you’re still going to have those insecurities and need those learning tools that happen over life.”

Kate’s still learning about her royal role “every day.” “She said she ‘had to learn and she’s still learning every day,’ ” Holmes tells PEOPLE. “It’s a struggle to know you can be accepted and fit in.” Holmes praised Princess Kate as “lovely because she was just willing to be asked questions. That was really nice because it showed somebody of her stature and status is human as well.”

[From People Magazine]

Kate spent ten-plus years doing nothing but waity around for a ring, and then once she got the ring, she did f–k all with her role for six years. It wasn’t until 2017, when Kate got “competition” that Kate finally “learned” how to do things, like wear professional-looking modern separates, and give short speeches and try to copy someone else’s charisma. Don’t get me wrong, I do think Kate is “still learning,” i.e., she’s not a finished product yet. Which makes Kate’s unhinged PR so disgusting – Kate’s people run around trying to convince everyone that she’s the most perfect princess who ever copykeened the sister-in-law she bullied, meanwhile Kate accidentally has a moment of honesty and admits that she’s unfinished, that she still doesn’t know how to princess.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Here are some photos from last night’s Cannes Film Festival Opening Night. Remember, the opening night premiere was Madame du Barry, a film starring Johnny Depp. Also remember that many celebrities are contractually obligated to appear at Cannes, especially on opening night. So, Helen Mirren is obligated to go to Cannes as part of her L’Oreal contract, and she has fun dressing up and doing different things for the carpet. This year, she dyed her hair purple and wore a matching Del Core gown. She carried a fan which read #WorthIt. L’Oreal’s tagline is “because you’re worth it.” So… all L’Oreal spon-con, correct? Well, Tom & Lorenzo believe that Mirren was subtly signaling her support for Amber Heard, because Heard’s supporters encourage each other to wear purple for Amber and #WorthIt is one of the hashtags they use. I don’t know? I think it’s most likely just L’Oreal spon-con.

Brie Larson is on the Cannes jury, and she wore this terrible Chanel look. Usually, Cannes invites at least one “fashion girl” to be on the jury so that there will be one person serving couture at every premiere. Brie’s look is not a serve.

Elle Fanning in Alexander McQueen. Gorgeous. The prettiest princess.

Uma Thurman in Dior. I’m okay with this although the red coat (or whatever it is) makes me wish that her dress had been a bold color too. The dress is just a shade too flesh-toned.

Naomi Campbell in Celine. Perfect. Beautiful. She’s been doing this for three decades.

Fan Bingbing in Christopher Bu. Honestly, my favorite look of opening night? I’m glad Fan is allowed to leave China too (she had some tax/legal issues in China and was basically put in a prison for A-listers)

Catherine Zeta-Jones wore Elie Saab Couture to walk the carpet with her husband Michael Douglas and their daughter Carys. CZJ looks good? She also sort of looks Real Housewife-y to me.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

The Cannes Film festival began on Tuesday, with the world premiere of Jeanne du Barry. The star of that film? Johnny Depp, who looked “fresh” from the hairplug salon. His plugs were the only fresh thing about him – this convicted wife beater looks ugly inside and out. The less said the better.

It’s truly unfortunate that people still cast Depp in anything, and it’s despicable that the Cannes Film Festival not only put Depp’s film in competition, they gave him the opening-night premiere. An audience full of misogynists gave him a standing ovation too. Even his hairplugs wept.

Johnny Depp is teary-eyed as “Jeanne du Barry” receives a seven-minute standing ovation following its premiere at #Cannes2023. https://t.co/vCSwNkhYVL pic.twitter.com/NAigHMBwny

— Variety (@Variety) May 16, 2023

A few more things about Depp – just a few days before his appearance at Cannes, Dior renewed Depp’s contract with the label. Depp has long been the face of Dior’s men’s cologne Sauvage, and now Dior is giving him something like $20 million for three more years. That money will go straight up his nose or in his scalp.

Meanwhile, Brie Larson is on the Cannes jury, and she (alone) was asked specifically about Depp. Like, I think it was fair to ask her the question, but I don’t blame her for giving a non-answer. I also think every Cannes jury member should have been asked about Depp. Let’s hear where everyone stands.

Brie Larson was surprised to be asked about Johnny Depp’s opening film: “You’re asking me that? I’m sorry, I don’t understand the correlation or why me specifically.” https://t.co/5Ec2S23051 #Cannes pic.twitter.com/QPfO1Yb4qS

— Variety (@Variety) May 16, 2023

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Even the paparazzi’s street-photos from last night were impossibly glamorous. Y’all know there are rage-tantrums being thrown in Windsor this morning. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrived at the Ms. Foundation’s Women of Vision Awards last night with Meghan’s mom Doria Ragland in tow. Mama Doria looked amazing, but obviously, Meghan’s look practically broke Twitter last night. Meghan wore a customized Johanna Ortiz dress (she removed the straps), Tom Ford heels in gold, J.Crew hoops and a Carolina Herrera clutch. Meghan looked expensive and I’m loving her rich-bitch era (she’s not a bitch, calm your t-ts, it’s an expression!).

Meghan was one of several honorees at the Women of Vision Awards, and she made a speech about reading Ms. Magazine as a girl and how that influenced her to be more than ornamental, that she should have a career and care about important issues. Here’s one video of her speech:

Meghan’s speech – recounting seeing Ms. Magazine pic.twitter.com/p0AMWYv132

— Steph Petit (@stephpetit_) May 17, 2023

I’m including more photos below – I think my favorite pic is Harry flanked by Doria and Meghan, with his arms around both. I need someone to write a real piece about how much Doria and Harry adore each other, because I suspect that Doria treats him like a son and that Harry is extremely grateful to have Doria in his life. The photos of Meghan and Harry exiting the venue are amazing too – all of the bodyguards were ready to lay down their lives for Meghan in that gold dress.

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Getty.

Rudy Giuliani’s former employee accused him of all kinds of abusive & sordid behavior. She’s suing him. The details on this are ghastly. [Jezebel]
A deeper dive into Matt Healy’s problematic words & behavior. [Pajiba]
How J.Lo & Ben Affleck spent Mother’s Day. [LaineyGossip]
Oh, Brie Larson is part of the Cannes jury this year? [RCFA]
Simon Pegg says he doesn’t talk about Scientology with Tom Cruise. [Dlisted]
Photos from the Fast X premiere in Rome. [Tom & Lorenzo]
I had no idea that Eva Longoria directed Flamin’ Hot. [OMG Blog]
Lady Gaga has been so quiet lately. [JustJared]
Kate Winslet won a BAFTA TV Award. [GFY]
Why are people mad at Kendall Jenner this week? [Buzzfeed]
Nepal is about to legalize same-sex marriage? [Towleroad]

Tonight, the Duchess of Sussex will be honored at the 2023 Women of Vision Awards in New York. It’s so exciting – we haven’t seen Meghan at a big, public event since last December (the Ripple of Hope Award). We have seen her out and about recently though – going to a Lakers game with Harry and the Archewell team, going for a hike with friends, going to a private club in LA, going out for sushi last Friday. Still, I hope there’s a red carpet tonight and I hope we get lots of photos. You know who’s mad about all of this? Royal commentators. They find it “tacky” that Meghan would accept a feminism award in New York when there’s no way they could have forced her to show up for her father-in-law’s sad hat party in London. From Christopher Andersen’s interview with Fox News:

Meghan’s absence from the Chubbly: Christopher Andersen, author of “The King,” told Fox News Digital the timing couldn’t have been more wrong, considering that the duchess was noticeably absent from “the single most important moment in Charles’ life and a singular moment in world history…What a slap in the face to the man who walked her down the aisle when her own father didn’t show up at her wedding, and to the country she adopted, for better or worse, as her own.”

Charles deserves Meghan’s charity!!! “You know, charity begins at home. Much of the time Harry looks like a fish out of water, and you don’t have to be an expert to see he’s still hurting. If she is truly a sensitive and caring person, she would make it her top priority to help mend her husband’s relationship with his brother Prince William and the king. Marrying into the royal family, accepting a title, and then bailing to take advantage of your new global superstar status seems, well, tacky.”

Andersen doesn’t think Meghan will go into politics: “As I’ve said before, Meghan is aiming to be the next Oprah – a multimedia titan with real political clout. She won’t run for office because I think she is far too thin-skinned. But she does want to have an impact on the next election. Meghan is very outspoken about issues and candidates, so expect to see her on the campaign trail.”

Meghan has a life of her own, sob: “She’s making it clear that she has a life of her own, doing the things she thinks are important. She also seems to be saying that getting a trophy from Gloria Steinem is more important to her than seeing her husband’s dad crowned king of England. It’s an in-your-face gesture aimed at the royal family she just snubbed. Funny, though, isn’t it – that she would essentially give up being a senior member of the royal family and all that goes with it, just to be another influencer. Like so much else in Meghan’s life, this award is no accident. Not long after moving to Montecito, she made a point of befriending Steinem – as she has so many other movers and shakers.”

[From Fox News]

I’m laughing my ass off at how salty this comes across. “Why didn’t she take pity on poor decrepit Charles, why didn’t she show up to comfort Harry as we heaped abuse on both of them, why does she get to live her own life without our input???” Somebody call the waaaahmbulance. “Marrying into the royal family, accepting a title, and then bailing to take advantage of your new global superstar status seems, well, tacky.” Counterpoint: Meghan doesn’t owe anyone a f–king thing. Furthermore, that wasn’t the quid pro quo y’all had arranged for her. Meghan believed that by accepting the title and marrying Harry, she was devoting her life to public service. She didn’t believe that she was signing up to be a national punching bag, nor did she believe that by “marrying Harry,” she deserved to be driven to suicidal ideation.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.

A week after the coronation, the Prince and Princess of Wales started doing the most to make everything about them. One could argue that they did the same at the coronation too, especially when they showed up late and made King Charles wait in one of his gold carriages. Since then, William and Kate have released behind-the-scenes fancams of their Chubbly activities and then they released an actual substance-less “commercial” for their coronation activities. The commercial barely featured the king and queen. All of which led the Daily Mail’s Sarah Vine to wonder: “Wasn’t the coronation about Charles and Camilla? All we’ve seen are William and Kate, wafting through KP in Hollywood-style videos… all, dare I say it, a bit manipulative. I’d (almost) rather watch one of Harry’s worthy documentaries.” Yeah, Vine is a POS, but it’s always interesting when she turns her hatred onto Will and Kate. Some highlights:

Correct me if I’m mistaken, but wasn’t the Coronation about King Charles and Queen Camilla? This video featuring the Prince and Princess of Wales and their charming children, seems a teeny-tiny bit premature. Don’t get me wrong, we adore them. In particular, the Princess of Wales is, at every turn, the picture of perfection – impeccably turned-out, stunningly beautiful, stylish – as this short film reminds the world.

Prince William, meanwhile, is the very image of Royal duty. Striding manfully on to the stage at the Windsor Castle concert, pledging his allegiance to his father, putting a protective paw around his wife’s willowy waist, assisting his children. Showman, statesman, husband, dad. Hurrah!

It’s lovely, and they really are an idyllic family – but there’s something just a bit too slick about it, a bit too party political broadcast. A bit, dare I say it, manipulative.

Was the Hollywood-style video really necessary? We all know that William and Kate are the future. Nobody doubts that. Charles is an old king, coming to the throne in his twilight years.

Nevertheless, this was his and Queen Camilla’s moment, not theirs. By starring in a video produced by a man who boasts about having ‘a portfolio of world-leading clients’ and creating ‘story-led branded content’, it feels… well, a bit ‘look at me’.

There is an element of Netflix-style narcissism that makes me slightly uneasy. And though the footage shows us a lot, it actually tells us very little about the Waleses. It’s superficial, one-dimensional, like one of those adverts you see on TV in foreign hotels extolling the virtues of this or that tourist destination.

I hate to say it, but I’d almost rather watch one of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s worthy wildlife docs. But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe this is exactly what everyone wants to see – the Princess of Wales up close in slow motion, from as many different angles as possible.

[From The Daily Mail]

There’s something vaguely “‘I never thought leopards would eat MY face,’ sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party” about this. For years, Kate and William have been relentlessly embiggened, praised and used as cudgels, all because they prioritized style over substance, all because they stayed small-c conservative and big-c Conservative. This is exactly what Sarah Vine and the Daily Mail said they wanted: two dull, lazy, charisma-free Tory stooges who expect to be praised for doing the bare minimum. Now that their lack of substance and their superficiality is being laid bare on a daily basis, suddenly it’s a problem? Suddenly, people are realizing that they’re stuck with two bored narcissistic 40-somethings who refuse to DO anything at all?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Taylor Swift defended one of her fans from a security guard at her Philly show. Apparently, she got the same guard escorted out. [Buzzfeed]
Sweden won Eurovision. Are people happy about that? [Dlisted]
Did we need a third My Big Fat Greek Wedding movie? [LaineyGossip]
Adam Levine & Blake Shelton: still friends.[Seriously OMG]
What are the most beautiful digitally-shot films of the past decade? [Pajiba]
Seth Rogen continues to make a sartorial effort. [Go Fug Yourself]
Halle Bailey sang on American Idol’s Disney Night. [Just Jared]
A man murdered his partner when she got an abortion. [Jezebel]
I did not know about Miley Cyrus’s dreamcatcher tattoo. [Egotastic]
Charlize Theron wore McQueen in Rome. [RCFA]
Tammy Slaton has a new love interest. [Starcasm]
There should absolutely be an over-the-counter birth control pill. The morning-after pill should be over-the-counter everywhere too. [Towleroad]

Taylor Swift defends fan from a security guard during ‘Bad Blood’ at her Eras Tour.

pic.twitter.com/3RdXsykqGG

— Pop Base (@PopBase) May 14, 2023

The fan Taylor Swift stood up for against a security guard at last night’s #ErasTour show in Philadelphia reveals that Swift had the guard escorted out.

She also reveals that Swift gave her and some friends free tickets to tonight’s show. pic.twitter.com/ktNztEJgVV

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) May 14, 2023

Who is Millie Mackintosh? She’s a British reality star famous for appearing in five seasons of Made in Chelsea. I’ve never seen it, although I know it was a popular reality show and the “stars” of the show are locally famous within the UK (and nowhere else, probably). Millie is 33 years old and once her reality stardom kicked in, she moved on to being a professional fashionista, makeup artist, influencer type. Well, in 2015, Millie apparently met an American actress named Meghan Markle. They got along, they hung out together in London when Meghan was in town, and then Meghan dropped Millie as a friend shortly after Meghan met Prince Harry. This is all Millie’s version of events, mind you. Millie spoke about being “ghosted” by Meghan in a recent podcast:

“Made in Chelsea” alum Millie Mackintosh says Meghan Markle cut off all communication with her soon after she began dating Prince Harry. “She cut me dead,” Mackintosh revealed on Wednesday’s episode of her podcast, “Mumlemmas & More with Millie & Charlie,” explaining that the last communication she had with her ex-friend was an icy text response after Markle’s relationship with Harry went public. “I never heard from her again and I never messaged her again because I felt like she kind of told me to f–k off basically in that message. Meghan Markle ghosted me, babe.”

Mackintosh, who first met Markle at a hotel opening in Istanbul around 2015, said she just wanted to make sure her friend was OK during the deluge of media coverage at the time. “I do know what it’s like to have a lot of media attention. It can be really overwhelming and it can be unpleasant, so I messaged her and just said like, ‘Hey, hope you’re OK. Thinking of you.’” Mackintosh said Markle responded with an “abrupt message” that was unlike any conversation they’d ever had before. “What I read from that message was that she maybe needed a bit of space. Maybe needed to cool off, she was angry, she was maybe under a lot of pressure … So I didn’t message her again … But I did expect that we would stay in touch.”

The British reality TV star, 33, said she believes the Duchess of Sussex ditched her because she didn’t want to be associated with a reality star. “What could I offer her at that point? She had met her prince. I was on a reality show so … I’m guessing she was like, ‘I can’t be associated with ‘Made in Chelsea.’ I’m going to be royal.’”

Mackintosh also admitted the snub made her feel “a bit like s–t,” especially when she wasn’t invited to Markle and Harry’s 2018 over-the-top wedding. She said, at the time, the media began writing “loads” of inaccurate stories claiming she had been uninvited.

“That was quite hurtful because I hadn’t done anything, but my name is being dragged through it in quite a negative way,” the podcaster shared. “It was a bit embarrassing.”

Mackintosh explained that when she first met the former “Suits” star, 41, in 2015, they “got on like a house on fire and spent the night partying and having fun and we just stayed in touch.” She said that Markle then traveled to London and didn’t really know anyone or her way around the city, so she took the actress under her wing. “I took her to my favorite spots and she didn’t know that many people so I kind of connected her with the best places to get your nails done, like my little black book. I gave her just like all my contacts,” the makeup artist said.

According to the model, the close pals’ friendship changed after they had their last interaction at a hotel in the Cotswolds in southern England.

“She was staying there and said, ‘Just come and hang out.’ What I thought was going to be like a day of yoga and chilling ended up being rosé and margaritas in the pool and we had, like, a really fun afternoon,” Mackintosh said, adding that Markle was “really fun.” The duchess’ former friend then noted, “That was the last time I saw her.”

Mackintosh said that during their final hangout, Markle divulged that she was seeing Harry and figuring out where things were going to go. “I thought, ‘Great that’s nice for her. I don’t know [Harry] just to clarify. I never met him. I was, like, ‘Great,’ didn’t really ask too much about him. Didn’t really think too much about it at the time. If only I had known.”

[From Page Six]

Granted, if I met Meghan, I would sprinkle that fact into conversations for years too. But I have to say that it doesn’t even sound like Millie and Meghan were super-close friends? They were just two people who were kind of friendly for a year or so. A friendly acquaintance, someone you have fun with at a party, not someone who will be in your life forever. Meghan really had these British people up in their feelings, didn’t she? And everything we know about Meghan and how she interacts with people, it sounds pretty out-of-character that she would text an acquaintance anything like “f–k off and don’t contact me again.” It was probably more like “I’m really overwhelmed right now with everything going on, can I catch you later?” If this was after Meghan and Harry’s relationship had been outed, Meghan probably didn’t know who to trust and who would sell her out as well. Oh well! No one is obligated to be your friend.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.