One year ago, former Baltimore Raven Michael Oher filed a lawsuit against the Tuohy family. A version of their story became the Oscar-winning drama The Blind Side, in which the Tuohy family claimed that they “adopted” a Black kid from the wrong side of the tracks and managed to make him into a football star. As it turned out, none of that was true. The Tuohys never adopted Michael Oher, they put him in a janky conservatorship which was only removed last October. The Tuohys also sold Michael’s life rights without his permission (a function of the conservatorship) and profited from The Blind Side and didn’t share those millions with Oher. Oher waited until his pro football career was over to begin unraveling his real life story and how many lies he was told by the Tuohys. Well, Oher has given his first interview since suing the Tuohys, a case which is still working its way through the court system. You can read the full piece here (it’s a long read), but here are some highlights via People:

In a new interview with The New York Times Magazine published on Sunday, Aug. 18, over a year after he first filed the suit, the NFL alum recalled his time living with the wealthy, Memphis-based family — and why, despite what the 2009 film portrays, he feels like they deceived him.

“The first time I heard ‘I love you,’ it was Sean and Leigh Anne [Tuohy] saying it. When that happens at 18, you become vulnerable,” he told the magazine. “You let your guard down and then you get everything stripped from you. It turns into a hurt feeling.” After a brief pause, he continued, “I don’t want to make this about race, but what I found out was that nobody says ‘I love you’ more than coaches and white people. When Black people say it, they mean it.”

Oher, now 38, still expressed fond feelings about the comfort and care Sean and Leigh Ann provided him. “Honestly, it was great,” he said of his time with the family, who bought him clothes and set him up with a tutor — to make him eligible to play college football — among other things. “I had a bed to stay on. I was eating good. They got me a truck,” he added of his time with Sean, Leigh Anne and their two kids.

However, The Blind Side, Oher said, gave him an entirely new — and very public — identity that did not accurately reflect who he was as an athlete or person. While he focused on football, Sean and Leigh Ann aided the creation of the movie, which began as a book by Michael Lewis, using their “narrative,” Oher said, also detailing how his portrayal came off as inaccurate.

Reflecting on the release of The Blind Side, which coincided with the beginning of his NFL career, Oher told The New York Times Magazine, “That’s my heartbreak right there. … It was as soon as I got there, I was defined.”

Oher did not attend the film’s premiere, but was persuaded to watch it about a month after its release. “It’s hard to describe my reaction. It seemed kind of funny to me, to tell you the truth, like it was a comedy about someone else,” he told the magazine. “It didn’t register.” The biggest difference between the movie’s character and the real-life Oher, according to the athlete? It underplayed his intelligence to such a degree that it left his new coworkers questioning his capabilities. “The NFL people were wondering if I could read a playbook,” he said.

Recalling how social media “was just starting to grow” at the time of the film’s release, Oher added, “I started seeing stuff that I’m dumb. I’m stupid. Every article about me mentioned ‘The Blind Side,’ like it was part of my name.”

The former football tackle still worries about this portrayal impacting him — as well as his children: “If my kids can’t do something in class, will their teacher think, ‘Their dad is dumb — is that why they’re not getting it?’ ” he said.

[From People]

I also find the Tuohys’ public undermining of Michael’s intelligence to be a central part of his case and a huge reason why he’s so upset. The Tuohys were fine with not only signing away Oher’s life rights, but signing off on a portrayal of Oher as so intellectually disadvantaged that he couldn’t read or function in school without a tutor. He also addressed the timing of his lawsuit, which is basically: he was fully focused on the NFL during his career, and then when he retired, he decided to look into the Tuohys. Which is when he discovered that he had never been adopted. And again, he made millions during his NFL career – he’s not suing the Tuohys because he needs the money. He’s suing because he is owed compensation for how badly they f–ked him over and stole from him.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red, and Oher’s IG.

The British media’s coverage of the Sussexes’ Colombian tour was hilariously wacky. The salty British media could not pick a lane – in one article, they would blast the Sussexes for not getting enough attention in Colombia, and in the next article, they would blast the Sussexes for not using their enormous power and influence to speak on every single issue. Speaking of, let’s talk about colonialism. Spain and Portugal colonized much of South America, which is why Spanish and Portuguese is still spoken throughout most South American countries. Colombia was colonized by Spain, and the Spanish slave trade thrived in Colombia, which is why there are so many Colombians of African descent today. Colombians threw off their Spanish shackles in the 19th century. Notice that I did not mention the British empire or British colonialism whatsoever. And yet… the Telegraph ran a piece in which “people” demanded that Harry and Meghan “apologize for colonialism.”

When the Duke of Sussex steps into San Basilio de Palenque on Saturday, he will do so as both the son of a King and a man who left the British monarchy behind. He has decried the “unjust” system that saw “enslaved people” generate wealth for the crown, but around the world remains seen as a member of the Royal family.

The visit to a town founded by escaped slaves in the colonial era and now a symbol of their resistance is, in other words, complicated. The tourist destination is set to be a highlight of the Duke and Duchess of Sussexes’ trip to Colombia, which has seen them hosted by a passionately anti-colonial vice-president who is leading calls for slavery reparations. For some, inevitably, it raises questions.

Will the couple use their day of learning about Afro-Colombian revolutionary history to touch on the obvious topics of slavery, colonialism, and Britain’s former role in it? Will the Duchess speak of her own family history, as she did in their last visit to Nigeria? And will Prince Harry fulfil the dreams of campaigners by outrightly condemning or apologising for the role of royals centuries ago? The visit, campaigners say, is the ideal chance for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to venture further than they ever have before in decrying the evils of the colonial slave trade, whether part of the Spanish Empire as it was in Colombia or the British elsewhere. They are, it is thought by some, “uniquely positioned” to move the conversation about reparations forward.

Laura Trevelyan, whose own family has made an apology and reparations for its historic role in the slave trade, said: “Because they’re not working royals, they have a bit of cover, but they are still hugely influential.

“Even by meeting Colombia’s vice-president, Harry and Meghan are signalling that they’re prepared to hear more about the debate over how to repair the lasting legacies of slavery. I hope they use their influential position to move the discussion forward.”

Arley Gill, chairman of Grenada’s National Reparations Commission, urged Prince Harry to use the opportunity to apologise and support “reparative justice”. “If he does that, he will be on the right side of history,” he said. “It would mean a whole lot.” After all, he joked, he was already “ostracised” from the Royal family and “can’t leave twice!”.

Any intervention by the Sussexes would be viewed as deeply provocative by their critics, adding to the pressure the UK Government and the palace is already facing from reparations campaigners.

[From The Telegraph]

Again, Harry and Meghan escaped the British royal family, not the Spanish royal family. While I would love to hear King Felipe and Queen Letizia speak on Spain’s colonialist history in South America, that was not the point of the Sussexes’ tour. Instead, it was something altogether different. Once we saw the Sussexes’ events in Colombia and saw the way VP Francia Marquez had arranged the trip, it became clear to me why Marquez wanted the Sussexes to come. Marquez is highlighting global Blackness, and she used Meghan’s presence, as a Black American woman, to show the connections for people of African descent. The visit was not about Harry’s connection to a colonialist family, it was about Meghan and using her race and her experiences to speak to the Black Colombian community.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.

A few weeks ago, Halle Berry filed an emergency motion in family court. The motion was complicated – since Halle and Olivier Martinez got a divorce, they’re both supposed to undergo coparenting coaching sessions to help them raise their son Maceo. Olivier was skipping his sessions because he wanted to take the summer off and travel back to France for a time. Halle seemingly took advantage of Olivier being out of town to file that “emergency motion,” and the family court was like… this is not an emergency. But Halle is going to do her thing, and I knew something bigger was coming. Here we go… Halle has now filed for sole custody of Maceo.

Halle Berry is seeking sole custody of her son, Maceo, claiming that his father, Oliver Martinez, “refuses to co-parent or communicate in a child-centered way.”

Weeks after The Union actress, 58, alleged that her ex-husband, also 58, failed to continue seeing a co-parenting coach — and after a source told PEOPLE that co-parenting “hasn’t been easy” for the former spouses — Berry filed a request for sole legal custody of their 10-year-old son on Friday, Aug. 16. Per legal documents obtained by PEOPLE, Berry is requesting custody, “or in the alternative, tie-breaking authority to make all decisions” about his education, health and therapy needs.

The documents, filed in the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles County, arrive a year after they finalized their divorce, nearly eight years after their 2015 split. At the time, they agreed to share joint legal custody of their son, with Berry paying Martinez $8,000 a month in child support and an additional “4.3% of any income she receives above $2,000,000.”

In the latest filing, Berry claims she’s made an effort to address her son’s “educational challenges” and additional behavioral concerns as she “fought for tutoring, an educational assessment and finding an environment that was suitable to Maceo’s needs.” The filing alleges that Martinez, however, has been “oppositional, unmoving and withheld his consent for years.”

“Because of Respondent’s opposition to any interventions whatsoever for years and because of Respondent’s prioritizing soccer activities over Maceo’s educational and psychological well-being, Maceo’s educational and behavioral challenges worsened, and he continued to fall further behind in school,” the document alleges. Specifically, Berry claims that Maceo would “act out” toward her following “longer periods of custody” with his father and that her son would “repeat disputes” that the former couple had in private. She alleges that Martinez claimed the boy was “old enough to make his own decisions.”

A lawyer for Martinez told PEOPLE that he will be “responding to these allegations” in the coming weeks. A representative and a lawyer for Berry did not respond to PEOPLE’s requests for comment.

[From People]

It sounds like Maceo has some special needs and instead of Olivier and Halle coming to an agreement about their son’s education and priorities, Olivier is the devil-may-care father who lets Maceo do whatever he wants while Halle has to play bad cop. I mean, this is Halle’s narrative. I wonder what Olivier’s narrative will be. To think that they managed to keep it together long enough to complete their divorce over the course of eight years, only for Halle to challenge the custody agreement one year after their divorce was finalized.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

I tweeted something about this on Saturday, as dozens of well-sourced stories about the left-behind Windsors magically appeared during the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Colombian tour. The Windsors have been very quiet in recent months, minus the odd palace confirmation here and there. But as soon as the Sussexes were out and about, the Windsors were absolutely screaming “pay attention to meeeeee!” Even the Princess of Wales got involved in the need to offer “counterprogramming” to the Sussexes’ wildly successful Colombian tour. Apparently, Kate, Prince William and their three kids all attended a Nerf war in Norfolk two weekends ago.

The Royal family had a bit of a rumble last weekend as the Prince and Princess of Wales faced off against their children in a Nerf battle. Prince George, 11, Princes Charlotte, nine, and six-year-old Prince Louis joined in the festivities at the Gone Wild Festival at Holkham Hall, Norfolk for a high-intensity Nerf war with toy guns and smoke bombs.

Excitable and ‘unforgettable’ Louis ran around yelling ‘Nerf or nothing, let’s do this!’, according to Norfolk Nerf Parties boss Georgina Barron.

The Princess of Wales, who has been battling cancer, even ‘grabbed a Nerf gun, ran around, and played stuck in the mud with her kids’, Ms Barron added, noting that hosting the family was the ‘biggest honour’ and ‘unforgettable’.

Ms Barron said the royals, who were not photographed at the event, had wanted to enjoy a ‘wholesome family day like any other normal family’. Kensington Palace has been approached for comment.

The Gone Wild Festival caters to 640 children each day, but last weekend had a ‘very special VIP family’ join in the fun, Ms Barron said.

‘I was called to the production team’s office and told that a very special VIP family had requested to play Nerf wars,’ Ms Barron recalled. ‘The Prince and Princess of Wales, along with their three children, arrived with friends and family. They asked if we could provide a high-intensity, non-stop game of Nerf fun, and of course, Norfolk Nerf did what we do best.’

She says the Waleses, alongside her own family and members of the public, were running around the premise with Nerf guns and smoke bombs.

‘My sons Euan Barron, Jenson Barron, and Junior Barron had the ultimate honour of playing Nerf Wars with Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and the adorable Prince Louis,’ she said.

Shell Lancaster, who also attended last weekend’s festival, said she saw William and Kate help their children ‘go down the wall’. Ms Barron added that the Nerf warriors had ‘face paint on’ and all ‘charged around together’. They also played the children’s tag game stuck in the mud. She revealed the family had ‘requested no protocol’ and ‘just wanted a wholesome family day like any other normal family’.

The small business owner says it was a day ‘my boys will never forget’ and has offered her ‘coolest, kindest regards’ to the royals.

[From The Daily Mail]

Yeah, I believe that it happened, but I’m curious about the timing of the stories and I’m curious about why this information even came out. Usually, Will and Kate’s activities in Norfolk are shrouded in complete secrecy. We barely get confirmation of when they arrive at and leave their Norfolk country home, much less hear about their activities once they’re there. Also: if the point was to give us some assurances about Kate’s health these days, it’s odd that she can run around (literally) doing a Nerf war and yet she can’t Zoom with some charities from home, you know? But hey, I guess the British taxpayers are fine with this.

2023 photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red.

For the Windsors’ “big birthdays,” they usually organize authorized articles and interviews with their friends and advisors, all to describe how wonderful the birthday boy or birthday girl is. I’m still haunted by Princess Kate’s 40th birthday keenery in 2022, she went way overboard and it was like we got a glimpse at Kate’s juvenile quest to be seen as perfect, untouchable, brilliant and yet completely normal. Well, Prince Harry – a Virgo King – will turn 40 in September. Harry is obviously not part of the catastrophe that is the Windsor clan these days, but that didn’t stop Roya Nikkhah at the Sunday Times from writing a birthday piece about Harry. 80% of this piece is just Nikkhah regurgitating every stupid talking point from the British media, with bonus new quotes from people cut off from Harry years ago, including Prince William. Nikkhah did seem to speak to a couple of people who genuinely like Harry, but she drowns them out in her negativity and concludes the piece with: “As he prepares to turn 40, in his quest to stay relevant, Harry will hope his once captive audience doesn’t tune out.” My sister in royal gossip, you just devoted 10,000 words to someone you claim is barely relevant. Anyway, some highlights:

Harry at a crossroads: Those closest to him say he is at a crossroads. After laying his soul bare last year with Spare, the fastest-selling non-fiction book in history, he seems torn between battling old demons and getting on with his life. “All he does is spend time looking back,” says one former adviser to Harry. “If only he could wrench his neck around and look forwards.”

Harry is clearly yearning for something more: Some who have known him since his army days — the time in his life that seemed to give him his strongest sense of self, and inspired him to launch the Invictus Games for injured veterans in 2014 — think he is grappling with a key unanswered question: “What is the purpose of Prince Harry and what is Prince Harry’s purpose?”, as one of his former aides puts it. “He loved the army and was very good at his job. The work with Invictus is great and fatherhood was the role he most wanted, so perhaps those are enough for him. But everything else is a bit woolly. I always thought he wanted more from life. I can’t help but think he must be wondering, ‘Where do I go from here?’”

Why doesn’t Harry want to fall out of pubs anymore?? “I know how important it is for him to have a happy, settled family life, but you need to do more than that if you’re him,” says a source who has known Harry since his teenage years. “He has ended up isolated from his family and most of his old mates, in an environment where your friendships are not like the ones you forged as a young man. He used to love a night out in the pub and hanging out in the country with friends. Maybe he has grown into a different person, but do I think he’d really suit the Californian lifestyle? No. Now we’ve seen it all play out, what has that left him with? On the surface, an enviable lifestyle — but for the Harry I know, I can’t imagine that gilded exile in California is where he wanted to end up.”

How dare Harry tell his story & not let his family smear him: Many cannot forgive Harry’s decision to air the family laundry. After Spare was published, one of his closest friends, who has faithfully kept Harry’s secrets, told me, “I can’t believe he’d stoop so low. It’s outrageously disloyal. Oprah, Netflix and then the book? Three strikes and you’re out.” Another friend of William and Harry’s says, “Harry and Meghan could have left with dignity and decency and not trashed the institution. The conclusion is they’ve made money from trashing his family.”

Angry Harry: One of Harry’s oldest friends says they are among the few who get “the odd WhatsApp from him”, adding, “He’s an angry boy. Things haven’t turned out how he wanted. I think he misses being over here [in Britain] desperately and wants to be admired more. Anyone who knows him feels he’d rather be top of the pops here with everyone loving him, as they do with William and Kate.”

How King Charles treated Harry after QEII’s death: The Sussexes also understood they would be at Buckingham Palace on the eve of the funeral alongside the rest of the royal family, when Charles and Camilla hosted a reception for foreign heads of state. They were initially asked to the event but their invitations were later “rescinded”, with the Palace clarifying the event was for “working members of the royal family” only. A friend of Harry’s tells me this had difficult repercussions for the Duke of Sussex, who missed an important family briefing on the funeral as a result. “The King made some really bad decisions — it was conveyed that he didn’t want them there. For f***’s sake, this was a global reception for his grandmother, and as her grandson, he should have been there. There was a funeral briefing for the whole family at the palace just before the reception, which would have meant Harry and Meghan going to the briefing then having to leave the palace as all the guests were arriving and other family members were staying. So in the end, they didn’t go. The briefing notes didn’t arrive [via email] for them until around 11pm.” Such decisions understandably wounded Harry.

Charles might show up to the Invictus Games in 2027: One arena for a public rapprochement between father and son could be the Invictus Games, which is next staged in Canada in February and returns to the UK in 2027 in Birmingham. Some close to the King think he will want to support his son there. A friend of Charles says, “I think he would acknowledge it would be a good thing to go to. He would not want to look punitive.” Charles attended the inaugural Invictus Games in 2014 — as did William, who is not expected to go again.

LOL, Harry needs William?? The permafrost between heir and spare seems unlikely to thaw. A friend of both concedes, “I always said the brothers would be there for each other at the end of the day, and that’s been proven wrong so far.” Another close friend says, “Harry simply cannot do without his brother.” But William appears committed to making do without his sibling. For now, he has written Harry out of his script. The brothers are understood not to have spoken since the Queen’s funeral, when they “barely exchanged a word”, Harry wrote in Spare.

Willy won’t invite Harry to his coronation: In the aftermath of the King’s coronation last year, William let it be known that he wanted his own crowning to “look and feel different”. One difference could be the absence of Harry. Friends of William say that as things stand he would not want his brother at his coronation, whenever that time comes. One of the brothers’ closest friends says, “They are estranged, which is dreadfully sad.”

The Sussexes are not super-famous in LA? A friend and adviser to the royal family, who once worked closely with Harry, feels he has work to do to make his mark Stateside. “What they haven’t been able to do is create a public presence that’s respected and popular. I was in LA recently and was struck by how they’re not the topic of conversation. Everyone wanted to know about the King and Kate’s health. Harry and Meghan have dropped out of the conversation.”

[From The Times]

LMAO at so much of this – it’s not “here’s what’s really going on in Harry’s life,” it’s “here are a bunch of people who haven’t spoken to Harry in years, bitching about how he left them.” They (William) can barely conceal their seething rage that Harry isn’t their scapegoat, that they (William) can’t order him around and smear him at will. I think the purpose of this was not even “Harry’s turning 40” but rather “William still hates Harry and won’t invite him to his coronation!!!” The sh-t about the Sussexes not being the topic of conversation in LA… that’s because the Brits can’t shut up about Harry & Meghan and the Brits think that everyone else is obsessed with them too. They cannot comprehend the fact that most Americans treat the Sussexes like any other celebrity couple. It’s been over five years of this from the lunatic asylum masquerading as a national press and royal family.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid.

True story: Donald Trump is so wildly offensive about so many subjects that I accidentally memory-holed some big controversies. Like, remember how weird Trump has always been about veterans and the military? Remember how he treated gold-star families like dogsh-t? Remember how he mocked John McCain for being a POW? Remember how he refused to go to a WWI cemetery in France because it was full of “losers”? Remember how uncomfortable he was around wounded warriors? Like, Trump has never enjoyed being around people with disabilities or amputees, but it’s a next-level discomfort for him whenever he’s around a veteran who was injured or maimed in war.

Well, there’s a reason for this walk down memory lane. Last week, Donald Trump drew a comparison between the Medal of Honor (given to extraordinary servicemen and servicewomen) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is given to civilians who also do extraordinary work. The Medal of Freedom has gone to people like Billie Jean King, Tom Hanks, Simone Biles, Shirley Chisholm, Oprah, etc. Donald Trump said the civilian honor is better than the awards they give to military heroes.

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday said the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which honors civilians, “is actually much better” than the Medal of Honor, because service members who receive the nation’s highest military decoration are often wounded or awarded it posthumously. Trump was praising Republican megadonor Miriam Adelson, whom he awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom while in office, during remarks at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

“Miriam, I watched (Sheldon Adelson, her late husband) sitting so proud in the White House when we gave Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That’s the highest award you can get as a civilian, it’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor, but civilian version. It’s actually much better, because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor – that’s soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead,” Trump said.

“She gets it and she’s a healthy, beautiful woman, and they’re rated equal,” Trump said.

It’s the latest in Trump’s history of making disparaging comments about military service. Early in his first presidential campaign, Trump attracted controversy by claiming then-Sen. John McCain — a political rival who served as a naval aviator during the Vietnam War and was imprisoned for more than five years by the North Vietnamese, during which he suffered injuries that would affect him for the rest of his life — was “not a war hero.”

“I like people that weren’t captured,” Trump said at the time.

Then, in 2020, The Atlantic reported that Trump said privately during a 2018 trip to France that he did not want to visit the graves of American service members and proceeded to refer to the fallen soldiers as “losers” and “suckers.” Trump has repeatedly denied making the remark.

Trump, who received five military draft deferments during the Vietnam War, also once referred to his efforts to avoid contracting sexually transmitted diseases as “my personal Vietnam.”

[From CNN]

It’s genuinely insane how much Trump hates the military. Like, he despises veterans and their families. He doesn’t see any honor in their service or their sacrifices. It’s one of the easiest things for any politician to do too – respect the troops, honor the American military, try not to refer to fallen soldiers as losers and suckers. And Trump just can’t do it. It goes beyond his squeamishness around wounded warriors too – at a fundamental level, Trump’s lizard brain cannot comprehend why anyone would want to “serve” their country in any way. He has never seen the acquisition of power as having anything to do with service to one’s country or service to the greater good.

Trump: When we gave her the Presidential Medal of Freedom… It’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor— it’s actually much better because everyone who gets the Congressional Medal, they’re soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many… pic.twitter.com/a766KxAC2e

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 16, 2024

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

Introduction: Minutes 0 to 7:15
We recorded on Friday this week instead of Thursday as usual. Chandra loved the Olympics, particularly volleyball, fencing and gymnastics. I watched women’s bouldering and women’s 71kg weightlifting. The Nigerian contestant, Joy Ogbonne Eze, looked like she retired on stage. I mentioned that I couldn’t figure out if she retired, but I later found a tweet saying she will be back in 2028. We talk about the support in Algeria for gold medal-winning boxer Imane Khelif. Here’s a link to the tweet I mentioned. We’re glad that everyone came out to support her after she was subjected to hate that could have threatened her life. You can listen below!

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni: Minutes 7:15 to 18:45
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are costarring in the film This Ends with Us. The book is by Colleen Hoover and it’s been criticized as romanticizing domestic abuse. I’ve read that the movie does the same thing. Justin Baldoni is directing the film, he bought the rights and hired a screenwriter. People noticed that he skipped the London premiere and that he hasn’t posed with Blake Lively or done press with her. They also noticed that Blake and the author Colleen Hoove unfollowed Justin on Instagram.

The Hollywood Reporter said that Lively and Baldoni’s feud started in post-production, when Blake commissioned a separate edit of the film. Chandra thinks that Justin’s edit is likely the one that made it to theaters. Blake’s husband Ryan Reynolds also rewrote a key scene. THR next reported that Blake screened her own edit of the film at a book event for Colleen Hoover in June. It looks like she tried to take creative control of the film.

At first we got vague stories that Baldoni created a difficult work environment. The stories about why people hate him were suspicious to me. He also is said to have made Blake feel bad about her postpartum body.

Baldoni has hired the same PR crisis management firm that Johnny D-pp and Brad Pitt use. TMZ then reported that Blake felt uncomfortable around Justin because he kissed her too long in a scene and because he asked her trainer how much she weighed since he had to pick her up and has a bad back.

An older interview from 2016 recently came out where Blake and Parker Posey were meangirling a Norwegian interviewer, ignoring her and talking to each other instead. This is how Blake has always been. Here’s a link to the inane Q&A I mentioned.

Blake has been promoting the movie like it’s a frothy romance and Justin is being serious and measured in his promotion. His production company has partnered with an anti domestic violence foundation and he has been talking about ending the cycle of abuse. Here’s a link to the Schindler’s list tiktok/tweet that Chandra mentioned. Here’s a link to the supercut of Justin vs. Blake’s promotional styles.

Royals: Minutes 18:45 to 26:15
None of the major royals went to the Olympics in Paris. Will and Kate just recorded a brief video congratulations with celebrities afterwards. They didn’t congratulate any of the individual athletes.

The Daily Mail recently reported that Kate is still undergoing preventative chemotherapy, that she’s still recovering and that we probably won’t see her until Remembrance Day in November. This is the type of story we get about Kate every six months.

Earlier this month the Sussexes gave an interview to CBS Sunday Morning on behalf of their new initiative called The Parents Network, to provide support and resources for parents to protect their children from online harm. They included parents who had lost children to online bullying and to drugs purchased online. It’s a great cause. Meghan was asked about her past suicidal ideation, which she opened up about during her interview with Oprah. I play a segment from their CBS Sunday Morning interview. Harry and Meghan have been working on this cause for some time.

A couple of weeks ago it was reported that the Sussexes have accepted an invitation to visit Colombia. We didn’t realize it would happen so soon. Harry and Meghan are in Colombia now and the photos and videos coming out are incredible. They’re so warm and natural with people. They have been meeting with the Vice President Francia Marquez, they went to a theater performance and participated in a panel about Internet safety. Marquez saw their Netflix series and that’s why she wanted to meet Meghan!

Politics: Minutes 26:15 to 33:30
While we were off, Kamala Harris chose Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate. Chandra thinks that Harris has a soft spot for dorky white men. We loved Harris and Walz’s joint video interview. We hope she does more cooking videos. Here’s a link to the video of Harris telling someone how to brine a turkey. Here’s a link to the video of Harris showing Senator Mark Warner how to make a tuna melt. We want Harris to go on Hot Ones. Trump has been having a meltdown over Harris. He called her beautiful in that lispy interview with Elon Musk and may be conflicted about her for that reason. He hates being called weird. The Kamala HQ coms department does such a great job.

Comments of the Week: Minutes 33:30 to end
Chandra’s comment of the week is from Agnes on the post about Brad Pitt and George Clooney covering GQ magazine.

My comment of the week is from Beana on the post about Mark Zuckerberg commissioning a seven foot statue of his wife, Priscilla Chan.

Thanks for listening bitches!

Photos credit: CNP/INSTARimages, Abaca Press/INSTARimages, Avalon.red and via Instagram and YouTube

Here are some photos from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s visit to Colombia. These pics are from Day 3, where they traveled to Cartagena. Am I the only warped Xennial who associates Cartagena with Romancing the Stone? That movie made me sort of obsessed with Colombia, I’m just now realizing. I’m also realizing – for the first time – that Cartagena is a UNESCO World Heritage site because of its walled city. Amazing.

In Cartagena, Harry and Meghan visited the Escuela Tambores de Cabildo and San Basilio de Palenque. The photos are amazing, although the pics of Harry and Meghan playing the bongo drums reminded me of those “iconic” pics of Prince William and Kate making asses out of themselves in Jamaica, right before they were fired by Prime Minister Andrew Holness. Yet another side-by-side comparison for how Meg & Harry do it better.

Fashion notes: Meghan’s black-patterned dress is actually a two-piece from Johanna Ortiz, a Colombian-born designer and seemingly one of Meghan’s favorites. I looked at the photos from Ortiz’s 2025 Resort Collection and I would not have thought that the ensemble would look this good in person or in motion, but it looks amazing on Meghan. Like, one of my favorite things she’s ever worn. The two piece look costs around $2100 (sob). Meghan’s white ensemble is another two-piece, this time from Argent. People Magazine wrote about the Sussexes’ trip to Escuela Tambores de Cabildo, the drum school, including the connection to Colombia’s African heritage:

As a gift, one student gave the Duke and Duchess of Sussex a small wooden boat, a tribute to the coastal city and its beaches.

Prince Harry and Meghan then joined a student-led drum lesson with Colombian Vice President Francia Márquez and her husband, Rafael Yerney Pinillo. The jam session was followed by a performance from some of the locals, which brought Meghan and Márquez to their feet.

Commenting on the Duchess of Sussex’s reactions to the performances, Ramos said in Spanish, “I love seeing Meghan’s big, big smile. I can tell she’s excited!”

After the performances, Márquez gave a passionate speech about the importance of tradition in preserving Colombian heritage. The vice president touched on how cities like Cartagena epitomize Colombian culture, and how the art form of drumming in particular is a symbol of freedom for Black communities around the world. Márquez also said that part of her inspiration to invite Prince Harry and Meghan to Colombia was because she views them as key voices against injustice.

“The Duke and Duchess came to Colombia… this is Colombia. This is where the roots of our ancestors and our forefathers are from,” the vice president told the crowd that included members of her own family, who she brought along for the events. “A community like this cannot be displaced.”

[From People]

“This is where the roots of our ancestors and our forefathers are from.” I’ve been so moved by VP Marquez’s embrace of Harry and Meghan, especially Meghan. They are both Black women who have been attacked and slandered because of their race. It was important for Marquez to bring the Sussexes to an area which embraced the African influences on Colombian culture. It was also important to show the Colombian people that Harry & Meghan have a great deal of respect for all aspects of their culture. This is how to do a royal tour, you know?

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Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Getty.

Okay we gotta talk about one of the lighter movie controversies of the summer: The lack of a kiss at the end Twisters. The movie stars Daisy Edgar-Jones (Where the Crawdads Sing), Glen Powell, and Hamilton’s Anthony Ramos. I know there’s been some mixed reviews, but I personally loved it. Was Twisters better than the original? No! But it was a great summer blockbuster movie. It had everything: really smart, charming hot people who were constantly placed in danger that they continuously survived against all odds only to go forth and presumably make a difference.

At the end of their death-defying harrowing experience, the two beautiful, charismatic leads who exuded sexual tension from the first time they met…basically shook hands and called it a movie. The whole ending felt like it was something that was built up to and then just stopped, and that’s because it was! There *was* a kiss scene filmed at the end of the movie, but it was edited out to make the movie less cliché. The movie-goers of the Internet were divided about this. Glen was asked about the controversy during an interview with Screen Rant and according to him, the fact that there’s a discussion around the subject means that kiss or no kiss, everyone’s a winner. In fact, he’s just happy that people are so engaged. Says Glen:

I’m taking it very personally! I’m sure you’ve seen the behind-the-scenes, where I did get to kiss Daisy Edgar-Jones, which really is all that counts. [Laughs] We had a great time, and I’m really proud of the movie.

I really think that even that [backlash] shows that people care, which is really great. I just love how excited people have gotten about that movie, and Daisy and I send each other the TikToks and the gifs. There’s so much funny stuff coming out of it. It’s fun. That’s what summer movies are about. It creates this conversation and cultural moment, and people dress up and do the thing. It’s been really awesome.

So, kiss or no kiss, everybody’s a winner.

[From Screen Rant]

While earlier reporting said that the kiss was cut out thanks to a note from producer Steven Spielberg, Twisters director, Lee Isaac Chung has gone on record to explain that he cut the filmed kiss out of the movie because he “didn’t want to dismiss” Edgar-Jones’ strong female character arc. He’s also said that her and Powell’s characters had a “strong enough” bond to justify no smoochy kiss at the ending. I appreciate this thought. I do.

Look, y’all, I love cliche disaster movies like this. I will be super honest here because I am on #TeamKiss. It may be considered shallow but I like watching people mack it at the end of a disaster movie. Again, call me shallow, but I don’t care. I don’t watch those types of movies because they make me smarter. If you’re going to spend 90 minutes of a movie setting people up with sexual tension, then I’m a very simple creature that wants a payoff. Besides, the movie just ends so awkwardly! They filmed the scene and everything is leading up to it, and it just stops midway. “Meh,” says this Elder Millennial.

That said, the fact that social media has been having so much fun with this conversation, really is a win for production. They just better reward us with a little Hallmark-ending action at the intro/middle/conclusion of a Twister 3.

finally saw twisters and glen powell really gave the yearning romantic leading man performance of the year only for that anti-climatic unsatisfying no kiss ending. i was warned and i still wasn’t ready. we’re losing recipes!!!

— Kathleen Newman-Bremang (@KathleenNB) August 15, 2024

Imagine if they’d kept in that kiss. #Twisters #TwistersMovie https://t.co/rzteGXNFhA

— Rachel Sexton [The Movie Maiden] (@MovieMaiden) August 18, 2024

photos credit: James Warren/Bang Showbiz/Avalon, IMAGO/Jeffery Mayer/RW/Mediapunch/Avalon, Janet Mayer/INSTARimages.com

It’s that time of year! Time to talk about Covid booster shots, that is. Last year, I ended up getting the bivalent booster and an extra flu shot because of the lag in availability locally. Those were my last shots, but it’s getting to be time for new Covid boosters and flu shots. It’s now an annual tradition, and the Covid vaccine companies will soon roll out their newest booster shots. So when should people schedule their booster appointments? From the New York Times:

Patients keep asking Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, the same question: Is it time to get another Covid shot? The virus is circulating at high levels across the country. That might suggest it’s prime time for another dose of protection. But updated vaccines that target newer variants of the virus are expected to arrive this fall. Experts said the right time for your next Covid shot will depend on your health status and what you’re hoping to get from the vaccines.

If you’re trying to get the most protection against the leading variants: Doctors say that many people may want to wait for the updated vaccines, which have been retooled to better protect against the current dominant strains of the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that everyone ages 6 months or older receive an updated shot when they become available.

An upcoming vaccine from the biotechnology company Novavax will target JN.1, a coronavirus variant that accounted for the bulk of cases in the United States this winter. The Pfizer and Moderna shots coming this fall will target KP.2, a newer offshoot of JN.1 that’s been circulating this summer. The variants responsible for the largest share of cases in the United States right now, KP.3 and KP.3.1.1, are closely related to KP.2 and JN.1.

The vaccines that are currently available, by contrast, target older Omicron variants that fizzled out as JN.1 took hold this past winter. That doesn’t mean the current shots are ineffective. But when possible, it’s best to get a vaccine that closely matches the variants that are circulating, said Dr. Nathan Lo, an assistant professor of infectious diseases at Stanford University who has studied Covid vaccines.

[From The New York Times]

Yeah, it was the same advice as last year – if you’re someone without any major health risks, you should wait until the early autumn to get the latest booster versions. If you have underlying health issues, you can go ahead and get the currently-available boosters (which were mostly for the Omicron variant, but every little bit helps). The doctors in this Times piece also said that while the current summertime Covid variants are concerning, they’re more worried about the winter months, which is why people should get the latest boosters as soon as they can in the fall. And remember to get your flu shots too! I swear, getting annual flu shots was such a game-changer for me.

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Photos courtesy of CDC on Unsplash and Getty.