Game of Thrones Season 5, Episode 3 recap

At the beginning of Game of Thrones there were a lot of characters spread across a vast land, all with different motivations. Now, five seasons into the story, there are still a lot of characters and the land is even vaster, but the motivations have n…      

The Brian Williams scandal fully broke in February. That was when Williams went on air on the NBC Nightly News to give a weird half-apology for “mis-remembering” a story about how he came under fire in Iraq in 2003. Except that he never came under fire, and he told like 11 different versions/lies about that one incident. Williams was quickly suspended without pay for six months while NBC underwent an internal audit of Williams’ actions, words, stories and lies. We got a taste of what the internal audit was uncovering a few weeks ago, when Vanity Fair published a fascinating and bitchy piece about the dysfunction within NBC News and the executive mishandling of Williams and crisis in general.

So, what’s new? The NYT published a gossipy, insidery piece this weekend all about the audit/investigation into Williams. Apparently, they’ve already found “a half-dozen instances” in which Williams outright lied or “misremembered” certain stories.

An NBC News internal investigation into Brian Williams has examined a half-dozen instances in which he is thought to have fabricated, misrepresented or embellished his accounts, two people with inside knowledge of the investigation said.

The investigation includes at least one episode that was previously unreported, these people said, involving statements by Mr. Williams about events from Tahrir Square in Cairo during the Arab Spring. The investigation, conducted by at least five NBC journalists, was commissioned early this year. The inquiry is being led by Richard Esposito, the senior executive producer for investigations, for the news division.

The two people with knowledge of the investigation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions, said the episodes under review included details of the incident in Iraq in 2003; statements Mr. Williams made about a missile attack while he was traveling in another helicopter over northern Israel in 2006; and the circumstances under which he received a fragment of a helicopter that crashed during the mission to kill Osama bin Laden in 2011.

It is not clear precisely which parts of Mr. Williams’s reporting from Tahrir Square have been scrutinized by NBC or what the network’s investigation shows. But discrepancies are evident in accounts given by Mr. Williams in February 2011.

In an appearance that month with Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show,” Mr. Williams described his reporting from the square. Speaking of clashes between protesters seeking the overthrow of the Egyptian government, and a pro-government group on horses and camels, he said he had “actually made eye contact with the man on the lead horse.” Mr. Stewart then referred to reports that the pro-government group had used whips. “Yeah,” Mr. Williams replied, “he went around the corner after I saw him, they pulled out whips and started beating human beings on the way.”

The NBC News report on the clash between the protesters that day did not show Mr. Williams in Tahrir Square during the protest. Subsequent reports said that Mr. Williams was reporting “from a balcony overlooking Tahrir Square,” rather than from inside the square itself, a description that matches footage that was broadcast, and that he repeated in an interview with The New York Times last year.

[From The NY Times]

As we hear more stories about Williams’ many lies, a pattern has emerged: the lies are always included to make Williams look more heroic, to make it seem like he was in more danger, that he is always in the thick of it… rather than reporting from a balcony overlooking the real action. The NYT’s sources also say that the investigators are getting information and direction from NBC News employees, many of whom have apparently known about Williams’ penchant for lies and falsehoods all along. I’ve got to wonder… did Williams piss off a lot of NBC underlings? Because the knives are out for him. And yes, he’ll be fired by the end of the year. He’ll probably be fired in the next few months, actually.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Dear Gossips,

I keep calling it the Mary Lindo. That’s the Lindo Wing at St Mary’s Hospital in London where Princess Catherine will give birth to Big G’s sibling. And where press and royal TwiHards have been gathered for days. It could be any time now. Which is why I was happy to get out of t…      

Jay-Z launched his music-streaming service, Tidal, less than a month ago. The launch was epic in its craziness and obliviousness of how pretentious everyone looked. Like, Jay-Z, Madonna, Kanye West, Jack White and many more signed some kind of Tidal Manifesto and stood proud of their accomplishment of charging more money for basically the same (if not a substandard) music-streaming product. Well, in the past few weeks, everything has gone to hell. No one likes Tidal, the app isn’t popular at all, Jay-Z is getting terrible press and even Jay’s BFF Kanye has distanced himself from Tidal (Kanye deleted his pro-Tidal tweets).

So what did Jay-Z do? Something he rarely does: he tried to explain himself. He went on a “stream of consciousness” Twitter rant. I’m not going to embed all of the tweets (there are so many), so if you want to see them all, go here. He kept using the hashtag #TidalFacts throughout, but here’s the bulk of Jay-Z’s defense, compiled into two paragraphs:

“Tidal is doing just fine. We have over 770,000 subs. We have been in business less than one month. The iTunes Store wasn’t built in a day. It took Spotify 9 years to be successful… We are here for the long haul. Please give us a chance to grow & get better. There are many big companies that are spending millions on a smear campaign. We are not anti-anyone, we are pro-artist & fan. We made Tidal for fans. We have more than just music. We have video, exclusive concerts, tickets for events early, live sports!…

“Tidal is where artists can give their fans more without the middlemen. Indie artists who want to work directly w/ us keep 100% of their music. “If you don’t want the CEOs all in the videos” haa. Tidal pays 75% royalty rate to ALL artists, writers and producers – not just the founding members on stage. Rich getting richer? Equity values… YouTube $390 billion. Apple $760 billion. Spotify $8 billion. Tidal $60 million. My cousin just moved to Nigeria to discover new talent. Tidal is a global company. We have Tidal X – it supports artists by giving them a platform to connect with their most loyal fans. Tidal is for all. Our actions will speak louder than words. We made Tidal to bring people the best experiences… and to help artists give that to their fans over and over again… We are human (even Daft Punk ha). We aren’t perfect – but we are determined.

[From Jay-Z’s Twitter]

Two things. One, it sounds like Jay is genuinely worried that he made a terrible investment and that the whole thing is blowing up in his face and he won’t be able to sell Tidal for a tidy profit. Two, I like the idea of Tidal more now that he’s explained his mission statement this way, rather than with the awkward, bonkers, celebrity-filled stage in which they all had to sign the Tidal Manifesto or whatever.

Oh, and is there a “smear campaign” against Tidal? I don’t really think there is. I think people were genuinely put off by the launch, but a lot of people still gave Tidal a chance and the sad fact is that people just dislike the app/service.

View image | gettyimages.com

Photos courtesy of Getty, WENN.

Bruce Jenner’s 20/20 interview justifiably took over social media and news and gossip sites this past weekend. It was one of the most-watched programs of the year (17 million people tuned in), and will likely go down as one of those cultural-milestone moments that people will cite for years to come when we speak of trans-acceptance and tolerance. I’ve been impressed by how the reactions to Bruce – from his family and from random internet people – have been largely positive and accepting. The few prominent people who have said negative things have been slapped down HARD. People like… Kris Humphries.

As you might remember, Kris Humphries was married to Kim Kardashian for a few months back in 2012. I always thought that Kim married Kris just because she was turning 30 and she just wanted to get married to someone, anyone and Kris was the first guy to ask her. It was not a love match and Kris always seemed like a loser (sorry to anyone who thought he would bring down the Kardashians, but he was just a douche who wanted to make Kim “pay” for divorcing him). Anyway, just hours after Bruce Jenner’s interview, Humphries tweeted: “Man, I’m glad I got out when I did. #Gottadoyou.” The reaction must have been immediate and unpleasant, because Kris later tweeted an apology and clarification:

Are you buying it? I am not. I think Kris’s intent was pretty clear in the first tweet. He thought he’d grab a few headlines by tweeting some shade at his ex-wife’s family and he’s such an idiot that he thought people would be on his side. But I’ll give him this: at least he recognized that he was acting like a dumbass and offered support to Bruce.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Last week, I discussed the rumors that Tyga was cheating with his ex, Blac Chyna, behind Kylie Jenner’s back. This gossip was based on screencaps that Blac Chyna posted. I pointed out how easily these images could have been faked. Kylie believes that’s the case. She tweeted, “I didn’t know u could change the font size on tweets now. #fake.” I’m sure the images created some doubt in Kylie’s mind. She’s a teenager, and teens are dramatic. Now there’s a new image ^^^ which was Instagrammed by The Shade Room (before they deleted it). But TMZ says this image is completely real. You can see a prominent new tattoo on Tyga’s left inner elbow area. The tat reads “Kylie.” The idea is that Tyga inked himself to prove his devotion to Kylie.

I’m not a tattoo expert and can’t tell whether the image is faked. Tyga did post this selfie that shows a bit of the alleged tattoo. His (now-deleted) caption read, “Everything happens for a reason, things go wrong so you can appreciate them when they’re right, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.”

A photo posted by Tyga / T-Raww (@kinggoldchains) on Apr 24, 2015 at 11:14am PDT

So … tattoo or not? I can’t figure out whether Tyga would be dumb enough to confirm his statutory rape of Kylie with a tattoo. He’s already gross enough (at age 25) to date a 17-year-old. He’s clueless enough to talk about how it doesn’t matter what the world thinks,” but is he stupid enough to get a tattoo with her name? I guess we’ll know the truth if he decides to wear long sleeves until she turns 18.

More Kylie news. She’s now surpassed 21 million followers on Instagram. No wonder the #KylieJennerLipChallenge happened. Meanwhile, a crazed Kylie fan delivered a stack of pizzas and a proposal on last night’s episode of KUWTK. Creepy.

Photos courtesy of ShadeRoomInc on Instagram, Tyga on Instagram, Fame/Flynet & WENN

I actually do feel sorry for Kate at this point. Much like her last pregnancy with Prince George, Kate is overdue. According to The Telegraph, Kate’s due date was last Thursday and her doctors are considering inducing her labor as early as this weekend, although “sources” claim that if Kate is feeling comfortable, the doctors will avoid inducement and just wait for labor naturally. Generally speaking, I guess most women want to wait until they’re one week overdue and then they start thinking about getting induced.

As for Kate’s state of mind, Us Weekly’s source, a “family friend,” says that Kate is “well” and “in good spirits… Everyone is! Although it would be fair to say also eager for the time to come.”

Kate was last seen in public a week ago, when she stopped by Zara Home on Kensington High Street. She was “jeans and wedges” and was apparently in full-on nesting mode, picking up “placemats, hand towels, coasters, salad servers, and blue and white children’s hangers.” Many of the items were blue, in fact. Is that significant? Is she having a second boy? Us Weekly also notes that “Antonella Fresolone and nanny Maria Borallo have been spotted walking the family’s dog Lupo around Kensington Gardens every day, and grandma Carole Middleton has been helping take care of Prince George. She will look after George when the royal couple head to the hospital.” Ah, I was actually wondering what would be done with George while Kate was in the hospital.

Oh, and when the baby is finally here, the first announcement will be on Twitter. I follow @KensingtonRoyal and I’m assuming that will be the main Twitter handle used, although I would assume @BritishMonarchy will also be announcing it concurrently.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.

This is sort of old news, but it’s still trending on Twitter after a few days. I wanted to talk about Jared Leto’s version of the Joker since we covered his mid-stage Karl Lagerfeld look and shaved eyebrows. On Friday afternoon, Suicide Squad director David Ayer tweeted the final version of Leto in character. Officially, Ayer did this to mark the 75th anniversary of DC Comics creating the Joker supervillain. But let’s get real. This Friday positioning left the comic nerd faction plenty of time to crack jokes over the weekend. Here’s one of the best reactions and response firebacks:

@brockwilbur And his new catchphrase is “Have you ever danced to The Devil Wears Prada in the pale moonlight?”

— *Horse Noises* (@BKaslewicz) April 25, 2015

I also saw several tweets that alluded to Marilyn Manson (who would have been cheaper to hire), Macaulay Culkin’s Home Alone character, and a shirtless Ben Affleck meme. In physical form, it’s obvious that DC is trying too hard. The hair, the single glove, and the grillz are fine. But the tattoos went into overkill, especially the “damaged” forehead tat. We already know the Joker has serious issues without DC spelling it out for us dummies. I don’t know what to make of the shaved pits. That’s probably a deep meta-reference that we couldn’t possibly understand. Badass Digest believes Leto’s Joker hails back to the late 1980s Killing Joke graphic novel, which presents Batman and the Joker as twin sides of the same tragic coin.

No matter what, people will pick on Jared’s portrayal of the Joker. He’s following up on Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning performance, which has been romanticized in the years following Ledger’s death. Jared has also won an Oscar, and Suicide Squad will be his first followup role. David Ayer says that Jared’s take on the role is “majestic.” Jared describes the Joker as a “nearly Shakespearean character, this beautiful disaster.” Eh. I don’t hold much confidence for DC to not mess this up. They’re making everything too “dark” now with a rumored “no jokes” movie mandate. Why so serious?

Ayer also recently tweeted this cast photo.

Photos courtesy of DC/David Ayer on Twitter, Fame/Flynet & WENN

Here’s a photo of Suki Waterhouse at a London Burberry event last week. The gossip pages are keen to see whom she’ll date next after breaking up with Bradley Cooper and (possibly making out with him at Coachella). Bradley appeared to have moved on after clubbing with a 21-year-old model right before Coachella. As Lainey discussed last week, Bradley Cooper, 40, may have model-hopped over to Irina Shayk with a Broadway date. Irina is 29! She’s a bit too old for BCoop’s taste, but Page Six says they flirted up a storm at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Guests couldn’t help but notice their obvious attraction. Huh.

Suki may have found a new man too. The 23-year-old model/actress was papped entering a restaurant with 41-year-old James Marsden. People reported on the dinner date, which means that someone’s publicist may have tipped off the mag. People does say that James and Suki were “with a group of friends,” but that doesn’t mean they’re not dating. The Mail has several photos of Suki next to James, although they’re not holding hands for the cameras. They did stay at the restaurant together for three hours.

We haven’t talked about James in awhile, but last year, he reportedly dated 25-year-old Nina Dobrev. So James likes them younger, and Suki likes them older. That’s what I’m getting from this story. He does have a nice smile, but he’s a sketchball. James famously knocked up an early 20s model a few months after his wife of ten years filed for divorce. Dude is a hot mess, and he likes young models!

Photos courtesy of WENN

After an interview with Dr. Phil in which she walked off set following the realization that she was expected to go to rehab, Kim Richards has gone to rehab. It’s unknown if Dr. Phil is paying for it, although reports suggested that his show would fit the bill. Richards was of course arrested for being drunk and belligerent about 10 days ago at the Beverly Hills Hotel. She was charged with public intoxication, resisting arrest and assaulting an officer. This was after she refused to leave a bathroom at the hotel, and then kicked the officer who tried to arrest her.

Dr. Phil’s interview with Richards will air on Tuesday. Advance details of the taping revealed that Kim was resistant to attending rehab again (her last stay in rehab, reportedly her third, was in 2011) and that she used the excuse that she didn’t want to miss her daughter’s second wedding. We heard that Kim’s arrest makes her an insurance liability and that producers on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills were threatening to fire her. That may have been what convinced her to finally go:

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kim Richards has entered rehab, PEOPLE has learned.

“Kim went to rehab finally because she got arrested, she humiliated her kids and she wants to avoid jail,” a source tells PEOPLE.

“If the arrest hadn’t happened she wouldn’t be going to rehab; it would be business as usual. She’s in denial that she has a problem.”

The catalyst for her entry into a treatment facility following “increasingly out of it behavior,” as a source close to her family told PEOPLE, was Richards’ arrest on April 16 at the Beverly Hills Hotel for public intoxication.

[From People]

At least Kim is in rehab now, and at least she’s accepted responsibility for the night she was arrested. She’s said that it was her fault and that “none of this would have happened if I didn’t drink.” Kim has previously admitted to being an alcoholic so it’s curious that she’s in denial still. Maybe this stint in rehab will work for her. All we’ve been hearing from her up until now have been excuses, deflections, blaming and denial.

Here’s the preview for Kim’s Dr. Phil interview:

View image | gettyimages.com