Game of Thrones Season 5, Episode 1 recap

Well it’s nice to know that Cersei was always a brat. Season five opens with a flashback to Cersei’s childhood when she visited a witch in the woods and made the witch tell her the future. Surprisingly, the witch didn’t say, “You spend all your free t…      

Dear Gossips,

It was a stacked weekend. The Masters, the Olivier Awards, the Movie Awards, the Avengers junket, and, most importantly, the season 5 premiere of Game Of Thrones…

A great first episode, non? As reintroductions go, it was a tidy one. And suggestive. Deliciously suggestive. Ha…      

The MTV Movie Awards were held last night and I was surprised to see that some big-name celebrities actually came out. The awards show last year was actually kind of pathetic in its turnout, but I guess enough celebrities wanted to promote their summer movies to the kidz this year, so they all came out. You can see the list of winners here – it was a big night for Shailene Woodley and The Fault In Our Stars.

So, let’s talk fashion! Jennifer Lopez won an award for “Best Scared As Sh-t Performance” for The Boy Next Door. Jennifer knew she was going to win too, which is why she came out in the first place. She wore this absolutely killer Versus Versace suit/minidress thing. She looks amazing, right? I mean, I’m a J.Lo apologist so I generally think she’s glamorous, but she looked especially great last night.

Amy Schumer wore Balmain on the red carpet. A lot of people are complaining about Amy’s raunchy, awkward performance as host. I’ve seen a few of her stand-up specials and I consider her an acquired taste. You have to sit there and watch for about ten minutes before you get into the rhythms of her comedy. My point? Her comedic brand was never going to work well as a host of a major awards show. As for the raunch… eh. It is what it is. The world rewards Kevin Hart for being raunchy, but Amy Schumer?

Anna Camp and Rebel Wilson were there to promote Pitch Perfect 2. I love Anna and her Peter Pilotto dress was cute. Rebel Wilson wore what was possibly the best dress she’s ever worn. I can’t find the ID for it, but it looks very Tom Ford-ish, right? It’s not Tom Ford though.

Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara presented together and skipped the red carpet. Reese wore Mugler and Sofia wore Noam Hanoch. Both looked fine, I’m not sure why they skipped the red carpet.

View image | gettyimages.com

Photos courtesy of WENN, Getty.

As I wrote on Friday, Benedict Cumberbatch is the new face of the MG GTS, at least for the Asian markets. The commercial he filmed – in London – seems to only target the Asian markets for more compact SUVs. And as predicted, Benedict came to Shanghai ahead of the Laureus World Sports Awards (which he’s hosting on the 15th) so that he could do a big event for MG on Saturday – I’m including some photos from the event in this post and you can go here to see more photos. Benedict also filmed a little announcement for his new position as brand ambassador for MG:

So I guess his endorsement and “brand ambassadorship” for Jaguar is officially at an end? I don’t know. I’ve been assuming this whole time that if a celebrity gets a big contract to advertise/ambassador-ize one car brand, they would obviously not be allowed to promote another brand. But maybe it’s different depending on which markets are being targeted. Like, I could see Benedict still having a Jaguar contract for North America and Europe, and then having an MG contract for Asia. Maybe? God knows.

Meanwhile, Marvel’s Kevin Feige sat down for a new interview with MTV and he dropped some new information about Doctor Strange (go here to see the video). Feige says Strange will begin filming in November this year, and it’s still due to come out in November 2016. Principle photography will take place in London, which happens a lot with Marvel films, but I bet that makes Benedict happy, that he’s not going to have to relocate for months on end to Vancouver or wherever. Feige says he’s “excited” about Cumberbatch in the Strange role. Josh Horowitz asks Feige point-blank if the Strange character is going to be British (meaning, will Bendy get to use his natural accent or will we have to hear something wonky) and Feige said: “It’s a good question, we have not discussed accent with him yet but he’s Benedict Cumberbatch so I think he can do anything we ask him to.” Feige also says that Loki will be “integral” to Thor: Ragnarok, so more Hiddles?

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

The Clintons timed this perfectly, didn’t they? Elle Magazine released their cover with Chelsea Clinton on Friday, just ahead of Hillary Clinton’s Sunday announcement that yes, obviously, she will be running for president again. Chelsea Clinton hits all of the Democratic party sweet spots in this Elle interview too – she talks about her baby (daughter Charlotte), her work with No Ceilings (an advocacy group for women’s rights) and the importance of having a female president. You can read Elle’s excerpts here. Some highlights:

ELLE: Is it a big change from before she was born?
CHELSEA CLINTON: Marc and I are like, “What did we do before we were parents?” My whole life is reoriented around my daughter in the most blessed sense. I now understand—this is something else that Marc and I talk about all the time—all of the enthusiastic, bombastically spectacular, wonderful things people say about their children, because we also feel and think all those things about Charlotte—that she is just the most remarkable little bubbly, perfect, chunky monkey creature ever.

ELLE: I was pregnant with my eldest daughter when your mother ran in 2008. I remember feeling that extra intensity you’re talking about and being really frustrated when people said that it didn’t matter if we had a female president, that it wouldn’t make any real change, that it was just symbolic. What do you think?
CC: We’ve made real progress on legal protections for women, but in no way are women at parity to men in our country in the workplace. And if we look in the political sphere, it is challenging to me that women comprising 20 percent of Congress is treated as a real success. Since when did 20 percent become the definition of equality? And so when you ask about the importance of having a woman president, absolutely it’s important, for, yes, symbolic reasons—symbols are important; it is important who and what we choose to elevate, and to celebrate. And one of our core values in this country is that we are the land of equal opportunity, but when equal hasn’t yet included gender, there is a fundamental challenge there that, I believe, having our first woman president—whenever that is—will help resolve. And do I think it would make a substantive difference? Yes, we’ve seen again and again, when women have been in positions of leadership, they have had different degrees of success versus their male counterparts, historically being able to build more consensus so that decisions have longer-term effects, whether in economic investments or in building social capital. Who sits around the table matters. And who sits at the head of the table matters, too.

[From Elle]

I’ve always liked Chelsea and I believe she turned out to be a well-adjusted, intelligent and interesting person. It seems like her role in her mother’s campaign is going to change too – back in 2008, Chelsea wanted to still pretend that she was “private” while she quietly campaigned for her mother on college campuses around the country. Which meant that Chelsea didn’t want to do interviews, yet would speak publicly on behalf of her mother, and if she was every criticized (however mild), the Clinton campaign lashed out and said Chelsea is just a private citizen not a public figure. My hope is that Chelsea takes an active and public role in her mom’s campaign this time around. She’s a very powerful advocate for her mom, especially given that no one can control the Big Dog, you know? When the Big Dog goes off the leash, no one knows what he’ll say. It could be the height of brilliance or it could be… really bad.

Here’s Hillary Clinton’s presidential announcement commercial:

Photos courtesy of Paola Kudacki for ELLE.

View image | gettyimages.com

Barbara Walters interviewed Mary Kay Letourneau on Friday night. She’s the former teacher who (at age 34) statutory raped her 12-year-old student, Vili Fualaau. She already had four children of her own before she became pregnant with Vili’s child. Mary Kay subsequently served seven years in prison. She and Vili are still together. She’s 53, and he’s 31. They have two teenage daughters and have been married since May 2006 (when Vili was 21). He works as a DJ (under the name DJ Headline), and she found employment as a paralegal. Mary Kay and Vili sat down with Barbara Walters to discuss their upcoming tenth wedding anniversary. And because two of these parties are desperate for attention, and I’m not talking about Vili.

Highlights from this interview include Mary Kay blaming the media for what happened to her. Mary Kay would also love to go back to teaching even though she’s still a registered sex offender. She’s already found some extra work by tutoring and giving piano lessons. Lordy. Some excerpts:

Mary Kay is delusional “I don’t know if enough time will pass where it will take away what the media did to our story. Because it was so big, and they ran with it so fast. There’s a story of us that has a life of its own. But it’s not our story.”

Mary Kay on their marriage: “If it wasn’t strong enough in the beginning, it wouldn’t have carried through those years.”

Vili on their marriage: “It was a huge relief to actually get married … [after] just going through all those years and then having so many questions and them not being answered.”

Mary Kay wants off the sex offender list: “Recently I said, ‘It’s been 10 years, why don’t I lift that?’ There’s a process, there’s a form, you take it to court and then they grant it if it looks like it should be granted.”

Mary Kay says all her kids are close: “When we were first married they were very involved in our home. All of our holidays were always together. And they’re very close with their sisters.”

Vili feels differently: “It’s an awkward feeling, for sure, to be close in age with someone technically your stepson or stepdaughter.”

Mary Kay on how their daughters found out: “There was never a sit-down chat: ‘Now is the time we’re going to talk to our children about this. They seemed to already know … because they grew up with it. There’s just never been a, ‘Wow, we better explain.’”

Vili doesn’t want his daughters to date: “The reason for me telling them that was just from, out of experience. A relationship could lead to something that you think you wanted back then. You don’t really want it, maybe, years later … I don’t support younger kids being married or having a relationship with someone older. I don’t support it.”

[From ABC]

Mary Kay and Vili’s two daughters also appear in the interview. The girls attend the same school district where Mary Kay used to teach when she committed statutory rape. The girls figured out what happened via Google and gossip from their school friends. Awful.

Mary Kay still doesn’t seem to understand why what she did was wrong. She lacks a conscience, and Vili appears miserable during this interview. He does admit being depressed at his lack of “guidance” while raising two young children for years on his own. Get this — when Vili talked about his depression, Barbara responded that a “loving wife” and a 10-year marriage is “more than a lot of people have.” That is so messed up! Vili is a victim, his youth and life were stolen from him, and he has no idea what a healthy relationship looks like. I feel for him and his daughters. No pity at all for Mary Kay.

You can watch pieces of the interview on the ABC website.

View image | gettyimages.com

Here are some photos of Mary Kay and Vili in 2006.

View image | gettyimages.com

View image | gettyimages.com

Photos courtesy of Getty; screencap courtesy of Heidi Gutman/ABC

Coachella arrived with some drama this weekend (which made up for Vanessa Hudgens’ Broadway-bound absence). None of these people wore headdresses, which is a step in the right direction. Kendall Jenner strutted all over the festival. She hung out mostly with Hailey Baldwin but held hands with Fergie. They’re all dressed to the ridiculous nines. Kendall also snuggled with Justin Bieber on Friday (probably to start some gossip).

Kendall may have had a run-in with Amber Rose, who is still Kardashian Enemy #1 after calling out the age difference between Tyga and Kylie Jenner. Kendall got upset when Amber was sitting at a table in her cabana. Us Weekly says Amber wasn’t aware the table was reserved, and Kendall walked in and said, “No way, this is not happening.” An escort told Amber to leave, and she did … but threw “plenty of side-eye at the reality star in the process.” FYI: Amber denied this story to E! at the MTV Movie Awards. Amber said, “It’s so annoying. It just never happened. They pull stories out of their f***ing a**es.”

At Coachella, Kylie Jenner showed off some new turquoise hair, which was tucked under a bad hat. Kylie enjoyed showing off the shade on Instagram, and this could be part of her extension line endorsement. I hope she didn’t really choose this as a permanent color.

Here’s Amber on Friday evening. I’m surprised she didn’t wear something more revealing.

Sarah Hyland wore flowers in her hair and leapt into the arms of new boyfriend Dominic Sherwood’s arms for a make-out session.

Julianne Hough’s pink hair was excited to say hello to Aaron Paul (in the gallery), bitch.

Here’s Katy Perry (all Katy-ed out) leaving FKA Twigs’ performance.

Ian Somerhalder and Nikki Reed looked a little less attention-grabby than usual.

Zendaya looked super willowy and festival appropriate. I wouldn’t have pegged her for a Coachella attendee, but here she is.

Brooklyn Beckham wore normal street clothes, thank god. He seems drama free.

Patrick Schwarzenegger attended without Miley Cyrus, who was busy Instagramming pastie pics in the studio (alongside producer Mike Will Made-It).

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet & WENN

It’s that time of year. The smell of trust funds and patchouli fill the air as all the young (and not-so-young) hipsters descend on Indio, California for Coachella. This year’s Coachella seems to have a great line-up, although so far there haven’t been many “big name” attendees. No Alex Skarsgard… yet. No Diane Kruger and Joshua Jackson either. But hey, we’ve got Paris and Nicki Hilton. Paris loves to pretend she’s a hipster for a few days out of the year. Here are some pics of her costume changes on Days 1 & 2.

Aaron Paul & his wife Lauren Parsekian were hanging out. I like Aaron for not fearing the tank top. Lauren’s skort is a little meh.

Gabriel Aubry did the deep-V and scruffy beard thing. He looks good.

Lea Michele and her boyfriend Matthew Paetz. His hair, you guys.

Stacy Keibler was there with her husband Jared Pobre. I don’t think they brought their baby. Maybe it was just a little getaway, just the two of them.

I normally don’t like brown and black together, but Gigi Hadid’s outfit is sort of cute. I also enjoy the fact that so many of these girls are wearing their little stylish “Coachella outfits” but they’re still carrying their Gucci, LV and Marc Jacobs purses.

Sparkles went undercover to FKA Twigs’ performance – I’m including a pic of her on stage too.

What would Coachella be without Kate Bosworth and her creeper husband Michael Polish?

Life’s one big party for Leonardo DiCaprio. He’s probably going to try for some port-o-potty sex too.

And finally, this is what Beyonce Instagram’d as soon as she arrived in Indio.

Coachella ????????????????????

A video posted by Beyoncé (@beyonce) on Apr 11, 2015 at 9:02am PDT

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet, WENN.

My gossip radar is pinging like crazy with this Bobby Flay situation. I mean, I think everyone knows that something shady is going on. But all of the pings tell me that it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better. I’m kind of wondering if Stephanie March isn’t going to start pushing back on some of these gossip stories. To recap, last week we heard that Bobby Flay and Stephanie March had quietly separated several weeks ago. Apparently, he moved out and word was that Stephanie is currently a full-time caregiver for her mother. Plus, as soon as the separation rumors started, every media outlet began running every rumor out there about Flay’s wandering eye.

Well, on Friday, Bobby filed for divorce. In the paperwork, Flay said the marriage had “broken down irretrievably.” They’ve been married ten years, but their primary home is in New York, not California. The rules of community property are different in New York (which is where Flay filed). Plus, Flay got Stephanie to sign an iron-clad prenup back in 2005. TMZ says that Bobby and Stephanie are already “squabbling over property” and Stephanie is “mighty unhappy with the prenup.” See what I mean? March is going push back and it’s going to be a mess, methinks.

Every media outlet that got the nod from Flay’s publicist (I’m assuming) claims that “a source close to the situation” says Bobby is “heartbroken.” The NY Daily News is running this though:

Bobby Flay’s reputation as a Casanova didn’t escape his soon-to-be-ex wife, Confidenti@l is told. An insider tells us Stephanie March was well aware of the persistent rumors about the superstar chef’s infidelity and even confronted him over scuttlebutt that he had an affair with “Mad Men” star January Jones.

“I know Stephanie basically asked him after January Jones, ‘Did you f— her?,’ ” said the insider about the rumors that exploded in 2010 after Flay mysteriously appeared on the scene after Jones got into a fender-bender in L.A. “He told her no.’ ”

“He travels a lot. He always has. It’s not a typical marriage,” said the source. “It really is a celebrity marriage. I don’t think she gets on a plane and goes everywhere with him.” The sources added that Flay is something of a workaholic. “Bobby’s now 48 or 49 and not many chefs of his stature actually go in and cook every night, and he really has been,” said the insider. “You go into (his new restaurant) Gato and he’s there cooking. That’s a big, difficult commitment.”

[From The NYDN]

The January Jones thing – which we wrote about back in 2010 – was definitely sketchy, but that’s a pretty slow burn if January Jones is still causing problems in their marriage. It sounds more like media outlets just want to bring up that old story by putting a new spin on it. And let’s be real – I’m sure Flay was screwing around on Stephanie all the time.

Page Six has a story too – Stephanie was the one to order Bobby out of the house after he left her alone for six weeks. Sources also say that at this time, she just wants her privacy. We’ll see, girl. Don’t push us away, we’re on your side! Just give us a wink and a nudge and point us in the direction of Bobby’s side-pieces. We’ll do the heavy lifting and get that prenup thrown out.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

View image | gettyimages.com

Prince Harry actually hasn’t had that many “official” girlfriends. And of the small assortment, I’ve always believed that Chelsy Davy was The One. She was The One in the sense that he couldn’t give her up for the longest time, that they did the break-up and make-up cycle a dozen times, that they were a beautiful mess together and he probably still has feelings for her.

I would not put Cressida Bonas in the same category at all, although it does seem like Harry and Cressida are still linked somehow, and it’s not just a press thing. He recently attended Cressida’s play, they’ve been seen together post-breakup, and it feels like there’s some unfinished business there. So now that Harry is putting an end to his military career, and will presumably have more time to focus on hunting for a wife, will Cressida be at the top of his list? Royal insiders tells Star Magazine that it’s a remote possibility. Maybe.

A royal insider tells Star: “Cressida has always been the one woman who Harry could never get out of his mind. She has a lot of pull over him, it’s why they’re always breaking up and getting back together.”

Having recently announced that he’ll be leaving the military in June, speculation is rife that Harry may be trying to get back together with Cressida. But sources close to her say that, this time, she’ll only play if it’s for keeps.

“Cressida is adamant that if they’re going to give it another shot, Harry needs to be serious,” says a Bonas bestie. “She’s not an accessory to keep him company just because it’s hard for him to meet someone new. Unless there’s a proposal with a ring attached, then she’s simply not interested in wasting another year of her life.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition]

Cressy’s been enjoying her post-breakup by working, or what passes for work for well-connected, aristocratic royal ex-girlfriends. She’s appeared on some magazines. She danced in a commercial for Mulberry. She acted in her first film and she’s done some plays. She would not have been able to do any of that if she was still dating Harry. But I could see Cressida playing the odds – should she be an “independent woman” and make her own money, or should she just marry a rich prince? I feel like Cressida has given Harry this ultimatum before, by the way, and the last time she threw it out there, it blew up in her face and Harry broke up with her. But maybe Harry is having second thoughts.

Photos courtesy of Getty, Fame/Flynet and WENN.