Dear Gossips,

Bitch Better Have My Money.

That’s all I’ve been listening to in the car. At my desk. I haven’t taken Rihanna to the gym yet but I can’t wait to break the treadmill with this song on repeat. It’s that kind of song. Makes me want to screw up my f…      

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Ben Affleck made his fourth visit to testify in front of senate yesterday. In his appearance on capital hill, Affleck was on a panel along with Microsoft founder and arguably the world’s greatest philanthropist, Bill Gates. His wife, Jennifer Garner, and their oldest daughter Violet, 9, sat right behind him. The panelist made an appeal for foreign aid at a Diplomacy, Development and National Security hearing held by the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee. Affleck is close to this cause, having founded The Eastern Congo Initiative in 2010. He’s also made multiple visits to the region to learn firsthand about the violence and unimaginable loss there.

Gates discussed the need for US aid for foreign assistance projects, particularly healthcare, in order to avoid a catastrophic event like the flu pandemic of 1918. Affleck told a compelling story about the great change that a small amount of US foreign aid (only 1% of the US budget is allocated to foreign aid, and he explained that this was a small fraction of that) was able to effect in the Eastern Congo. With money from USAID, his charity and several other charities were able to support over 4,500 coffee farmers whose livelihood was affected by ongoing war and displacement. What’s more is that they were able to offer financing, supply chain management and a guaranteed market for the coffee through a partnership with Starbucks. It was an impressive story of how assistance to foreign aid groups is making a difference.

Affleck started by making a quip that Senator Leahy (D-Vermont) was his costar in Batman. (Leahy had a line in em>The Dark Knight.) He also joked that he felt inadequate following Gates. “Thanks for having me follow the greatest and most important philanthropist in the history of the world. I’m sure I’m going to come off great.” Here’s a summary of what he said, thanks to The Guardian, and you can read his prepared remarks here.

“I would be remiss not to recognize my co-star in Batman,” Affleck said. “Your role was marginally smaller than mine, but I understand you were quite good. Good morning, sir.”

Gates said US aid had “a major impact” in improving agricultural productivity in the world’s poorest nations. “Given that 70% of all people living in extreme poverty are in rural areas, and most are engaged in farming,” he said, “the renewed US commitment to agricultural development represents a very sensible, cost-effective approach to reducing global poverty.”

Affleck said that Starbucks had just purchased 40 tons of coffee from eastern Congo – the entirety of the first export of an industry cooperative supported by his organization – for consumption in the United States. Congo’s coffee industry, once among the world’s largest, was destroyed by two decades of conflict and has shrunk to less than a tenth of its former size.

“That’s a clear testament to what’s possible for Congo,” Affleck said of the Starbucks purchase. “This isn’t charity or aid in the traditional sense. It’s good business.”

Affleck’s Eastern Congo Initiative arranges financing for Congolese farmers and grants for grassroots organizations, including schools and aid outlets.

[From The Guardian]

Whenever I cover Ben Affleck’s charity work, I remember his 2008 Nightline special, which chronicled his third trip to the Eastern Congo. He described the good people he met and how their lives became “a living hell” when militia groups decimated their homes and raped and murdered their families. For everything you can say about Affleck, he really cares about this cause and has made it his mission to champion it.

There have been rumors for years that Affleck wants to get into politics. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s his plan for a second career. He’s still got some directing and acting years left in him though.

Here’s a clip of Affleck’s speech and you can watch the entire hearing in this video on C-Span. (Affleck comes in at :17 minutes.)

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View image | gettyimages.com

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Congratulations are in order for Molly Sims and Scott Stuber.

The actress-model, 41, and her film producer husband, 46, have welcomed their second child – daughter Scarlett May Stuber – she announced on her website.

“We welcome Scarlett May Stuber into our family. Our hearts are bigger with you here,” she writes alongside a photo of her newborn.

The proud new mom-of-two also shared the image via Instagram.

Last week, we spotted the Las Vegas alum and her husband at a hair appointment in Beverly Hills.

The author of The Everyday Supermodel and Stuber – who were wed in Sept. 2011 – are also parents to 2-year-old son Brooks.

We welcome Scarlett May Stuber into our family. Our hearts are bigger with you here. http://bit.ly/1bzdc9f {Image credit: @gcanali}

A photo posted by Molly Sims (@mollybsims) on Mar 26, 2015 at 5:28pm PDT

Kate Upton’s career is still chugging along. She’s not all over the place like she was a few years ago in Vogue and on two consecutive SI: Swim covers. Kate appeared in a third Swim issue, but she was conspicuously missing for this year’s edition. What gives? I remember how refreshing Kate seemed as she barrelled to greater heights. She brashly claimed she could “bring back the supermodel.“ She conquered social media, which was a big reason for her sudden rise to fame. Remember how she danced the “Dougie” and went viral? That was a cute period, and she had fun. Lately, things have changed. Kate’s acting a little punchy in interviews. She’s lost her old enthusiasm.

Page Six ran a long article yesterday about Kate’s terrible attitude, which is supposedly ruining her career. The full article is an interesting read. Here’s a condensed version:

As Upton’s career ballooned, says more than one fashion insider who spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity, so did her ego. She went from “innocent” to exhibiting diva-like behavior, insiders say.

“She became really unappreciative of her success,” says a fashion publicist who asked not to be named for professional reasons, commenting on her general behavior. “It totally went to her head. She didn’t understand that people had taken a chance on her.”

Another modeling-world veteran says Upton’s demands became ridiculous, including asking for photographer approval on shoots and refusing to be photographed with other models. “Even Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell embrace new models and shoot with them,” the second source says. “If you look at people with those long careers, they know how to give back.”

The secret sniping is the latest setback for Upton, 22, who’s also noticeably absent from the most recent Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue.

“She really shook up the industry in terms of how quickly you could achieve the usual markers of success,” says Betty Sze, managing editor of industry site models.com. “What takes high-fashion models sometimes years or decades to get, like the Vogue cover, the name recognition, the cosmetics contract …. Kate was able to get all those in the space of two or so years.”

But Upton was convinced she made it to the top alone. “It’s weird that in the press they’ll be like, ‘Your biggest fight was with the industry and the designers,’ and I’m like, ‘No, my biggest fight was with my agents, trying to get them to sign me into the castings,’” she told British Vogue last June.

Her new agents are convinced she has legs as an actress. [But] one Hollywood agent who asked to remain anonymous says Upton’s turn on the silver screen didn’t make a splash.

“Kate is not even on our radar,” the agent says. “If she thinks she can make it as a movie star, she’s clearly believing her own hype. I don’t even remember her in The Other Woman, but pretty, buxom actresses are not exactly in short supply. Without any discernible talent, she will struggle to get taken seriously.”

[From Page Six]

There’s more juicy stuff in there. Page Six lists quotes from studio execs and critics who mock Kate’s acting skills and wooden delivery in commercials. They say the fashion industry is no longer impressed because she’s difficult, which caused her to lose an Express contract. Kate’s full of herself, photogs and mags find her difficult to work with, and so on. Insiders resent how she’s not a team player and now refuses to promote on social media.

Kate has achieved household name status, so she’ll be fine if she drops the new attitude right now. She’s a very good model and shows some versatility. I do have my doubts about her acting skills, but she’s still scoring gigs. Kate just booked a role in William H. Macy’s new directorial project. The film is a road trip sex comedy about two friends (Kate and Lea Michelle) who fight over the same dude during an airport layover. Hmm.

Photos courtesy of WENN

Here are some photos of the beautiful Julie Andrews, 79, and Christopher Plummer, 85, at last night’s TCM celebration for the 50th anniversary of The Sound of Music. They look amazing, right? I love that everyone is celebrating the 50th anniversary, and that Julie and Christopher are doing all of these appearances and interviews all over the place.

I’d like to believe that Plummer and Andrews are in love with each other in some ways, although that fantasy had a rude awakening when I read the recent Vanity Fair piece on their relationship all these years later. Apparently, Plummer didn’t even like Julie when they worked together on The Sound of Music. But they ended up growing into a wonderful friendship through the years, and now they’re like the ultimate work-wife/work-husband relationship. He’s a curmudgeon and she’s happy. He’s cynical, she’s optimistic. They do love each other in some ways, I suppose.

Meanwhile, Julie recently spoke to the Los Angeles Times about fame, her career, Lady Gaga’s Oscar performance (Julie was a fan but other people were not) and how the movie business has changed in the past fifty years. It’s a charming read – go here for the whole piece. Some highlights:

What it was like watching Lady Gaga perform at the Oscars: “Phenomenal. I’d been a fan, but I’d never actually met her. Ten days before, she called and said, “I just want to be very sure that you’re OK with this, that I’m not offending in any way.” I said, “Are you kidding? Go for it. Enjoy it.” We met face-to-face 45 seconds before we went on stage, so my actual first contact with her was when I walked on stage and gave her a hug. I subsequently spoke to her. We chatted for about 25 minutes. She sang very, very well. I was a fan, and now I’ve made a new friend.

Gaga said that she cried afterwards: “That’s what she told me. She did say, “It’s probably the biggest thing I’ve ever done.” And so brave, in front of that audience to take that gamble. She worked very, very hard on it. I thought making that herculean effort and then handing it to me on a golden platter and walking off stage was amazingly generous. I’m the lucky lady that was asked to be in that great film. I never cease to be grateful, really.”

The state of modern celebrity: “Truthfully, I mostly can be as private as I want. I do something like this and then I pop back into my garden…. I seem to be very busy, and I seem always to be working. When I did “The Sound of Music” and “Mary Poppins” and “The Americanization of Emily,” all three were in the can and had not yet been released. So I was driving around having a fine time learning about how to make movies and enjoying myself enormously, and then they were released and it was quite an assault in a way. But it flares and calms, and that’s probably the way it is for everybody in this marvelous business.

[From The LAT]

She’s so lovely. Sometimes I get jealous that Britain gets to claim Julie as their national treasure. Can’t we share? Can’t we call her an international, borderless treasure? Because that’s what she is. HONK IF YOU LOVE DAME JULIE.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

Fittings

A photo posted by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Mar 25, 2015 at 4:37pm PDT

Do you realize we haven’t had a stand-alone Kim Kardashian post all week, until now? See, we can do (relatively) Kardashian-free weeks. Sort of. I mean, Bedhead talked about Sock Kardashian and I talked about Jaime King defending Kim, but we really haven’t talked much about her – just by herself – in a week. Yay.

So, let’s get to it. The above photo is from Kim’s Instagram from a few days ago. She was still blonde. She was still wearing revealing clothing. What else is there to say? Eh. Kim recently sat down with THR to give her “five tips” for Instagramming – go here to read. The only interesting thing I saw was that Kim claims she doesn’t have any kind of social media coordinator, that she’s posting all of her photos herself and that she “doesn’t do filters.” So brave. Meanwhile, Us Weekly had this story:

You’ll never catch Kanye West with a selfie stick! When it comes to taking pictures of himself and wife Kim Kardashian, the “Only One” rapper, 37, requires a professional shutterbug. As revealed in the March 30 issue of Us Weekly, West hired a personal photographer to follow him and his reality star love around New York, London, and Paris, where they made several Fashion Week stops in February and March.

“The photog takes thousands of shots a day, and Kanye pores over almost all of them,” a source close to the hip-hop star told Us. “He’ll point to a picture of himself standing on a desk and be like, ‘This will go down in history.’”

He’s equally involved in his wife’s styling, the source said. While the picture-taking is left to the pros, the picture-staging is all him.

“Kanye will breeze into a store and immediately start pulling looks for Kim to try on,” the insider toldUs of the self-proclaimed “creative genius,” dad to 21-month-old North. “He likes to pose her after he’s picked out her outfits. He gets completely in the zone.”

[From Us Weekly]

Part of me thinks it’s sort of sweet – no judgment – that Kanye takes such an interest in Kim’s clothes and that it’s something they obviously like to share. Another part of me thinks that it’s sad that their biggest shared interest is being narcissistic, self-involved, superficial monsters. Think of how much time and energy Kim and Kanye put into “maintaining” their status as narcissistic famewhores – imagine if they put that energy into better use.

And finally, here are some photos of Kim out with North West yesterday. North and Penelope Disick were going to their dance class! And I feel like North is starting to exert her will a little bit. North wants to wear pinks and whites to dance class, not black. Oh, and Kim dyed her hair back (it literally took me an hour to realize that).

Photos courtesy of Instagram, Fame/Flynet.

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Not to go full Cumberbitch, but I actually do think it’s cool that Benedict Cumberbatch came out for Richard III’s reburial/funeral thing. It would have been cool if he did it without any connection, and it’s more interesting that he did it given that he’s distantly related to Richard AND that Benedict plays Richard III in The Hollow Crown (which will air this year).

So, these are some photos of Benedict arriving at Leicester Cathedral for the service. Richard’s 530-year-old remains were discovered – underneath a parking lot – in 2012. The remains were studied, analyzed, etc, and now they are at rest again. According to People Magazine, Queen Elizabeth sent a message to be read aloud during the service, and the Countess of Wessex was in attendance as well.

Below, I’m including the video of Bendy reciting the poem “Richard” by Carol Ann Duffy, Britain’s poet laureate, at the funeral/reburial. HIS HAIR. He hasn’t quite got the hang of using product on short hair and it looks like a trendy mess. The poem is moving though. “My bones, scripted in light, upon cold soil, a human braille… my skull, scarred by a crown, emptied of history…”

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View image | gettyimages.com

Photos courtesy of Getty, WENN.

Adam Horovitz is best known as Ad-Rock from the Beastie Boys. But the Beastie Boys are no more after Adam “MCA” Yauch passed away in 2012 after losing a battle with cancer. After Yauch’s passing, Ad-Rock and Mike D disbanded the Beasties and they’re now pursuing other projects. Adam is getting into acting, which apparently was a side-interest he had this whole time. He appears in the new Ben Stiller ensemble film, While We’re Young. Horovitz sat down with The Daily Beast for a wide-ranging, hilarious and amazing interview about life, music, acting, New York City and learning how to be middle-aged (he’s 48). You can read the full piece here (it’s an awesome read). Some highlights:

On rap’s original gangsters: “Rap music is the only genre of music I can think of where nobody gives a sh-t about last year—let alone 20 or 30 years ago. Rap is the only super-current music. If you’re into reggae or dancehall and you don’t know Bob Marley, then you don’t really know what you’re listening to. But if you’re listening to rap and you’re 15, you’re like, “Grandmaster Flash? Who’s that? Public Enemy? Yeah, my dad told me about them once.” And that’s just how it is. We had to accept that as a band.”

The state of rap today: “I have no idea about the state of rap. I don’t pay attention. I just listen to old music that I have. Once a year, I’ll go do a digging search on things, and then listen to that for the next year or two. I like Kanye West… he makes good music.

His thoughts on Iggy Azalea: “She sounds like Da Brat. I can’t say too much because I’ve heard literally one song of hers, and it’s not for me. I was gonna say it’s awful, and it is awful. But what do I know? It’s sold like 20 billion records, so people like it. I don’t care, more than anything.

His early acting ambitions: “When I was a little kid I wanted to be an actor. That was my thing. And my mom gave me a guitar for my 12th birthday and I learned how to play, and that same year I heard The Ramones, and I guess everything changed. But I tried to do the acting thing back in like… 1988 or 1989. I was in Lost Angels and another one called Roadside Prophets in the ’80s. But I went on tons of auditions. I auditioned for so many different people—Oliver Stone for The Doors movie.

His life as a family man: “My wife [Kathleen Hanna] is the coolest person in the world and I get to hang out with her every day, and I’ve got great friends and I love my family… what’s the problem? So, as of today, I’m cool with all of it. Fifteen years from now, I don’t know. The only time I really notice [my age] is after basketball, or a lot of drinking. Although if you can still handle a lot of drinking at my age, that’s a bad sign. When you’re young, you just throw up and get back up again, but the spinning… I can’t do the spinning. I guess if you’re leading a healthy, grown-up lifestyle, your brain and your body are coexisting. And my back is killing me.”

His thoughts on the current state of NYC: “It’s a bummer, man. It’s definitely a bummer. That’s what cities do—they change. Some cities go the completely opposite route and turn into f–kin’ ghost towns, but me and Kathleen went to see Patti Smith do this gig and someone asked her what she thought of New York City today, and she said, “It’s depressing. You can’t be a starving artist. You can’t move to New York to be an artist.” And there are struggling artists now in New York, but they’re not struggling for money, because if they’re living in New York their parents gave them money. So now you need to have four roommates and live in Queens. Nothing against Queens. But it’s definitely too expensive, and Brooklyn is now, too. It’s depressing.

[From The Daily Beast]

He also talks about how it’s so different for young people today and how the kids aren’t set in stone with how they self-identify, like no one is just a straight-up punk or stoner or jock anymore. Anyway, I love him. I love what he says about Iggy, like he thinks she’s terrible but he doesn’t even really care. I love what he says about his wife and his family. And yes, he’s married to THAT Kathleen Hanna (my inner Riot Grrrl just squealed). He’s managed to age gracefully, in every way possible. Glory to the former hellraisers and pranksters in this world.

Oh, and Ad-Rock has been giving lots of interview this week – you can read his GQ piece here. He also did a really sweet NYT interview – go here to read.

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Photos courtesy of Getty, WENN, still from ‘While We’re Young’.

You’re looking at Kendall Jenner’s new ads for Calvin Klein’s #mycalvin denim line. They slicked down Kendall’s hair, which makes her look waify. CK must want to channel some Kate Moss nostalgia with these ads. Is it working? Kendall sat down with Vogue to talk about this shoot. She has always looked up to Kate and thinks she resembles her idol much more than, say, Brooke Shields. Physically, she is more like Kate, but Kendall has even more of an overbearing stage mom than Brooke had. Kendall talks about others stuff too, including paparazzi and tips for taking belfies:

Is she a Kate or a Brooke? “Kate Moss I guess. She’s someone I’ve always looked up to.”

On the Calvin denim shoot: “I mean the whole day was rainy. When it rains, I have good energy, I’m in a good mood.”

Have the paps helped her career? “Paparazzi pictures? No, those definitely did not help. Do the paparazzi help anything? But being in front of the camera, yes; building your own self-confidence.”

She’s critical of her pap photos: “Yeah, don’t we all do that? See pictures of ourselves and be like, I did not look like that in person. I swear I didn’t look like that.”

Her ideal denim: “For me personally, I think high-waisted or midi-rise always works. Something that’s tight around my butt and lifts it.”

How to take a good belfie: “I’ve never heard of belfie, but I’ve definitely taken a couple of butt selfies. You gotta know your own angles. And maybe [shoot it from] the side, so you can make your butt look all cute.”

[From Vogue]

Kendall is only happy when it rains, ‘yall. Just like Shirley Manson.

I find it hard to believe that any sister of Kim Kardashian hasn’t heard the word “belfie.” Didn’t Kim invent the belfie as we know it? Perhaps Kendall’s been insulated from that talk. She keeps a runway model physique, so Kendall has no need for tush augmentation. She may be the last non-Pinocchio butt standing.

Back to these ads. Kendall looks bummed out, but that’s probably the look CK was going for. The clothes are pretty awful.

Photos courtesy of Alasdair McKellan/Calvin Klein & Fame/Flynet

Nylon magazine released its full Shailene Woodley interview from their April issue. This is the same talk where she tripled down on her dislike of the feminist label. The rest of the interview is new-agey. Shailene planned a day of “picking lemons and harvesting honey” with this journo. She got sick, so they drank tea together instead. Shailene revealed how some sort of mysterious creature was “attacking her small intestine.” She doesn’t go into detail (thank god), but I wonder if her illness is connected to gathering her own spring water. Just a thought? Shailene certainly didn’t pop any Advil for this ailment.

Shailene talks about her amazing bone broth invention again, and she drops another one of her discoveries. She likes to eat bugs now because they’re so “great.” More pro tips can be found below, and there’s a deep amoeba analogy for film sets:

Still hooked on bone broth: “I was laughing on the way here because I was worried I had beef broth breath.”

The diet of the future: “I’ve eaten ants and that was great. And June bugs, that was great. I think the future of food is in insects, so we’ll see what happens. If I could. I would grow a pair of wings and fly.”

Saving the planet: “Everyone could and should do a lot for the planet. I think you should find one small thing that works for you and dedicate and commit to that one thing every single day. When you leave the house just unplug your toaster, coffee machine, your TV, which doesn’t need to be on all day.”

More pro tips: “Don’t ask for a straw in a restaurant. Make it a goal not to drink out of plastic as much as possible. Turn the shower off when you’re washing your body and don’t waste the water. There are a lot of small things out there, you just find the one that works for you.”

Her take on movie sets: “Being on a movie set to me is one of the greatest things. I could sleep on set. It’s like 200 people, and everyone has their own story. Everyone comes from somewhere different, and yet they’re all there together collaborating …. It’s sort of like a living, breathing amoeba, how it’s constantly moving and shape-shifting. And without all of its parts, it wouldn’t be able to flourish.”

[From Nylon]

Bugs are the diet of the future, people. This is nothing new. Some people do eat bugs (not just chocolate covered grasshoppers) as a source of protein. Bugs are in plentiful supply with very little demand as a food source. The thought of eating them IS gross. But are insects any more icky than what happens (out of sight) in food production already? I try very hard not to think of these things during dairy consumption. What goes into producing cottage cheese or milk is pretty nasty. At least you see what you’re getting with bugs.

Here’s Shailene lugging a crockpot in NYC last week. She’s serious about bone broth.

Photos courtesy of Hilary Walsh/Nylon, Fame/Flynet & WENN