Jenny Slate wore Rodarte to the It Ends With Us premiere. This is bad, but why is the theme “clashing patterns” AND florals for the promotion? [RCFA]
Who will play Tim Walz on SNL? [Buzzfeed]
Taylor Swift unsurprisingly leads the VMA noms. [Hollywood Life]
Zendaya & Robert Pattinson in a movie together? Yes! [LaineyGossip]
Kit Harrington is back! He attended the Industry premiere. [Go Fug Yourself]
Italian swimmer Thomas Ceccon is so, so pretty. [Socialite Life]
Elon Musk is such a f–king idiot. [Pajiba]
Charli XCX mashed up with Fleetwood Mac. [OMG Blog]
Charles Barkley is back… after he announced his retirement. [Just Jared]
Netflix is discontinuing their basic digital plan. [Seriously OMG]
Evangelical nutjobs like Jill Duggar are still freaking out about the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony. These people are awful. [Starcasm]

Some days, I genuinely wonder if the overwhelming hatred, transphobia and bigotry we see in this country boils down to hatred of women and the “need” to oppress women at every level. It’s a throughline, that’s all I’ll say. I bring that up because one of the first big attacks from the Trump-Vance campaign on Governor Tim Walz was that… as governor, Walz mandated free tampons and pads in public schools. The Trump-Vance campaign is calling him “Tampon Tim.” Get it? Because it’s insulting to say that a man tries to provide a service to menstruating public school students. It’s all funny to them, that people menstruate. It’s a political jab to them. They think this is a winning strategy.

As part of their effort to portray Tim Walz, the new Democratic vice-presidential candidate, as a far-left liberal, the Trump campaign attacked the Minnesota governor on Tuesday for signing a bill last year that provides access to menstrual products for transgender students.

At issue is broadly inclusive language in the law, which states that products like pads, tampons and other products used for menstruation “must be available to all menstruating students in restrooms regularly used by students in grades 4 to 12.” Republican state lawmakers in Minnesota had tried — and failed — to amend that bill so that it would apply only to “female restrooms,” though some Republicans went on to vote for the final version of bill. Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, said in an interview on Tuesday on Fox News that the law, among other policies seen as supportive of transgender rights, was “a threat to women’s health.”

“As a woman, I think there is no greater threat to our health than leaders who support gender-transition surgeries for young minors, who support putting tampons in men’s bathrooms in public schools,” Ms. Leavitt said. “Those are radical policies that Tim Walz supports. He actually signed a bill to do that.”

State Representative Sandra Feist, a Democrat and the chief author of the bill, said in an interview that it was important for her and the student activists who pushed for the change that transgender students were able to access menstrual products without having to ask for them.

“I actually received emails,” Ms. Feist said. “From trans students, parents, teachers, librarians, custodians from across the country, talking about how they were — or that they knew — trans students who faced these barriers and needed these products, and how much it meant to them that they would have that access, and also that we were standing up for them.”

[From The NY Times]

This is like the “Walz ensured free school lunches” thing – it’s about equality and supporting the community and supporting young people. The legislators of Minnesota listened to young people and educators who said they needed this and they made it happen. Kids need access to pads and tampons in school. It’s a global issue, not just a national issue – period poverty is such a fundamental issue, the United Nations and multiple NGOs are all trying to tackle it and have been for years. It’s one of the issues at the heart of girls’ education globally. And the Trump campaign is like “hahaha Tampon Tim, it’s funny that kids have periods.”

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Ever since President Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, the vibes have been immaculate. I know there’s been a ton of work happening behind the scenes to ensure that the vibes are immaculate, to ensure that the Harris-Walz campaign is a juggernaut and a freight train, but damn, it’s been amazing. Yesterday, Kamala Harris chose Minnesota’s Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. Democrats across the board love this pick. Meaning, Walz is someone whose folksy demeanor and relatable background appeals to working-class Dems and center-right Dems. Walz’s actual policy background appeals to liberal and progressive Dems.

On Tuesday, Harris and Walz did their first rally together, at a jam-packed arena in Philadelphia, where they were introduced by another VP contender, Pennsylvania Governor Shapiro. I’m glad she didn’t choose Shapiro – and I’ll write more about that in another post – for various reasons, but mostly I’m happy that Democrats have such an effective and popular governor in Pennsylvania for hopefully years to come. Once Walz and Harris came out, they brought down the house and gave us an excellent preview of why the Trump-Vance campaign has been sh-tting themselves for weeks.

“Thank you for bringing back the joy.” This is wonderful. The Harris-Walz campaign doesn’t have to run to the right or the left – their positions and policies are supported by the majority of America, meaning this campaign gets to run an overwhelmingly positive, forward-looking campaign in the final three months of the cycle. Which isn’t to say that Walz didn’t land some very effective punches at Trump and Vance. People are going crazy about Walz’s dig on Vance the alleged couch f–ker (many are saying): “I can’t wait to debate the guy. That is, if he’s willing to get off the couch and show up.” Well well well!

Additionally, after the Harris campaign confirmed her choice of Tim Walz, ActBlue had one of its biggest donation days in history, with $2.5 million in donations in ONE HOUR. They raised around $10 million in about five hours. Insane.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

This situation has now become insanely complicated, so I’m just going to do a broad-strokes summary of how we got here. MyKayla Skinner was an Olympic gymnast who won a silver medal in Tokyo. She’s now retired and having babies, and she’s also a self-styled influencer type with a very glossy social media. Before the Paris Olympics – and after she watched the US Olympic trials – she decided to chime in on the current state of Team USA’s gymnastics squad. She said sh-t like “Besides Simone [Biles], I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t like what it used to be…A lot of girls don’t work as hard….The girls just don’t have the work ethic.” She also made some disgusting comments about why “the girls” don’t have a work ethic – she thinks it’s because the coaches can’t be mean and aggressive towards girls and women anymore, thanks to… safety measures put into place after Larry Nassar and all of the horrendous sh-t that went down at the Karolyi Ranch.

The thing is, Simone Biles has spent years, alongside Nassar’s hundreds of victims, trying to get accountability and huge changes from US Gymnastics. It’s worked too, and there have been huge changes and Simone deserves a lot of credit. After MyKayla’s bonkers YouTube video, she got a ton of backlash and she ended up deleting the video and she made an apology. Simone and some of the other gymnasts took a couple of minor swipes at her and then they headed to Paris, where Team USA won gold in the team competition. Afterwards, Simone posted a photo with the team and wrote “lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions.” A pitch-perfect subtweet, she didn’t even mention MyKayla’s name or tag her.

Well, guess who’s in her feelings and begging Simone Biles to stop cyberbullying?? This is one of the most thin-skinned Karen things I’ve ever f–king seen in my life. While death threats and threats of harm are always unacceptable, in the immortal words of Katt Williams, you shouldn’t have been talking sh-t. Simone had every right to clapback on MyKayla. Simone had every right to go even further – what MyKayla said and suggested about the coaches needing to be more “aggressive” with little girls and young women was despicable. It went against everything that Simone and the Nassar survivors have been painstakingly removing from the sport. And to address Simone personally? GMAFB.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by MyKayla Skinner (Harmer) (@mykaylaskinner2016)

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, MyKayla’s IG.

Thoughts on Cate Blanchett’s Canadian tuxedo? It’s Brandon Maxwell! [RCFA]
They’re making a movie called Killing Gawker? And Ben Affleck is attached to play Hulk Hogan? Who’s playing Peter Thiel? [JustJared]
I loved that Simone Biles & Jordan Chiles “bowed down” to Rebeca Andrade at the Olympic medal ceremony. What a moment!! [Hollywood Life]
I maintain that the balance beam was cursed or damaged! [Buzzfeed]
Julia Stiles is still around! [LaineyGossip]
What’s going on with House of the Dragon? [Jezebel]
Vince Vaughn is possibly a better version of Joe Rogan. [Pajiba]
More on Zac Efron’s hospitalization. [Socialite Life]
Simone Biles was all about gymnastics from a young age. [Seriously OMG]
Gillian Anderson explains why she kissed David Duchovny first at the Emmys, back in the 1990s. Her answer is funny. [OMG Blog]

Quick question: does anyone else think that Tim Walz looks like a jolly, fulfilled version of Dick Cheney? Walz really has some Cheney angles. Anyway, congrats to all of us, because Kamala Harris has chosen Tim Walz as her running mate. He’s a two-term governor of Minnesota, a former Congressman and a former public school teacher. He and his wife Gwen have two children, Hope and Gus, and they have one cat and one dog. Which reminds me… if Kamala wins, do you think she and Doug will get a dog or cat? They better. Here’s how WaPo announced Harris’s selection:

Vice President Harris has chosen Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate, opting for a former high school teacher and Midwestern Democrat to complete a newly assembled presidential ticket, according to three people familiar with the pick, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a decision that is not yet public.

The choice of Walz, 60, creates a ticket that many Democrats have said would be politically beneficial. Harris, 59, who is Black and Indian American and spent much of her career in deep-blue California, chose from a list of finalists populated by White men, including Walz, who have represented more competitive swaths of the country.

The selection culminates an increasingly intensive process in recent days, as the Harris team narrowed down the prospects and various factions of the Democratic Party lobbied for their favorites. On the weekend, Harris interviewed three finalists: Walz, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly.

Compared with some of the other prospects who Harris considered as potential running mates, Walz is less well-known and has faced less scrutiny on the national stage.

A second-term governor and chair of the Democratic Governors Association, Walz does not hail from a traditional battleground state — Minnesota has supported a Republican presidential candidate only once since 1960. But Walz’s credentials as a military veteran and gun owner who previously represented a Republican-leaning, rural part of Minnesota in Congress could help Harris appeal to working-class White voters who have turned away from Democrats and helped fuel Donald Trump’s political rise.

[From WaPo]

WaPo mentions several times that Walz isn’t widely known outside of Minnesota, but the selection of Walz shows that he was more than willing to introduce himself on a national stage and to do so on his terms. Out of all of the men on Harris’s shortlist, Walz did the most to publicly audition for Harris and the party, repeatedly appearing on cable news shows and playing up his happy-warrior Democratic credentials and making Democratic Party arguments in a folksy, regular-guy way. Notably – for Washington – Walz is not a product of elite Ivy League schools either. He went to state schools and public schools. Walz is going to do very well on the national campaign trail, and his selection is very popular with unions too.

Here is your Vice Presidential pet report. Reported VP pick Tim Walz has a dog named Scout and a cat named Afton. pic.twitter.com/X5H7Dcroav

— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) August 6, 2024

Photos courtesy of Tim Walz’s Instagram.

Here are some photos of King Charles in Scotland over the weekend. He attended the Mey Highland Games. He wore a kilt and appeared to be having a wonderful time. Charles and many of the royals have already started their summer holidays. Princess Anne and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh all made appearances at the Paris Olympics, but those appearances are cutting into their holidays. Prince William and Kate haven’t been seen in nearly a month and they’re reportedly in Norfolk.

All of which to say, no one from the Windsor clan made any move to meet with the families of the Southport stabbing last week. Three little girls were killed at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class. The assailant was born in Wales, but misinformation spread like wildfire across social media and the British media. Basically, every racist in Britain has decided to use the murder of these three little girls to stage some of the biggest riots Britain has seen in decades. The violence is going one way – white nationalists are attacking people of color, they’re setting fire to hotels and causing a massive amount of destruction.

Rioters set fire and broke into hotels used to shelter asylum seekers in northern England on Sunday, as the country grapples with the worst social unrest it has seen in years.

The violence was triggered by the stabbing of three young girls in Southport, northwest England, earlier in the week. The far right has seized on and spread a wave of disinformation, including false claims the attacker was an immigrant, to mobilize anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant protests. Police say the suspect was born in Britain.

Footage geolocated by CNN shows protesters on Sunday vandalizing and setting ablaze two Holiday Inns in northern England: one in Tamworth, which had previously been criticized by a local politician for housing asylum seekers, and another in Rotherham.

In Tamworth, protesters threw projectiles, smashed windows, and started fires, injuring one police officer, according to local authorities. Meanwhile in Rotherham, protesters threw wooden planks, used fire extinguishers against officers, set fire to objects near the hotel, and smashed windows to gain entry to the building, police said.

The Rotherham hotel at the time was “full of terrified residents and staff,” according to a statement by Assistant Chief Constable Lindsey Butterfield.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has condemned the weekend’s violent protests, which saw at least 147 people arrested since Saturday night. Those involved in violence will face the full force of the law, he warned.

“People in this country have a right to be safe and yet, we’ve seen Muslim communities targeted, attacks on mosques, other minority communities singled out, Nazi salutes in the street, attacks on the police, wanton violence alongside racist rhetoric. So no, I won’t shy away from calling it what it is: Far-right thuggery,” Starmer said from Downing Street on Sunday. Turning to the violent scenes in Rotherham, Starmer described “marauding gangs intent on law-breaking” and emphasized that violent rioters do not “represent our country.”

[From CNN]

What a way for Starmer to start his government, right? Downing Street has been trying to manage the crisis and I completely understand why the riots and hate crimes are a purely political issue, and an issue which should be managed by Downing Street. That being said, the Windsors’ silence is very loud, isn’t it? While the palaces issued statements about the Southport stabbing, no one from the Windsor clan met with the families of the murdered girls? Not one “let’s all come together” statement from the king amid mass rioting and a surge of violent hate crimes and arson? It reminds me of when Londoners staged a Black Lives Matter march… which was attacked by white nationalists, all while QEII threw herself a birthday parade in Windsor.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

The Venn diagram for “Donald Trump supporters” and “Americans who have strongly negative feelings about Prince Harry and Meghan” is a circle. It’s all connected, with the Sussexes used as a “political issue” and niche culture war by the right-wing and the Heritage Foundation’s attempts to disrupt Prince Harry’s residency status in the US. Heritage largely authored Donald Trump’s Project 2025, Donald Trump has made repeated promises to deport Prince Harry, and the “culture war” being promoted is that Americans should “respect” the British monarchy and “reject” the Sussexes. Well, now Eric Trump – arguably the dumbest son? – has gone on GB News and talked sh-t about Prince Harry and Meghan.

Donald Trump’s son Eric has reopened up his father’s feud with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, fueling the suggestion that his father could deport Harry if he wins in November. Speaking to British cable news channel GB News, Eric Trump, 40, the youngest child of Donald and the late Ivana Trump, said Harry and Meghan were “spoiled apples.” Donald Trump has previously suggested to the same channel that Harry could be deported from the U.S. over his admissions of illegal drug use.

Speaking to the U.K. outlet, Eric Trump said: “What I can tell you is, my father had so much respect for the queen, as did I. My mum knew so many of them for years and had a great relationship with Diana. It’s a sacred institution. You can happily have those two [Meghan and Harry], we might not want them anymore, it feels like they’re on an island of their own. You can always have bad actors in everything. You can have spoiled apples in every orchard.”

Eric Trump’s remarks echo those made by his father, who said in an interview with Nigel Farage screened by the channel in March that Harry could face an uncertain future if he had lied on his U.S. visa application. Trump told Farage, when asked what he would do if allegations that Harry may have lied on his visa forms proved accurate: “We’ll have to see if they know something about the drugs, and if he lied they’ll have to take appropriate action.”

Farage asked if “appropriate action” could mean “not staying in America,” to which Trump replied: “Oh I don’t know. You’ll have to tell me. You just have to tell me. You would have thought they would have known this a long time ago.”

[From The Daily Beast]

As I said months ago, if Trump “wins,” we’ll have much bigger fish to fry than Trump’s attempts to deport Harry. It really will be the end of the American project altogether, and America will be turned into the Confederacy of Trumplandia. The only reason Eric Trump’s comments are important here is because it’s just further evidence that the Heritage Foundation’s year-and-a-half-long targeted campaign against Harry’s residency status is all part of a larger right-wing agenda. There are tons of British fascists within Heritage, and all of those douchebags are plumped for another “Trump presidency.” They’re also running a side-quest to get Harry deported and “sent back” to the UK, where the Windsors and the British media can destroy him.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

I know there are a lot of big Blake Lively fans out there, so I’ll try to be as nice as possible, even though Blake and her allure of antebellum pluck my last nerve. Blake’s promotion for It Ends With Us began last week, and she’s using the movie promotion to also launch her haircare line, Blake Brown. Blake stepped into an executive producer role for It Ends With Us, and she’s actually co-EP with author Colleen Hoover. Meaning, Hoover had a big say in how her book was adapted for the screen. This should make fans of the book happy. Months/years after BookTok made IEWU into a massive hit, I was basically the last one to figure out that the core story is actually about domestic violence. Like, it’s not a straight romance – it’s a story about abuse.

Blake’s character in IEWU is named Lily Bloom. Guess what Lily Bloom does for a living? She co-owns some kind of florist’s shop. If you need to be bashed over the head with this, Blake’s promotional fashion tour features a lot of florals and flowery designs and prints. Last week and over the weekend, Blake did a promo blitz which included some cute dresses and one completely wacky ensemble which involved clashing prints. Awful.

Here’s a Dauphinette look – this is one of her few looks we have access to, photo-wise. You can see the Mail’s fashion coverage here. I wonder if Blake thought she was doing a really big fashion tour which would dominate the celebrity/fashion media, but not enough paparazzi turned up? Because that’s what it feels like.

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Photos courtesy of Getty, Cover Images.

The Hartnett Renaissance or the “Hartnettaissance” if you will, is rolling along. Despite working steadily for years, Josh Hartnett popped back up on everyone’s radar after appearing in a supporting role in last year’s Oppenheimer and is now having a long overdue moment. If you’re wondering why one of Millennial’s biggest heartthrobs dipped out of sight, it was because the attention from his fame made him uncomfortable. It was also getting dangerous. Josh had stalkers, including someone who showed up at one of his premieres with a gun. He noped out and decided to live in the southern UK countryside with his wife and their four young children.

Josh is currently starring in M. Night Shyamalan’s new thriller, Trap, which opened in theaters on Friday, August 2. The premise of the movie is that police are trying to track down a serial killer at a giant concert a la the Eras Tour. Hartnett’s character, who happens to be the person they’re looking for, has taken his daughter to that concert. To get into the mindset of playing a serial killer, Josh looked no further than some of society’s favorite suspected sociopaths. Ya know, like “CEOs, politicians, people in [show business].”

Josh Hartnett didn’t have to look far for inspiration when it came to playing his latest cold-blooded character. The actor explained that he modeled his serial killer role in M. Night Shyamalan‘s Trap after certain “people in our business” as he revealed how he and the director made audiences empathize with the character.

“Night being Night, he wants to give the audience a new experience,” Hartnett told Entertainment Weekly. ‘He’s been doing this his entire career. He’ll take a ghost story and tell it from the point of view of the ghost. He’ll take an alien invasion story and not really show the aliens. So this one is like a throwback thriller in a contained space from the perspective of the antagonist. It’s like Die Hard from Hans Gruber’s perspective.”

Trap follows Cooper (Hartnett), a father taking his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to a massive concert, where police have set up a sting operation to take down The Butcher, the name coined for Cooper’s homicidal activities.

“There are a lot of CEOs, politicians, people in our business… a lot of people who are at the top,” Hartnett said of his inspiration. “They don’t mind stepping over people or doing horrible things to get where they’re going, and not having any empathy is a pretty big sign of being a psychopath. Whether or not you’re murdering people, I’ve met people like this, you know what I mean? So it was easy to take it all a step further, make it a little bolder, and make his cover so intense.”

Shyamalan explained that because he was making the movie “from the killer’s point of view,” he wanted to be “very careful.”

“What is he feeling or not feeling?” said Shyamalan. “He’s an interesting character to be with because he’s coming alive when things get scary. He gets more playful when things are getting tighter. But with the close-ups, you show him starting to panic. As it goes, our close-ups get tighter and tighter, and it starts to become a nightmare.”

[From Deadline]

I mean…that doesn’t sound like a farfetched personality type to base a psychopath on, lol. This American Life had an episode years ago that examined what makes a psychopath and turns out, some CEO-type people meet the requirements. I also remember a study from a few years ago that concluded that after you hit a certain level of extreme wealth, it does change the way you think and view the world. I suppose it’s an interesting premise, though, to examine a serial killer manhunt from the killer’s POV.

A few weekends ago, Mr. Rosie and I very randomly ended up rewatching Tropic Thunder. Josh’s decision to model his serial killer character after a CEO reminds me of Tom Cruise’s portrayal of unhinged Hollywood studio executive Les Grossman. In that case, it was for comedy, but it didn’t make the character come across any less sociopathic. There was also another big movie that came out earlier this year, which I won’t name so as not to spoil it, but IYKYK, and it featured a psycho studio exec, too. I haven’t seen Trap yet (we finally saw Twisters this weekend!), but it’s on my list. I’m here for the Hartnettaissance and want to do my part.

Photos credit: Imago-Images/Emmefoto/Frederic Kern/Avalon, Acero/Alter Photos/Avalon