Judging solely from the commercials and clips I occasionally see on E! News, I think Brandi Glanville is having a tough season on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. She used to be seen as the fun one, then she was the drama queen, then the drunk, and now it just seems like everyone is raging at her and she’s raging back. I’ll come back to this in a moment, but let’s just say, for argument’s sake, that Brandi isn’t super-happy on RHOBH these days. Would she really leave a paying gig? Apparently, she would. Brandi told In Touch Weekly that she’s starting to wonder if she will stay with the show much longer.

Brandi Glanville is over The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

“I’m not sure how much longer I have on that show,” Brandi tells the new issue of ‘In Touch.’ “Maybe it’s not for me anymore.”

Brandi, who joined the cast in 2011, hasn’t made a decision yet — but if she does quit, she has a surprising replacement in mind: LeAnn Rimes!

“She could be good at it,” Brandi says of the 32-year-old who married her ex-hubby, Eddie Cibrian. “Maybe it’ll be her next thing.”

[From In Touch Weekly]

That’s funny, suggesting LeAnn for the show. Brandi is so Machiavellian sometimes. Putting LeAnn on a show like Real Housewives would be such a catastrophe of epic proportions – everyone would see what an unhinged stalker LeAnn is. Which is just what Brandi wants. Now, as for Brandi… I wonder if this is more of an angle to get more money. Is her contract being renegotiated or something? Because while I don’t watch RHOBH, Brandi is the only one on that show with her own loyal gossip-following. People care about Lisa Vanderpump and Kyle Richards, but Brandi has crafted her own gossip-brand and gossip-persona much more than any other Real Housewife.

As for all the drama this season, apparently Yolanda Foster asked Brandi point-blank if she (Brandi) was an alcoholic. Brandi says she is not. Brandi also wrote a lengthy Bravo post about addiction and whether calling someone an addict should be a “negative label” or an “insult.” She writes in part:

Addiction is not a negative label, and it’s not an insult. It’s being used by some people to label others in a negative light, which I find distasteful and shameful. It’s wrong and discriminatory to view an addict as a bad or somehow a lesser person. Addiction is serious and shouldn’t be tossed around lightly to diminish others or as a slur or to create dramatic effect or bring attention to the speaker.

[From Bravo]

It’s possible to agree with Brandi and say that we shouldn’t throw the word “addict” as a go-to pejorative. It’s also possible to believe that Brandi does have some alcohol abuse problems, you know? Does Brandi want to quit RHOBH just because people think she’s an alcoholic?

Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.

Reality star Kim Kardashian made a memorable appearance Thursday (February 12) at New York Fashion Week with her favorite accessory — her daughter North West.

The 20-month-old tot attended papa Kanye West‘s Yeezus For Adidas show. After arriving early and playing a game of chase, the famous toddler was then seen sitting on mom’s knee next to Vogue editor Anna Wintour and pop superstar Beyoncé as they all waited for the fashion show.

But in true toddler form, Nori started acting her age and threw a temper tantrum.

Nori squirmed and squealed on her mom’s lap, and Wintour kept a hilariously straight poker face while stiffly move her body away from the tantruming toddler.

Kardashian’s momager, fellow reality star Kris Jenner, couldn’t help but laugh about the situation via Instagram.

“Best pic, AHAHAHAH North got a little fussy waiting for Daddy’s Show to start!!! We took her backstage for a snack right after this but just had to share…love the patience of @beyonce #AnnaWintour @kimkardashian #NYFW #YeezySeason #mommymoment,” she captioned the image of her granddaughter throwing a tantrum in the front row.

Mom Kim – who wore a brown, see-through body suit and khaki jacket from her husband’s collection – quickly took Nori backstage before returning to her seat.

The famous family were joined by other stars in the front row, including Jay-Z, Rihanna, Cassie, and P. Diddy, who rocked a fur vest and Timberland boots.

And did you see Nori’s posh duds the day before? Reportedly, the toddler rocked a $3,500 fur coat paired with Doc Martens.

Best pic AHAHAHAH North got a little fussy waiting for Daddy’s Show to start !!! We took her backstage for a snack right after this but just had to share…love the patience of @beyonce #AnnaWintour @kimkardashian #NYFW #YeezySeason #mommymoment

A photo posted by @krisjenner on Feb 12, 2015 at 10:19pm PST

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Scandal Season 4 Episode 12 recap

Well, this is one of those oxymorons that happens on television. “How do we make a kidnapping fun to watch?” Lots of moving parts, a hell of a lot of booze, a body count…

This episode was more of an Ocean’s Eleven roundup of how y…      

A little over a week ago, news came out that Nicole Scherzinger and Formula One racecar driver Lewis Hamilton had split after a rocky on-off romance spanning over seven years. If Star is to be believed, Nicole isn’t letting any grass grow under her feet. The tabloid claims that she’s been “hanging out” with also-single Nick Cannon, who is in the process of divorcing Mariah Carey. This new romance is said to anger Carey, who has “always hated Nicole.”

Nicole [Scherzinger], 36, has been secretly hanging out with Nick Cannon, 34, and sources say his ex-wife, Mariah Carey, is having none of it. “She’s always hated Nicole,” a source tells Star, who adds the former Pussycat Dolls singer had a brief fling with Nick before he wed Mariah in 2008. “She’s very possessive and still thinks of him as her property.” But despite the 44 year-old singer’s protests, Nick is going ahead with the romance. “He’s really been there for Nicole during her breakup.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition, February 23, 2015]

Star goes on to say that Nick and Nicole (that has a cute ring to it) have to be apart for now because Nicole is currently in Cats in London (that show is still playing live?) and he’s stateside. They are said to “constantly flirt via Skype.”

Fame-wise, these two are about at the same level so they make sense to me. Plus they look really cute together, don’t they? I would love to see them officially couple up, but this may fizzle out fast. Also, Mariah is surely still protective of Nick, but I bet she’ll hook up with some young dancer type and get over it. That’s the next step for her, although it will probably be hard for her to find a lover that’s as sycophantic as she requires. J.Lo and Madonna did it, but Mariah is beyond.

photo credit: WENN.com

It’s Valentine’s Day. Time to fall in love. They need your love. This weekend more than one hundred local animal welfare groups will have pets available for adoption at PetSmart stores across Canada for Be My Valentine Adoption Weekend. Meet the dogs and cats. Talk to volunteers. Then…      

Hiddles Dump! There are several items of news about Tom Hiddleston, so why not wait for a Friday and then just do a big Hiddles post? That was my thought. This ^^ is the first still from High Rise, where Tommy plays Dr. Laing. The doctor wears nice suits and likes mirrors. Sure.

Hiddles also celebrated his 34th birthday earlier this week and all of the Dragonflies went overboard wishing him a happy birthday. So he tweeted this:

Completely overwhelmed and humbled by all you lovely people wishing me a happy birthday. 34 & feeling very chipper. Had a lovely day. Happy.

— Tom Hiddleston (@twhiddleston) February 9, 2015

Considering he’s been so quiet on Twitter for months and months, the fact that we’ve gotten four tweets in the span of a week has been nothing short of miraculous. I hope he comes back to Twitter big time. We miss you, Tommy!

And finally, word is that the first trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak has debuted in front of Fifty Shades of Grey. They were saying the trailer wouldn’t be released until next Tuesday, but versions of it exist online right now. I watched a budget, jacked up copy of the trailer a few minutes ago and it scared the bejesus out of me. I’m not in for this one, you guys. I hate really scary haunted house movies. But at least we know a little bit more of the plot now – Jessica Chastain and Tom Hiddleston play brother and sister. Mia Wasikowska is being seduced/terrorized. Charlie Hunnam is trying to take Mia away from it all. It’s sort of like “What if Jane Eyre was set in a crazy haunted house?”

I’ll try to update with a better trailer if it gets released. If you want to see the budget one, go here.

Photos courtesy of Joe Alvarez, WENN, ‘High Rise’.

Dear Gossips,

Rachel McAdams continued to work on True Detective Season 2 yesterday in LA. Rachel’s Chinese astrological sign is Horse. The Chinese Squawking Chicken says there’s not too much to be concerned about for the Horse during the Year of the Goat/Sheep. In fact, this year…      

Last year’s Sony hack disaster brought plenty of juicy tidbits. Kaiser covered the latest news about co-chairman Amy Pascal “resigning” as co-chairman. After her exit, Amy opened up at the Women in the World conference. I’m sure there were limits on what she could say, and the sweet severance package (which Kaiser talked about today) made it all worth it.

Amy did talk about the leaked information about American Hustle salaries. Jennifer Lawrence was paid less than her male co-stars even though — at the time — she was the biggest box-office draw of the bunch. Some of you disagreed, but the Hustle deal was inked immedately after the Hunger Games release. She was already in the successful X-Men franchise too. JLaw didn’t have as much screentime as the men or Amy Adams, but I see that as a minor point. Remember how Julia Roberts once got paid $3 million for 6 minutes of screentime? JLaw is as much of an attraction as Julia was in her heydey.

Amy says she didn’t agree with Jennifer making less money:

On the JLaw salary discrepancy: “I’ve paid [Jennifer Lawrence] a lot more money since then, I promise you. Here’s the problem: I run a business. People want to work for less money, I pay them less money … Women shouldn’t work for less money. They should know what they’re worth. Women shouldn’t take less. ‘Stop, you don’t need the job that bad.’”-

[From Hollywood Reporter]

Well … Amy didn’t say anything wrong here. Women shouldn’t work for less money than men make, period. If female actors don’t hold out for better deals, then studio execs will walk all over them. It’s difficult to put the onus onto actresses, who generally enjoy less job security and room for flops than male actors. But if Charlize Theron could demand equal pay from Sony, so could JLaw.

Photos courtesy of WENN

During the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, Emile Hirsch had too much to drink. He was out partying with some bros at like 2 am, and he ended up getting into some kind of beef with a woman. Not just any woman either – the woman was Daniele Bernfeld, a studio executive. Most people claimed that Emile was trying to start something (a fight) with Bernfeld and she kept walking away from him and Emile’s friends kept trying to keep him away from her. But at some point, he jumped on her and put her in a chokehold and dragged her across a room. She blacked out. So… yeah, it was a pretty straight-forward case of assault. And now Hirsch has been charged. The details of the assault are chilling.

What happens in Park City sometimes reverberates in the Third District Court in Utah’s Summit County. Emile Hirsch has been formally charged with felony aggravated assault and misdemeanor intoxication for allegedly attacking a woman at Tao nightclub on Jan. 25, when 2015 Sundance Film Festival revelry had taken over the city.

The criminal complaint obtained Thursday by E! News alleges that Hirsch, while appearing to be drunk, grabbed at studio executive Daniele Bernfeld, calling her a “‘rich kid’” and asking her why she looked “‘so tough.’” She pushed him away and they each went off with separate groups of friends, the complaint continues. But that’s not where the evening ended, according to Bernfeld.

“Shortly thereafter Hirsch came up from behind Bernfeld and wrapped his arm around her to put her in a chokehold,” the allegations continue, per the court documents. “Hirsch pulled Bernfeld across the table and onto the floor, where he landed on top of her. While Hirsch was on top of Bernfeld he wrapped his hands around her neck. Bernfeld said she felt as though the front and back of her throat were touching and she remembers things going dark. Bernfeld reported that she may have momentarily blacked out.”

Bystanders pulled Hirsch off her, the complaint continues, and a witness corroborated Bernfeld’s story. A responding officer, Sgt. Jay Randall, is also noted as having observed “redness on her neck and upper chest.”

Hirsch told Randall, per the report, that he was having a “verbal confrontation” with Bernfeld; the actor also admitted to having “three to four alcoholic beverages” that night. The third-degree felony charge carries a maximum punishment of five years in a Utah state prison and a $5,000 fine, while the class C misdemeanor is punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a $750 fine. A court date has been set for March 16.

[From E! News]

The details make me so uncomfortable. Hirsch had been drinking, obviously, but there seems to be an undercurrent of predatory behavior too, like he was looking for a woman to victimize. The idea that this little douchebag would jump on a woman and begin choking her… it’s profoundly disturbing.

Anyway, Emile’s people are blaming it all on the alcohol. TMZ got a statement from Hirsch’s rep, who said: “Emile consumed an enormous amount of alcohol on the evening in question and he has no memory of what happened…Emile takes these allegations very seriously, and is devastated that any of this has occurred. A few days after the incident, Emile sought help and checked himself into an alcohol rehabilitation facility, where he remains today, to ensure nothing like this ever happens again.” Whatever, dude. I hope he goes to jail. And I’m glad they charged him with felony assault.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

Actor Will Smith covers the latest issue of Esquire and opens up about family life with wife Jada Pinkett Smith and their two kids: Jaden, 16, and Willow, 14.

On Jaden’s wardrobe, which consists of one pair of shoes, three pairs of pants and five shirts: “He has refused to be a slave to money. I so respect that. The younger generation is less of an ownership generation, anyway. It’s such an interesting thing to watch, because I came from a middle-class background, but, you know, our lights and gas would be cut off from not paying the bill. I grew up in a house where you would need the kerosene heaters in the winter in case the bills didn’t get paid. And he’s from the complete other end of the spectrum. And it’s so interesting to me that from growing up in that space, he could see the need for things in a way that he’s rejecting. He’s like, ‘I’m not gonna let myself need things in that way.’ “

On what fatherhood has taught him: “My kids taught me to redefine love. Before 2010, I had a vision. I saw a family in my mind that I wanted to have. And I was pushing and driving hard for my picture, and then I realized everyone has their own journey. I have to support what they want to do. I have to support the vision that they have for themselves, not my vision. That was excruciating for me. That was excruciating because I’m military-minded. And to have to back up off of the masculine in that way, to have to embrace a more gentle, understanding, loving, and caring side—that was a tough transition for me.”

On his kids being “well-adjusted”: “With this generation of kids growing up, the technological battering is almost the norm. They generally avoid the stuff. They’re really well-adjusted around this business and understanding the nature of having to take a battering. It’s a brutal world out there for young people, for everybody. Willow had one moment. The Young Turks are Willow’s idol. They have a TV show online. They’re like a really powerful group of young writers, hosts, and political commentators. Willow loves the Young Turks, and that was the only moment I saw her cry. Other than that, she’s really well-adjusted with it. And Jaden understands that that’s a part of this business. If he wants to do it, there’s a certain amount of battery that you have to be willing to live through. We have a quote that I put up in the house from Pema Chödrön: “Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us.” We call it leaning into the sharp parts. Something hurts, lean in. You just lean into that point until it loses its power over you. There’s a certain amount of suffering that you have to be willing to sustain if you want to have a good life. And the trick is to be able to sustain it with your heart open and still be loving. That is the real trick.”

For more from Will, go to Esquire…

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