For years, the British media tried to make “Princess Kate is a keen peacemaker” into one of their major storylines. It fell flat. The idea was that the Princess of Wales could somehow convince King Charles and Prince William to make peace with Prince Harry? Or that she could convince Harry to abandon his wife and children and “return” to the UK to be the family scapegoat? It was always sort of fuzzy – what were the terms of the “peacemaking” from Kate? No one really knew. Besides which, her behavior when QEII passed away in 2022 sort of ended the “Kate the keen peacemaker” narrative for good. Still, they need some kind of storyline for Kate – anything to avoid asking real questions – which is why we’re getting “Kate is totally done with keen peacemaking.”

After battling cancer, the last thing on Kate Middleton’s mind is playing peacekeeper between Prince William and Prince Harry. Christopher Andersen, the author of “The King,” spoke to Fox News about the relationship between the princess and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, saying that the pair isn’t on Kate’s radar.

“The idea that Kate somehow still has the time and energy to continue playing peacemaker is rubbish,” Andersen told Fox News. “She did try over a period of years and finally threw up her hands in disgust. She did her bit, but it wasn’t enough to build a bridge between William and Charles on the one side and Harry on the other.”

Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams said that Kate, 42, “is totally at one” with her husband Prince William, 42, and is done handling the sibling rift.

“Harry portrayed her as cold and unwelcoming to [his wife] Meghan Markle in [his memoir] ‘Spare,’ when he painted an extremely damaging picture of the royal family,” Fitzwilliams told Fox News. “The memoir is soon to be released in paperback and his allegations will surface again, though fortunately, he will not be adding to the volume or promoting it. He knows perfectly well how damaging it has been.”

Instead of focusing her time on the royal brothers, Kate will focus her time returning to royal duties as she prioritizes her health.

“We have recently seen encouraging signs of Catherine’s recovery,” he explained. “Her focus, as she has said, is being ‘cancer free.’ The Wales family has had a tremendously difficult year. She has finished her course of preventative chemotherapy. William, while carrying out some royal engagements, has been tremendously supportive… [But] Catherine will wish to avoid anything that promotes negative energy.”

[From The NY Post]

“She did try over a period of years and finally threw up her hands in disgust.” Again, what were some examples of Kate’s peacemaking? Staring longingly at Harry doesn’t count. Spreading racist lies about Harry’s wife doesn’t count as peacemaking either. It also would not surprise me at all if all of the left-behinds are simply too repressed to even express their clear and unambiguous “peace” terms: that Harry must return to them, broke, humiliated and divorced.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

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After airing the pilot last month, the rebooted Matlock is actually starting, for realsies this time, next week on October 17. While I had mixed feelings about the first episode, I’m still enthusiastically on board because of my love and admiration for Kathy Bates. Even though Kathy scared us by telling the NY Times that she would retire after Matlock, she heard our cries of despair and walked back that statement. Well, now Kathy has given another deeply personal interview, this time with People Mag, in which she speaks candidly about the weight loss journey she’s been on for the past seven years. It started in 2017 when she was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, a disease that’s prevalent in her family. Then after losing 80 pounds through lifestyle changes and what she calls “hard work,” and given her diabetes, Kathy consulted with her doctor and started using Ozempic to lose the final 20 pounds. Unsurprisingly, the weight loss has affected every aspect of her life.

80% hard work, 20% Ozempic to lose the last 20 pounds: In this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, the Oscar-winning actress, 76, clarifies that she lost 80 lbs. over the past seven years through changes to her lifestyle and diet. She then lost another 20 lbs. on Ozempic. “There’s been a lot of talk that I just was able to do this because of Ozempic,” Bates says. “But I have to impress upon people out there that this was hard work for me, especially during the pandemic. It’s very hard to say you’ve had enough.”

She began making changes after her diabetes diagnosis in 2017: “I ate because I was afraid, and I ate because it was a FU to my self-esteem,” she says. “[Diabetes] runs in my family, and I’d seen what my father had gone through. He had had a leg amputation. One of my sisters is dealing with it very seriously, and it terrified me. It scared me straight.” The first change Bates made to her lifestyle was taking a piece of advice her niece had given her about listening to her body. “When we’re full, we experience an involuntary sigh,” she explains. “I just pushed the plate away.” She also changed her diet — “I used to eat terribly: burgers and Cokes and pizza,” she admits — and stopped eating after 8 p.m.

Working out now that she’s out of work: Bates says her next challenge is figuring out a workout routine now that she’s wrapped the first season of Matlock. “That’s going to be my next thing that I’m worried about because I won’t be on set running back and forth,” she says. “I have a treadmill here at the house, and I might try Pilates. … It’s just very important to me to keep this going. I don’t want to slip.” Her weight loss, she says, “coincided beautifully” with the timing of Matlock. “Physically, I’m capable of doing this show,” she says. “I don’t have to sit down. I can stand up all day long and walk and move and breathe and do so many things that I couldn’t before.”

Her lymphedema has noticeably improved, too: She was diagnosed with the condition — which causes swelling due to a buildup of lymph fluid in the body — after undergoing a double mastectomy following her breast cancer diagnosis in 2012. (She previously had ovarian cancer in 2003.) “It’s been a tremendous benefit for me,” she says. “I’m lucky that I don’t have to wear my compression sleeves every day. It’s such a thrill to be able to put my arm into a jacket and it fits.” … This period of her life “is just so exciting,” she continues, tears welling up in her eyes. “It’s emotional.”

[From People]

If you have 12 minutes to spare, I highly recommend watching the video People Mag released of this interview. You get to see Kathy’s giddiness when she talks about fitting into clothes differently, and she tells a sweet story about finding her (stunning!) Armani Emmys dress with a friend. I was relieved to see the joy in Kathy. Back in September when the NY Times article came out, the one where she said Matlock would be her last acting gig, I was a bit startled with how despondent she seemed. But watching the video shifted my sense of that. I no longer think she’s despondent, I think she’s done a lot of hard work and unloaded a lot, and that can naturally make you feel more open and vulnerable. As she says, she is clearly excited and emotional with where she is right now, having stayed the course in losing a substantial amount of weight, and working on what she feels is a dream role. That is exciting and emotional! And inspiring to someone like me on the other side of that health journey. But please do me a favor and wait seven years before asking me how it’s going…

Kathy Bates Sets the Record Straight on Her Ozempic Use After Losing 100 Lbs.: ‘There’s Been a Lot of Talk’ (Exclusive) https://t.co/2KRajsKBkc

— People (@people) October 9, 2024

photos credit: Nicky Nelson/Wenn/Avalon, Ryan Hartford/INSTARimages.com, Getty and via Twitter/People

Maybe I’m completely off-base, but I think A Complete Unknown looks really good? Timothee Chalamet might even get an Oscar nom for playing Bob Dylan. I was sold on this as soon as Johnny Cash calls him “Big D.” [Hollywood Life]
Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong & Maria Bakalova premiere The Apprentice in New York. I don’t really want to see it, but I wish them well. [Just Jared]
Jamie Dornan looks good in these Loewe ads. [Socialite Life]
Rihanna photographed ASAP Rocky for W Mag. [LaineyGossip]
What are some weird American things which Americans don’t even realize is weird? “Flags everywhere” – no, it’s true, we love our flag!! [Pajiba]
The vibes between Julianne Moore & Tilda Swinton are immaculate. [Go Fug Yourself]
A Halloween safety video from 1977. [OMG Blog]
Natasha Lyonne is really one of a kind. [RCFA]
Matt Damon does the silliest things. [Seriously OMG]
How many unmarried Duggars are out there? [Starcasm]
Emily In Paris Season 4 is brilliantly dumb, if that makes sense. [Buzzfeed]

Quinta Brunson has quickly become one of my favorite celebrities. She’s brilliant, funny, beautiful, and just all-around kick-ass. The fourth season of Abbott Elementary premieres tonight, October 9, and Quinta has been busy promoting it. She recently announced that this season would feature a random yet intriguing crossover with the cast of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. This week, Quinta appeared on Live with Kelly & Mark to talk about the upcoming season. As she was walking out, Quinta spotted a surprise in the audience: some members of her family! After commenting on it to Kelly and Mark when she got up on stage, she noticed that even more members of her family were in the audience, sitting in a different section. And that’s when the waterworks started.

Quinta Brunson got an emotional surprise from her family during a live interview on morning television. As Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos welcomed the Abbott Elementary creator-star to discuss season 4 of her Emmy-winning sitcom, she was moved to tears as she walked out to set and unexpectedly spotted multiple members of her family sitting amid the Live With Kelly & Mark studio audience.

Shortly after Brunson emerged from the backstage area, cameras captured her interacting with the crowd — and her eventual shock over recognizing her family waiting in the front row. Later, Brunson spotted more family members sitting in a different section of the audience, and she was clearly overwhelmed in the moment.

“I just saw basically I have family here. Oh my God!” the 34-year-old said, gathering herself as tears welled in her eyes. “That’s my literal, like, family. My sisters, my niece, and my cousin. I don’t want to cry on TV. That’s crazy.”

Brunson estimated to Ripa and Consuelos that her family must’ve traveled from her hometown of Philadelphia to surprise her, but that she “didn’t know” they’d planned the moment.

“I’m always just crying on TV. I’m so tired of it,” she joked. “Okay, make sure nobody else is here!”

The sweet moment came one day ahead of Abbott Elementary’s season 4 premiere, which producers Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker recently previewed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, in which they teased developments on the growing relationship between Brunson’s Janine and Tyler James Williams’ Gregory.

“We hope for it to go through the course of any normal relationship and to hit the ups and downs. We tend to approach everything from character. A lot of people thought we had this master plan for that, and ‘In this season and this episode, the two will kiss and blah, blah, blah,’” Halpern said. “But we’ve always tried to approach it from a character standpoint of ‘When are they going to be in a place where it would happen and when are they going to be in a place where things might get tough?’ This is all to say that we like to keep everything open in terms of character growth, but no, we don’t foresee at the moment that we’re going to pull the rug out from anybody.”

[From Entertainment Weekly]

This was such a sweet moment, which you can watch below. That was so nice of her family to surprise her like that! Quinta is such a delight, isn’t she? She deserves every bit of success that she can get. Kelly’s joke about bringing out the rest of Quinta’s family made me laugh. I love Abbott and am excited for Season 4. During the interview, she also talks a little bit more about the crossover with Always Sunny, teasing that while Danny DeVito’s character, Frank, won’t be attending school, he will be making an appearance within Abbott Elementary itself. Does this change anyone’s predictions about the crossover’s overall plot? It sounds like it’s going to be more Abbott-centric than, say, the school going on a field trip to Sunny territory or the teachers ending up in Paddy’s Pub. Either way, this most likely means that Danny DeVito will interact with Janelle James and/or Cheryl Lee Ralph, and that’s going to be amazing.

Photos via YouTube and Instagram and credit: IMAGO/mpi099 / Avalon, Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon

Sarah Ferguson was in New York two weeks ago, did y’all know that? I didn’t. There was barely any coverage of her visit in the American or British media. She was in NYC for UN Climate Week, same as Prince Harry. She hasn’t said if they saw each other. She was invited to the launch of Youth Impact Council, which has asked her to be a Founding Ambassador. To celebrate, Fergie spoke to People Magazine about her love of New York and her love of America, in general.

Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, has a special place in her heart for the city of New York. In an interview with PEOPLE on Sept. 25 during New York Climate Week, the Duchess of York reflected on her experiences in the city. During her visit, Ferguson, affectionately known as Fergie, announced the launch of the Youth Impact Council, a new nonprofit organization where she will serve as Founding Ambassador. The council aims to elevate the voices of youth activists who are making significant strides in climate action, social justice, and innovation.

When asked about her plans during her time in N.Y.C., Fergie referenced a quintessential delicacy — a hot dog with mustard, ketchup, sauerkraut and relish!

“It was so good! And everyone laughed at me, saying, ‘You can’t possibly eat the hot dog.’ And I said, ‘Oh, yeah,’ got in the car, and what did they do? [They] all wanted to eat it!” she tells PEOPLE.

“I like to get yellow cabs,” the Duchess of York, 64, shares about her N.Y.C. traditions. “My favorite film is An Affair to Remember, so every time I see the Empire State Building I think of Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. I know you’ve seen Sleepless in Seattle, but I remember An Affair to Remember with Cary Grant.”

“New York has been my home. The American people are extraordinarily kind to me,” Fergie tells PEOPLE. “I feel I am very Anglo-American. I know the language. I got it down. I don’t say ‘lift,’ I say ‘elevator.’ When I arrive in America, I speak American. Sort of. With a posh voice,” she jokes.

[From People]

Fergie has never really talked sh-t about America – America gave her a second chance, she made a lot of money in America, and she clearly enjoys the vibe here. She, more than anyone else associated with that family, understands why Harry chose to move to California. A fully-loaded hot dog though?? Even I wouldn’t do that. Okay, maybe I would get one without the sauerkraut.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Taylor Swift has become a regular at many New York hotspots. It feels like she likes to try all of the buzziest restaurants, most of which tend to be Italian or some Euro-American variation. The exception is possibly Japanese food – I believe she likes sushi. When Taylor visits Kansas City, she and Travis Kelce are usually spotted at steakhouses or Italian joints. Well, apparently, Taylor has a much more diverse palate than even I knew. Taylor has got Travis eating Indian food??

Travis Kelce is expanding his taste buds thanks to his girlfriend Taylor Swift! Speaking on the latest episode of his podcast, New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce, released Wednesday, Oct. 9, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end, 35, revealed that Swift, 34, has been introducing him to some new foods.

“You know I’m starting to open up to the Indian cuisine,” Travis said after his elder brother, 36, asked him if he liked curry.

“I know, my girl Tay is getting you opened up,” Jason said, to which Travis replied, “She is.”

“She’s introducing new foods to you,” Jason added. “It’s been one of the greatest things that I’ve been happy about.”

Travis then explained that although he liked curry, he wasn’t keen on it being too thick.

“I’m in on a light curry,” he said. “The more it gets thicker and it looks like a baby food or like baby s— then I’m out.”

[From People]

Desi community: are we offended by “The more it gets thicker and it looks like baby food or like baby s— then I’m out”? I winced, but I also understand what he’s saying – some Indian dishes are too heavily sauced and it’s okay to admit that. You don’t have to drown yourself in curry to enjoy it. Still, I had no idea that Taylor – our new Desi queen??? – would be the one to convince Travis to eat spicy Indian food. Did y’all know that Taylor rolled like that? I thought she was just eating mild pastas and baking sugar cookies.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.

As we discussed, we’re currently in Day 4 of the “Meghan wore a red dress at a charity gala” freakout over in Salt Island. Part of the reason why they’re still obsessing over Meghan and her dress is because the left-behinds weren’t giving them anything in recent days. Kensington Palace hasn’t had any new briefings about how much William hates his brother, and no one will even suggest that the Princess of Wales could do a charity Zoom or something. Well, Prince William is here! He stepped out today in London. He went to a smallish event at BAFTA headquarters:

Prince William has arrived at BAFTA HQ in central London to celebrate young creatives with BAFTA, and The Royal African Society. He has been joined by several well-known faces, including Celia Imrie, Andy Serkis, Stephen Merchant and director Paul Greengrass. They are all supporters of the Prince William BAFTA Bursary fund.

The heir to the throne started the bursary in 2021 and helps assist young people from underrepresented groups to progress their careers in film, games or television through grants.

He will meet with the 2024 recipients today, as well as students from the National Film and TV School who have been supported by the Royal African Society.

William will also meet with students who have been working with the Royal African Society on their upcoming Film Africa festival by helping to curate the festival program and give guidance on the short films that have been selected to represent diverse voices and narratives in African storytelling.

[From The Daily Express]

BAFTA and the Royal African Society? Surely this will count as two events. William is BAFTA president, an honorary position, although he skips the BAFTAs half the time. I didn’t even think he cared enough to start the “Prince William BAFTA Bursary fund.” It’s likely something that was handed to him by BAFTA and he got to slap his name on it, like so many of his wife’s carefully curated projects. Anyway, the event is fine, it is what it is (his first day of work this week).

PS… On this week’s Gossip With Celebitchy pod, CB and I talked about his awful beard and I wondered if William is actually trimming his beard to achieve this particular “two day growth” look. I think he is – there’s no way this is a full month’s growth. Meaning, he wants it to look this creepy and scuzzy.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

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Last month, the Duchess of Edinburgh went on a five-day tour of Tanzania and no one in the British media thought to cover it. The only photos of Sophie were taken by the embassy, and there were only a couple of articles published during or after her trip. It was incredibly strange, especially given that the Sussexes had just visited Colombia and British reporters literally flew all the way there to try to barge their way into covering Harry and Meghan. With Sophie, here is a “working royal” and duchess who is maintained and subsidized by taxpayers, trying to highlight work being done at the local level, and no one gives a sh-t.

Well, Sophie and her husband are on a royal tour of Malta this week. They’re getting marginally more coverage than Sophie’s Tanzania trip. The Daily Mail has even dutifully kept up with their events in a rote, perfunctory way: they went sailing, they posed, they took in the views, hurray. Tatler basically skipped right past their events and just went all-in on a story about how much QEII loved Malta.

Sophie and Edward really are the only left-behinds traveling consistently this year, and it’s so remarkable to me to see how little energy they get from the press. That being said, Edward has barely been seen in months? He truly disappears for months at a time regularly and no one says anything (because no one’s checking for him). Anyway, enjoy these photos from Malta.

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Photos courtesy of Getty.

Longtime Bob Woodward-watchers understand what’s happening – Woodward kept silent for years about the mountain of criminal activity during and after the Trump administration, and now he’s put all of it in his latest book. Woodward has been doing this same sh-t for decades!! He failed to report – in a timely manner – a lot of sh-t about the Bush administration, and the Obama administration was so clean, Woodward basically manufactured a “threat” made by some mild-mannered economic advisor. Woodward’s latest book reveals that Trump is still in contact with Vladimir Putin, even after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Woodward also reports that Trump sent Putin a lot of Covid tests back when there were extreme shortages in the US. Well, Woodward’s War also focuses on President Biden and the Biden administration, including Biden cussing up a storm constantly.

President Joe Biden’s blunt, profanity-laced assessments of world leaders: “That son of a bitch, Bibi Netanyahu, he’s a bad guy. He’s a bad f–king guy!” Biden declared privately about the Israeli prime minister to one of his associates in the spring of 2024 as Israel’s war in Gaza intensified, Woodward writes. “That f–king Putin,” Biden said to advisers in the Oval Office not long after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to Woodward. “Putin is evil. We are dealing with the epitome of evil.” While Biden rarely invokes Trump’s name publicly, referring to him as “my predecessor” or “the former guy,” in private, Biden calls him “that f–king a–hole.”

The American intelligence on Russia’s plan to invade Ukraine: Biden confronted Putin with the intelligence twice in December 2021, first in a video conference and then in what Woodward describes as a “hot 50-minute call” that became so heated that at one point that Putin “raised the risk of nuclear war in a threatening way.” Biden responded by reminding Putin that “it’s impossible to win” a nuclear war.

Sen. Lindsey Graham on Trump: “Going to Mar-a-Lago is a little bit like going to North Korea,” Graham said. “Everybody stands up and claps every time Trump comes in.” The South Carolina Republican is quoted as saying Biden “won fair and square” but that Trump “doesn’t like to hear that.” Woodward goes on to describe Graham’s attempts to give Trump campaign advice for 2024. “You’ve got a problem with moderate women,” Graham told Trump after the midterms. “The people that think that the earth is flat and we didn’t go to the moon, you’ve got them. Let that go.”

On the withdrawal from Afghanistan: After the disastrous US withdrawal from Afghanistan, Biden received a commiserating phone call from another member of the president’s club. “Oh boy, I can understand what you’re going through,” George W. Bush said to Biden. “I got f–ked by my intel people, too.”

Biden’s complaints about Obama: Biden complained that Obama didn’t do enough to stop Putin in 2014, when the Russian leader invaded Crimea. “They f–ked up in 2014,” Biden said to a friend, according to Woodward. “That’s why we are here. We f–ked it up. Barack never took Putin seriously. We did nothing. We gave Putin a license to continue!” Biden was angry: “Well, I’m revoking his f–king license!”

Biden regrets choosing Garland as AG: Biden has remained hands off with the Justice Department. But privately, Woodward reveals the president’s anger at the prosecution of his son, especially toward his attorney general. “Should never have picked Garland,” Biden once told an associate, Woodward reports. “This is never going to f–king go away,” Biden complained.

Why Biden endorsed Kamala Harris immediately after dropping out: When Biden dropped out on July 21, he immediately endorsed Harris, allowing her to consolidate Democratic support and avoid messy party infighting. He also remembered what it was like not to get the president’s endorsement. “I think it probably harkens back to the way Biden felt he didn’t get that from President Obama back in 2016,” Blinken said, according to Woodward. “He was disappointed. He felt that, you know, as his vice president that’s the normal and natural order.”

Kamala & Joe’s private dealings: “I’m calling to ask you — to really beg you, actually — could you please talk to the president more than you talk to him?” Harris said to Biden’s friend. “Your president really loves you. You should talk to him more often than you do.” Woodward writes: “The Biden associate was candid with the vice president. Look, one of the biggest reasons that Biden calls me, the associate said, is I provide him a level of comfort to the point where he can swear freely about ‘what a f–king a–hole Joe Manchin is.’” The vice president laughed. “That might be the only reason that he still really is comfortable with me to a point,” Harris said, according to Woodward, “because he knows that I’m the only person around who knows how to properly pronounce the word motherf–ker.”

[From CNN]

Kamala calling up Biden’s friends and telling them to stay in touch with the president? That’s incredibly sweet. And Harris and Biden’s weekly lunches were probably a hoot, both of them swearing up and down about this motherf–ker and that sh-thead. I 100% believe that Biden called Netanyahu a “son of a bitch” and that Trump is always referred to as that “f–king a–hole.” In the history of Biden’s most relatable moments, those are top-tier. Also: hopefully, Merrick Garland will get shown the door pretty quickly. President Harris is going to need a much more focused AG.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

We heard this week that King Charles plans to pause his chemotherapy treatments for more than a week. Charles and Camilla plan to travel to Australia and Samoa, and they leave next week (I think), and they’ll be away for something like eleven or twelve days. Charles’s treatment is weekly, from what we can tell, and he’s been making a point of going to London mid-week for a day for those treatments. It feels like a somewhat big deal that the palace confirmed that Charles is pausing his treatments for his travels. It also feels like a big deal that the palace is confirming that Charles will not go to the Cop29 climate summit next month.

The King will not attend the Cop29 climate summit being hosted by Azerbaijan in November amid his cancer treatment. The monarch has long campaigned on environmental issues but will be absent from the United Nations gathering being held in the oil-rich state from Nov11 to 22.

The head of state has been receiving treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer since early in 2024 and the global climate change conference will begin just over two weeks after the King and Queen’s long-haul trip to Australia and Samoa ends.

Sources told the Daily Mirror “an abundance of caution” is needed with the monarch’s current schedule. A source told the newspaper: “He has not been asked by the Government to attend the event and he is also mindful of his own commitments following the upcoming autumn tour.” The source added the King would have “relished the chance to attend” but he is “incredibly busy already…A decision was taken for His Majesty not to attend the conference this year.”

The overseas tour has been curtailed on doctor’s advice, with a visit to New Zealand dropped from the itinerary and other changes to the programme.

[From The Telegraph]

The start of Cop29 coincides with Remembrance Day, and the Windsors really spread Remembrance events throughout the entire month of November. Meaning, that excuse was right there and they didn’t take it. They could have just said “the king’s priority is on Remembrance events, not traveling to Azerbaijan.” They also could have blamed Downing Street and claimed that Keir Starmer suggested that the king stay home. It’s interesting that instead of those excuses, they’re going with “he’s not going to pause his chemotherapy again to do Cop29.”

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red.