News Nation Now had a very interesting piece of gossip over the weekend about Sean Combs, aka Puffy aka Diddy. Puffy has been quiet in recent weeks after everything came crashing down this spring. Federal agents raided his Flordia and LA homes, and a federal grand jury has been impaneled to hear the case against him. Somewhere along the way, CNN aired a video from 2016 of Combs brutally assaulting Cassie in a hotel hallway. It absolutely feels like Combs will be facing a host of federal charges ranging from his multi-state sex crimes, trafficking and probably a lot more. He’s going to need so many lawyers in the coming months and years. But now he can’t count on his longtime New York lawyers at Grubman, Shire, Meiselas & Sacks. According to News Nation Now, Lady Gaga is also a client of the law firm and she issued an ultimatum: it’s me or Puffy. The firm chose her.
Literally nobody in Hollywood wants to be near Diddy, not even his lawyers… who just fired him as a client. The powerful firm of Grubman, Shire, Meiselas & Sacks, which represents most major names in the music industry, dropped Diddy recently. but not because they wanted to: Because a more powerful client refused to leave if they did not sever ties.
My insider said, “Lady Gaga said she was leaving (the firm) if they didn’t drop Diddy. And she’s too big to lose.”
Meanwhile, Combs’ IMDB site, the ever-important listing for everyone in the industry which lists the names of celebrities, agents, lawyers, press representatives, and more, has been scrubbed and had just Combs Global on it, with just one employee: Combs. The Combs Global site itself appears to be a holding page with just a logo. Just last week he scrubbed his Instagram account as well.
Combs has been with GSM&S for over two decades and would often stop by his lawyer/friend Allen Grubman’s house when in the Hamptons. But no matter how close the two once were, the firm represents some of the biggest names in the music business, and can’t afford for Gaga or any of their other artists to bolt.
There’s already been a denial about this. The spokesperson for the law firm told Page Six: “The decision to part ways with Mr. Combs was proactively made by the partners in the firm a number of months ago as they felt it was the right thing to do. The report that the decision was the result of client pressure just isn’t true.” Which is interesting, I guess. I was going to give Gaga a lot of credit for doing this and doing it quietly, and it’s honestly a good story for her and her image. I kind of believe that Grubman, Shire, Meiselas & Sacks wanted to dump him… but I also believe they were probably getting pressure from their other clients, like Gaga.
Now, I did some very minor research into Grubman, Shire, Meiselas & Sacks and they’re mostly dealing with entertainment law, contracts, copyrights, the protection of art and artists. Combs was always going to need a different law firm. He was always going to need lawyers who specialize in federal crimes like human trafficking, drug trafficking, etc. Where he’s going, he’s not going to need entertainment lawyers.
Buckingham Palace released a new-to-us portrait/photo of King Charles. This was taken last November, before his cancer diagnosis. He wore his Field Marshal No.1 ceremonial dress uniform, complete with a chest full of medals. The photo was released for Britain’s Armed Services Day, which was Saturday, June 29. Now that he’s king, he’s the head of Britain’s Armed Forces and he was a naval officer back in the day. But he never saw combat, unlike his son Prince Harry.
While I get the idea behind “releasing a new photo of the king in his dress uniform for Armed Services Day,” I kind of wonder if the courtiers ever considered releasing a different kind of photo for the day. Instead of centering Charles with his chest full of medals – many of which are for things like ‘attending a Jubbly’ – they could have released a new, more personal photo of Charles with young soldiers on a military base. Something which would have actually centered the men and women who serve? Not to give the palace free ideas, but gosh.
Meanwhile, the king did not actually issue any statements to honor servicemen and servicewomen on Saturday. Instead, he let Camilla issue a statement on video. As I watched this, I realized it was the first time I’ve heard her speak for any length of time in many years. She’s not shy about public speaking, I just haven’t sought out videos of her speeches and I’m just realizing that now. She has a minor issue with sibilants, right? Anyway, it’s weird that Charles is like “here’s an old photo where I look like a generalissimo of a banana republic for Armed Forces Day, but you’re only going to hear from Camilla today!”
Meanwhile, at Glastonbury…
They were chanting “Fuck the king” at Glastonbury. pic.twitter.com/SugHBLB3H9
— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) June 29, 2024
Portrait courtesy of Hugo Burnand/Royal Household. Additional photos courtesy of Cover Images.
Jennifer Lopez’s recent solo trips to Italy and Paris were probably not the best sign for her marriage. J.Lo canceled her summer tour citing family issues, and there was some hope that perhaps Jennifer and Ben Affleck would spend the summer reconnecting and working on their marriage after a difficult year. Ben and J.Lo saw each other this past week, the first time (that we know of) in more than two weeks. They were seen at the same office building, where they both arrived and exited separately. As I said, it’s giving “signing the divorce papers.” One big issue is that Ben hated the house they bought last year, the Beverly Hills mansion/money pit which was supposed to be for their blended family. Ben moved out of the Beverly Hills mansion two months ago and began renting a place in Brentwood, close to Jen Garner’s home. Well, now People Magazine says that while J.Lo was away in Italy and Paris, Ben moved all of his crap out of the Beverly Hills mansion.
Ben Affleck is moving his belongings out of his shared home with Jennifer Lopez, a source tells PEOPLE.
More than one month after PEOPLE first reported that Affleck, 51, and Lopez, 54, were living separately in Los Angeles as they dealt with strife in their marriage, a source close to the couple tells PEOPLE that the Academy Award-winning filmmaker moved all of his things out of the couple’s Beverly Hills mansion before Lopez returned from a recent trip to Europe.
“Ben continues to live at the Brentwood rental. He’s been there for about two months now,” another source says. “He seems okay. He’s been at his office every day and seems focused on work. He’s also spending time with his kids.”
Affleck and Lopez, who married in July 2022 after famously rekindling their romantic relationship, put the mansion they have shared together in Beverly Hills since June 2023 on the market earlier this month, as a source told PEOPLE.
The couple appear to have spent time together as recently as June 26, when they were photographed separately entering a building in West Hollywood, where they both maintain offices, a few hours apart. Per TMZ, Affleck arrived around 10 a.m. in a suit and with a duffel bag. Lopez, who is set to star in two upcoming movies for Affleck and Matt Damon’s production company, was photographed leaving the building hours later.
The thing is, this could be a confirmation that their divorce is inevitable, or it could be a confirmation of nothing more than they’re putting that money pit back on the market. In this case, I think both things could be true. Their marriage is in shambles AND they’re selling the Beverly Hills place. Why wouldn’t Ben move his sh-t out, you know? I think the house has already been listed! That being said, it feels notable that he moved out while Jennifer was out of the country. I will be so sad if the prediction of a Fourth of July divorce announcement comes true.
The more I cover Prince Harry’s legal actions against the British media, the more mind-bending I find the British media’s operations and the British legal system. It’s not a comparison to the American legal system, which is also flawed and crazy in its own unique way. But the legal arguments being made by various British press outlets to defend themselves against Harry’s lawsuits are absolutely crazy. Last week, the lawyers for News Group Newspapers got a hearing on the issue of Prince Harry’s incomplete records. Again, Harry is the plaintiff. He’s suing NGN for hacking into his private communications, for illegal surveillance and blagging. NGN wants Harry to provide them with extensive documentation of HIS communications to his ghostwriter JR Moehringer. And what’s worse is that NGN just won this motion and the judge has told Harry to provide the court with those messages.
The Duke of Sussex has been ordered to explain why messages with his ghostwriter were destroyed after the publication of his memoir Spare when they could be relevant to his legal battle with the publishers of the Sun. Prince Harry was also told to attempt to retrieve the messages from the messaging service Signal, and his lawyers ordered to search through his other texts, WhatsApp messages and emails from 2005 to January 2023, when his bestselling autobiography was published, for relevant documents.
Anthony Hudson KC, for News Group Newspapers (NGN), accused the duke of “obfuscation” and creating an “obstacle course” during its efforts to find relevant material for the litigation over the prince’s allegations of unlawful information gathering. Harry had to be forced “kicking and screaming” to carry out searches of his communications, Hudson told the high court judge Mr Justice Fancourt on Thursday.
At the one-day hearing, NGN argued the Signal messages between 2020 and 2023 were important because Spare contained extensive references to the duke’s knowledge and suspicion of unlawful information gathering before 2013, the applicable date in the case. Any claim for damages must be lodged within six years, with Harry having launched his legal action in 2019. If he believed he had a potential claim against NGN before 2013, then the case could be dismissed on the grounds it was filed too late.
In his oral ruling, the judge described “troubling evidence” that a “large number of potentially relevant documents, confidential messages between the claimant and his ghostwriter [JR Moehringer] of Spare, as well as all the drafts of Spare, were destroyed sometime between 2021 and 2023, well after this claim was under way”.
It was not clear “what exactly happened and needs to be made so by a witness statement by the claimant himself explaining what happened to the Signal messages between him and his ghostwriter and whether any attempts have been made to seek to retrieve them”, Fancourt added. “It seems to me inherently likely that in the course of discussing at length the material for the duke’s autobiography, matters would have been said that related to the parts of Spare in which unlawful information gathering in relation to newspapers is discussed.”
He said Moehringer had written in a New Yorker magazine article that he and Harry “were texting around the clock”. The judge ordered the duke’s lawyers to search texts, WhatsApps and Signal messages as well as Harry’s laptop for relevant documents from 2005 to the end of January 2023, which was the date of publication of Spare, using 47 keywords. He said attempts should be made to retrieve the Signal messages that were believed to have been deleted.
The judge also expressed “real concern” that the majority of searches for relevant documents had been conducted by “the duke himself in California”, rather than by his solicitors. He said that apart from the articles Harry complained about, and documents relating to his responding to a summary judgment application the duke had “only disclosed five documents”, adding: “That is rather remarkable and gives me cause for concern about the disclosure exercise.”
The judge’s ruling is bonkers, all things considered. NGN’s argument is: Harry deleted evidence of his knowledge of our criminal hacking pre-2013, and he must provide the court with ALL of his messages to his ghostwriter proving that he knew we were hacking him for years! The Guardian also covers David Sherborne’s rebuttal to NGN’s lawyers and now the judge. Sherborne basically said that Harry’s knowledge of hacking in 2021 doesn’t mean he had that same knowledge in 2013. Sherborne also accused NGN of trying to grab/create negative headlines about Harry “erasing evidence,” as if Harry was the guilty party in this situation. This whole thing is so utterly absurd, as Sherborne points out that this is all projection on NGN’s part, given their years-long cover-up and their own deletion of millions of emails.
One of the big stories this year about Chris Pratt and his wife Katherine Schwarzenegger is that they razed a historic Craig Ellwood house in LA, all so they could build a tacky faux-farmhouse McMansion in their preferred neighborhood. To my mind, Pratt and Schwarzenegger should have gotten more sh-t about that, but the story was mostly limited to outrage in the historic-architecture community. The stories which get wider play are always the ones about Pratt being a f–king douche about his first marriage to Anna Faris and their son with special needs. Pratt got a lot of well-deserved sh-t for callously praising Katherine for giving him a “healthy daughter.” He then pretended like he was the victim of internet bullying when people pointed out that his language around Anna and Jack should be more considerate. Then last year, he didn’t even send well-wishes to Anna on Mother’s Day. Well, guess who’s going to be a father again?
Katherine Schwarzenegger has another baby on the way!
The Good Night, Sister author, 34, and husband Chris Pratt are expecting their third baby together, a source confirms to PEOPLE.
The couple share daughter Eloise Christina, 2, and Lyla Maria, 3. The Marvel star, 45, is also dad to 11-year-old son Jack with ex-wife Anna Faris.
As soon as Katherine welcomed their second girl, I knew they would have another baby. He’s trying to get another son. Katherine probably wants a boy as well, I’m sure. But even then, I think they’re both into having a big family. Katherine has three full siblings (and one half-brother, Joseph Baena). She probably wants a big family too, I’m just saying. Don’t put this all on Pratt and his Quiverfull-esque mindset. This is one of the big reasons why Chris married Katherine too – a wholesome churchy type who was young enough to keep popping out babies. What if they have another girl?
Martin Short dusted off his Jiminy Glick character to interview Bill Hader this week. This clip is amazing. Hader can’t stop cracking up. [LaineyGossip]
Is Austin Butler ready for the A-list? [Pajiba]
Gucci hosted an A-list dinner for their global ambassador, tennis superstar Jannik Sinner (he’s the first Italian man to get to #1 in the world). [RCFA]
Meet the queens of Drag Race Canada. [Socialite Life]
Megan Fox & Machine Gun Kelly: still together. [Hollywood Life]
Sarah Jessica Parker’s fake shoe collection? [Go Fug Yourself]
M.I.A. debuted her fashion line on InfoWars?? [OMG Blog]
Americans are slowly getting into Formula 1 (and F1 gossip). [Just Jared]
Sabrina Carpenter got her own Van Leeuwen ice cream flavor. [Seriously OMG]
I don’t understand how these kinds of women even have friends. [Starcasm]
What is Gen Z’s most popular tattoo? [Buzzfeed]
One week ago, Prince William took two of his kids backstage before Taylor Swift’s Eras concert. We’ve been talking about this all week, and I swear, more ink might have been spilled over this than the Princess of Wales’s grand return after a six-month absence. While backstage, William and the kids took a selfie with Taylor. They also met Travis and Jason Kelce, although Kensington Palace didn’t include the Kelces in the photo they posted. The Kelces didn’t care – they declared William to be “the coolest motherf–ker,” and praised “superstar” Princess Charlotte. It was wild to see Jason Kelce go from “f–k kings” to “I love royals” within a matter of days. Well, it’s more than likely that the Kelce brothers will also attend the ESPYs in two weeks. Prince Harry will be there to pick up the Pat Tillman Award for Service. So… that’s the angle the Sun is going with, “will it be awkward for the newly royalist Kelces to meet Prince Harry??” LMAO.
Prince Harry is set to come face to face with Taylor Swift’s boyfriend Travis Kelce – after the NFL star hit it off with his estranged brother William. The Duke of Sussex will be honoured with the Pat Tillman Award for Service for his Invictus Games work at the glittering ESPY Awards in Los Angeles on July 11. The ESPYs, the Oscars of American sport, are likely to set up an interesting moment with Kelce, who sources say has been invited to the ceremony. Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs are nominated for best team of the year and his pal and quarterback Patrick Mahomes is up for best male athlete.
Kelce described William as “the coolest motherf**ker” after posing for a selfie with him, Prince George and Princess Charlotte at Swift’s gig at Wembley last weekend. He also said that “no other Prince” is doing it like William, which some took to be a subtle dig at Harry.
Swift has history with the Sussexes too after she declined to appear on Meghan’s Archetypes podcast last year. Meghan is expected to join Harry at the star-studded event, hosted by the couple’s close friend and tennis ace Serena Williams.
A source said Harry will likely be “just feet away” from Kelce, adding: “It could be interesting given how much Travis hit it off with William. Travis is like the most sociable, happy go lucky, kind person in any room and is sure to want to say hello to the Prince and interact with the Sussexes. That is his style, and honestly he is one of the biggest names in US sport. For Harry it could be a potentially awkward encounter given that Travis spoke so warmly about and praised William. This will make headlines no matter what happens. If Harry ducks Travis that would look weird and if they chat the question will be whether they discussed William.”
They think that Travis saying nice things about William means that he’s “taken a side” in the Windsors’ blood feud against the Sussexes, and that Harry would avoid the Kelces? They literally think everyone is as dumb and petty as William, don’t they? If Travis goes to the ESPYs (he likely will, the Chiefs won the Super Bowl after all), he will probably be happy to meet the Sussexes and H&M will be happy to meet him too. Because none of that Salt Island sh-t actually matters. And William wishes he was the topic of conversation, just as William wishes that an American football player would take “his side.”
We’re still talking about Prince William’s selfie with Taylor Swift, Prince George and Princess Charlotte. Travis Kelce was there too – although he was mysteriously absent from the photo Kensington Palace posted on their social media – and we know that Jason Kelce also got to meet the Wales family. As I said when the photos came out, it was absolutely a “win” for William. KP also pushed an agenda with the photos and with William taking two of his kids to see Swift’s concert. The agenda was “William is an amazing (single) father who dad-dances.” It was a special bonus for KP’s public relations that Travis Kelce was so enthusiastic in his praise of “cool motherf–ker” Huevo. Well, it’s now been one week and the Mail’s Richard Eden is mad. Mad that people are comparing this concert outing to the Sussexes going to Beyonce’s LA concerts last year, a comparison Eden himself made immediately last weekend. Eden is also salty that anyone would suggest that the backstage visit was anything other than Taylor Swift’s idea.
Taylor Swift’s meeting with Prince William, Prince George and Princess Charlotte last weekend certainly impressed the pop superstar’s boyfriend, Travis Kelce. The American football player pithily described our future king as ‘the coolest motherf*****’, adding that George, ten, and Charlotte, nine, were ‘an absolute delight’.
But Harry and Meghan might be less impressed by the encounter, which took place at Wembley Stadium during the singer’s hugely popular Eras Tour. Cheerleaders for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have since claimed that, in attending such a high-profile concert, William was merely copying the California-based couple, who have themselves become friendly with another US pop singer, Beyonce.
Branding the meeting with Swift a ‘carefully orchestrated PR move’, one prominent American commentator with 1.3 million followers on TikTok declared: ‘I just want everyone to say, “Thank you, Meghan” for being the first member of the British Royal Family to really break out of their historic formula when it comes to being photographed with celebrities and, of course, getting dragged over the coals for it.’
However, royal insiders tell me that the truth could not be more different.
‘Taylor Swift was keen to meet the Prince of Wales while she was in London,’ a source tells me. ‘They already know each other, so the meeting made sense.’
Swift sang at Kensington Palace, London home of William and Catherine, in 2013. During that performance – part of a fundraising concert for the homelessness charity Centrepoint – William memorably joined Swift and rock star Jon Bon Jovi on stage.
There is something else worth remembering, too: the royal source is too diplomatic to point it out but, at Wembley, Taylor Swift was paying court to the Royal Family. In Harry and Meghan’s case, they are the ones paying court to showbusiness royalty.
Eden then goes on to claim that show business people don’t f–k with the Sussexes, which is such a gigantic lie, I’m not even excerpting that part. Beyonce did not “cringe” when she met Meghan whatsoever. Beyonce adores Meghan – Bey created a Queen Meg portrait for an awards show, Bey sent her a supportive text after the Oprah interview, and Meghan sat with Beyonce’s inner circle at Beyonce’s LA concerts. Beyond the Beyonce stuff, the Sussexes spend plenty of time with celebrities because they ARE celebrities. No one is “paying court” in the Sussexes’ situation.
It’s also gross for Eden to say that Taylor was “paying court to the Royal Family,” or making it sound like Taylor was begging for a selfie with William. There was clearly a lot of coordination between the two teams and I absolutely believe that Taylor is a pro-egg royalist, but there’s also an uncomfortable royalist desperation to portray celebrities as bowing and scraping for the attention of the Windsors. Taylor is a billionaire and one of the most famous women in the world. She’s more powerful, more successful, more hard-working, more famous and more interesting than all of the left-behind Windsors combined.
Jennifer Lopez returned to LA a few days ago after about two weeks in Europe. She had a sun-soaked vacation in Italy, then she seemingly tacked on a quick trip to Paris for the Dior show at Paris Fashion Week. The vibe of the Italian vacation was definitely “something relaxing before we file for divorce.” The vibe of the PFW trip was “J.Lo looks glowing and happy no matter what.” If the Bennifer marriage ends, she wants us to know that she’ll be okay. Well, it had been two weeks since J.Lo and Ben Affleck had seen each other but they met up at his office on Thursday:
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are back in the same country and hanging out … ’cause the two hit up his office — though photogs still couldn’t snap the two together. The actor and singer-songwriter both hit his Beverly Hills office Wednesday with Ben arriving in a chic suit around 10 AM and J Lo pulling up a couple hours later.
Check out the pics … BA’s looking dapper — and pretty dang serious — when arriving while his wife had her big movie star glasses on when her driver took her away, a few hours later.
Like we said, no shots of the two stars together … Jennifer reportedly left before Ben did. Unclear why they met up at the Beverly Hills office — but, it’s still a big deal ’cause the pair haven’t hung out since before Lopez’s European getaway.
As you know … Jennifer spent the last week parading around Italy — hanging out on a boat and grabbing dinner with pals sans Affleck. It all culminated in what some have called a classic Jenny from the Block move — flying commercial to Paris for the Dior Fashion Show.
TMZ doesn’t have any tea, and interestingly, neither does People Magazine. Meaning, neither side is leaking with an agenda at the moment. I honestly think it’s a good sign that Ben and J.Lo don’t seem to be publicly at cross purposes right now. Even if they’re falling apart, they’re keeping it relatively mature. That being said, I think it’s a horrible sign that the first time they saw each other in two weeks was a meeting at Ben’s office. It’s giving “sign the papers” vibes. If they are splitting, it would not surprise me whatsoever if they wait until they’ve worked out almost everything to announce it, à la Tom Brady and Gisele.
Jennifer Lopez returns from solo vacation, visits Ben Affleck’s office amid marital woes https://t.co/MsLlW84Kdu pic.twitter.com/ilInHPJxoX
— Page Six (@PageSix) June 27, 2024
One of my favorite conspiracies of the month is that Wimbledon smoked out the Princess of Wales and that’s why Kate suddenly appeared at Trooping the Colour. Just days before Trooping, Wimbledon’s tournament director was asked about their royal patron and what would happen if Kate isn’t around to hand out the men’s singles trophy or the women’s Venus Rosewater Dish. Wimbledon’s director was basically like: we wish Kate well and her priority should be her recovery, so we’re making contingency plans. Two seconds after Kate made her grand return to the public stage, Katie Nicholl was like: the next time we see Kate will probably be Wimbledon. It would have looked bad if Kate disappeared for six-plus months and her first event back was “watching tennis.” That’s why the Trooping appearance had to happen. So, yes, I do think we’ll see Kate at Wimbledon, which starts on Monday. As it turns out though, there are still contingency plans in place:
Wimbledon are hopeful that the Princess of Wales will be able to present trophies to the men’s and women’s singles champions after making a return to public life by attending the Trooping of the Colour earlier this month.
All England Club chair Debbie Jevans told Telegraph Sport that they will give her “as much flexibility as possible” as she continues her treatment for cancer, which could involve delaying a decision on who will present the trophies until the morning of the finals next month.
The Princess made her first public appearance this year at the Trooping of the Colour earlier this month following her emotional revelation in March that she is being treated for cancer. While her recovery remains ongoing, Royal sources have indicated that she would like to attend Wimbledon if possible. Although the All England Club have not formalised alternative plans for the trophy presentation, their options would include another member of the Royal Household or Jevans herself, as chair of the club and former player at Wimbledon.
“We’re hopeful that the Princess of Wales will be able to present the trophies as the Club’s patron, but her health and recovery is the priority,” Jevans said. “We don’t know what we don’t know. All we’ve said is that we’ll work with her and give her as much flexibility as possible. I don’t know who would present the trophies as an alternative – that’s something to consider nearer the time if necessary. We’re staying flexible. When we hear we’ll then think about what’s the right thing to do.”
Jevans is expecting to extend an invitation to the finals to a new Prime Minister, given the state of the polls, following next week’s general election, but insists she remains open-minded regarding her own voting intentions. With the mens’ final clashing with the final of the European Championship on July 14, however, whether Keir Starmer would attend is likely to depend on England’s progress in Germany given his love of football. “The Prime Minister always has an invitation so if he wanted to come of course we’d welcome him,” Jevans said. “They’re both big football fans so it may depend on how England are doing.”
Re: prime ministers going to Wimbledon, there was an infamous moment at Wimbledon 2016, just after the Brexit vote, where David Cameron attended the men’s final, where Andy Murray won his second Wimbledon title. Andy gave Cameron a shout-out in his victory speech – Andy was actually quite apolitical and just thanked Cameron for coming out and said that being prime minister must be a tough job – and the entire Wimbledon crowd booed David Cameron. It was spectacular. As for Waity, my prediction is that she skips the first week of the fortnight but makes a few appearances in the second week. Then she’ll skip the women’s final, but she’ll be magically healed for the men’s final. All of this is dependent on if and when Roger Federer is there. That being said… it will likely be Andy Murray’s last Wimbledon. Will Kate show up for Muzz? Hm.