When we last checked in on Jennifer Lopez, she was (as always) doing the most. J.Lo’s brand is extra. Two weekends ago, she was in Toronto to promote Unstoppable, a film produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. She and Matt actually spent some time together, and at one point, they held hands as they were deep in conversation. Jennifer’s TIFF appearance came after she spent more than a week getting her narrative out there about why she filed for divorce and how Ben completely disengaged from the marriage. Incidentally, we haven’t heard anything about Ben and Kick Kennedy in weeks either – allegedly, they were seeing each other over the summer.

So, I genuinely thought J.Lo was doing a lot to project that she was totally over Ben and their marriage. While she still has a lot of love for him, she was done with his mood swings and refusal to communicate. Well, what if that was all a lie? What if everything she’s done in the past month was an effort to get Ben to wake up and recommit to their marriage? I don’t know. But I do know that Ben, Jen and their kids were out together on Saturday and it looked like The Reunification of Bennifer.

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have reunited amid their divorce. The estranged couple was spotted having brunch together with their children at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Saturday.

A source exclusively tells Page Six, “Ben and JLo are currently at the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel holding hands and kissing. The kids are with them, but at a separate table.”

Reps for Lopez and Affleck did not immediately respond to Page Six’s requests for comment.

At one point, the pair was photographed having what appeared to be an intense conversation in a car parked outside of the building. Lopez wore a long-sleeved black crop top and flared dark-wash jeans for the outing, while Affleck sported a blue button-down shirt and jeans with Nike sneakers. The “Hustlers” star, 55, also notably wore her engagement ring on her pinky finger and a “Jennifer” ring on her wedding finger.

Affleck’s children Seraphina, 15, and Samuel, 12, as well as Lopez’s twins, Emme and Max, 16, were photographed entering the hotel with them. The family outing was punctuated by an appearance from Affleck’s ex-wife Jennifer Garner, who was seen leaving the hotel with her kids after grabbing brunch.

[From Page Six]

From what I’m seeing, other outlets don’t know what to call this other than “they had lunch together.” Page Six seems to be the only one saying they were kissing and holding hands. From the photos, it looks a lot like what they were doing back in May and June – family outings, kid-focused outings, where they gave the appearance of “working on their marriage.”

Ah, a day after these photos came out, someone in J.Lo’s camp went to People Magazine to explain – it was a “fun lunch” for their kids, and Jen is “trying to be friendly with Ben. They are still moving forward with the divorce though. They are working out financial details amicably. A divorce is never easy, but Jennifer doesn’t want to be selfish about it. The kids always got along and have fun together. It makes her happy seeing the kids happy together. Happy kids are her priority.” So the divorce is still on!

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

Sunday afternoon, the Secret Service apprehended a would-be assassin at Donald Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club. Trump was golfing at the time, because of course. The would-be shooter did not even take a shot at Trump. The whole thing is bonkers, but I’ll keep my mouth shut until we know more – after all, there are still way too many open questions over the Butler, Pennsylvania shooting back in July. We still don’t know exactly what happened and why. I suspect it will be the same here, although we know now that both “shooters” were Republicans.

I bring this up because the Trump storyline overshadowed everything that’s happened in Ohio since last week’s debate. At the debate, Trump screamed out a MAGA lie/conspiracy that Haitian-Americans and Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio are eating dogs and cats. The whole thing was based on a completely random lie made by a white woman in Ohio and she’s now taken back the lie and said that she never meant it to go this far. That didn’t stop Ohio’s Senator JD Vance – who is also Trump’s running mate – to amplify the lie constantly. Since the debate, there have been threats and attacks on the Haitian-American community in Ohio, and those f–king Proud Boys even marched in Springfield. It’s all turned into a violent anti-immigrant and racist emergency. Sunday morning, Vance did an interview on CNN with Dana Bash. Vance admitted to “creating” the racist story which has harmed Ohio communities:

JD Vance straight up admits to making up the eating cats and dogs hoax to get the media to talk about immigration.

“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.” pic.twitter.com/SMqmcEKLmu

— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) September 15, 2024

I actually watched about ten minutes of the full interview, and it was just as insane as all of this – he spent ten minutes trying to say that he is not personally responsible for inciting racist violence against Haitians, that he was just amplifying the concerns of his constituents… and then he admitted that he created the lie about people eating cats and dogs. He created a story to harm, target and foment violence against HIS OWN CONSTITUENTS. The Ohio senator is harming Ohio cities and Ohioians.

Over the weekend, vice presidential candidate and sitting Ohio senator JD Vance admitted that he lied to incite violence against Haitian immigrants, including his own constituents. There are no words.https://t.co/YokSIzAXl8 pic.twitter.com/wn9DVbCFPR

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 16, 2024

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Can anyone explain why so many of these “Prince Harry’s 40th birthday” stories are about how much his brother hates him? It’s so weird, right? Almost as if Harry’s birthday is being used by a certain someone to scream, cry and rage about how much he hates Harry. The latest delulu “birthday article” comes from Rebecca English at the Daily Mail. They’re not even trying to maintain an illusion of “we don’t care about Harry, he left us and we’re over it!” They’ve actually creating an increasingly tangled web of projections, lies and fantasies to justify their continued obsession with all things Sussex. Currently, they still feel ownership of Harry because he spent his 30th birthday in England, and because he still wants to do charity work in the UK, and because everyone in Windsorville is still incandescent with rage. Some highlights from Becky’s piece:

The toxic fallout! Harry not only turned his back on everything he once knew, but pressed the nuclear button. He blew his home, his friends and his duties as a royal – but, above all, his family. And the toxic fall-out simply won’t go away. In the weeks running up to his milestone birthday, I have been speaking to those with inside knowledge of this intractable breakdown. One of the major problems, they tell me, is that Harry has never been one for saying sorry, or even admitting he was wrong. ‘Maybe he’ll feel some sorrow at the way things have turned out, but he’ll never admit that any of it was his fault,’ says one insider who has known him since childhood.

Harry is the hurt & angry one, they swear! Turning 40 may prompt him to reflect on his life but, astonishingly, they believe Harry remains hurt and angry that no one is begging him to come back into the royal fold – and this is yet another impasse to any rapprochement in the near future. For their part, some in Royal circles admit that the Palace machinery didn’t handle the whole ‘Sussex situation’ terribly well – at the same time, strongly emphasising that it’s actually rather hard to help a couple who make everything so ‘exhaustingly difficult’, seeing conspiracy at every turn. Indeed, the situation got so bad that many believe leaving Britain was the right thing for the prince to do. ‘He wasn’t happy, he couldn’t hide that and he needed to make a break. It was a horrible, toxic atmosphere,’ says one insider who lived through the crisis.

William is still incandescent: So is there any chance of Harry ever being welcomed back? Can shattered relations be restored? Where William is concerned, one well-placed source told me that even after the infamous Oprah interview in March 2021, they could envisage a time when the brothers would find a way to make up eventually. They don’t think that now, following the continued barrage of attacks in the Sussex’s Netflix documentary, the interviews and podcasts and his vitriolic 2023 memoir Spare, which they say was the final nail in the coffin. ‘The relationship [between the brothers] is non-existent,’ another admits. ‘William feels betrayed and has other priorities.’

Charles & Harry’s relationship: Royal officials are notably shying away from even discussing the Sussexes in the hope it will give father and son space to see if they can save anything from their relationship. The Royal household and the family remain nervous, of course, and wary, it’s fair to say. Trust is so low that Harry was the last family member to be given the news of his father’s cancer diagnosis in February, and then only just as it was about to break globally. (He was not even informed in advance of his sister-in-law’s health crisis weeks later). The King was also left disappointed last November after his son called to wish him happy 75th birthday. Just hours later, details of their conversation, including the fact that his grandchildren Archie and Lilibet, had sent a video message to him singing happy birthday, was leaked by Team Sussex to journalists. ‘A deeply private call between the King and his grandchildren and it ends up in a newspaper the next day. Really?’ another source said, emphasising just how much this was considered to have crossed a line.

The king and RAVEC: The idea the king can resolve the protection issue is plain wrong, according to those who know. He has no sway over what the committee decides. To seemingly suggest the monarch could only get to see his grandchildren again if he intervened in the matter comes across as particularly silly and naive. It’s genuinely feared that Harry is so blinkered over the issue that he could even try to lobby his father if they were ever to speak privately. For the King, who is already facing considerable embarrassment at his own son suing his government, in his courts, that could be constitutionally damaging. ‘It’s really tricky to have any conversation [with Harry] in which the subject of security could be raised. It would put the King on the spot and if anything he said were to be leaked – not that he would say anything, mind you – it could heavily impact a live court case. There are serious constitutional issues here at stake outside of any family dramas,’ a source explains.

Does Harry really want to come back to the UK? Not permanently, I am told. His life now is in Montecito with his wife and children. ‘He’s always full of the joys of the life he has in California and, yes, I do think he’s happy,’ says one who speaks to him fairly regularly. But they also reveal he is looking at ways to facilitate coming back more regularly and easily. ‘He has various touch points in the UK, a handful of charities such as WellChild, and the Invictus Games which will come to Birmingham in a few years time. There will be more reasons and requirements [for him] to visit and the easier that can be done, the better. It’s not a satisfactory situation at the moment, for all sorts of reasons.’ Will that include visits to see family? ‘That’s more tricky, but potentially,’ another insider says. ‘The UK is his home, it’s where he grew up, it’s where his family and friends and a lot of his interests are. The sense I get is that there is a desire for some kind rapprochement. Clearly that will take time and patience. Let’s just say there’s a hope there will be more positive conversations in the future.’

[From The Daily Mail]

The thing about Charles’s birthday last year and the briefings… the briefings didn’t come from the Sussexes. They came from Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace. William was making mischief because he was mad that Charles and Harry spoke. Charles’s people were making mischief because they were mad that Charles and Harry spoke. They all wanted to ensure that there continued to be a wedge between Charles and Harry. That’s also why Harry has taken to briefing certain outlets about the security situation too – he genuinely would prefer to speak to his father in person so that there’s no interference from Camilla, William or the courtiers.

“One of the major problems, they tell me, is that Harry has never been one for saying sorry, or even admitting he was wrong.” There’s this whole plotline created by the British media and the Windsors, a plotline in which “everyone knows that Harry just up and decided to leave and destroy the Windsors on his way out the door, he needs to apologize!” That has no relation to what has actually happened and it’s an exercise in royal gaslighting.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Prince William’s fingerprints are all over the British media’s absolute hysteria for Prince Harry’s 40th birthday. Today is Harry’s birthday, and every single British newspaper and tabloid is currently running no fewer than a dozen articles or columns about said birthday. I’ll acknowledge that the British peeps have shown an abiding obsession with all things Sussex, so they were probably always going to go overboard in their coverage of the 40th b-day of The Prince Who Left. But William and King Charles’s offices are clearly briefing about Harry too, as they’ve been doing for years. Interestingly, with this particular story, I get the feeling that Charles is trying to save William from himself. Initially, the Mail’s headline was “’No call’ between Prince Harry and Prince William expected on the Duke of Sussex’s 40th birthday.” That was changed to include the information that Charles will likely call Harry.

King Charles will reach out to Prince Harry as soon as he wakes up on his 40th birthday as there is ‘still a lot of love’ between the father and son, a source has said. The monarch, 75, is expected to call his youngest son on Skype on Sunday afternoon UK time, so the pair can speak as soon as the Duke of Sussex wakes up in California.

But there will be ‘no call’ between Prince William and Prince Harry on the major milestone birthday as the brothers ‘don’t even speak’, another source has claimed.

It is understood Prince Harry will head off on a holiday with his ‘closest mates’ to celebrate his birthday, while Meghan stays at home with their two children. This will reportedly follow a party at his £11million home in Montecito, California.

The Duke of Sussex should expect to hear from his father early in the day on his 40th birthday, a royal insider told the Sunday Express, who claimed there is ‘still a lot of love’ in the family. The source added: ‘They tend to use Skype when they communicate because they can see each other and it’s all set up by staff so it runs smoothly.’

However, there will be one feature notably missing from Prince Harry’s 40th birthday – a phone call from his brother Prince William, as the pair reportedly don’t speak. Though Harry and William have typically celebrated major milestones together, a source told the Mirror that there ‘will be no transatlantic call between to the two on Harry’s big day.’

The insider added: ‘What a difference the years have brought. When Harry turned 30, it looked like nothing could come between him and his brother. Together, they were set to become the new face of the royals, injecting a much needed modernisation of The Firm. But now, William and Harry don’t even speak. Before, they always ­celebrated major milestones together but there will be no transatlantic call between to the two on Harry’s big day.’

[From The Daily Mail]

William is so sad and pathetic these days. Harry is obviously on William’s mind – William keeps briefing every British outlet about Harry, William created a whole-ass fantasy storyline about Harry being desperate to return to the UK to do William’s work, and now William is crying about how he won’t call his brother. William is even growing a beard to look more like Harry, and William’s wife is desperately trying to channel the kind of affectionate, loving marriage Harry and Meghan have. But a phone call? Of course not. Hilariously, I wonder if William even has Harry’s current number. Anyway, it’s interesting that Charles stepped in and wanted people to know that he’s calling Harry.

Both Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace wished Harry a happy birthday on their social media accounts. Y’all know there was a meeting about it.

Wishing a Happy 40th Birthday to The Duke of Sussex! https://t.co/ZKJbYDmV6L

— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) September 15, 2024

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Last summer, the weirdest “affair” story broke. Ariana Grande had left her then-husband for her Wicked costar Ethan Slater, who was also married. Ethan and his wife Lilly Jay had welcomed a son not even one year before Ariana put a wrecking ball through their marriage. Not only did Ethan and Ariana’s affair blow up both of their marriages, Ariana then tried to PR her way out of the image-damaging drama, only for Lilly to (accidentally) go on the record, blasting Ariana in an interview with Page Six. We covered all of that more – check through our Ethan Slater archives for all of the insanity. Well, Ethan and Ari have been together ever since, even as Ethan tried to negotiate a quiet divorce from Lilly. It’s finally come through, more than a year later. Their divorce was just finalized.

Ethan Slater and Lilly Jay are finally divorced, because they’ve come to a settlement … TMZ has learned.

According to new court docs, obtained by TMZ, the Broadway star and his high school sweetheart have settled their divorce and a judge has signed off as of Thursday.

The terms of the settlement are sealed, as all divorces are in NY state.

Ethan and Lilly, who grew up together in Maryland, first began dating in 2012 … later relocating to New York City in 2014 — where ES pursued his theater dream. In fact, Lilly walked the 2018 Tony Awards red carpet with Ethan — where he was nominated for his work as SpongeBob SquarePants in the musical adaptation of the Nickelodeon cartoon.

The longtime loves were married that same year … welcoming their first child together, a son, 4 years later in 2022. However, Ethan and Lilly’s storybook romance came to an end a year later in July 2023, when Ethan filed for divorce.

[From TMZ]

If I was in Lilly’s situation, I would have made him pay through the nose. I would have aimed for Ariana’s money too, I don’t care. What was always crazy about it is that it’s not like Ariana keeps her boyfriends or husbands around for very long. I’m sort of shocked that she’s still with Ethan, although they’re probably trying to stick together through Wicked’s promotion. Ethan wrecked his marriage for what? A couple of years as Ari’s little buddy. What a mess. Oh well, I’m glad Lilly is rid of him. I hope she has an amazing life.

Top 8 stories about Ariana’s Grande’s messy affair with Ethan Slater

Ariana Grande and her Wicked costar Ethan Slater blew up both their marriages to have an affair! Ariana was even friends with Ethan’s wife and he has a new baby at home. Sign up for our mailing list to get the top 8 stories about this. I send one email a day on weekdays.

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Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red, Instagram.

Here are some photos of Justin Timberlake in Sag Harbor on Friday. He had a court appearance, and at the last minute, Justin accepted a plea deal. Back in June, Justin was arrested and jailed overnight for driving while intoxicated. The arresting officer had ample evidence that Timberlake was sh-tfaced, and Justin is very lucky that he didn’t hurt or kill someone while he was driving under the influence. Instead of immediately accepting responsibility, Justin and his local lawyer spent months making asses out of themselves and trying to convince everyone that Justin wasn’t drunk, etc. That all came crashing down on Friday. Apparently, Justin put the best acting performance of his life in court:

The singer Justin Timberlake pleaded guilty on Friday to driving while impaired, resolving a case that began with his June arrest on drunken-driving charges in the Hamptons. As part of his plea, Mr. Timberlake agreed to pay a $500 fine and serve 25 hours of community service for a charity of his choosing. He also agreed to a 90-day suspension of his driver’s license in New York.

The singer, who was originally charged with the more serious crime of driving while intoxicated, entered the plea during an appearance at a 30-seat courthouse in the village of Sag Harbor. He wore a black cardigan and khaki slacks, with a double strand of pearls peeking out from beneath a dark T-shirt.

During the hearing, Mr. Timberlake looked on with his hands folded in front of him. His original plea agreement stipulated that he would make a public safety announcement discouraging drinking and driving. Justice Carl Irace, the village court judge overseeing the case, said on Friday that it would be more meaningful for the singer to commit himself to “a period of reflection and contemplation” through community service.

Mr. Timberlake agreed, and acknowledged that he had erred in driving rather than calling a taxi or getting a ride from a friend.

“It was a clear misjudgment,” he said. Justice Irace, satisfied with Mr. Timberlake’s contrition, commended him for his sincerity. The judge also asked about drug and alcohol counseling for the singer, calling its absence from the plea deal “concerning,” but did not impose it.

Speaking in front of a throng of reporters and cameras outside Sag Harbor Police Headquarters after the hearing, Mr. Timberlake urged people following the case to learn from his mistake.

“Many of you have probably been covering me for a lot of my life, and as you may know, I try to hold myself to a very high standard, for myself, and this was not that,” he said.

[From The NY Times]

“The judge also asked about drug and alcohol counseling for the singer, calling its absence from the plea deal ‘concerning,’ but did not impose it.” When Justin was arrested, I wondered if his giant ego would allow him to show some kind of humility or contrition, and whether he would do some kind of rehab program, something to show the court that he was taking this seriously. Instead, he pushed stories about how he wasn’t drunk and that the cop was evil for arresting drunk drivers. Justin was so awful, he had ACAB Nation saying “actually, it’s good when cops arrest drunk drivers.” Anyway, I also wish the court had imposed some kind of counseling or something, but whatever. At least he pleaded out and he better do that community service.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid.

Jack Antonoff admitted to using earplugs for Katy Perry’s VMA performance, but he explains that he uses earplugs all the time. [Just Jared]
Shannon Sharpe “accidentally” live-streamed himself having sex with a woman named Michelle. Social media is still making jokes. [LaineyGossip]
Spotlight on model Paul Sturm. [Socialite Life]
A rave review of FX’s English Teacher. [Pajiba]
Halsey channeled Elizabeth Hurley. [Go Fug Yourself]
New trailer for Dragula Season 666. [OMG Blog]
Not a fan of Jacob Elordi’s facial hair. [RCFA]
Niecy Nash looked the same when she was a kid! [Seriously OMG]
Love After Lockup update on True. [Starcasm]
What to know about the Boeing strike. [Hollywood Life]
These stories about “when did you know you married the wrong person” are heartbreaking and make me grateful to be a single cat lady. [Buzzfeed]

Embed from Getty Images

Last December, the Hollywood Reporter decided to bizarrely go Full Deranger. First, THR included the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in the magazine’s “winners and losers of the year” listicle. The Sussexes were named as two of the losers of the year, with the blurb including this: “After a whiny Netflix documentary, a whiny biography (Spare — even the title is a pouty gripe) and an inert podcast, the Harry and Meghan brand swelled into a sanctimonious bubble just begging to be popped — and South Park was the pin.” Again, this was for 2023 – their successful Netflix docuseries aired in 2022, as did Meghan’s Archetypes. Then, just a few weeks later, THR did another larger feature for the “Hollywood Yearbook,” where THR handed out superlatives to various celebrities. Harry and Meghan’s superlative was “Least Private Privacy Advocates.” It’s clear that THR feels comfortable following the lead of the British media, but even this latest THR piece shocked me. It really reads like a Daily Mail item circa 2019. The headline: “Why Hollywood Keeps Quitting on Harry and Meghan.”

Looks like Harry and Meghan have done it again — they’ve chewed up yet another American adviser.

Josh Kettler, the Santa Barbara-based consultant who’d been serving as chief of staff to the Duke and Duchess, reportedly resigned in August — after just three months on the job — becoming the latest member of the ever-expanding “Sussex Survivors Club,” as some former employees have taken to calling themselves. Before Kettler, there was Toya Holness, who was their global press secretary until 2022, and Christine Weil Schirmer, the onetime Pinterest communications director who quit as Harry and Meghan’s PR head in 2021. Samantha Cohen, Markle’s top aide and private secretary, departed the same year.

Earlier, there was Keleigh Thomas Morgan, a Sunshine Sachs partner who started repping Meghan when she was still a commoner (well, a TV star on Suits), adding Harry to her client roster when they became engaged and then helping them set up their own internal comms operation when the couple moved to California.

(Sources tell Rambling Reporter that Morgan stopped repping them around 2020, because the Sussexes stopped paying Sunshine Sachs for its services, though the PR firm denies that was the case.) Other members of the Survivors Club include Catherine St-Laurent, who lasted a year as head of the Sussexes’ charity Archewell; Archewell COO Mandana Dayani; content chief Ben Browning (who got Harry and Meghan’s documentary on Netflix before bolting for FilmNation); and marketing chief Fara Taylor.

Why’d they all leave? What explains the churn? “Everyone’s terrified of Meghan,” claims a source close to the couple. “She belittles people, she doesn’t take advice. They’re both poor decision-makers, they change their minds frequently. Harry is a very, very charming person — no airs at all — but he’s very much an enabler. And she’s just terrible.”

In 2018 Markle’s treatment of two royal aides prompted Buckingham Palace to investigate the then-princess for “bullying behavior.” Though the results of the inquiry were never released, Markle denounced the effort as a “calculated smear campaign.” But some of the couple’s stateside staff-members also reserve special bile for Markle, whose reported penchant for noisy tantrums and angry 5 a.m. emails has earned her the in-house moniker ‘Duchess Difficult.’ “She’s absolutely relentless,” says one source. “She marches around like a dictator in high heels, fuming and barking orders. I’ve watched her reduce grown men to tears.”

[From THR]

LMAO: “She marches around like a dictator in high heels, fuming and barking orders. I’ve watched her reduce grown men to tears.” First of all, I literally cannot imagine Meghan doing that whatsoever, it’s simply not her personality or vibe. Second of all, I would actually pay money to watch Meghan reduce a grown man to tears. What did she say to the guy? “Kindly take your finger out of my face?” SOB! SHE IS SO MEAN! Anyway, the appearance of the “Duchess Difficult” moniker and the regurgitation of 2018-era smears should tell you all you need to know about the sourcing for this piece.

I’d also like to point out that Jason Kettler’s exit seemed to leak out to the British papers very, very quickly, and now the trade papers are picking it up one month later, with a very anti-Sussex slant? It sounds like sour grapes from Jason Kettler, who probably got let go from his position as Harry’s chief of staff for good reason, then proceeded to make an ass out of himself by burning his former employer to anyone who would listen. All I know is that sh-t reeks of unprofessionalism and it’s not coming from Harry and Meghan.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.

On Thursday, Prince William attended the Sovereign’s Parade at the Royal Air Force College. He obviously stepped in for his father, although I do not know if the switch was always planned that way or if Charles canceled at the last minute. William certainly didn’t look like he’d been planning to do this event – he looked like he crawled out of a bottle and put on an Air Force dress uniform without showering. His posture is awful and he’s honestly lost an alarming amount of weight over the course of the year.

Of course, no one is talking about any of that. Instead, they’re talking about his creepy beard. Kensington Palace is doing the most to encourage reporters/supporters to say that the “rugged” beard is making “royal fans weak in the knees.” It’s like we’re watching the royal propaganda campaign unfold in real time and absolutely no royal reporter will mention how creepy it is that William feels the need to copy his brother’s facial hair.

At this Royal Air Force event, William’s aunt, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, also turned up. Rebecca English tweeted that Lady Sarah “heard he was in the area and wanted to support him.” Yeah, more like William is salty that the Spencer family has shown so much love and support for Harry this year, so William is making a point of cozying up to them too.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

All week, the British media has been freaking out over the Princess of Wales’s “cancer free” video, which was filmed to look like a commercial for douche. I think the baseline reaction across the board was that the video was cringe, awkward and poorly conceived. What’s taken the criticism next-level is that Buckingham Palace seems to be quite upset about it too, and King Charles and Queen Camilla think the whole thing is unbecoming and tacky. Throughout all of the negative commentary, the Duchess of Sussex has been referenced repeatedly. You would think that Meghan makes a regular habit of creating bizarre videos where she walks through fields whilst her voiceover describes her medical issues. Meghan does not. During Meghan’s medical issues – her miscarriage, her suicidal ideation – Meghan spoke and wrote about the issues respectfully and movingly and never turned those issues into an cringefest douche commercial. Well, in the Mail’s latest Palace Confidential episode, they’re once again crying about Kate’s dumb video and comparing Kate to Meghan.

The Princess of Wales’ slick video announcing she has finished chemotherapy treatment has left some in royal circles worried that she is echoing Meghan Markle, according to the Mail’s Richard Eden. Speaking on Palace Confidential, Mail+’s weekly talk show, Richard said insiders feel that the three-minute clip showing Kate with Prince William and their children in the countryside is ‘the sort of thing that Meghan would have loved to do.’

They do not want Catherine to ‘turn into’ Meghan, he added. Richard also said the clip left him feeling ‘uneasy’, adding that it appeared to be an attempt to create a ‘Hollywood trailer’.

Sitting alongside the Mail’s Royal Editor Rebecca English, he said: ‘Lots of people have said to me, “Oh you know it’s just the sort of thing that Meghan would have loved to do, obviously being an actress and we don’t want Catherine to turn into Meghan.”

Richard added of this week’s video: ‘The royal family should be different. They should be dignified, not chasing this. Yes, it’s the way that Catherine might have wanted to tell her story, but she’s surrounded by advisers. And she’s got people saying, “we want to get loads of hits on Youtube or whatever, and I think the Royal Family should be above that. They don’t need to be the Kardashians.’

Rebecca English feels the Royal Family’s use of video and social media has improved, but warned that content still needs to be authentic. She added: ‘They are getting more professional and upping their game but I do see that it needs to be authentic as well. I think it’s one of these things that needs to be applied slightly carefully.’

[From The Daily Mail]

“Oh you know it’s just the sort of thing that Meghan would have loved to do.” Trust me when I say that Meghan would not have loved to make a weird video announcement that she ended chemo. Beyond the issue of Meghan living rent-free in all of these people’s heads, the whole thing is that Meghan and Harry produced their docuseries where they told their side of the story, and they used private footage which they shot themselves. Years later, Kate hired a commercial director to COPY the Sussexes and try to manipulate the public into believing that her marriage is happy and healthy.

This is actually something I’m stuck on too: “Yes, it’s the way that Catherine might have wanted to tell her story, but she’s surrounded by advisers.” I want to know the inside story of how the video came to be. Was it really just Kate hiring Will Warr on her own initiative and deciding to film this in Norfolk over the summer? Or were there meetings where the clownshow advisors and the senior staff signed off on all of this?

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Will Warr/KP.