Well, the Democratic Party bedwetters got what they wanted: utter chaos. The Republican Party is getting everything they wanted too – they successfully neutralized the only man who ever beat Donald Trump. President Joe Biden is dropping his reelection bid, despite his incumbent advantage, despite his primary victory (14 million votes), despite the fact that he’s been an excellent president. As it turns out, one bad night can destroy a presidency. But only when it’s a Democrat. Here’s his full statement:

My Fellow Americans,

Over the past three and a half years, we have made great progress as a Nation. Today, America has the strongest economy in the world. We’ve made historic investments in rebuilding our Nation, in lowering prescription drug costs for seniors, and in expanding affordable health care to a record number of Americans. We’ve provided critically needed care to a million veterans exposed to toxic substances. Passed the first gun safety law in 30 years. Appointed the first African American woman to the Supreme Court. And passed the most significant climate legislation in the history of the world. America has never been better positioned to lead than we are today.

I know none of this could have been done without you, the American people. Together, we overcame a once in a century pandemic and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We’ve protected and preserved our Democracy. And we’ve revitalized and strengthened our alliances around the world.

It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.

I will speak to the Nation later this week in more detail about my decision. For now, let me express my deepest gratitude to all those who have worked so hard to see me reelected. I want to thank Vice President Kamala Harris for being an extraordinary partner in all this work. And let me express my heartfelt appreciation to the American people for the faith and trust you have placed in me.

I believe today what I always have: that there is nothing America can’t do – when we do it together. We just have to remember we are the United States of America.

Joe Biden.

My take: President Biden was fully prepared to stay in the race and then, if re-elected, he would have stepped down at some point in his second term. I think he was devastated and disgusted by the lack of support he has received from the party writ large and from very specific allies, Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama among them. He served his state and the country for nearly his entire adult life and this is how his party repaid him. It’s despicable.

As for his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. It literally has to be VP Harris. There is no other option which doesn’t involve a huge catastrophe at the DNC or an enormous fundraising mess. I love VP Harris and she will make an extraordinary president. I appreciate the fact that she didn’t knife President Biden in the back once in the past month or throughout the Biden presidency. I will make one joke through my tears: we better get new coconut-tree-themed Kamala Harris campaign merch.

And if you’re with us, donate to her campaign here:https://t.co/A0T3v7ItQm

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 21, 2024

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images, cover courtesy of Time.

On her 18th birthday back in May of this year, Shiloh Jolie filed the legal papers to drop “Pitt” from her surname. We soon learned, via People Magazine, that Shiloh made the decision herself and she went out and hired a lawyer on her own accord and wanted to file the name-change papers on her 18th birthday, perhaps as a gift to herself on the first day of her legal adulthood. Shortly after that, “sources close to Brad Pitt” threw a tantrum about Shiloh’s name change, and those “sources” showed exactly why Shiloh did it with this quote: “He’s aware and upset that Shiloh dropped his last name. He’s never felt more joy than when she was born. He always wanted a daughter.” He already had a daughter when Shiloh was born: Zahara was more than a year old when Shiloh was born. Of course, we’ve also heard that the other kids have dropped “Pitt” from their surname, but it’s done informally, at college and on playbills. By all accounts, Shiloh is the only one to change her legal name thus far. Well, here’s an update:

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s daughter, Shiloh, is taking the next step to ditch her dad’s last name — all so a judge can speed things up and make it all official.

Shiloh — who just recently turned 18 — recently took out an ad in the L.A. Times newspaper to announce she’d filed a petition to drop “Pitt” from her surname — which is a standard legality before the court green lights a name change.

Shiloh filed to change her name from Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt to Shiloh Nouvel Jolie, per the newspaper notice. It also states anyone who has objections to the petition should show up in court later this month. Otherwise, she’s going forward with her plan.

[From TMZ]

Apparently, this is some kind of quirk of California law, you have to put a public notice in the newspaper when you’re about to change your legal name. Basically, Shiloh is just following her lawyer’s advice. What happens if Brad Pitt shows up at the hearing and throws a tantrum in person? Not much. People Mag spoke to a family law attorney about this:

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s daughter Shiloh Jolie-Pitt’s public name change announcement in a newspaper “could not have been avoided” for the process to move forward, a legal expert tells PEOPLE. According to California-based family law attorney David Glass, the 18-year-old’s petition to drop “Pitt” from her last name — which was recently published in The Los Angeles Times — follows legal regulations that such filings must be printed in a newspaper before the official name-change process can move forward to its next steps.

“In reality, it could not have been avoided,” Glass tells PEOPLE. “… She has to file a formal petition with the court to change her name. And she has to run an ad 4 weeks in a row before the hearing is scheduled, in addition to giving both of her parents written notification.”

“These name change petitions usually run very smoothly and are granted, unless the person has a criminal history and is trying to get away from punishment or liabilities,” he continues.

Glass adds, “I’ve never seen one opposed in court. Brad could come to court and say, for example, that Shiloh has been alienated against him by the mother. … But because she is no longer a minor, she can essentially call herself whatever she wants.”

[From People]

“But because she is no longer a minor…” That’s why she waited until her 18th birthday too, so that there wouldn’t be some commotion in family court with Brad dragging her mother into some bullsh-t again. Something I’ve been wondering is whether there was some coordination among the kids and it was decided by all of them that Shiloh should be the first one to go through the legal process. I know Zahara, Maddox and Pax want nothing to do with Brad and I’m sure they don’t use his name at all, but what if they believed (correctly) that it would be more of a statement if Shiloh was the first one to go through the legal name-change route?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.

Suki Waterhouse covers the new issue of British Vogue with her baby girl, whose name has still not been publicized. Suki and Robert Pattinson welcomed their daughter in March of this year. Before this interview, I honestly thought they were already living full-time in London, but no – they met in LA and they’ve been mostly based out of LA throughout their six-year-plus relationship. Suki covers British Vogue because she’s promoting her music – her new album, Memoir of a Sparklemuffin, comes out this summer. The Vogue piece is full of conversations about her music, but I’m only really here for the gossip (I apologize to all of the Suki-music lovers). Some highlights from the interview:

Her last trimester, nesting mode: She was doing a “complete excavation” of her “Virginia Woolf disaster room” – a fashion and God-knows-what-else dumping ground – to turn it into a nursery; Rob was “doing things he’s never done before, like driving to [shopping mall] The Grove at 6pm on a Saturday evening and staring at Williams Sonoma pans”.

She played at Coachella six weeks after giving birth: “Every mum’s morality is in question so much, not just from yourself, but from society. Everyone’s projecting something onto you. That’s an insane thing.” Take the criticism she came under online for playing Coachella six weeks after giving birth. “Like, honestly, of course [I was thinking]: ‘Holy sh-t, how is this going to work, is this even going to be possible?’” she says. But ultimately: “You just have to go, ‘This is what we’re doing, this is what we’re about and f–k what anyone else thinks.’”

She was one of the last of the old-fashioned It-girls: She wasn’t scared to be a bit messy, to let it hang out a little, to make the most of the opportunities that come your way when you’re young and beautiful. “Didn’t you feel like there was an energy then that’s a little bit lost now? Everything’s become so clean. You would look at all of us and think, ‘Oh, they’re actually having fun.’”

Modeling as a 19-year-old: “It’s not an industry where everyone has their sensible cap on all the time [but] it was a brilliant thing to happen to me really young in a lot of ways.”

Her two-year relationship Bradley Cooper, which started when she was 21 & he was 38: “I really will say that I’m pretty strong at this point, but when something very public happens to you and the story behind it is dark and difficult, and you’re actually not doing well, and you can’t explain yourself to the world, that’s very isolating and disorientating. It probably has taken a decade to work myself out and actually be able to have this expansion in my life.”

Her chaotic relationships in her 20s: “Your 20s are pretty sadistic. The love I experienced [then] was only ever a fetishisation, and I think when you only get loved in that way, you only get punished. When you get into your 30s you’re almost instantly afforded a little bit more respect. It’s kind of delightful and shocking at the same time.”

Whether she & Rob will move back to the UK: “Trust me, it’s at the forefront of our minds.”

Her pregnancy was planned: “No, we really planned it. One day we looked at each other and said, ‘Well, this is as ready as we’re going to be.’ I was like, ‘What can make more chaos?’”

She’s planning a tour but not obsessed with her weight: “I definitely think, ‘Oh, I’m shooting the cover of Vogue and I’m 25 pounds heavier than I normally am right now,’ but it’s also like, ‘Who gives a f–k?’ It is what it is.” (And also? “The boobs are so fun.”)

There was zero prep or classes with her pregnancy: “I really had no concept that there was a baby inside me. Like, I knew that was the case, but I was like, ‘What do you mean? That’s insane.’”

She’s shocked by early motherhood. “Shocking in every way.” She recalls her realisation a baby needs to be breastfed “every two hours. I was alarmed in the hospital when they kept waking me up. I was like, ‘Excuse me? Is this what this entails?’” What got her through the birth was a rap playlist and Pattinson. “He was there with me and like all dads, he was really nervous,” she recalls, “but for someone who’s quite an anxious person, he’s been very calm.” He is “the dad I could have hoped for”, she says. Her eyes go wide and twinkly. “I mean a dad and his daughter? It’s an actual love story.”

[From British Vogue]

She also talks about meeting Rob at a “game night” in LA, a party attended by Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, and of course she and Rob were drawn to each other as fellow Brits. But they didn’t start dating then – they met again six months later and that’s when things started happening. It’s interesting to hear that the pregnancy was planned, especially given her sort of chaotic post-birth life, performing at Coachella (yikes) and planning a tour with the baby. She’s coming across as “eccentric British.” Also: are we really at the point where we’re romanticizing the bygone era of the early-and-mid 2010s modeling scene?

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Cover & IG courtesy of British Vogue.

Ivanka Trump & Melania Trump popped up on the final night of the RNC to support Donald Trump, who absolutely gave a completely batsh-t crazy acceptance speech. [Just Jared]
Russell Brand attended the RNC? That’s on-brand. [Buzzfeed]
Rest in peace, Bob Newhart. [Hollywood Life]
John Stamos knows how to wear a suit. [Socialite Life]
Glen Powell, early contender for People’s Sexiest Man Alive? [LaineyGossip]
Review of Twisters, starring Glen Powell. [Pajiba]
Who should be paying you for all of the PR you give them? For me, it’s probably Daniil Medvedev and Texas Roadhouse’s rolls. [Go Fug Yourself]
Mia Goth’s accuser has been arrested for fraud in the past. [OMG Blog]
Olivia Palermo wore a cute summer ensemble. [RCFA]
A Justin Bieber baby pic. [Seriously OMG]
Heather Dubrow made $30 million by selling her mansion. [Starcasm]

If this clinically-insane Trump speech does not get Democrats out of their defeatist doldrums, and focused and energized around electing their nominee -instead of tearing him down- I don’t know what will.

— Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro) July 19, 2024

The Daily Mail’s Richard Eden is on another tear. He’s looking at a three-month royal gossip lull with the missing Waleses, a cancer-stricken king decamping to Scotland, a concussed Princess Anne and… let’s not forget the forgettable Sophie and Edward. Who and where are they? So, as always, Eden seizes the moment to once again rake over six-year-old gossip and throw in a dash of faux-sympathy for Toxic Thomas Markle. Apparently, today is Toxic Tom’s birthday and to celebrate, he gave some new quotes to the Mail. But that’s not all, of course not. Some lowlights from “Meghan ‘set alarm bells ringing’ at the Palace from the start. As their star wanes, there are two mistakes from those days she and Harry must fix.”

Toxic Tom’s birthday: There will be mixed emotions when Thomas Markle wakes up at his cliff-side home in Rosarito, Mexico, today. This is his 80th birthday. Yet amid the many cards and presents waiting to be unwrapped, there will likely be nothing from his famous daughter, Meghan. Tom Markle is not expecting so much as a phone call. Not even an email. ‘I’ve never been one for birthdays, but I know the one person I most want to hear from, Meghan, won’t be in touch,’ he lamented to my colleague Caroline Graham in The Mail on Sunday. ‘I would love to meet my grandchildren, but I would be happy with a photograph at this stage.’

QEII was “alarmed” by Meghan’s estrangement from her dad: Queen Elizabeth was so alarmed by Meghan’s estrangement from her father that the late monarch suggested Meghan write to him. In her Netflix docu-series, Harry & Meghan, the duchess confirmed she had sought the Queen’s advice. As she put it: ‘I reached out to Her Majesty and was, like, ‘This is what’s going on. What do you want me to do? I want…whatever advice you have. Ultimately, it was suggested by the Queen and the Prince of Wales [now King Charles] that I write my dad a letter.’ Which she did – although not with the results that Queen Elizabeth had perhaps intended. Speaking later about the lengthy letter he received, Mr Markle said: ‘I thought it would be an olive branch. Instead, it was a dagger to the heart.’

Alarm bells: ‘Meghan’s public disagreements with her father set alarm bells ringing at the time,’ a royal source tells me. ‘Her Majesty realised the potential damage they could do to the Royal Family in general. Looking back, the Queen might have had an inkling of what was to come,’ says the source.

The Sussexes are so eager to mend fences, you see: In recent months, Harry and Meghan have given the impression they are keen to mend fences with the Royal Family. They appeared eager to let it be known that they had enjoyed a friendly phone conversation with King Charles on his birthday last autumn. Harry certainly rushed to see his father, flying more than 5,000 miles across the Atlantic after the King’s cancer diagnosis was made public. Yet still the Sussexes seem determined to risk conflict. Harry’s decision to go ahead and collect the Pat Tillman award last week – despite protests from thousands of people including the late American hero’s own mother, Mary – was a sign of the couple’s stubborn refusal to heed criticism. With their popularity seemingly on the wane in the US, perhaps it’s time to mend a few fences back in Britain.

[From The Daily Mail]

Here’s the thing… just for argument’s sake, let’s say that QEII was “alarmed” at Meghan’s sudden estrangement from her dogs-t father in 2018. Did QEII or the courtiers honestly believe that the best course of action for the palace or for Meghan to say “to hell with Thomas Markle’s lies, interviews and taking money to sell out his daughter, we should bring him closer?” Besides, everything that’s happened post-2018, including Tom Markle SELLING HIS DAUGHTER’S LETTER TO THE MAIL, has proved Meghan’s course of action correct. Sever contact, cut him off completely. The only reason he wants a photo of Archie and Lili is to sell it for more beer. As for “perhaps it’s time to mend a few fences back in Britain.” Yeah, back in May, Harry’s father made it perfectly clear with his very loud tantrum that he and Camilla are the ones refusing to make any kind of private peace.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, 60 Minutes Australia.

Last Friday, Princess Anne returned to “work” after a weeks-long absence. The absence was due to some kind of incident on Anne’s estate, which the Windsors explained as Anne being kicked in the head by a horse. No one knows for sure because Anne’s head injury and concussion was so bad that she still has no memory of it, and I strongly suspect she has more significant memory loss than they’re letting on. When Anne appeared at that horse event last week, she still had some faint-but-noticeable bruising on her face and you could tell that the swelling had probably only just gone down. Poor Anne looked somewhat frail, and she hasn’t been seen since then. This is how Prince William and Kate’s office welcomed her back:

Super trooper! So great to see you back so soon! W & C x https://t.co/rBk6tQ5Z2G

— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) July 13, 2024

It actually felt weird at the time because the Kensington Palace social media people rarely quote-tweet or acknowledge the other Windsors, especially Anne. It felt like the whole family was sort of pushing Anne to get back to work too, before she had even fully healed. Exclaiming that your bruised and concussed 73-year-old aunt is a “super trooper” is pretty tone-deaf. Well, it looks like the Mail’s Ephraim Hardcastle column caught that too:

Did William and Kate give too much away when Princess Anne returned to work? They tweeted: ‘Super trooper! So great to see you back so soon!’ – a message that Aunty Anne mightn’t appreciate.

A mole reports that medical advice was for the Princess Royal to rest up over the summer, the results of head injuries not always being immediately obvious – but Anne isn’t noted for doing what she’s told.

William might have had another reason to see Anne back ‘so soon’. She can share the burden of investitures. So far this year there have been 25, with Anne presiding at 17.

[From The Daily Mail]

It sounds like the Mail just wanted to point out that William and Kate are lazy layabouts who were eager to push Anne to get back to work. It also sounds like even Anne knows that she needs to recuperate too – the one event last week was her “proof of life” event, and now she’ll get the summer off as well. I hope. She actually needs to recover, that kind of head injury is no f–king joke. Also: Anne canceled more of her upcoming events and the palace says she needs to rest and recover. William and Kate look like a–holes.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

I can’t find the tweet now, but someone basically said: I’m ridin’ with Biden until Black women tell me it’s over. That’s how I feel too. What the Democrats in Congress and the beltway media are doing to President Joe Biden is despicable. The current Democratic Party coup attempt is being led by white men and some prominent white women. The Black Congressional caucus overwhelmingly had Biden’s back. Black voters are still overwhelmingly supporting the Biden/Harris ticket and looking forward to voting for President Biden for reelection. And now this – on Thursday, a letter of support for Biden and Harris was released. The letter was signed by 1,400 Black women, including Carol Moseley Braun, Keisha Lance Bottoms and L. Louise Lucas.

More than 1,400 Black women and allies have indicated their support for President Biden and Vice President Harris in a letter released Thursday. Highlighting the fact that millions of Americans cast ballots for Biden and Harris in the primary, the women said attempts to change the ticket “disregard” and “circumvent the will of millions of voters who participated in a democratic process.”

“The suggestion that any candidate who won their primary should simply step aside because victory appears difficult at the moment is disrespectful to the voters, unjust and undemocratic,” the women wrote. The letter is signed by Black powerhouses like Carol Moseley Braun, the first African American woman elected to the senate; Keisha Lance Bottoms, former senior adviser to Biden and former mayor of Atlanta; and Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and convener of the Black Women’s Roundtable.

The letter’s signees argue that using Biden’s debate performance to justify calls to step aside are unfair when compared to his record of delivering for Americans.

“The Biden-Harris Administration is running on a solid record of historic legislative accomplishments and a commitment to finish their agenda to improve the lives of all Americans, protect our rights, freedoms and democracy,” the letter states. “Further, we believe it is unfair and disruptive to judge President Biden for having a bad 90-minute debate performance against a serial liar who wants to destroy our democracy and be a dictator-in-chief.”

“History is a great teacher and has taught us that a divided house will fail,” the women wrote Thursday. “As Black women we are uniquely aware of the very real threat a second Trump term poses to our country and especially to our community. But this is not a moment to give in to fear. Instead, we must unify around our deep belief in our values and our ability to effectively engage voters and win up and down the ballot in 2024.”

“History also reflects that Black women are the most reliable voting Bloc for democrats. When black women vote in record numbers, democrats win The White House, U.S. Senate, U.S. House, governorships, state legislatures, mayors’ races and other local races across the nation. When black women lead, organize, mobilize, encourage and influence our families, spouses, partners, nieces, nephews and neighbors to own their power and vote, democrats win,” the letter continued.

“Now is the time for the Democratic Party to stop the attacks against their own presidential nominee that ‘we the people’ voted for and focus on defeating the real threat to our democracy and that is Donald Trump,” the letter concluded.

[From The Hill]

Yep. The media and Democrats trying to throw their own lil’ coup have forgotten that Black women are paying attention. Vice President Kamala Harris is the highest ranking Black woman in the country, and Black voters know that a huge chunk of this coup effort is about VP Harris too – there are so many white folks “uncomfortable” with the reality that VP Harris is the heiress to President Biden. Anyway, I’m in this until Black ladies tell me it’s over. They haven’t called it so here we go.

The part they leave out of the title…these 1,400 Black Women are elected officials (or former), heads of GOTV organizations, and Civil Rights activists.

1,400 Black women sign letter of support for Biden, condemn lack of Democratic unity https://t.co/aVMTOOLTgq

— Miss Aja (@brat2381) July 18, 2024

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

A few months ago, Scarlett Johansson’s lawyers threatened a lawsuit against Sam Altman and his company OpenAI for using her voice for its virtual assistant after she turned them down. Think Siri or Alexa but Scarlett’s voice when you use ChatGPT. Altman was an a-hole who apparently doesn’t know the meaning of the word no and the product came out using a voice that sounded suspiciously like Scarlett. At the time, people were like, “Bold move, bro, going after the woman who sued Disney and won.”

OpenAI ended up taking that voice option down, but ScarJo remains pissed off about the whole thing. I don’t blame her! In an interview with the New York Times, she talked a bit of sh-t about Altman, saying he would make a good Marvel villain “with a robotic arm.” She also spoke out a bit more about what happened with her Disney lawsuit, which was over the company violating its contract by releasing Black Widow in theaters and on streaming platforms, when it was supposed to be exclusively in theaters. Turns out, Scarlett has no ill feelings towards the company itself. She blamed it all on their leadership and I’m assuming she means then-CEO Bob Chapek.

“I felt I did not want to be at the forefront of that,” Johansson said about turning down OpenAI’s original request. “I just felt it went against my core values. I don’t like to kiss and tell. He came to me with this and I didn’t tell anybody except my husband.”

“I also felt for my children it would be strange. I try to be mindful of them,” Johansson added.

In the Times interview with Maureen Dowd, Johansson calls AI-generated deepfakes a “dark wormhole you can never climb your way out of.”

“Once you try to take something down in one area, it pops up somewhere else,” she said. “There are other countries that have different legislation and rules. If your ex-partner is putting out revenge, deepfake porn, your whole life can be completely ruined. I think technologies move faster than our fragile human egos can process it. And you see the effects all over, especially with young people. This technology is coming like a thousand-foot wave.”

Johansson says she initially turned down OpenAI’s offer to be a voice of the ChatGPT system but when the company went forward with the plan anyway, the actor turned her lawyers loose.

While Johansson’s feelings for Altman and OpenAI don’t seem to have softened much in the past few months, her attitude toward Disney seems to be on sturdied ground these days. The Johansson-Disney dispute, which preceded the incident with OpenAI, stemmed from Disney’s decision to release her Marvel film Black Widow in both theaters and steaming via Disney+ Premier Access during the Covid days of July 2021. Their contract had maintained that the film would be released exclusively in theaters.

During the legal battle that followed, Disney said Johansson had a “callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic,” and revealed her $20 million salary.

But Johansson insisted that the streaming plan would cost her millions of dollars in backend compensation. “I don’t hold a grudge,” Johansson says now. “I think it was just poor judgment and poor leadership at that time. It just felt very unprofessional to me, the entire ordeal. And honestly, I was incredibly disappointed, especially because I was holding out hope until, finally, my team was like, ‘You have to act.’”

[From Deadline]

I wonder how much her blaming Chapek is from personal reflection and how much of it is wanting to still work with Disney in the future. I really liked Black Widow and think that ScarJo and its cast got screwed over by it being released so long after The Avengers: Endgame came out. It put BW so out of sync with the MCU timeline. That said, Scarlett wasn’t wrong that Disney’s decision violated her contract. If the roles were reversed, Disney would have sued her.

I remember how angry directors and actors were about the decision to make movies available on streaming at the same time they were in theaters. As a customer, I was really grateful for the move because we were in the middle of a global pandemic and it was awesome to have the option to watch new movies at home. Putting movies on streaming and charging people to watch it was a great solution for studios and viewers but sh-tty for anyone whose contracts were tied to backend ticket sales and profits. We saw the lack of revenue from streaming content play such a huge role in the SAG strikes last year. Hopefully their new post-strike contracts will ensure that this won’t happen to them again.

photos credit: IMAGO/Eventfoto54 / Avalon, Sean Thornton/Cover Images

What the Democratic Party is doing to a sitting president and one of the most effective presidents in my lifetime will not be forgotten. Elected Democrats and “party elders” have been shooting themselves in the d–k, over and over, day after day, for the past four weeks. They look like morons. They look childish. They’re trying to bully President Biden – the sitting president – out of his reelection campaign and they literally have no plan for what happens if they succeed. This whole thing is a TRAP in a hundred different ways, not least of which is that the disloyalty and outright stupidity shown by senior Democrats will not be forgotten by the voters. If you’re capable of knifing President Biden in the back, you’re capable of knifing Kamala Harris or Random White Male Democrat in the back too.

Speaking of, it already spoke volumes to me that former president Barack Obama wasn’t clapping back at his former staffers, including those pod douches and David Axelrod. Obama has remained silent as a stream of his former staffers became the loudest voices braying incomprehensibly at President Biden. And now, instead of speaking on the record about how we, as a party, need to come together for Joe Biden, the Obama team put this out in WaPo:

Former president Barack Obama has told allies in recent days that President Biden’s path to victory has greatly diminished and he thinks the president needs to seriously consider the viability of his candidacy, according to multiple people briefed on his thinking.

Obama has spoken with Biden only once since the debate, and he has been clear in his conversations with others that the future of Biden’s candidacy is a decision for the president to make. He has emphasized that his concern is protecting Biden and his legacy, and has pushed back against the idea that he alone can influence Biden’s decision-making process.

Behind the scenes, Obama has been deeply engaged in conversations about the future of Biden’s campaign, taking calls from many anxious Democrats, including former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and has shared his views about the president’s challenges, according to people with knowledge of the calls, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Obama sees his role as a sounding board and counselor to his former vice president, telling allies that he feels protective of Biden. In these conversations, Obama has said he thinks Biden has been a great president and wants to protect his accomplishments, which could be in jeopardy if Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress next year.

In some conversations, Obama, who has long looked to data for political insights, has told people he is concerned that the polls are moving away from Biden, that former president Donald Trump’s electoral path is expanding and that donors are abandoning the president.

[From WaPo]

“Obama has said he thinks Biden has been a great president and wants to protect his accomplishments, which could be in jeopardy if Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress next year.” So in this scenario where the Democratic coup to overthrow President Biden’s candidacy works and someone else is on top of the ticket, if this scenario happens, then you think Democratic voters are suddenly going to be enthusiastically ready to support all of the congressional Democrats who just knifed Biden in the back? Or do you think there is going to be a sh-t ton of residual anger, rage and contempt at what the party elders have done to both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and that distrust and contempt will come through all the way down the ticket? I’ll be the one to say it: f–k Barack Obama. He’s an intelligent man, he’s capable of gaming out all of the scenarios. Instead of gaming it out and coming to the conclusion that we all need to come together and unify behind the Biden/Harris ticket, Obama is allowing his name to be included and used in this party coup.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

Glen Powell was recently a Hollywood Reporter cover story, where they basically went all-in on the idea that Glen is the next big thing. I disagree, but I will say this – that man has been hustling for years, taking smaller roles and saying yes to every job he was offered, so I don’t really begrudge Glen his newfound success. I just don’t think he’s really got “it” and I think that’s why his attempts to become a movie star fell flat for so many years. But here we are! Glen covered a recent issue of GQ Hype, all to promote Hit Man and Twisters (a sort of revival of the ‘90s classic). Glen is genuinely enjoying his new fame but he still has scar tissue over just how many roles he never got. Some highlights:

On Batman: “I was always a Batman guy. I would have a wild take on Batman. It definitely would not be like a Matt Reeves tone – it’d probably be closer to Keaton. Oh, sick!” Although he hasn’t played Batman, he has been pretty close. “I get my head smashed in by Bane in The Dark Knight Rises.”

He’s not a nepo baby: “When you have no one championing you, you feel like you’re adrift.” He would wake up every day and look at casting breakdowns, film unsolicited auditions, find out casting directors’ contact information and get a friend of his who worked in sales to call them on his behalf. “I was like, this town’s gonna kick me out regardless. You might as well kick down every door you possibly can.”

The roles he never got: He missed out on what would become Josh Hartnett’s role in Oppenheimer by a slim margin, he says, but he’s still in touch with Christopher Nolan, and has faith that they’ll get to do something together soon. Throughout his early-to-mid twenties, Powell, who is now 35, found himself auditioning for – and ultimately losing out on – parts that went on to turbocharge the careers of his peers. In his eyes, he screwed up his audition to play Captain America. He came extremely, agonisingly close to playing Han Solo in Solo (Disney went with Alden Ehrenreich). “I can joke about it now,” he says, “[but] I blew that final audition.” Each time, it felt like he had missed his big chance.

He blew the audition for 2015’s The Longest Ride to Scott Eastwood. “I remember Marty Bowen, who was the producer, just looking at me like, ‘Yeah, this is not going well.’”

He came across as too needy: “He was like, ‘Hey man, you gotta be less punctual, like a little more cool actor-y.’ There’s definitely a bit of a game [to the whole thing]. It was clear to me very early on that it’s not a meritocracy, and I still believe that. I still believe that the best guy doesn’t necessarily get the job. You can’t just be good – you also have to be very lucky. All these guys who didn’t give a sh-t and just phoned it in were working.”

[From British GQ]

Glen also talks about how various “types” come into vogue and suddenly every script references that type – a Robert Pattinson brooding-type, a delicate Timothee Chalamet-type, etc. Which I think is true, and it also sort of explains why Glen is sort of out of sync with his “Hollywood generation.” Hollywood isn’t really looking for forgetably-attractive beefcake movie stars right now? Anyway, I’ll give him a chance because I appreciate the fact that he’s not a nepo baby and that he hustled his ass off to get here. But I’m still mad about it!

Photos courtesy of Cover Images. Cover courtesy of British GQ.