Prince William’s two events on Wednesday seemed to partially satiate the masses and the press, and yet there seems to be a new host of questions related to William, Kate and the monarchy in general. For one, William seemed under the influence of something at the investiture. Two, he seemed to strike the wrong tone at the charity gala for a man dealing with a wife and a father’s dual health crises. There’s no evidence that William has even checked on his father in person. There’s still a missing princess (no one has seen her since Christmas), persistent rumors of a medically induced coma, and the lack of evidence that Kate is where they say she is or what her condition actually is. All of that was drawn into sharp relief when William spent the bulk of this week briefing sh-t about how much he hates his brother. The New York Times did a somewhat interesting piece about how William’s life is probably going to change drastically in the near future and he’s not prepared for it at all. At least that’s what I got out of it. Some highlights:

Lingering disruptions for William: Nobody, aside from Charles and his wife, Queen Camilla, faces more lingering disruption from the king’s cancer diagnosis than his eldest son. The advocacy work, family life, and zone of privacy that William has carved out for himself is very different than that of his father, when he served as the Prince of Wales. Whether William will be able to preserve those qualities while stepping in for his father during his treatment is, at best, uncertain. “William has tended toward less of the day-to-day routine work of the monarchy, compared to his father, instead focusing on bigger, glitzier engagements,” said Ed Owens, a royal historian. “But now he’ll be expected to fill in on many of these more mundane public outings.”

William’s energy is focused elsewhere: It is not just a question of managing his calendar: William’s professional focus, members of his staff say, has been about pouring his energy into a couple of high-impact social issues — most recently, climate change and homelessness — where he believes he can make a tangible difference.

Still no Kensington Palace CEO: The scope of William’s ambition is evident in a looming shake-up at his office in Kensington Palace. He and his wife, Catherine, are expected to appoint, for the first time, a chief executive. Using a corporate title rather than the traditional title of private secretary, a person with knowledge of the office said, is calculated to attract candidates with business credentials and to reinforce the office’s professional nature.

William has never done bread-and-butter royal events: “William was trying to explore the boundaries of what he could do as heir that he couldn’t do as king,” said Peter Hunt, a former royal correspondent for the BBC. “The tension is how to pursue his own activities while supporting the monarch. William is going to feel that at an earlier stage than his father did.”

The school run: A spokesman for William, Lee Thompson, said Kensington Palace was conferring with Buckingham Palace about how to parcel out the king’s public commitments (William’s events on Wednesday were in his diary before the disclosure of his father’s illness). In the meantime, Mr. Thompson said, William continues to drop off and pick up his children from their school in Berkshire, west of London. That is another break from the more remote parenting style of the royal family in previous generations.

A secret squirrel: The zeal with which William has thrown a cloak of privacy around his family was dramatized by his wife’s medical treatment. Kensington Palace offered scant information on her condition, beyond saying she was undergoing abdominal surgery. There were no photographs of the couple’s children — George, Charlotte, and Louis — visiting their mother in the hospital. Nor were there any images of her going home almost two weeks later. The contrast to Charles was striking. Buckingham Palace disclosed that he would be undergoing a procedure for an enlarged prostate. Camilla was photographed visiting her husband, and the couple left the hospital together, waving to cameras as they walked to their car. Some of those differences can be explained by history. While Charles has taken his share of lumps from Britain’s tabloid press, he has continued to work with those papers in what is essentially a transactional relationship.

[From The NY Times]

There are several different angles we can go here – while William is facing a profound shift in his “business as usual,” it’s also clear that Charles wants William to have absolutely nothing to do with state business or stepping into any events which were on Charles’s schedule. Charles has made it clear that he will hold onto power until his last breath. And right now, William seems fine with that too. When push comes to shove, William would rather booze it up and spend time with his rose bushes. The only reason William “wants” any power is to tell everyone that Harry is jealous of HIM. That’s clearly his sole focus now, at the expense of literally everything else. Anyway, I think the NYT is being shady about all of the shenanigans around Kate. It’s genuinely my hope that American and European media really start to pick on how f–king weird the past month has been.

The Prince of Wales has returned to royal duties after his wife’s abdominal operation and following the announcement of the King’s cancer diagnosis.https://t.co/Ig4ZQJ3Vi4 pic.twitter.com/KUXAYfZZfp

— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 7, 2024

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

As some people have already discussed in the comments, “royal expert” Tom Bower has been a tear this week. Bower is a vile man who always has the absolute worst sh-t to say about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Specifically Meghan, who he once called a “brazen hussy” because Meghan smiled and waved at fans. He’s also been pretty clear that he’s targeting Meghan specifically, in part of the royal media’s general attempt to “force” a Sussex separation so Harry will come running back to them. Except that now, in the year of our lord Beyonce 2024, Bower seems to understand that Harry and Meghan’s marriage is strong and there’s no divorce on the horizon. So Bower said the quiet part outloud: for the monarchy to survive, the Sussexes must be obliterated.

An eminent royal biographer believes the future of the monarchy depends on the ‘obliteration of the Sussexes’ after Prince Harry’s brief visit to the King following his cancer diagnosis. Tom Bower launched a blistering attack on the Duke of Sussex branding him a ‘traitor’ when discussing his meeting with Charles on this week’s The Reaction, the Mail’s new YouTube talkshow.

It was hoped the troubling news of the King’s illness could bring Harry closer to his father and his brother, the Prince of Wales, after launching years of vicious attacks against the monarchy. But Mr Bower told the Mail’s columnists Sarah Vine and Andrew Pierce that the opposite is the case.

The author of ‘Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War between the Windsors’ gave his opinion in this week’s episode: ‘I think that the monarchy in fact depends on actually obliterating the Sussexes from our state of life because their continuation is bad for us. I am really furious that he was even allowed to land in London and then given a special escort to Clarence House.’

‘I do think it is interesting that given all the number of bedrooms they have got at Buckingham Palace and all the other palaces in London, that he had to stay overnight in a hotel.’

[From The Daily Mail]

This is grotesque, dangerous, vile, infuriating and appalling. It’s also the rare moment where someone is saying something explicitly which other royalists feel but refuse to say outright. This is genuinely the mindset of not just Bower and his ilk, but the entire royal establishment, from the palace to the press to the online deranger campaign. It was never “live and let live” or “the Sussexes can do their own thing and it has nothing to do with us.” The entire royal establishment was turned upside down four years ago because the spare quit that bitch and found a way to thrive outside of their toxic prison. The royalists are literally too stupid to figure out a way to move on from the Sussexit, so now an entire national media and an entire monarchy have decided that they must “obliterate” the Sussexes.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

There’s been such a weird vibe around all of the royal reporting for months, really. It’s obviously gotten much, much weirder since King Charles and the Princess of Wales’s dual health crises, and the fact that Kate hasn’t been seen since Christmas Day is still unsettling. Also unsettling: Prince William was largely MIA for weeks before popping up on Wednesday, looking and acting sh-tfaced at an investiture ceremony right after his office announced that he would disappear for another couple of months. Add to all of that the fact that William’s office seemed insanely reactionary to Prince Harry’s sudden visit to the UK once Buckingham Palace announced King Charles’s cancer diagnosis. What was a simple story about a son flying to see his ill father in person was invaded by Prince William’s very obvious wall-to-wall briefings about how much he despises his brother and would never meet with him. As always, the Daily Beast’s Tom Sykes spoke to “friends of William” about all of the latest developments. Even Sykes sounds a bit bored with William’s mindnumbing tantrums at this point. Some highlights:

The briefing war between the palaces about Harry’s visit: While the meeting with Charles undoubtedly represents an important step in repairing their relationship, the chances of fraternal reconciliation seem close to zero. One friend of Prince William told The Daily Beast that William “never” wanted to see Harry again. Another added that Harry’s hop to the U.K. went against the royal family’s tendency to put institutional calm above “personal impulses,” and accused Harry of using the king’s diagnosis to “cast himself as the dutiful, concerned son” despite openly trashing his father and other family members in his book, Spare. However, staffers at Buckingham Palace, seeking perhaps to calm the waters, have let it be known that the king welcomed his son’s visit, and one former courtier pointed out it would have been easy for Charles to ask Harry to come at a later date, had he so wished.

William still hasn’t seen his father: William has still not seen his father in person since the diagnosis, The Daily Beast understands, content with supportive calls and messages. Reports that Princess Beatrice made a special visit to London to visit her uncle are wide of the mark too—she has for many years lived in an apartment in St James’ Palace, which is part of the same compound as Clarence House. Princess Anne is thought to have seen Charles at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday morning.

Harry’s trip to the UK added drama! One friend who has known the family for decades told The Daily Beast, “To announce on Monday that he (Harry) was flying home immediately after (Charles’ diagnosis) was made public added unnecessary drama to an already febrile situation. It had people speculating that Charles was at death’s door, when in fact, his cancer is eminently treatable and, as the prime minister subsequently said, has been caught early.” The family friend was unwilling to criticize Charles for agreeing to see Harry at such short notice, saying, “Any father would do the same thing.” They added: “I don’t think Harry should have put him in the position by asking, quite frankly. It created panic at the worst possible moment.”

The king wasn’t trying to snub Harry: The Times of London reported sources close to Charles were “eager to stress that the brevity of the visit was not a slight to his younger son, but merely an indication of the 75-year-old King’s fatigue after the previous day’s hospital procedure.”

William hated that Harry visited their father: A friend of Prince William gave a fascinating insight into the depth of anger still felt toward Harry by many in the family and their circle, telling The Daily Beast: “The king announcing he had cancer was totally unprecedented and incredibly brave—but suddenly the focus was on what Harry was doing. He seems to have this knack of making it all about him. Some people think it’s a bit late to cast himself as the dutiful, concerned son after all the unforgivable things he said about his father, and brother, and their wives in his book.”

Harry acted like a teenager! Asked if Harry’s trip, and Charles agreeing to see him, was not a clear sign of a wish to build bridges at least on his father’s side, the friend of William told The Daily Beast: “Of course, but members of the royal family generally don’t behave like a teenager in a reality show expressing their personal impulses. It fuels speculation and panic. They keep calm and carry on.”

William briefed that Harry wanted to see him so that William could brief that he would never see Harry: Another friend of William scoffed at Harry’s reported willingness to meet William during the trip after his camp told the Daily Mail, “The duke’s primary reason to travel to the U.K. is to visit his father. If the opportunity were to arise to see the Prince of Wales then the duke would have gladly accepted it.” The friend said: “William never wants to see him again.”

Buckingham Palace is tamping down William’s rageaholic briefings: One former courtier told The Daily Beast: “I don’t think it’s fair to blame Harry for coming over. Charles could have easily suggested a later date. Overall, I think the situation has turned out pretty well for everyone. Getting those two in a room together for half an hour is actually a remarkable achievement, and it sends all the right messages of forgiveness and reconciliation without rolling out the red carpet. If William wants to carry on being bad cop forever, that’s up to him.”

[From The Daily Beast]

The same “former courtier” also said that Harry’s visit shows that he and Charles can clearly replicate that again in the future, and that Harry will likely stay in hotels if he comes again because it’s less complicated. While people close to Charles clearly briefed Robert Jobson following Harry’s visit, it’s also clear that BP is not officially or unofficially displeased with Harry’s visit. BP’s message is: thanks for visiting, Harry, it was a bit melodramatic but your dad appreciated the effort. The message from William/KP is: CODE RED EMERGENCY Harry visited and William is vomiting with rage and throwing a hissy fit about how much he hates Harry! This unsubtle shade too: “If William wants to carry on being bad cop forever, that’s up to him.” BP’s message to Peg: Put on your big girl panties and STFU, you child.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

People Magazine did two cover stories this week, one for Robert DeNiro and one for King Charles. Their exclusive cover story was written in a hurry, in the 24 hours after the palace announced that Charles has cancer. Previously, I was surprised that People Mag included quotes about how the king has “not looked himself” in recent months, because I wasn’t expecting anyone to admit that. Charles isn’t the only member of the royal family who has seemed visibly unwell over the past year, but at least we’re allowed to talk about it now. Anyway, People dropped more exclusives from their cover story and they’re worth discussing:

Camilla’s importance: “She is his strength and stay like [Prince Philip] was for the late Queen,” a palace insider tells PEOPLE exclusively in this week’s issue. “She will be great. She will rally him, she will buoy him. She is amazing. She equips him to do the job he has to do.”

It’s up to Prince William and Queen Camilla to be the face of the monarchy. “It is hard with Kate being ill as well, but he will step up,” a source close to the royal household says of Prince William.

There are currently no plans to appoint Counsellors of State to act on King Charles’ behalf. “He wouldn’t want to put that pressure on William,” says the source. “He has always wanted to save his children from having that pressure too early and that will remain. Particularly as William has other priorities [with Kate]. William will do his best, but the King will want to carry on with his duties as best he can,” says the source close to the royal household.

William is in regular contact: A royal source tells PEOPLE exclusively in this week’s issue that the Prince of Wales, 41, is in regular contact with his father amid the news of the King’s cancer diagnosis.

Charles will work from home: “Yes, he’s going to step back from public duties for a considerable time, but there will be plenty of work for him — it just won’t necessarily be in a room with hundreds of people,” says royal biographer Robert Hardman, author of The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy. Adds the palace insider: “He will want to get on with the job. But that will depend on what treatment he is having. It may be utterly draining on him. He will need a lot of support.”

[From People Magazine]

As I said, this was written mostly on Monday and Tuesday. By Tuesday evening, Kensington Palace had informed the Daily Mail that William would disappear back into his gopher hole after his events on Wednesday and that it would probably be another month or two before anyone sees him again. This was also written before William turned up to the Wednesday investiture ceremony visibly under the influence. My point is that all of these pronouncements about “he will step up” are just the 2024 version of “promises to be keen.” Whatever William is doing these days, it’s a huge issue for the monarchy and everyone in Peg’s orbit. Also: they keep basically admitting that Charles and William haven’t seen each other in person at all? It’s crazy even for the dysfunctional Windsors.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images. Cover courtesy of People.

I missed posting these photos from last weekend’s Brazilian premiere of Madame Web. Dakota Johnson apparently flew down solo to do a premiere event in Rio. She wore a custom “spider web” dress from Annie’s Ibiza, and the craftsmanship of the dress is very pretty. That being said, I mean… Zendaya did it better when she was promoting Spider-Man, all of those years ago.

Anyway, Dakota is obviously all over the news and gossip for her Madame Web promotion. She’s talking about how people shouldn’t call her a nepo baby! She’s talking about how she doesn’t understand the one meme from the film, the “he was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders right before she died” line. She’s also talking about one of her rare TV roles, when she appeared in The Office’s finale.

Dakota Johnson hilariously reminisced with Seth Meyers on “Late Night” about their appearances on the “The Office” series finale, which aired on NBC in May 2013. Johnson, who was still years out at the time from her breakthrough in the “Fifty Shades” franchise, appeared as a new accountant named Dakota. Meyers, meanwhile, was seen on a television doing a fictional version of “Weekend Update” from “Saturday Night Live.” Johnson was a big fan of “The Office,” so she jumped at the chance to be a guest star on the last episode.

“That was honestly the worst time of my life,” Johnson quipped. “They were like, ‘Do you want to be in the series finale?’ And I was like, ‘Of course,’ thinking that I’d show up for like half a day. I was there for two weeks. And I’m barely in the f–king show.”

Asked by Meyers if it was sad being on the set for the last episode, Johnson answered: “There were weird dynamics that had been going on for the last 10 years. Some people didn’t speak to each other. And I’m coming in like ‘So excited to be here!’ No one wanted to talk to me. No one gave a f–k…I was like in the background of all of these scenes, faxing things.”

[From Variety]

I mean, Mindy Kaling has said/indicated as much, that after so long on the air, there were a lot of internal politics in The Office and some beefs and such. Plus, it was the finale! You can’t expect to come in as a new person for the finale and expect them to roll out the red carpet. Anyway, I didn’t expect Dakota to go that hard about her experience but it is what it is. I’m sure The Office fans will be mad at her.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

During Wednesday’s investiture ceremony, Prince William was visibly swaying and furiously blinking, as if he was under the influence. He also dropped a medal. Something like that would have caused a full week of headlines if Prince Harry had been “butterfingered in public” or visibly drunk at an official honors ceremony. But because it’s William, everything gets swept away or not commented upon. Interestingly, those weren’t the only weird moments at the event. William also presented Patricia Spruce with an MBE, and by her own account, she said that William mentioned that the Princess of Wales had “two Filipino nurses looking after her.” Oh. Okay? There was a backlash:

Prince William is being slammed online for praising Kate Middleton’s “Filipino nurses,” with social media users stating their ethnicity is irrelevant. During one of his first public appearances since the Princess of Wales returned home from the hospital following abdominal surgery, the Prince of Wales honored a woman named Patricia Spruce with a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) on Wednesday.

“What an amazing experience, the castle was just breathtaking, everyone was so lovely too [sic] us as we were just in awe of everything,” Spruce wrote in a public LinkedIn post.

“Prince William said that Katherine [sic] had two Filipino nurses looking after her and they were amazing and kind.”

Royal watchers were quick to put William, 41, on blast for involving the nurses’ ethnic background.

“Like what does their race have anything to do with it??” tweeted one reader.

“It is very important to know Kate’s nurses were Filipino. Why? Hell if I know, ask Will,” wrote another. “He made their race a focal point in a room full of White people.’

“It’s very telling who was included in the Archie’s complexion debacle,” the second X user continued, referencing Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s claims that royal family members had questioned their son’s skin color.

“William said Kate had two Filipino nurses. Why was it important to say they were Filipino nurses as opposed to just nurses?” questioned a third.

[From Page Six]

Let’s be fair: there could have been added context which was not included in this woman’s Linkedin post. Let’s also be fair that William has a track record of being racially insensitive, if not downright racist. I shudder to think how he might have questioned the two nurses’ ethnicity and perhaps even wondered aloud why Kate couldn’t get some white nurses. But honestly, my pet theory is that William was simply drunk and lying. William and Kate both do that all the time, they meet someone and they hear that the person is an astronaut/accountant/ski jumper and Will or Kate will say “oh, that’s so interesting, George wants to be an accountant and Charlotte loves space and we can’t keep Louis off the ski slopes!” They lie for clout and relatability all the time. The specificity is what signals, to me, that William was lying – TWO Filipino nurses? That man was sh-thoused and lying his ass off.

The Prince of Wales has returned to royal duties after his wife’s abdominal operation and following the announcement of the King’s cancer diagnosis.https://t.co/Ig4ZQJ3Vi4 pic.twitter.com/KUXAYfZZfp

— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 7, 2024

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

As soon as the Oscar nominations came out, the PR machine behind Oppenheimer made sure leading man and newly-minted Best Actor nominee Cillian Murphy spoke to the press about what he was doing and how he was feeling when he got the good news. He was in Ireland enjoying his mother’s sponge cake, and the unsaid but apparent emotion he was feeling was dread at having to do more of the non-acting part of his job. Now a couple weeks later, his costar Emily Blunt is sharing her story. Talking to Josh Horowitz in New York this week, Emily deployed every ounce of Englishness she has as she described her whereabouts when she learned she’d gotten the first Oscar nomination of her career:

While [Emily Blunt] is ecstatic over her [Oscar] nod, she was in kind of a stinky position when she heard of the nomination.

The “Devil Wears Prada” actress revealed that she was actually scooping up her dog’s poop when she was notified about the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination last month.

“It’s all quite scary, the anticipation of it, and I think you just try not to listen to buzz because buzz can be built on sand sometimes,” she said during a conversation with Josh Horowitz at 92NY on Tuesday.

“And so when it did happen, and when it happened in such a far-reaching way for all of us in the movie and every crew member, it was magical,” Blunt continued.

The film earned a whopping 13 nominations in total, including for Best Picture.

“I did have a brief cry in the middle of Brooklyn, brief weep directly after picking up my dog’s poop,” Blunt went on. “I did pick up her poop and then I heard that I got nominated, so it was perfect.”

The British actress revealed that husband John Krasinski also “had a really good cry as well, after helping me with the poop.”

“I think he went and put it in the trash, and then we both cried,” she recalled.

[From NY Post]

“I did pick up her poop and then I heard that I got nominated, so it was perfect.” I love it. For the rest of her life Emily can enjoy a sense memory connection between her Academy Award nomination and dog sh*t. Imagine it: she could be sitting in the Dolby Theatre on March 10, dazzling in her designer gown, and all of a sudden she picks up wafts of poop odor. And it works the other way around too! Every time she bends down to collect a steaming pile of her pup’s poop, she’ll be reminded, “I’m an Oscar nominee.” All that being said, if her hubby John Krasinski was with her and cried with her as she says… then why didn’t he pick up the poop for her?! They knew a call was coming from a publicist whether the news was good or bad, he could have assumed the morning’s sh*t duties. Next red carpet they do together, the lip readers might want to check if it’s Emily this time talking about wanting to divorce John, just sayin’.

Photo note by CB: These photos of John Krasinski and Emily Blunt walking their dogs are from 2010. The photo agency noted that they picked up their dogs’ poop. Emily is shown alone with her dog in 2012. Credit: PacificCoastNews.com/Avalon. Other photos are from this year. Credit: TheNews2/Cover Images and Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon

In 2022, Piers Morgan’s big return to television was a gigantic flop. The previous year, Piers walked off the set of Good Morning Britain in a huffy tantrum over the Duchess of Sussex. That huffy tantrum would set off a chain reaction of hilarious failures – he was fired from GMB, he went crawling to Rupert Murdoch, who promptly gave him the TalkTV show Uncensored. Uncensored’s ratings have been in the toilet for its entire run, less than two years. Now Piers is throwing another huffy tantrum and leaving TalkTV. I have a theory about this, but here’s how the Times has reported it:

Piers Morgan is leaving the “unnecessary straitjacket” of his TalkTV show to focus on his successful Uncensored YouTube channel. His daily 8pm show was launched nearly two years ago. Morgan, 58, said that no longer having to be a “slave to the schedule” would allow him to improve the Piers Morgan Uncensored channel, which has grown to 2.3 million subscribers since 2022 and regularly attracts a worldwide audience of millions.

“It’s clear there’s a huge global demand for the content we’re making, but the commitment to a daily show at a fixed schedule, with all the editing and time sensitivities that involves, has been an increasingly unnecessary straitjacket,” he said.

Morgan pointed to the way in which his interview with Rishi Sunak, in which the prime minister appeared to accept a bet of £1,000 that his flights to Rwanda would take off before the next general election, was posted on YouTube on Monday afternoon and quickly gained 400,000 views. “Had we waited until 8pm to air it first on TalkTV, it would have been overtaken by the huge breaking news of King Charles’s cancer diagnosis,” he said.

He described Piers Morgan Uncensored, which is also owned by News UK, the owner of TalkTV and The Times, as having a “start-up mentality” and said that the change would free it up to feature longer interviews with bigger guests, supported by more clips. Some of the interviews will be shown on TalkTV as the channel juggles its schedule to replace Morgan’s show.

The American podcast host and presenter Joe Rogan, who has amassed 16 million YouTube subscribers without a traditional TV show, was cited as an inspiration for the change.

[From The Times]

Here’s the thing – Piers is acting like he’s the first person to discover that people prefer to watch YouTube clips rather than a shouty, sweaty ham-faced moron screeching live on television. Literally every broadcaster, network and television personality knows that they need to build their YouTube channel in concert with their network/cable-television profile. It’s why all of the cable news networks are so quick to upload their best clips on YT within an hour of the airing. So, here’s my theory: Piers was fired again. If this was just about building a YouTube profile, he would have done that within the TalkTV/Uncensored universe. Instead, he has to leave TalkTV without the “Uncensored” branding or TalkTV branding. He’s building his own stand-alone thing as a last resort because the dumb bitch got fired again.

As for his YouTube channel… there are a lot of hateful idiots who buy what Piers is selling, so I imagine he will be able to build his own thing. But it will be even more of an echo chamber and, frankly, it will be even easier to ignore him in many ways. He’s being deplatformed in slow motion and it’s glorious.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Annette Bening scored her fifth Oscar nomination this year for playing Diana Nyad, and it’s highly likely that she walks out of this awards season still 0/5. Was Nyad an innovative film? No, except to the extent that it’s still novel in the 21st century to have a film centered on the friendship between two women in their 60s. But I agree that Annette’s performance was better than the film itself (same goes for Jodie Foster, who’s up for supporting actress). Though she’s a long shot compared to her fellow leading actress nominees, Annette is definitely campaigning. Harvard’s Hasty Pudding theater troupe just bestowed her with their Woman of the Year award, and she spoke with them about the quality of women’s roles today, and how her kids voted against her joining social media:

Strong, flawed women: “I do think that our understanding of women is growing, given what we’re able to do in film and TV, and then the nuance that is afforded in the way things are written now. There’s a lot of talk about strong women and strong women’s roles, and that’s great. But when you think about it, a strong woman is also a flawed woman and is also a woman with weaknesses and vulnerabilities. And so it’s not a question of just strong women’s role. It’s real women. And that’s what we want.”

Challenging yourself is not just a young woman’s game: Bening said that no age becomes the finish line for a woman’s evolution. “Just like we see in real life around us, just as we see among the women that we know, there isn’t a point at which a woman stops evolving and changing,” she said. … She said that since she started in film 35 years ago, there are “fewer stereotypical pictures,” but that goes for roles for men too. “I think a lot of people want to stay challenged as they grow older, not just in work, but in life and in relationships and in what they might do day-to-day,” Bening explained. “It doesn’t have to be a marathon swim to feel like you want to challenge yourself. You want to do something new, you want to change and grow. And that’s true of many of the women that I know.”

Stay off Insta, Mom! Bening, who has been married to actor Warren Beatty since 1992 and has four children with him, is also mindful about how much of her life she puts out in public. She said she once considered joining social media to boost some of the causes she’s passionate about. But ultimately, her children advised her against it. “I did ask one of my kids, I said, ‘You know, should I start? Should I go on social media?’ And they’re like, ‘No, Mom,’” Bening laughed.

Sounds like she wouldn’t have been on much, anyway: In a digital age when smartphones capture everything, Bening said, she would recommend that young actors and actresses maintain a sense of privacy. Looking back, that’s the advice she’d give herself. “I would say to my younger self, keep something of yourself to yourself, and to the people that you love and the people that you trust,” she said. “And I would certainly say that to people starting out now. There’s so much pressure on young actors and actresses to make themselves public and to talk about events in their lives in their publicity. And obviously, some is OK. There’s not some hard-and-fast rule, but to always find a way to keep the things that matter to you most private.”

[From Yahoo! Entertainment]

So her kids just didn’t want their mom on social media, right? Didn’t want her seeing their accounts? LOL. I’m sticking with this interpretation until and unless Annette expands her answer. As for her advice that aspiring actors protect their privacy, I am wholeheartedly and spiritually with her in theory. In practice, I don’t think Annette is fully appreciating how much a young actor’s online following is factored into the business these days. I mean, even frickin’ Elle Fanning lost out on a role for not having enough Instagram followers, and she’s had a high profile in the industry since she was, what, four?! Again, I’m not advocating for this way of casting. I’m just saying that it’s a bigger reality than perhaps Annette was leaving room for. So yes, the roles being written may be getting richer, more honest, more complicated. But the question hovering over that is — on what criteria are actors being considered to play them?

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Photos credit: IMAGO/London Entertainment/Splash/Avalon, Getty and Netflix press

Super Bowl LVIII takes place on Sunday, and there’s usually something for everyone, whether it’s the game, the halftime show, the overpriced commercials, or the puppy bowl. Well, now there’s even something for kids to enjoy about the Super Bowl: SpongeBob! CBS Sports and Nickelodeon are joining forces to broadcast the game live from SpongeBob’s home turf of Bikini Bottom. The broadcast will feature SpongeBob, Patrick, and CBS Sports’ Nate Burleson and Noah Eagle. Bikini Bottom’s Sandy Cheeks and Larry the Lobster will also make appearances as a reporter and commentator. This is so freaking adorable.

SpongeBob SquarePants (voiced by Tom Kenny) and Patrick Star (voiced by Bill Fagerbakke) will be going live from the booth in the alternate, kids-friendly telecast airing on Nickelodeon. The dynamic duo will be joined by CBS Sports analyst Nate Burleson and play-by-play announcer Noah Eagle. Meanwhile, Sandy Cheeks (voiced by Carolyn Lawrence) will serve as a sideline reporter as Larry the Lobster (voiced by Mr. Lawrence) provides live commentary.

“We are so excited to just go into this massive sports event and just be goofy and silly, and make it a fun experience for kids and Nickelodeon fans,” Fagerbakke, 66, tells PEOPLE.

“There’ll be so many other Nickelodeon characters involved,” he continues to tease. “We’re going to have Plankton and we’re going to have, I’m sure Squidward and Mr. Krabs will be in the stands. It’s going to be a lot of fun. And the announcers, Noah Eagle and Nate Burleson, they’re all in for fun too. So, we’re going to have a good time.”

Kenny, 61, notes that “the conceit is that the Allegiant Stadium has been transported to Bikini Bottom through a crazy series of events having to do with an invention of Sandy’s there.”

He teases, “That gives the animators, the technicians, the computer guys, us, the real live sports casters that Bill mentioned, license to take the game into a whole new level of oddball silliness because you’re going to be looking at the Super Bowl the same way it is if you watch it on a conventional broadcast — but there’s jellyfish and bubbles and craziness and cartoon characters running through frame, just this whole overlay of insanity making the Super Bowl even weirder and crazier than it is normally.”

Although Sandy Cheeks voicer Lawrence, 56, hopes Bikini Bottom’s villainous Plankton “doesn’t try to do something” to disrupt the fun, Fagerbakke predicts that “he will.”

For Kenny, “Part of what makes it cool is that if you’re a football newbie or a younger member of the family who maybe is just learning about football or just getting interested or getting on board, this will be a nice primer for that.”

“There’s little interstitial things, tutorials and things about football terminology and gameplay and all that,” he adds. “SpongeBob and Patrick, at least, are the perfect people to learn, too, because they don’t know anything about football. They’ve never seen football. Everything they know about football, they learned from their Texas pal Sandy Cheeks.”

[From People]

This is so cute! My kids love SpongeBob and all of the various spin-off shows. I know they’ll get a kick out of watching this for a little while, at least. My older son, who doesn’t actually watch football, adopted the Kansas City Chiefs as his team back in 2020 because his best friend is a fan and wears Patrick Mahones jerseys to school. This SpongeBob thing will make it much more fun for him to pay attention now. I don’t even want to wonder what the logistics are or if it will be cheesy or not. It’s clever and creative and the kids and longtime SpongeBob fans will enjoy it. Oh, and the Bikini Bottom residents aren’t the only Nick ‘toons getting in on the fun. Dora the Explorer and Boots will also show up during the big game to help explain penalty calls. I love this all so much.

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Photos are screenshots from YouTube