Prince Harry stepped out this weekend in Santa Barbara. He attended a charity concert, the One805 Rock for Responders. Previously, Kevin Costner has hosted annual fundraisers for California first responders at his extensive Carpinteria estate, and Harry has attended those fundraisers twice (and Meghan has attended once). This weekend’s fundraiser was held at The Granada Theatre, and it seems it was specifically about the California wildfires which raged through Los Angeles, Malibu and beyond in January and February. Proceeds from this fundraiser will “support the mental wellness of first responders in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara and musicians affected by the fires,” per the Daily Mail.

I often wonder how cops and firefighters react to meeting Prince Harry – from everything we’ve heard, he’s very popular and everyone always talks about his excellent manners. He happily posed for photos with everyone backstage at the concert, and he also signed a guitar which reportedly sold at the auction for $9,000. It should have gone for more than that, Harry rarely signs stuff, even for charity.

It feels like Prince Harry’s daily wardrobe has really changed so much since moving to California. I’m a fan of his “casual Cali” look with jeans and a good-quality t-shirt, but I kind of hate his shapeless blazers/jackets. I’m sure someone will say it’s the height of stealth-wealth or whatever, but I’d prefer if he just invested in some traditional sportcoats. Another suggestion: go for good-quality long-sleeved polo sweaters, paired with jeans or khakis, and avoid the jackets altogether.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Introduction: Minutes 0 to 11:00
If you haven’t subscribed to our mailing list yet, you can sign up here, thank you! You can listen below or on YouTube.

I watched Paradise with Sterling K. Brown on Hulu and didn’t like how it ended. Chandra felt the same way about Feud: Capote vs. The Swans. I love The Pitt on HBO. We’ve both been watching Severance and love the performances. Chandra is watching The White Lotus and recommends Court of Gold on Netflix. I watched Heretic but don’t recommend it.

Oscars: Minutes 15:00 to 19:00
We had the Oscars this week and Chandra’s favorite movie, Anora, won the most awards. We’re glad Mikey Madison won for best actress over Demi Moore. Demi won plenty of awards and didn’t go home empty handed. I wish that June Squibb was nominated for best actress for Thelma, my favorite movie of 2024. It takes a ton of money to campaign for an Oscar.

Royals: Minutes 15:00 to 36:30
Since we last recorded we had the Invictus Games in Canada and Duchess Meghan’s show With Love, Meghan came out. Last week, before the release of With Love, Meghan, Kate and William visited Wales and were such obvious copy-keens. They visited a cake shop and “made” cakes and Kate was sure to mention her jam and said she’d give the recipe to someone. Then we got a weaksauce story from a royal expert claiming Kate didn’t marry for a title, but Meghan did. There’s been a real silence from the palace as they figure out how to copy Meghan. I remember when Kate copied Meghan’s Zoom background.

With Love, Meghan is a sweet comfort watch where she makes food and does crafts with her friends. I’ve watched the first five episodes so far. Chandra has watched the whole thing and loves the episodes with Roy Choi and Vicky Tsai. Here’s a link to the Netflix site with all the recipes. It was cute to see Meghan interact with her friend Abigail Spencer. We talk about some of our favorite recipes including the salted fish and fried chicken.

We recorded this episode before the news that With Love, Meghan got a second season. Chandra wants Roy Choi to go on again. She thinks the vocal critics of the show have never watched a cooking or lifestyle show. The critics want Meghan to be all things at once. In season two we hope they don’t change things too much and just make little tweaks. Meghan was very smart this week about her PR including being on the cover of People. I play a segment from Zoom where we talked about With Love, Meghan.

The As Ever product line is available now. We hope it expands to more products and are looking forward to ordering some things.

Comments of the week: 36:30 to end
Kaiser’s comment of the week is from EmpressCakey on the post about Ione Skye’s new memoir.

My comment of the week is from Jess on the post about Jennifer Garner thinking Ben Affleck has a dark side. Here’s a link to the tweet I mentioned. Here’s a link to Jennifer Garner’s Vanity Fair interview that I mentioned.

Thanks for listening bitches!

The hate campaign against the Duchess of Sussex and her Netflix show With Love, Meghan did not work. A second season of WLM has already been ordered and filmed, and Netflix is looking very smart for coming on Meghan’s partner in her As Ever line. WLM is a hit show across dozens of countries and Meghan is probably going to single-handedly bring back my favorite kind of cooking show – the kind where a woman in a lovely kitchen cooks good food and there are no bells or judges or frenetic competitions. Well, the hate campaign will eventually find another “thing,” and if past is prologue, I think we all know what their next thing will be: sure, WLM is a hit, but Meghan probably bullied the crew! Someone is going to say that their cousin’s neighbor’s hairstylist heard a rumor that Meghan hissed as a crew member. Thankfully, this cycle has been happening for so long, Meghan knows how to head it off at the pass. Behold, a People Magazine exclusive about how the WLM crew loves Meghan and she was a great boss who shared food with everyone.

Director Michael Steed: Michael Steed, who previously worked on the Emmy-winning series Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, tells PEOPLE of his role on the show: “It was unexpected, but I embraced it…it was a lot of fun. I was always going to be the point of conversation, so she had someone to talk to at all times and make it more conversational and comfortable. But it certainly evolved to where the cameras turned towards me. Her cooking is pretty spot-on. She’s not a chef, and it’s definitely not meant to make it seem like she is, but there’s just a love of cooking that is palpable.”

Steed liked that everything wasn’t perfect: And while everything may have looked flawless on screen, Steed says the team wasn’t aiming for perfection. “For me, imperfection is a wonderful thing. It was fun watching her trying to get used to the kitchen, because it’s not her place, so we didn’t hide that fact, and she’s kind of walking and looking for things. I really wanted to embrace and celebrate all of the mistakes and mess and all that good stuff.” When it came to Meghan’s presence on set, Steed describes her as “friendly” and approachable, creating a “comfortable environment” for everyone involved. “Meghan as a person is totally L.A., California, through and through,” he says.

Meghan was tight with the crew, Steed says: “Her relationship with the crew became really tight fairly quickly. She has an understanding of what it means to be on set and she connected with the crew more than anyone.” Despite the high pressure of shooting, Steed notes that the atmosphere was still “chill” and “fun.” “Everyone was a pro all the way through. She’s a pro,” he says. In between scenes, Meghan would often play music, but Steed’s job was to keep things moving along. “I was always the one who had to turn the music off — that as my role to keep everything on track. She’d call me the ‘Brooklyn Bummer,’” he says with a laugh. “Everyone has their own version of her, but she’s just someone who’s constantly hustling and working. I really wanted to create an environment where she could relax, especially given the pressures she faces daily. I’m glad we could create moments where she could tap into a different side of herself.”

Steed on the key to Meghan: “I know it sounds corny, but I really think the core of Meghan’s being is her generosity. She wants to do the extra thing, and I think that’s something everyone should take to heart.”

A crew member on the vibe: “Most of the time, we’re expected to fade into the background, to be invisible,” a crew member tells PEOPLE about the collaborative atmosphere on set. “But in this show, we were part of it. We were included. It was a very unique and refreshing experience.” He adds that Meghan was incredibly “warm,” “approachable” and “genuine.” “She made sure everyone felt included, from Netflix executives to our director to every PA on set. No one was left out. During a break in filming, Meghan asked everyone about their favorite cocktails. I shared that I gave up drinking when I became a father, so I’ve been sober for almost 14 years,” the crew member says. Days later, while adjusting her microphone, Meghan surprised him when she mentioned how much she respected the commitment he’d made to his family. “Meghan made us feel seen,” he shares.

Each week, Meghan did something thoughtful for the crew. “Whether it was a coffee cart in the morning or there was one day where the forecast called for it to be particularly hot, and she had a shaved ice truck for us at lunch,” he says. “One day, she had a bespoke ice cream cart with local homemade ice cream. She had an acai truck for us, too. Every week, she did something like that for us. It was really lovely.”

Everyone got a taste: He notes that Meghan was also open to learning throughout the process. “She didn’t seem too married to any one idea. If something didn’t go perfectly, she was fine with it and moved on to the next thing,” he says. The crew member recalls that Meghan always made sure everyone got a taste of what was made. “She was a great hostess. Between takes, if something was ready to eat, she’d cut it into bite-sized pieces and serve it to us.” At the end of filming, Meghan gave the crew a wrap gift. “She gave us a pan from Our Place, a sauté-style fry pan. And a personally monogrammed spoon with her handwriting that says, ‘Thank You, Crew.’”

Meghan’s family visited: He also reflects on the visits from Prince Harry, Archie and Lilibet: “Whenever Harry visited set, he was always super polite and friendly. But it was clear he wanted this to be Meghan’s moment to shine.” As for the couple’s kids, the crew member adds: “She was super attentive and doting on them. We would give them headphones so they could listen to audio.”

They did shoot at the Sussexes’ property, all exteriors: “Man, they have carved themselves out a nice little slice of paradise there,” the crew member says. “We were by the chicken coop, the garden and the beehive. All of it is so peaceful and so serene. She’s got a lovely life there, and it was nice to just have a little glimpse of it.”

[From People]

People also had quotes from Roy Choi, Alice Waters and Daniel Martin, all of whom were guests on the show, and all of them had lovely things to say about Meghan. Choi was especially happy that Meghan was showcasing what it means to be an Angeleno, and how the mesh of cultures in LA were formative for Meghan. It’s great that the on-camera talent praised Meghan, but it feels more notable that the director and crew members are speaking out and getting ahead of the inevitable “Meghan is a mean boss” storyline, which is absolutely coming. I can’t believe People Mag didn’t find a crew member who felt bullied and ended up crying in one of Meghan’s eleventy billion bathrooms. “Meghan looked at me near Archie’s Chick Inn and I felt harassed!”

Photos courtesy of Netflix.

The sadness around the deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa have been compounded by the mysterious circumstances in which they were found. Their remains were found in their Santa Fe mansion, and one of their three dogs had also died. Early indications were that Hackman and Arakawa had been deceased for more than a week when their bodies were discovered. Various medical examiners and pathologists offered their theories about what happened, but as it turns out, the real situation was even sadder. Betsy Arakawa died of the hantavirus on or around February 11th. Gene, a 95-year-old with advanced Alzheimer’s, died on February 18th. Meaning, he was in that house alone with his wife’s body, and no one was taking care of him for a week after Betsy passed away on the bathroom floor.

The actor Gene Hackman died from heart disease about a week after his wife, Betsy Arakawa, died in a separate room of their New Mexico home from a virus linked to rodents, the authorities said on Friday. The revelation that the famous and reclusive couple had died of natural causes put to rest much of the speculation that followed the discovery of their bodies on Feb. 26. But it also raised new questions about the state of mind of Mr. Hackman, who investigators said had advanced Alzheimer’s disease, and why the couple was not discovered sooner.

Ms. Arakawa, 65, had run a series of errands on Feb. 11, but the authorities could find no evidence of any activity after that, suggesting that she could have died that day. Mr. Hackman, 95, is believed to have died about a week later, on Feb. 18, according to New Mexico’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Heather Jarrell.

Mr. Hackman was found on the floor of the mudroom in the couple’s home, near his cane, while Ms. Arakawa was found on a bathroom floor, beside a counter with common medication scattered about that investigators later determined did not play a role in her death. They were not discovered until Feb. 26, when a maintenance worker arrived to the couple’s home east of Santa Fe and grew worried when no one answered the door. The worker contacted a security guard, who called 911.

Dr. Jarrell said it was possible, given Mr. Hackman’s Alzheimer’s disease, that he did not know that his wife had died. It was unclear whether Mr. Hackman was able to take care of himself on his own. Autopsies were performed on the couple, Dr. Jarrell said, and Mr. Hackman’s showed that his stomach was empty, meaning he had not eaten recently, but she said he did not appear to be dehydrated.

Sheriff Adan Mendoza of Santa Fe County said investigators did not find any evidence that Mr. Hackman had communicated with anyone after his wife’s death.

[From The NY Times]

The sheriff also said that they had no way of knowing what Hackman was doing after Arakawa’s death, or if it even occurred to Hackman to seek help or call 911. It sounds like Arakawa was taking care of him by herself, and that she had not hired any in-home nursing staff or even just a general odd-job person to help out around the house? That’s crazy to me – in photos, you can see that she’s a great deal smaller and shorter than Hackman. Even though he was physically frail, wouldn’t she need some kind of help just to get him out of bed or help him move around? Everything I’ve read about the hantavirus is terrifying too. She likely didn’t even know she had it, or she thought it was just a cold or a sinus infection. God, this is such a tragic story.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red, Cover Images.

I do not remember the Windsors celebrating International Women’s Day so vocally and so online before this year. IWD was on Saturday, March 8th. Both Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace made social media posts about the day. KP, which is Prince William and Kate’s office, highlighted the “brilliant women who have inspired us over the last 12 month” and there was a thread of female humanitarians, environmentalists, Holocaust survivors, homelessness experts, a young Welsh speaker and the late Liz Hatton. It was a lovely thread which actually did an okay job of highlighting KP’s efforts online to at least do the bare minimum in spotlighting this work. But Buckingham Palace’s IWD thread is the one getting much more attention. BP decided to showcase “the Royal Family’s longstanding support for female photographers which stretches back as far as the advent of photography in the mid-1800s.” They did a thread of photos of female royals, photos taken by female photographers.

Today, on #InternationalWomensDay, we are showcasing the Royal Family’s longstanding support for female photographers which stretches back as far as the advent of photography in the mid-1800s.

From Frances Sally Day’s photographs of Queen Victoria in the 1850s, to Dorothy… pic.twitter.com/Y6OKJzzRBy

— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) March 8, 2025

They included portraits taken of Queen Camilla, Queen Victoria, Princess Anne, Queen Alexandra and the Duchess of Edinburgh. Um, notice anyone missing? LMAO. The Princess of Wales – Kate, I mean – was not featured as a subject OR a keen amateur photographer. Kate rarely poses formally for portraiture, and when she does, it’s always for a male photographer, I guess? And I also assume they didn’t want to highlight Kate’s “photography” given all of the kill notices and questions about how often Kate edits the crap out of her photos. Just for fun, I’m adding some Kensington Palace handout photos, allegedly taken by Kate. I’m also adding a couple of portraits taken by Paolo Roversi for Kate’s 40th in 2022, and… yeah, the Mother’s Day photo from last year. Why not.

Photos courtesy of Kensington Palace, cover courtesy of The Sun.

John Malkovich has an excellent interview in GQ’s March issue, all to promote his role in Opus. He plays a pop star who disappeared for decades only to reemerge as some kind of cult leader with a new album. Malkovich is now 71 years old and he works constantly on a wide variety of projects on stage, screen and television, plus he’s got weird little side-gigs that he does for money or to help out friends. He lost everything in 2008 in Bernie Madoff’s ponzi scheme, so he basically had to rebuild his savings from scratch and say yes to nearly everything he’s been offered. Which is why he’s become one of the most prolific actors of his generation, as well as one of the oddest. I didn’t even know he lives full time in Boston so he can be close to his granddaughter, but that’s where the interview takes place – in a rented home in Boston, surrounded by his granddaughter’s dolls. Some highlights from GQ:

He’s always been interested in aesthetics: “I was always interested in how things looked and in giving something visual cohesion. An architect that I was working with on a project once said to me, ‘Everything doesn’t have to match.’ And I thought, Yes, it does. What the f–k are you talking about? Of course it has to match.”

Why he never married his partner Nicoletta Peyran: “It was just never a big deal. Never a goal of hers, never really a goal of mine. And my first one didn’t work out so well.”

His granddaughter: “Her various toys—some are friends, some are frenemies, some are really out,” he says, breaking down some recent drama she had with one of those dolls. “She’s quite a bullsh-t artist, so you never know if she’s trying to get one over on you, especially me.”

He swears he’s not eccentric: “My mother once referred to me as a plodder. I think that’s absolutely correct…I think I’m the least eccentric person I know, actually.”

What he remembers about making ‘Con Air’: “It was hilarious. It was like the first thing I’d ever done just with men. Con Air was the first time [working] with guys that I wouldn’t necessarily invite them all into the house. They were always inviting me to places—like the bar they’d adopted as their hangout was called American Bush. Listen, I can’t go to a bar called American Bush. I mean, sorry. But in truth, they were quite funny, some supersmart, but it was just so male. Just wildly male.”

He’s been asked to do Marvel movies but declined: “The reason I didn’t do them had nothing to do with any artistic considerations whatsoever. I didn’t like the deals they made, at all. These films are quite grueling to make…. If you’re going to hang from a crane in front of a green screen for six months, pay me. You don’t want to pay me, it’s cool, but then I don’t want to do it, because I’d rather be onstage, or be directing a play, or doing something else.”

Bad at business: “I’m very bad at business because if I was good at business, I’d be rich. And it’s true that I think it’s a talent, it’s a skill like any other, really, and I don’t have it.”

Losing his life savings in the Bernie Madoff scandal: “Well, of course it’s my fault. It’s my money. For two days, we were kind of, ‘Oh, what are we going to do?’ Because it was really basically everything I’d ever made. But after a couple of days we were counting our blessings. So it was a good thing, all in all, really, to tell you the truth. In the way that it reacquaints you with the notion that most people don’t have millions of dollars to lose and they’ll never even meet anyone who does. They’ll never make it for doing something they really want to do and be praised doing it in some absurd way. So it wasn’t a bad thing.”

Losing his dear friend Julian Sands: “I’ve lost a lot of people in my life. There were seven in my family starting out, now we are two. And lost many, many friends, colleagues, over the years. But that’s life. And death obviously is irrevocable, but Jules is someone that was a big loss because he was younger than me and I always figured because he was so healthy and fit and always climbing mountains and doing this. He was a caveman, point of fact. I imagined him kind of wandering the moors at 120. So it was a shock and a very unpleasurable one, but it’s just another loss. You have some friends that can’t be replaced.”

[From GQ]

I love all of this and I wish I could read a John Malkovich interview every single day. He’s lovely. He IS eccentric, but in a nice way – he’s just unique and special and very talented. I love his description of his granddaughter as a “bulls–t artist” and his humility in describing losing his life savings. Kevin Spacey also lost his life savings in the Madoff situation too, and that’s why Spacey and Kyra Sedgwick worked so much post-2008 as well. Notice there’s never any story about him mistreating anyone or harassing anyone either – all of his coworkers have stories like “he shovels snow from his own driveway” and “he was the easiest person to work with, ever.”

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Post Malone probably split from his fiancee and he’s hard-launching a new girlfriend? His ex-fiancee is the mother of his almost 3-year-old daughter. [Just Jared]
Mindy Kaling’s many promotional looks. [RCFA]
What’s up with these Ben Affleck-Jennifer Garner stories? [LaineyGossip]
A review of Running Point, which is supposed to be good? [Pajiba]
Tom Ford’s new collection feels very Nine Inch Nails circa 1994? [Go Fug Yourself]
What did Teddy Swims do at the BRIT Awards? [Socialite Life]
Trisha Paytas tries Tim Hortons. [OMG Blog]
CBS has canceled S.W.A.T. for the third time? [Seriously OMG]
Rest in peace, Pamela Bach. [Hollywood Life]
Five years ago, the pandemic began. Here are some big cultural things that were happening around that same time. [Buzzfeed]

Post Malone Spotted Out with Rumored New Girlfriend amid Speculation He Ended His Engagement https://t.co/bXAvzjqqrY

— People (@people) March 7, 2025

I read most of Tina Brown’s 2022 book, The Palace Papers, and it felt at times like she had gotten other royalists to ghostwrite certain sections. There was a schizophrenic quality to it, especially in the chapters about Prince William and Kate versus the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. In the years since The Palace Papers, Brown has maintained this general perspective on the two couples: William and Kate are unprepared for everything and William is sick with jealousy over his brother’s charisma, freedom and happiness; on the other side, Brown believes that Meghan is ghastly and that she’s manipulating poor, dumb, charismatic Harry. This is all background for Tina Brown latest attempt at royal commentary, obviously about Meghan’s Netflix show.

Tina Brown, the founding editor of The Daily Beast, has said that Meghan Markle’s much-derided new Netflix show is a “cultural fossil” and that her appearance on it was “unbelievably inauthentic.”

In a Substack chat with Janice Min, the founder of the Hollywood gossip newsletter The Ankler, Min joked that the show, With Love, Meghan, felt like it was filmed in a “mental institution for wealthy women” and that Meghan’s guests looked like they were in “a hostage situation.”

Brown said: “To me, I felt like it was a cultural fossil…She’s always brilliant behind the curve, Meghan. You know what I mean? This was like flashback to 2013 to the era of The Tig, her blog, which was sort of shout-outs for humanitarian causes and Diptyque candles…it’s almost as if she wanted to airbrush out everything that happened since and sort of go back to that moment in time.”

Min responded: “It’s a little HGTV 2012, right? It was like when Megyn Kelly left Fox News and came to NBC and did her daytime talk show, and she’s like, ‘You know what? This is who I really am. I love moms and I love to cook and talk about raising kids.’ And then that flames out and she gets paid her check, and she comes back to, ‘I’m here to embrace Donald Trump and kill my enemies.’ She tried on a persona. It didn’t work…this is very, as the kids would say, trad wife. I was very surprised.”

Brown replied, “It was just so unbelievably inauthentic. She’s still searching for that thing that makes her authentic…It should have been her sitting there saying, ‘Will someone for God’s sake, get me an effing project? I don’t have anything to do. I can’t hang on to staff. I’m at my wit’s end. I mean, it actually would’ve been refreshing to have seen a bit of that.”

Min responded, “I would watch that all day long.”

Brown said: “I just feel bad for her because it’s like, she just gets it wrong. When she announced it, suddenly there was the fire. So she then has to put it off. So she puts it off and what happens is like, oh, World War III is happening around her. We have everybody’s minds on Zelensky and Ukraine, and she’s standing there with her country basket full of chives or whatever.”

Min said: “It feels like it was filmed in a mental institution for wealthy women. It kind of had that lobotomized vibe.” Min said she expected that the couple would remain in the limelight forever, not least because Archie was going to be “the coolest royal” and the “fresh prince of Montecito.”

[From The Daily Beast]

Let’s talk about the “inauthentic” criticism, because I find that very British-coded. As in, that’s how so many British people (especially upper-class Brits) reacted to Meghan and Meghan’s race and Americanness. They were suspicious from the word go that this American actress smiled and wanted to do charity work and had any kind of work ethic. They found Meghan “inauthentic” simply because she is a Black, American woman with a sunny disposition, and because Meghan wasn’t desperate to “fit in” with their world and jump through their hoops. They’re even more upset these days because she took the better prince and they both refuse to “come to heel.”

The thing about “this is very HGTV 2012” is also sort of interesting to me because the way WLM is filmed and the sunniness of the host and the style IS very Obama-era, very “remember The Tig?” I hesitate to call it “retro” because that was just a decade ago, but it absolutely is the vibe. But I also think that’s fine? Like, there was a reason why that programming was so successful in its time, and I’m really pleased that Meghan is bringing it back. I’m tired of every cooking show being a “competition” these days. Just let me watch an attractive hostess with a pleasant voice cook & arrange flowers in a beautiful home. Anyway, Tina Brown has always had a bug up her ass about Meghan. If only Tina would turn her ire to the heir full-time.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Netflix.

About a month ago, Donald Trump announced extreme tariffs on Canadian, Mexican and Chinese goods. The market reacted with horror & outrage, as did our North American allies. PM Justin Trudeau and Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum both got on the phone with Trump and he backed down within a few days, bizarrely declaring victory even though nothing had been achieved. Earlier this week, the idiotic cycle began again, with Trump announcing 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods, effective this week. While the Canadian government has tried to negotiate with the Trump administration, PM Trudeau has had enough of this BS, and he publicly accused Trump of acting in “bad faith” (it’s true). Soon afterwards, Trump and Trudeau got on a call which, according to the Wall Street Journal, “grew heated and included profanity.” (See update below)

President Trump signed executive orders suspending new tariffs on many imports from Mexico and Canada, two days after he imposed sweeping levies of 25 percent on two of America’s closest economic partners. The exemptions, on goods covered by the trilateral trade pact Mr. Trump signed in his first term, were a whipsaw reversal that followed days of economic turmoil. Stocks in the United States closed down 1.8 percent on Thursday.

[From The NY Times]

While I have absolutely zero faith in Trump and the vile psychopath clownshow that is the Trump administration, what I do have nominal faith in is the self-interest and greed of the business class, the MAGA donor class. And I actually think they started to make their voices heard to Trump and Congressional Republicans. As in, cut out the monthly tariff melodramas, the stock market is going haywire and we’re losing billions. The coverage from Bloomberg and WSJ show this perfectly – the business class (which supported Trump) is pissed off that Trump is doing way too much. I also think a quiet revolt in the donor class might explain why Trump is suddenly making moves to fence in Elon Musk’s DOGE too.

Update by CB: An earlier version of this story stated that Trudeau cursed out Trump. Time quoted a senior Canadian official who stated that Trump used profanity while Trudeau did not:

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said earlier Thursday that he expects Canada and the U.S. to be in a trade war for the foreseeable future after having what he called a colorful but constructive call with Trump on Wednesday.

A senior Canadian government official said the call became heated and Trump used profanity when Trump complained about protections in Canada’s dairy industry. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly about the call, said Trudeau did not use profanity.

[From Time]

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Despite the review-bombing, despite the forever tantrums of the British media, despite the condescension from the trade papers, it looks like With Love, Meghan is a hit show for Netflix. It might even be the case that all of the critics’ hissy fits worked in the Duchess of Sussex’s favor – it made everyday, non-royal-watchers more curious about the show. Plus, to Meghan’s credit, she got out there and promoted the show and actually put herself out there in a way we haven’t seen since she promoted Archetypes in 2022. WLM is a top-ten show for Netflix in dozens of countries already. Which begs the question: will the left-behind Windsors tune in? LMAO. Thankfully, Katie Nicholl at Vanity Fair had this very snooty exclusive:

It is the show that Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, is hoping will reinvent her, but so far With Love, Meghan has received mixed reviews. In the UK, the critics have not held back, with the Daily Telegraph describing Meghan’s new lifestyle show as “an exercise in narcissism,” while the normally anti-royal and left-wing newspaper The Guardian described it as “pointless.” Vanity Fair contributing editor Anna Peele summed it up as, “To watch With Love is to microdose quotidian revelations.”

As for the royal family? Its senior members, including Prince William and Kate Middleton, have “zero interest” in watching the TV show, according to people with knowledge, with one source saying, “The king knows more than enough about beekeeping. Besides, he’s far too busy to sit down and watch it.”

In episode one (“Hello, Honey!”), Meghan is seen harvesting honey from her beehives. Both King Charles (Buckingham Palace is home to four beehives) and the Princess of Wales are keen beekeepers, but according to one friend of the royals, “There’s very little to actually learn from Meghan’s TV show. I suspect that [the royal family] will be quite dismissive of it. I can’t imagine Kate and William will sit down and watch it. Why would they?”

Editor in chief of Majesty magazine Ingrid Seward tells Vanity Fair, “I watched it wanting it to be something special, but it really wasn’t. This was meant to be the make or break show for Meghan but it didn’t feel groundbreaking in any way. Netflix might get curiosity viewings but I think this will be the death knell for their multimillion-dollar TV deal.”

Seward added that the lack of humor on Meghan’s part, along with the absence of her celebrity friends, made the show disappointing. “I liked it that she had guests, but they weren’t globally recognized. Serena Williams would have been great. And I thought it was humorless, it needed a big injection of fun and self-deprecation on Meghan’s part. There was nothing terribly funny like something splashed over that ridiculously white blouse.”

[From Vanity Fair]

“I liked it that she had guests, but they weren’t globally recognized.” You know who’s globally recognized? The Duchess of Sussex, aka Meghan Sussex. You know who will get significant bumps from their WLM appearances? Every single guest. Roy Choi is basically a rock star now. The world is getting to meet Vicky Tsai, who is extremely funny and charming and a fellow female entrepreneur. Mindy Kaling is extremely famous on her own, and she’s now cosigned Archetypes AND WLM.

As for what the royals think of the show they refuse to watch… I actually believe that Charles will avoid it, after all, he refused to read his son’s memoir. Camilla will absolutely watch WLM. Kate and William will watch it as well, although probably not together. This is so much like the H&M series in late 2022 – the Windsors sniffed and rolled their eyes about how of course they would not watch it… and then spent months revealing that they watched every minute of it. Kate really is about to come out in a loose white blouse, jazz hands a’ blazin’, arranging flowers and frying chicken wings. William is going to “mention” that he loves his wife’s crudité platters, mark my word.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Netflix, Cover Images.