Angela Bassett was “gobsmacked” when she lost the Oscar to Jamie Lee Curtis last year. Bassett also said it was a “supreme disappointment.” [OMG Blog]
Lupita Nyong’o & Joshua Jackson were hot & heavy in Mexico before the Oscars, and there are even more photos, hurray! [LaineyGossip]
This is one of the funniest political headlines of the week. [Jezebel]
Another explainer on the Rose Hanbury situation! [Pajiba]
St. Patrick’s Day trivia! [Buzzfeed]
Valerie Bertinelli is dating, two years after her brutal divorce. [JustJared]
Trip Wilson gives me Cristiano Ronaldo vibes. [Socialite Life]
Kim Kardashian & Bianca Censori hung out together. [Hollywood Life]
Gasp, John Legend had to walk his own dogs. [Seriously OMG]
Who was the best-dressed at the VF Oscar party? [RCFA]

It’s surprising that Us Weekly and not People Magazine put the Princess of Wales/Mother’s Day fiasco on their cover this week. People Mag is running a cover with Christina Applegate, and while I know Applegate is a well-liked and sympathetic figure for People’s readers, it does feel like a rather pointed editorial decision. My theory is that People Mag thinks something bigger is coming out soon and they’re saving everything for A Very Special Royal Divorce Issue. As for this Us Weekly cover story, it actually has some interesting quotes from “insiders” and unnamed associates of Prince William and Kate. It’s been months and apparently many of Kate’s staffers still haven’t seen her or spoken to her? And everyone is still being really tight-lipped about what the big mystery medical situation was in the first place.

The strange unfolding of events has only added to growing concerns about the 42-year-old princess. According to one royal source, Kate is “doing well” but has no intentions of sharing more about her condition with the public for now.

“Whatever the reason for the operation was, it’s of a personal nature, and Kate wants to keep the details as private as possible,” explains the source, adding that even some members of her own family are still in the dark. “Perhaps when she’s feeling up to it, she may reveal more, but she’s not making any promises.”

A second source says the palace is being “very hush-hush” about the whole situation. “A few of Kate’s senior staffers haven’t been able to see or speak to her, and they didn’t even know about the surgery until it was announced, so it’s caught them off guard,” the source claims to Us. Kate has just recently started to open up to members of her inner circle about the nature of her operation and recovery process. “Only a few people know what’s really going on, and they’re tight-lipped.”

The source says Kate’s had a few visitors — including King Charles III (who is receiving treatment for cancer, which Buckingham Palace announced on February 5), and his wife, Queen Camilla — but is otherwise covered by a “shroud of secrecy.” The source adds, “It’s confusing and causing some concern.”

Kate understands the curiosity — but aside from her closest family and friends, she’s adamant about maintaining some sense of privacy. “Kate’s said she feels she’s entitled to heal and recuperate without all of this frenzied speculation,” says the first source, noting that it was the princess’ decision to keep details about her surgery under wraps. “Neither Kate nor William think her medical records should be for public consumption.”

“She’s trying not to pay attention to all the rumors and gossip, and William is doing his best to shield her, but it’s distressing,” says the first source. William is at his wit’s end over the constant questions about his wife as he continues to fill in for his ailing dad and help out with the kids at home. Adds the source: “This has been a stressful time for William and Kate, but they’re made of tough stuff and are weathering through.”

According to the source, it was a “collective decision” to share the ill-fated Mother’s Day post. There’s talk the palace was frantically trying to control the chaos. “[The idea was that] Kate could thank members of the public for all the support and at the same time put some of those ridiculous conspiracy rumors to rest.”

Kate has taken the fall with her photo-editing confession, but it’s been a PR disaster. That’s the last thing the royal family needs right now, with Kate and Charles, 75, recuperating, and William pulling double duty to cover for them. (Camilla, 76, took some time off in early March after exhausting herself with 13 official engagements.)

“There’s an unsettling feeling that things are crumbling within the monarchy,” says the source. “William is under tremendous pressure to keep things afloat.”

[From Us Weekly]

“There’s an unsettling feeling that things are crumbling within the monarchy”– thanks, source, we got that! As for all of the secrecy and furtiveness… it would be wild if every part of this months-long catastrophe was simply “Kate not wanting to admit to an ‘embarrassing’ medical situation.” While I think the medical drama is legitimate, I also believe other things are happening here, including chronic palace mismanagement and William having one foot out the door with this marriage.

Photos courtesy of Instar, Cover Images, Backgrid. Cover courtesy of Us Weekly.

“Royal commentator” Dickie Arbiter was crying on Twitter on Wednesday about how people are still talking about the Princess of Wales’s janky Mother’s Day photo and the subsequent sh-tstorm. Arbiter tweeted: “Many of today’s UK morning papers are still squeezing the pips out of the Wales’ Mothering Sunday pic – you’ve had your ‘pound of flesh’ and some – time now to move on people.” Time to move on?? Really? That’s not what he would have said if the Sussexes had been tangled up in a similar situation. Besides that, the story hasn’t ended – things are still happening all around the Frankenphoto Fiasco. The global new director of Agence France-Presse was just interviewed and he ripped into Kensington Palace and compared them to North Korea.

One of the world’s biggest news agencies has claimed that Kensington Palace is no longer a “trusted source” after the furor over Kate Middleton‘s doctored Mother’s Day image. Phil Chetwynd, global news director of Agence France-Presse (AFP), told BBC Radio 4’s Media Show that the agency has reviewed its relationship with the Prince and Princess of Wales and will rigorously inspect future picture handouts from the royals.

Such a statement would have been unthinkable just a few days ago, but Chetwynd said the image raised “major issues” for AFP. He admitted that the agency should never have verified its use because it “violated our guidelines.” Middleton has apologized for “confusion” over the photo, which she attributed to an “experiment with editing.” Kensington Palace has not commented further and has declined to publish the original image, which was purportedly taken by Prince William this year.

Asked by Media Show presenter Ros Atkins if Kensington Palace is a trusted source, Chetwynd replied: “No, absolutely not. Like with anything, when you’re let down by a source the bar is raised … We sent out notes to all our teams at the moment to be absolutely super more vigilant about the content coming across our desk — even from what we would call trusted sources.”

Chetwynd revealed that the major news agencies, including Associated Press and Reuters, spoke before issuing notices to “kill” the picture on Sunday. He said Kensington Palace was asked if it would provide the original, but the agencies did not receive a reply and the image was pulled.

Chetwynd said it is unusual for media agencies to demand that photos be taken out of circulation. “To kill something on the basis of manipulation [is rare. We do it] once a year maybe, I hope less. The previous kills we’ve had have been from the North Korean news agency or the Iranian news agency,” he explained.

Chetwynd added: “One thing that’s really important is you cannot be distorting reality for the public. There’s a question of trust. And the big issue here is one of trust, and the lack of trust and the falling trust of the general public in institutions generally and in the media. And so it’s extremely important that a photo does represent broadly the reality that it’s seen in.”

[From Deadline]

Something which I want to reemphasize, which has gotten somewhat lost in the days-long fiasco: “He said Kensington Palace was asked if it would provide the original, but the agencies did not receive a reply and the image was pulled.” I’ve seen many royalists claim that international media outlets are “bullying” poor Kate and that how was she to know that she bungled the photo-editing so badly. KP knew on Sunday, as soon as Reuters, AP, AFP and Getty got in touch with them and began pressing them for an edited copy, that they had f–ked up. They even had a chance to get ahead of it or simply release the “original.” Instead, they froze in panic and refused to speak to these news agencies. What an unprofessional way to do business.

As for everything else Phil Chetwynd says… the comparison to North Korea, the “absolutely not” to whether KP is a trusted source, the promise to examine everything coming out of the palace… this sh-t is getting good. I hope these agencies, like CNN, go back into the archives and examine those as well. I’m adding more KP-released photos in this post to highlight!

Photos courtesy of Kensington Palace.

It’s hilarious to me that the Mother’s Day Photo Fiasco has so many moving parts and so many confusing side-stories. The biggest issue, arguably, is that the Frankenphoto was cobbled together, likely using much older pics, none of which were taken by Prince William, and that the Frankenphoto was so egregious that six news outlets killed the pic from their archives. But as that controversy rages on, a surprising number of people are pointing out something very interesting: whoever created the Frankenphoto clearly wanted to send a message by having “Kate” without her wedding band or Big Blue. Multiple royalists have complained about that alone: if you’re touching up a proof-of-life photo, why not add Kate’s rings? Unless that’s the point. Now the ring issue, combined with Stephen Colbert’s segment on Prince William’s alleged affair with Rose Hanbury, has led to this very interesting exclusive in the Daily Beast:

Speculation over the health of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s marriage, triggered by the absence of a wedding band on Kate’s ring finger in her notorious Mother’s Day photograph, has been thrust firmly back into the mainstream after Stephen Colbert trolled Prince William in his monologue Tuesday with rumors of an affair. Colbert astonished audiences Tuesday night by referring to an affair William is widely alleged to have had with his neighbor, Rose Hanbury, the Marchioness of Cholmondeley. The palace has repeatedly denied an affair ever took place.

A former royal staffer told The Daily Beast that Colbert’s comments would be “deeply annoying” as William and Kate’s office at Kensington Palace desperately tries to course correct after a tumultuous few days of headlines. The former courtier, who worked with William and Kate when employed at the palace, said, “It’s deeply annoying and unhelpful for the palace, but it’s not surprising that the affair rumors are being reheated. What else are people supposed to think when she sends out a photo not wearing her wedding ring?”

Another source, who is a friend of Kate and William’s, said that they and their friend group were “completely baffled” as to why Kate put out a picture which showed her without a wedding band when it seemed “guaranteed to get people asking questions about the state of the marriage.”

The friend said: “They are often seen together at school events, and really it is remarkable how one and often both of them will always be at every match, every music concert and every prize giving. The relationship has always seemed incredibly strong despite the immense pressure they are under, so it’s fair to say we were all completely baffled when the picture came out with the wedding ring missing, especially as it was photoshopped. It just seemed guaranteed to get people asking questions about the state of the marriage.”

The affair rumors go back to 2019 when The Daily Beast reported on palace lawyers’ attempts to suppress reporting of the alleged affair by issuing stern legal notices to British publications, cautioning them not to write about the rumors. At the time, official sources in Kensington Palace told The Daily Beast that the allegations were “totally wrong and false.” Royal law firm Harbottle and Lewis issued letters to the British media stating that the stories were “false and highly damaging.” British newspapers instead reported that there had been a terrible argument between former friends Kate and Rose without giving a cause.

[From The Daily Beast]

I’m always amused by the argument of “Will & Kate’s marriage is fine, they turn up at school events together.” Yeah, pre-2024, they never had much on their plate work-wise, so of course they go to their kids’ school events. It doesn’t mean their marriage is strong, nor does it mean they’re actually living in the same home, nor does it mean that William is a faithful husband. Now that Colbert has discussed Rose Hanbury/Marchioness of Cholmondeley on American network television, he’s giving cover to all media outlets to revisit the Rose saga and report on it openly, five years after the story first broke and five years after Kensington Palace threw the Sussexes to the wolves to deflect from William’s wandering sceptre. That is what will be fascinating to watch: how will Huevo deflect from the renewal of the Rose conversation?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Kensington Palace.

Misan Harriman is a British photographer and filmmaker, and for years, he’s been one of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s favorite photographers. The Sussexes have asked Misan to photograph some really special moments, including Princess Lili’s first birthday portrait, Meghan’s appearance at One World Vision in 2022, and their pregnancy announcement in 2021, when Meghan was pregnant with Lili. That pregnancy announcement photo was shot remotely by Misan and released through formal channels as a black-and-white image. It quickly became iconic and representative of Harry and Meghan’s new life in California, on their large Montecito estate, sitting peacefully underneath the beautiful trees in their backyard.

Well, because the British media is contemptible and they’re desperate to change the subject away from Prince William & Kate’s Mother’s Day photo fiasco, several British outlets ran stories on Wednesday about how the Sussexes’ pregnancy announcement was a “manipulated” photo too. The Telegraph’s original headline was “Meghan branded ‘huge hypocrite’ over ‘doctored’ pregnancy photo.” Victoria Ward bizarrely claimed that Misan had spliced in an image of a “large willow tree.” Ward then quoted Angela Levin, who said: “The Sussexes’ camp are huge hypocrites. A tree was doctored in their photograph to create a special backdrop so how dare their camp say anything about Catherine’s?”

Except the British media lied about a photographer who is online and has no qualms about defending himself. Misan released a scathing statement about those allegations, AND he released the “unedited” version of the pregnancy-announcement pic. All he did was turn a color photo into a black and white photo. He didn’t add a tree or anything else – he did something millions of candid photographers do, turn color pics into B&W pics. And honestly, I sort of wish he hadn’t, because the original pic is even more gorgeous. Oh, and it’s not a willow tree either – it’s a Jacaranda tree. Now that Misan has released the original color image, I hope the Telegraph will demand that Kensington Palace also post the original, undoctored “Mother’s Day photo” of Kate.

My statement after seeing the @MailOnline article. pic.twitter.com/amHGE9fI3D

— Misan Harriman (@misanharriman) March 13, 2024

The original Jpeg without the black and White grade, I expect a full apology and retraction from @MailOnline @Telegraph @victoria_ward

No trees or meadows were moved or swapped, this is the image straight out of camera.

Also that is a Jacaranda Tree, not a willow tree. pic.twitter.com/A9wmrlq5Ow

— Misan Harriman (@misanharriman) March 13, 2024

Photos courtesy of Misan Harriman and Avalon Red.

Increasingly, one of my favorite things is when there’s some huge royal story happening, and then in the background, other royals and royal-adjacents are carrying on like nothing is happening. The international media and social media has turned the Princess of Wales’s disappearance and the Mother’s Day photo fiasco into the biggest story of the week, and something which easily overshadowed the OSCARS, for the love of god. There’s been a sh-t ton of coverage across the board, and it’s a global catastrophe for the Windsors. And in the background, we’re getting the Cheltenham Festival, a horserace which is well-attended by royals and the well-heeled.

Yesterday was “Ladies Day” (or something, I won’t get into it) at Cheltenham, and it was attended by Queen Camilla, Princess Eugenie, Jack Brooksbank, Zara Tindall and Mike Tindall. Celebrities were there, as were horsey aristocrats. Eugenie, Jack, Zara and Mike all acted as if they didn’t have a care in the world, like none of the Kensington Palace fiasco sh-t was still churning away. I guess when it’s an event you really want to attend, it doesn’t matter. It would probably also look worse if no one from the family attended this big horse event which the royals always attend every year. Like, if no one turned up, we would definitely think that both the king and Princess of Wales were dying, right?

Anyway, Zara looked nice in her pantsuit, but most women wore dresses and smart coats, like Eugenie. Eugenie just comes and goes as she pleases – whenever we haven’t seen her in a while, I just assume that she and Jack are in Portugal, where he’s been working for almost two years, I believe. Jack looks like a supporting character in an adaptation of a John le Carre book. So does Mike Tindall, honestly.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

Embed from Getty Images
Another awards season has come and gone. And with that, some actors are back to work. After the Oscars, Ryan Gosling headed out to SXSW for the premiere of his new movie The Fall Guy (more on that in Kismet’s coverage here). While there, Ryan gave People some more behind-the-scenes info about his awesome performance of “I’m Just Ken,” which brought the house down. We know that Eva Mendes was backstage to support Ryan at some point because she posted pictures to Instagram. I’ve been trying to find an official confirmation as to whether or not Eva was there during the actual ceremony. I suspect, though, based on her clothing and caption telling him to come home and “put the kids to bed,” that the pictures were taken at the final dress rehearsal.

This may be as close to a confirmation that we’re going to get, but during his interview, Ryan told People that Eva and his daughters sat in the front row at a dress rehearsal the day before the ceremony. They also gave him plenty of notes on his performance. Eva and Ryan have two daughters together, Esmeralda Amada, nine, and Amada Lee, seven.

Speaking exclusively to PEOPLE at the world premiere of The Fall Guy at SXSW in Austin on Tuesday, Gosling, 43, opened up about how he got some crucial advice from his long-term partner Eva Mendes and their daughters Esmeralda Amada, 9, and Amada Lee, 7, ahead of the show.

“It was great,” the Barbie star tells PEOPLE. “It was so fun because they came to the dress rehearsal the day before and so they were in the front row. ”

“They gave me some tips and some notes, all great notes,” he continues. “They are such a huge part of this for me…it was my girl’s interest in Barbie and disinterest in Ken that got me into this in the first place. It was beautiful to have them there at the end.”

Gosling stole the show at the 96th Academy Awards on Sunday with his live performance of “I’m Just Ken” which lost out to the Billie Eilish song “What Was I Made For?” for the award of Best Original Song.

The actor was accompanied by song co-writer Mark Ronson, Wolfgang Van Halen, Slash and a group of men dressed in suits and cowboy hats for the performance — including his fellow ‘Kens’ Scott Evans, Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir and Ncuti Gatwa.

Reacting to a video of Martin Scorsese vibing to the performance inside the Dolby Theatre on Sunday, Mendes, 50, later wrote that the Instagram re-post by Francesca Scorsese’s was “the best video ever.”

[From People]

Awww, that’s so sweet and great that they got to come and watch the dress rehearsal. I wonder if friends at school have talked to them about Barbie and if that’s piqued their interest in it more or less, lol. Ryan has talked about how his daughters influenced and inspired him to play Ken, particularly when he realized that they loved their Barbies, but didn’t care so much about Ken (he was always number two). So it’s a nice ending to his journey as Ken that they would also be there to support him and give him some last-minute tips and pointers. What a nice little full circle moment for the Mendes-Goslings.

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Photos credit: Jennifer Bloc/Future Image/Cover Images, IMAGO/Jennifer Bloc / Avalon and Getty

Ari Aster’s next film, Eddington, will star Emma Stone, Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Austin Butler & Luke Grimes! [Buzzfeed]
HL is running a “who is Rose Hanbury” story too. [Hollywood Life]
Ryan Gosling took his Oscar performance seriously! [LaineyGossip]
Who was the best-dressed at the Oscars? What was notable, to me, was that no one really looked terrible. There were a few not-great dresses, but for the most part, the ladies looked either amazing or just okay. [RCFA]
The Batman Part 2 has been delayed. [Pajiba]
Oscar party wrap-up – Serena Williams was out! [Go Fug Yourself]
Tilda Swinton stars in an arty short film. [OMG Blog]
Kristen Stewart is in promotional mode. [Just Jared]
Chucky got old, he needs some Botox. [Seriously OMG]
An eviction for a Seeking Sister Wife couple. [Starcasm]

Five years ago, almost exactly, The Sun published Dan Wootton’s now-infamous “rural rival” story, in which he left enough breadcrumbs to indicate that Kate Middleton, then the Duchess of Cambridge, was trying to “phase out” Norfolk aristocrat Rose Hanbury, the Marchioness of Cholmondeley. It was left unsaid why Kate had such a bug up her bum about Rose, but of course people quickly learned the gossip ripping its way through the posh set and the Norfolk aristocratic circles: Prince William and Rose were allegedly engaged in a torrid affair, and when Kate found out, she got mad and tried to push Rose out of their social circle. The thing is, Rose can’t be pushed out – she’s married to David Rocksavage, who was at the time the Lord Great Chamberlain, a hereditary role which meant he and Rose attended all of the fanciest royal events. When King Charles became king, he appointed Rocksavage as his lord-in-waiting too.

There’s a long, dirty history here, which we’ve covered extensively for years – go here to see our Rose Hanbury archives. (Note by CB: You can also get the top stories about Prince William’s affair when you sign up for our mailing list!) For what it’s worth, Kate and Rose have seemingly buried the hatchet and they still socialize with each other, and I’ve even gotten the impression that Rose has pity for Kate. Rose and David are still welcome in the highest echelons of British society, and they attended last year’s coronation. I also believe that Rose and William’s alleged affair was probably over a while ago. But! Given all of the weirdness around Kate and William this year, the Rose story has cropped up once again. The Independent did a weird side chick soft-launch of “who is the Marchioness of Cholmondeley” this week, and Twitter is ablaze with speculation, gossip history and deeply funny tweets about Rose. What I didn’t expect was Stephen Colbert devoting a segment to Rose and the affair rumors on his show last night, I’ve queued it the relevant part:

You guys… it’s mainstream. It’s super-mainstream. This isn’t some random internet gossip which can be shut down with legal threats from Kensington Palace. This is American network television!

https://t.co/H1tHW0YafW pic.twitter.com/sXmMZrpsWR

— Kaiser@Celebitchy (@KaiseratCB) March 12, 2024

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Tina Brown was on CBS Mornings on Tuesday as one of their on-call “royal experts.” CBS, like other networks and American media outlets, has been covering all of the Princess of Wales drama for weeks now. The fact that King Charles and Kate fell ill at the same time in January was obviously a big story, but everything ticked up several notches when Prince William skipped his godfather’s memorial service while Kate had been MIA for over two months. That was really the start of this current catastrophe. In any case, Tina Brown is, in my opinion, a compromised “royal expert.” Her last book, The Palace Papers, was very heavy on a Middleton-centric narrative, and Brown has repeatedly said that the monarchy depends on William and Kate’s marriage, and if the marriage implodes, so too will the monarchy. Well, Brown was in rare form on CBS – she actually called out the incompetence of Kensington Palace and said outright that the wheels have come off. LOL.

Brown on Kensington Palace: “The palace did always say, ‘We’re not going to give you any health updates on [Kate’s] condition. She’s going to have this operation, and she’ll be back.’ She is indeed [entitled to privacy] and should have it. The problem is that when you release the picture, it is a health update. The picture is a health update saying, ‘Look at me, look at us, I’m perfectly fine.’ So, of course the world descends on that picture to dissect it. So I think that was the great mistake they made.”

She doesn’t think there was one original photo: “I’m deeply skeptical that there was an ‘original’. I think it’s a jigsaw of different pictures.” KP just keeps “digging themselves deeper into this mess, frankly, that they’ve created for themselves.”

Kate needs to wave from a car: “At the end of her life, Queen Elizabeth II, she had bone cancer. And in the last eight months of her life, she was on Zoom. She managed to come out onto that balcony and hold onto that stick. People didn’t realize that she was actually wheelchair bound in the last six months of her life. The public never saw that, but that was what it was. So why they can’t simply have Kate on a sort of, 50-second Zoom, saying, ‘I’m here, I’m fine.’ Bam. That’s the end of it. The kind of hiding that they’re doing, it seems excessive to me. I think all she needs to do is wave from a car window. That’s really all she needs to do. And smile. And it’s puzzling that that doesn’t happen.”

Why is everything so chaotic? “It’s possible that this was a transitional bad staffing situation, where no one is really properly paying attention, but clearly the public is going to look at a hand with no wedding ring and say, ‘Where is it?’ I think that the wheels are coming off in terms of the sort of press situation there at the palace.”

Whether Brown believes that Kate was the one who edited the photo: “I don’t [buy that]. Actually, I think there is no PR strategy. I think that they’re flailing and we need to have a new PR person come into the palace and start having a strategy about these issues.”

You can’t completely disappear in the year of our lord Beyonce 2024: “This old idea, really, that you can completely disappear, it just doesn’t work. It didn’t work in [Princess] Diana’s day. I do think [Kate] clearly feels ill and depleted, and she wants this time. But I also think, you know, there’s been so much strain and stress on her. She’s been trying to say, ‘Can I just recover quietly and in peace?’ just like Diana tried. And they won’t let you do it.”

[From CBS News]

FLAILING! There is no PR strategy! Ill and depleted! Now, I have no idea if Brown has exclusive tea or if she (like so many royal commentators) tailored her message for skeptical Americans, but it does feel like the floodgates have opened and people like Brown and various Mail columnists feel perfectly comfortable saying that Kensington Palace is completely inept and that something is dreadfully wrong here.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Kensington Palace.