The color scheme for this year’s Vanity Fair Oscar party backdrop was so weird and dated this year – basically a mustard-orange and a muted red. Basically, people who wore white really “popped,” and everyone else kind of clashed. Speaking of, Kim Kardashian wore a surprisingly great Balenciaga gown to this year’s VF Oscar party. I love the neckline, don’t hate me. Her styling is good as well – a sort of brunette Veronica Lake, with decent makeup.

Kylie Jenner wore Ludovic de Saint Sernin. Call me crazy, but I like this? She looks good. Don’t get me wrong, she looks like she’s already had more plastic surgery than Kim. But she looks okay.

Kendall Jenner wore Maison Margiela Haute Couture. I like this? It’s flattering and it looks like a typical Oscar party dress.

And the matriarch of this wretched clan, Kris Jenner.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Jennifer Lawrence turned up to the VF Oscar party in this vintage (1996) Givenchy Haute Couture dress. Thoughts? I hate it and I can’t believe this is a vintage piece from the ‘90s. You know what it reminds me of? The fact that Jane Austen adaptations were all the rage at the time and several designers pulled inspo from that kind of Austen-esque costume design. J-Law is only 33 years old and whatever she’s doing to her face has her looking ten years older, I swear to god.

Sydney Sweeney in vintage Marc Bouwer. Recognize this? Angelina Jolie wore this to the Oscars in 2004. It’s literally the same dress too – Sydney’s stylist arranged to get it out of archival storage and had to agree not to alter the dress whatsoever. I love that Sydney and her stylist stan La Jolie.

Margot Robbie in vintage Mugler. I’m not into this, nor do I think it looks like a fun party ensemble, but I hope she knocked back a few stiff drinks and partied.

Sandra Huller in Schiaparelli. Bonkers and very fun. She surprised me with some of her fashion choices throughout the season. She’s a bit offbeat.

Greta Lee in Loewe. This is fine? A pretty party dress, nothing more.

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Diane Kruger in Givenchy. What does this remind you of? To me, it’s giving Weimar Republic, it’s giving Cabaret. Hilariously bad and costume-y.

Kylie Minogue, on a sort of victory lap after getting back to #1 on the charts with “Padam Padam” last year. Her dress isn’t good but it’s colorful and fun.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Getty, Cover Images.

I don’t have one coherent theory for exactly what happened with the The Mother’s Day Photo Catastrophe of 2024. I’ve watched some of the TikToks and seen a lot of the tweets, and my best guess is that originally, this was a months-old photo which was recently and poorly edited, and they plopped an even older pic of “Kate’s head” onto the months-old photo to create some kind of Frankenstein’s monster of a Mother’s Day portrait. Then Kensington Palace arrogantly decided that everything looked great and people were too stupid to figure out what was done, and that’s when everything went sideways. One of the most egregious lies, in my opinion, is the insistence that William took the photo last week. Like, KP is still sticking with that as their official story, which is bonkers. In the past 48 hours, photo experts and professional analysts have come out of the woodwork to figure out what the hell happened here. Many of them have settled on the “Kate’s head was plopped onto this photo” theory too.

The digital fingerprint of the Princess of Wales’s family photograph suggests that she merged multiple images using Photoshop. Analysis of data embedded in the image indicates that a copy and paste function was used, most likely in the section featuring her face. The method appears to be confirmed by the clear horizontal line stretching across the Princess’s chest, albeit not exactly in line.

The “metadata” suggests that the photograph was taken on Friday at Adelaide Cottage, the family’s Windsor home. The first edit was made at 9.54pm that evening, with the second at 9.39am on Saturday morning. Data show that the image was saved in photo editing software Adobe Photoshop twice on an Apple Mac.

The photograph was taken on a Canon 5D mark IV, which retails at £2,929, using a Canon 50mm lens, which is priced at £1,629. The Prince of Wales took the photograph.

[From The Telegraph]

Yeah, the “merging multiple photos” or Frankenstein Photo Theory is a popular one and I think it makes sense. It would also explain Kensington Palace’s refusal to release “the original” photo, because their web of lies would unravel quickly, especially if this was based on a photo taken last November(and not by William). CNN got an MIT professor on the case and this guy says it was a Frankenstein image.

There are three types of photo manipulation, according to Ramesh Raskar, an associate professor at MIT Media Lab who’s worked on special photography and images projects for Apple and Facebook over the years: appearance, where the tones or lighting may change; geometric, which involves moving around subjects or objects; and generative AI, a more recent concept that allows users to write text prompts that generate completely new images. He said Kate’s picture appeared to have both appearance and geometric changes, and was likely not AI-generated.

“The manipulation in this image is very unique,” he said, noting changes that impacted the placement of her children’s clothing. “It’s unlikely that it was ever one single image. A photo editing app probably introduced these errors.”

He said he believes the “subtle” edits were done very finely, potentially with a third-party app or editing software such as Photoshop, versus using built-in smartphone tools. He noted that similar errors can occur if a user starts splicing and merging different images together. “It all comes from real pieces of photos, but it’s more like a collage.”

But even Photoshop is becoming less complex to use with the introduction of generative-AI tools being added directly to the software. Although Kate’s errors are apparent, Raskar said it will soon become harder to identify the authenticity of images. Image tools with generative AI will allow so much more than photo manipulation because people will be able to create images from completely new scenarios.

[From CNN]

All of which to say, this really is a f–k up on a global scale. Multiple global news outlets “killing” a palace-issued Frankenstein photo, an international audience analyzing how badly palace employees are at photo-editing, and worse yet, Prince William and his staff are too f–king stupid, incompetent and arrogant to crisis-manage in a real way. They really believed their domestic and international audience would eat this up and no one would question it. Now their credibility is gone. At some point this week, I might create a list of all of the things William has lied about just in the past two years, because it’s A LOT.

Cover courtesy of British Vogue, photos courtesy of Kensington Palace.

Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue was definitely not tight, but it wasn’t a complete catastrophe either. For the sake of the show and pacing, I appreciated that he mostly stood out of the way the rest of the evening. Yes he and John Cena had an extended bit before Best Costumes, but they both committed so fully that it was a slam dunk. I thought Kimmel’s very best moment of the night, however, was at the end. He came out just before Best Picture, with the show actually running on time (please keep the earlier start time, Academy!) to read a negative review of his hosting performance. It quickly became clear who had penned the scathing remarks. Trump ranted in his typical meandering fashion, and Kimmel clapped back in six succinct words:

Oscars host and late night funnyman Jimmy Kimmel on Sunday called out former President Donald Trump on stage after Trump insulted Kimmel and his hosting on social media.

“I was told we have like an extra minute, and I’m really proud of something and I was wondering if I could share it with you. I just got a review,” Kimmel said in the second half of the telecast, before pulling out his phone to read Trump’s Truth Social post out loud — while barely mentioning the former president and presumptive Republican nominee by name.

The post from Trump — which Kimmel read aloud — says, “Has there EVER been a WORSE HOST than Jimmy Kimmel at The Oscars. His opening was that of a less than average person trying too hard to be something which he is not, and never can be. Get rid of Kimmel and perhaps replace him with another washed up, but cheap, ABC “talent,” George Slopanopoulos. He would make everybody on stage look bigger, stronger, and more glamorous.”

“Blah, blah, blah, make America great again,” Kimmel continued. “Ok now, see if you can guess which former president just posted that on Truth Social. Anyone? No?”

“Well, thank you President Trump. Thank you for watching, I’m surprised you’re still — isn’t it past your jail time?” the comedian said, prompting cheers and laughs from the audience.

The evening marked Kimmel’s fourth time hosting the Academy Awards. Ahead of the show, he told CNN in an interview regarding Trump, “One of the most fun parts of my job is knowing that he hates being made fun of and making fun of him.”

“And then, every once in a while, he reminds us that he hates it and he gets mad. So, I love that. I take some pleasure in it.”

[From CNN]

“Isn’t it past your jail time” will live on in infamy, as it should! It was the perfect little soundbite. It was crisp, it had the right rhythm, it said it all. And the moment only got better when the camera cut to Annette Bening and Jodie Foster enthusiastically relishing and applauding the quip. While I generally despair over the likelihood of Trump facing his well-earned jail time, this was just the right zinger to add a little spring in my step (as I ambled around on the first Monday of Daylight Saving trying to remember what time it was). Anyway, well-played Jimmy. Thank goodness he didn’t listen to whoever advised him not to do that bit, as he told Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos after the show. Oh, it was his wife Molly McNearney who tried to stop him! Funny for us, possibly fraught for future marital squabbles. And by the way, Kelly and Mark gifted Kimmel with… a gold Stanley cup! Emblazoned with a caricature of his face! The big dumb cup won’t stop.

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Photos credit: JKP / Avalon, Avalon.red / Avalon, Getty

I’ve seen a few pieces already about people being “mad” about Emma Stone’s Oscar win over Lily Gladstone. While (again) I thought Lily came into the awards season as the favorite and she really had a shot at it, Emma’s balls-to-the-wall performance in Poor Things, combined with a great, breezy, fun Oscar campaign, all equaled a “surprise win” for Emma. All I’m saying is that I’m not mad about it. Don’t hate the player, hate the game. These are pics of Emma at the Vanity Fair Oscar party – she wore another custom Louis Vuitton look. This looks baggy and comfortable! That’s her very tall husband Dave.

Lily Gladstone changed for the VF Oscar party and I didn’t get the sense that she was moping in a corner somewhere. Reportedly, she was enjoying the parties, networking and staying booked and busy. Good for her.

Charlize Theron wore Dior to the VF party – this is so much better than her Oscar dress, omg. The hair is still a tragedy though.

Georgina Chapman & Adrien Brody – I can’t believe they’re still together!

Pamela Anderson was fresh-faced in Oscar de la Renta. This is honestly one of my favorite looks of the VF party.

Cynthia Erivo in custom Louis Vuitton – blah, but I rarely think she’s styled well.

Zooey Deschanel in kind of a mod-print. I like it, it feels very ‘70s.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Bradley Cooper’s Oscar date was, as always, his mom Gloria- you can find out more about mama Gloria here. [Hollywood Life]
I agree, the vibes around Robert Downey Jr. were weird last night. [LaineyGossip]
Yep, noticed this too – RDJ ignored Ke Huy Quan. [Buzzfeed]
Barry Keoghan & Sabrina Carpenter arrived separately at the VF Oscar party. You’re not fooling anyone, Barbrina! [Just Jared]
Full Oscar winners list – a big night for Oppenheimer! [Socialite Life]
Scarlett Johansson parodied Katie Britt on SNL. [Pajiba]
Tina Fey looked great at the Girls5Eva premiere. [Go Fug Yourself]
Lindsay Lohan was quizzed by Jamie Lee Curtis. [OMG Blog]
Daylight Savings is kicking my ass. [Seriously OMG]
A Southern Hospitality’s star before-and-after plastic surgery. [Starcasm]

You guys, what the hell is happening at Kensington Palace? I’m a broken record at this point, but the clownery is out of control and it’s absolutely bonkers to watch this unfold in real time. Not only that, it’s f–kup after f–kup, shambles on top of shambles. Last night, four major media/photo outlets “killed” the Mother’s Day photo of the Princess of Wales. Meaning, the photo was removed from Getty, Associated Press, AFP and Reuters’ sites and archives, all because Kensington Palace would not provide them a clean copy, and there were strong suspicions that the photo had been heavily manipulated. This morning, the Press Association also pulled the image too. Prince William and his staff spent roughly fourteen hours in a blind, likely drunken panic. Then they came up with a solution – blame the whole thing on Kate. Behold, the Kensington Palace Brain Trust:

Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day. C

— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) March 11, 2024

The “C” means this message came “from Kate,” which is debatable, given all of the shenanigans we’ve already seen. Their argument was that Prince William TOOK the photo, a photo of Kate wearing jeggings and sitting up after serious abdominal surgery, and now the argument is that Kate decided to edit the photo William took of her? THAT is what they came up with? More from Rebecca English at the Mail:

A source stressed this was ‘an amateur, family photograph taken by the Prince of Wales’ because the couple wanted to offer an ‘informal’ picture of the family together.
The Princess made ‘minor adjustments’.
‘The Wales family spent Mother’s Day together and had a wonderful day’

— Rebecca English (@RE_DailyMail) March 11, 2024

The family wasn’t together! William wasn’t in the photo! It didn’t look like an amateur photo either. Again, more questions than answers.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Kensington Palace.

I genuinely believed that Prince William would cancel his appearance at today’s Commonwealth service at Westminster Abbey, but he did not. He turned up, having blamed his wife on his and his office’s photo-editing clownery, and he put in an appearance beside Queen Camilla, the side chick. Camilla once again looked like the cat who got the cream – she’s never happier than when her stepson is up to his neck in melodrama, lies and obfuscation. And right now, William is a huge part of one of the weirdest royal soap operas most of us have ever witnessed. I guess he didn’t feel like he could cancel today – not after he canceled his appearance at his godfather’s memorial service two weeks ago, which was the beginning of the current global drama.

We’ll have more coverage tomorrow, it’s been a really long 24-hours, with all of this and the Oscars on top of it. I just wanted people to see that William showed up. This is actually his first time making an appearance with his extended family since Christmas Day at Sandringham.

Meanwhile, as William left his “home” in Windsor, his staff set up a photo of William and “Kate” in the car together, and the Daily Mail was dutifully informed that William was dropping Kate off at a “private appointment.” They couldn’t even convince “Kate” to turn her face towards the camera she knew was there. Which just adds yet another conspiracy onto the pile.

lmaohttps://t.co/pQ0dAwqPvy

— Kaiser@Celebitchy (@KaiseratCB) March 11, 2024

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Over the course of 36 hours, Kensington Palace completely lost credibility with the national and international media and they proved yet again, for the millionth time, that they cannot crisis-manage their way out of a wet paper bag. To recap, KP released a photo of the Princess of Wales and her three children for Mother’s Day in the UK. The photo was released early Sunday morning, in the hope that the proof of life would quell some of the speculation about Kate’s health status and whereabouts. As soon as the photo was released, people could not stop pointing out how weirdly Photoshopped and bizarre the whole thing looked, and others commented that it didn’t even look like a recent photo. By Sunday evening, AFP, Reuters, Getty and Associated Press all “killed” the image, meaning they wouldn’t distribute it or publish such a “manipulated” photo. Monday morning, the Press Association joined the kill order too.

For about 14 hours, Kensington Palace stayed silent, refusing to answer calls from journalists and refusing to speak to the photo agencies requesting clarification on the image. Then, finally, a statement, allegedly from Kate, where “she” said that she edited the photo which was allegedly taken by William. In the NYT’s coverage of this mess, they noted that Kensington Palace was insisting that William “had taken the photo last week in Windsor” and that “A palace official said Catherine made minor adjustments in what was meant to be an informal picture of the family together for Mother’s Day. The official reiterated that William had taken the photo, though Catherine edited it.” Just lies on top of lies. And now this – Kensington Palace is flatly refusing to release an unedited version of the photo.

Kensington Palace has refused to release the original Mother’s Day portrait of the Princess of Wales and her children – after Kate publicly took the blame for editing the family photograph.

The Palace had come under mounting pressure to reveal the truth behind the photo after the world’s top picture agencies – including the Press Association – ‘killed’ the image over claims it had been digitally manipulated.

Kate this morning admitted that she had edited the photograph and issued a personal apology ‘for any confusion’ it had caused. The photo of the mother-of-three beaming with Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis was the first official picture released of the princess since she underwent ‘planned abdominal surgery’ in January.

Despite calls for the original to be published, Kensington Palace said it would not be reissuing the unedited photograph of Kate and her children.

[From The Daily Mail]

Why wouldn’t the palace just release an unedited photo, one might ask. It couldn’t have been that bad, right? Except I’m really starting to wonder if the whole thing is a lie. Like, I kind of believed that it was probably an older photo which they repurposed for this, and William stupidly took credit for taking the pic, and palace dumbasses did a sh-tty job of editing it. But now I wonder if there even is an “original photo” which could conceivably be released.

The Telegraph did a surprisingly thorough breakdown of all of the inconsistencies in the photo too – you can go here to read. They call it “significantly doctored.” There’s even a suggestion (quickly denied by their expert) that they used AI.

Omid Scobie has done some good tweets too. I keep thinking about how William’s new private secretary started about one month ago. This is what happens when you surround yourself with Tory yes-men.

Update: They hustled Kate into a car with William and arranged for shadowy photos.

It’s fair to say that most photos released by the offices of public figures have been retouched in some way, so *if* this was an isolated incident then it would just be an unfortunate error. But with the Palace’s long history of lying, covering up, and even issuing statements on…

— Omid Scobie (@scobie) March 11, 2024

Photos courtesy of Kensington Palace.

Welcome to our Oscars Open Post for 2024, the finale of an awards season which felt like it was eight months long. The Oscars start early this year – 7 pm EST, on ABC. For non-Americans, check your listings (IDK). We’ll be updating this post with the acting winners, plus the Best Director & Best Picture winners, plus if something interesting or scandalous happens in the middle of the ceremony (ahem, like a slap on the Oscar stage), we’ll update this post too.

Our Open Post is hosted by Messi the dog, who played Snoop in Anatomy of a Fall. Snoop was such a vital character in the story and Messi is such a great actor! Neon actually flew Messi out to LA for some of the awards-season events, like the Oscar luncheon, and as it turns out, some Oscar nominees and producers were super-salty about it. The Hollywood Reporter exclusively reported that Messi didn’t fly into LA for the Oscars, but he will enjoy watching from his home in France. THR also mentioned that “Multiple companies with nominated films complained to the Academy that allowing him to attend the [Oscars luncheon] event gave Anatomy of a Fall an advantage during the voting window, according to a source with knowledge of the complaints.” People were mad that a cute dog came to the luncheon, even though Messi was part of an Oscar-nominated film!!

Most of this year’s winners are sure things, but I’m expecting one or two big surprises, probably in the screenplay categories and Best Actress. You can follow us on Twitter at @Celebitchy and @KaiseratCB.

Best Supporting Actress: Da’Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers. From CB: Lupita Nyong’o gave the introduction for Da’Vine in the lead up to the announcement of the winner. All of the introductions were moving and incredible. Lupita brought Da’Vine to tears when she mentioned that that Da’Vine wore her grandmother’s glasses in the movie. In her acceptance speech Da’Vine said that she wasn’t sure she would be an actress as she started as a singer. She thanked her mom for telling her to go across the street to the theater to pursue acting. She said “for so long I thought I wanted to be different, but I realized I just needed to be myself. Thank you all for seeing me.” She also gave a shout out to her publicist. Congratulations to Da’Vine!

Screenplays (by Kaiser): Anatomy of a Fall won Original Screenplay and American Fiction won Adapted Screenplay. Such great wins, two of the best scripts of the year!

Photos courtesy of Neon’s Instagram.