In Endgame, Omid Scobie devotes one chapter in two parts to Queen Camilla and the current Princess of Wales. The side-by-side is because these are the only two married-in women who figured out a way to survive the institution – Camilla has survived by keeping the tabloids by her side, and Kate has survived by being as docile and personality-free as possible. While y’all know my feelings on Kate, I will give her begrudging credit for that one thing: she has found a way to survive and balance herself within everyone’s competing agendas. After twelve years of marriage, she’s become such an institutional creature that even the most mild criticisms of her are seen as the most heinous of attacks. Which is where we are now – Scobie actually went pretty easy on Kate, considering the rest of the book, which is why it’s so interesting to see this outsized focus on Scobie’s “scathing attacks” on poor Keen. Some highlights from various British media coverage:

Katie Keen: Kate is said to have earned the nickname “Katie Keen,” according to the author of Finding Freedom, because the palace press office hides her reportedly lower workload by saying she is “keen to learn”. Scobie and claimed the late Queen liked her because she was ‘coachable’ unlike the ‘strong-minded’ Princess Diana. Scobie added that Kate ‘glides under the radar’ because she’s ‘never challenged the system with public struggles or oversized aspirations’. He adds she is ‘comfortable in her role’ and ‘willing to bring the requisite smile and elegance to her duties as princess’.

Kate ignored Meghan: Scobie claims another source told him Kate ‘spent more time talking about Meghan than to her’…He added that Kate ‘watched on in silence’ as stories were published about Meghan making her cry, and that she now ‘shivers’ when her name is brought up. ‘This is a side of Kate that rarely gets written about. Advocating for mental health causes—the mental health of mothers, for that matter—but ignoring her own sister-in-law’s cries for help seemed out of character for someone the public knew as sweet and easy to get along with…At the very least the institution ignored Meghan when she was in pain. It’s a dismal record, and with William now openly claiming his mother was essentially too paranoid to speak the truth, it proves the institution still operates under the principle that women not born into the family are, ultimately, disposable.’

Part-time royal: Scobie writes “The late Queen, too, would take off blocks of time throughout the year to recharge, but she was also known to carry out at least three hundred engagements annually. Sources said Kate remains ‘laser focused’ on her duty to the family first, and then the Crown. Where other senior royals are out and about several times a week, meeting people across the length and breadth of the country, Kate has long maintained a smaller work schedule that helped her check off the required royal boxes while saving time for her roles as a mother and a wife.” The new book also claims she “does not plan to increase her workload for 10-15 years” until her children are grown.

Kate & Meghan: While Scobie says the sisters-in-law had “nothing in common” they “could have made things work in those early days if there was peace between the warring Windsor siblings”. Meghan is said to have found her time in the royal household as being “lonely and isolated” and had hoped Kate would be someone she could turn to for a kind word, as they “were once both outsiders, middle-class women brought into the House of Windsor for unimaginably different lives”. But Kate, so Scobie claims, was “uninterested in forming this kind of bond” because “she can be cold if she doesn’t like someone” and “wasn’t a fan of Meghan”.

[From The Sun & The Daily Mail]

There are several royalists being sent out to snort derisively in Scobie’s direction, but it’s curious that no one is mentioning the book’s discussions about how Kate and William have always gone MIA for months at a time, how Kate blatantly began copying Meghan two seconds after H&M got engaged, and how a former staffer even admitted that Meghan’s arrival was like a rocket up the ass for Kate, and that’s why there was all of this Single-White-Female-ing. While all of that – and Kate’s lack of empathy for Meghan – makes it hard to feel sorry for Kate, I do think it’s interesting that this supposedly modern Millennial woman is able to largely glide around with no personality, no causes, no passions. All with that budget wig on her head. Also: it’s so funny to me that Kate is going to put off full-time royal work until all of her kids are in their twenties.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar and Backgrid.

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In January 2023, Paris Hilton made headlines for welcoming a baby boy named Phoenix Barron via surrogacy. Paris had kept the pregnancy a secret from everyone, including her family. Well, from everyone except her producers and camera crew, of course. Little Phoenix’s debut and introduction to his maternal family will be featured prominently in season 2 of Peacock’s Paris in Love. On Thanksgiving, Paris revealed that she had done it again. This time, she and husband Carter Reum welcomed Paris’ long-awaited baby girl, named London.

On Thursday, Paris, who is already mom to a little boy named Phoenix, shared a series of heartwarming social media posts announcing the birth of her second baby with husband Carter Reum. In one of her TikTok videos, Paris can be heard asking her young family members, “You guys excited for your new cousin?” before telling them, “I have two babies.”

The comments were immediately flooded with congratulatory messages from fans, one of which read, “OMG ANOTHER BABY!!!! A GIRL SO HAPPY FOR YOU!!!!”

Paris quickly entered the conversation herself, replying to the above comment, “My princess has arrived!”

In another two videos, Paris wrote that she was celebrating Phoenix being a “big brother.” She and Carter welcomed the little boy via surrogate earlier this year in January, and prior to his birth, she’d been super open about her “tough” IVF experience.

Meanwhile, over on Instagram, Paris announced the name and sex of her new child by sharing a sweet photo of a pink baby outfit with the word “London” printed across. “Thankful for my baby girl,” she wrote in the caption.

[From Buzzfeed]

Honestly, I don’t hate it when people do “themed” names for their children, so I think it’s cute that she stuck with the city theme and named her daughter London. It’s a pretty name, too. Paris has been telling people for years that London was her “girl name” if she ever had a daughter. In an interview last year, she said that her future daughter’s name would be “London Marilyn Hilton Reum.” Marilyn is her paternal grandmother’s name, the wife of Barron, who inspired Phoenix’s middle name. Both of my children have middle names that honor a grandfather on each side, so I’m also a sucker for family names. I wonder what city-themed names Paris will use in the future. Vienna? Milan? Dallas? Aaaand I’ll stop myself there before I go down a rabbit hole. Congrats to Paris on finally getting her little girl named London. I’m looking forward to the many awkward Instagram poses to come.

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A few weeks ago, when People Magazine published the first excerpts from Omid Scobie’s Endgame, there were grumbles from both the Sussex Squad and the royalists. I wrote about it here, expressing my hope that Endgame would be a larger, coherent narrative about “the palace leaks and briefings, the poor management and decision-making within the establishment, the clownshow of it all, the fact that the ashy royals are struggling and unpopular, all of which has been thrown into sharp relief within the past four years of the Sussexit.” Having read/skimmed Endgame, I can safely say that the book is exactly what I expected and more.

What I’ve learned from covering royal gossip for years is that those of us following the daily gossip should never underestimate the fact that the overwhelming majority of casual royal-watchers are only really paying attention to the bigger headlines. It was the same with Finding Freedom – many of us die-hard Sussex people knew those stories, but the book was so successful because casual watchers began to pay attention, or they simply appreciated that at least one book was positive/neutral about the Sussexes. Same with the Duke and Duchess of Sussexes’ Netflix docuseries – while there was new information, the bulk of it was already known, but it was just repackaged in their own words. That too was a massive success, as was Harry’s memoir. What I’m saying is that Endgame will become one of those big headlines, it will be one of those bigger stories which casual fans/supporters will pick up and absorb. And that’s a good thing, because even I was surprised by some of the details and stories Scobie wrote about.

Some areas of royal coverage we’ll get into in the next few days and weeks – Scobie writes, in detail, about the alleged affair between Rose Hanbury and Prince William, but he does so through the prism of the media and Kensington Palace’s extremely ham-fisted attempts at damage control, which leads into a larger story about William’s then-press secretary Christian Jones and Dan Wootton. Scobie also has a wealth of details about William’s 2019 Flybe stunt, William’s coldness and rage, the antagonism between Charles and William’s royal courts and Charles’s refusal to simply sit down with Harry and have a real conversation.

As much sh-t as Scobie gets for being “the Sussexes’ cheerleader” or “the Sussexes’ de facto spokesperson,” Scobie knew he had to build his own story within Endgame, and he explains, in detail, how few times he’s actually met or spoken to Meghan, his conversations with some of the Sussexes’ staff, and what happened when Finding Freedom’s sourcing was brought into question during Meghan’s lawsuit against the Mail. He also explains, throughout the book, his legwork as a reporter. So much so that I found myself asking why the hell no one else in the royal rota even thought to do the same kind of source-maintenance or basic journalism. The other royal reporters seem equally stuck in a broken system, stenographers to an ever-weakened royal court. It’s shocking to me that none of them have figured out what Scobie sussed out years ago: there’s an untapped market for honest coverage of the monarchy’s death rattle.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Guess who has two thumbs and got quoted in the Telegraph? This bitch!! MOI! It all started when I was lucky enough to get to read an advanced copy of Omid Scobie’s Endgame with the caveat that I had to sign an NDA. I read the book over the weekend, all while anti-Scobie and anti-Endgame tweets were all over the Twitter timeline. I decided to just tweet out a general, no-spoiler preview in a few tweets while confirming that I signed an NDA. Well, it looks like the Telegraph lurks on my dang Twitter, because on Monday, they published “Omid Scobie sends copies of new royal book Endgame to ‘Sussex Squad’ influencers; Author is using NDAs and non-traditional marketing strategy to promote tome, which is published on Tuesday.” You guys, I’m a Sussex Squad influencer??? From the Telegraph:

Omid Scobie sent advance copies of his new book on the Royal family to favoured social media influencers who were asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement. The author, whose book Endgame is published on Tuesday, is understood to have largely masterminded his own marketing strategy – with publishers required to ensure that every decision is signed off by him personally.

Eschewing traditional practices, he opted to send the 400-page tome to a select group of “Sussex Squad” bloggers who have long proved supportive.

One of them, who identifies herself only as Kaiser, the head writer for a blog called Celebitchy, revealed that she had signed an NDA and read it at the weekend.

She wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that the Windsors came in for a “mauling”.

She tweeted: “One of the big takeaways, for me, is how none of the left-behind Windsors can manage their way out of a paper bag.”

One review said the book sets the record straight on ‘petty slights’, including a row between the Princess of Wales and Duchess of Sussex.

The various social media influencers and bloggers who were sent the book pre-publication will be expected to give it a lucrative push online when it is published on Tuesday.

The US-based arm of Scobie’s publisher, HarperCollins, is understood to have largely left UK colleagues largely in the dark about the pre-publication plan.

The author’s effort to secure favourable coverage began with an interview in the American magazine People, which tends to shy away from controversial or negative subject matter. He then gave an interview to Paris Match, which published extracts of the book in French, and to The Sunday Times.

[From The Telegraph]

From what I know of modern book promotion, many authors cherry-pick who gets advanced copies of their books. I was not the only one, clearly, and while I’m too close to the situation to judge it objectively, I absolutely think it was a smart strategy for Scobie in particular. I love the fact that few in the British media got their hands on advanced copies. Scobie likely learned from what happened with Prince Harry’s Spare, which was “accidentally” released early in Spain, then poorly translated and excerpted all over the British rags. If this was a thought-out strategy by Scobie to release the book to a few “friendly” Sussex-influencers (OMG!), then good for him.

“The various social media influencers and bloggers who were sent the book pre-publication will be expected to give it a lucrative push online when it is published on Tuesday.” CUT ME A CHECK!! I acknowledge that here at Celebitchy, we’re giving free media to the book, but guess what? So are British outlets with their salty commentary.

My tweets from Sunday. I’m still dying laughing that they accurately quoted “none of the left-behind Windsors can manage their way out of a paper bag.”

A few hours ago, I signed an NDA to read Omid Scobie’s Endgame and I won’t spoil anything, but all of you guys complaining about it before you’ve read it should hold your tongue – Scobie is MAULING the Windsors. Like, I’m laughing out loud, it’s soooo good.

— Kaiser@Celebitchy (@KaiseratCB) November 25, 2023

OK, I’ve finished/skimmed #Endgame – my mini no-spoiler review is: Chapter 2 is one of the funniest royal-takedowns I’ve ever read; there are many pieces of new gossip, but mostly it’s a richly detailed narrative about how the institution is antiquated, cruel, ridiculous, etc

— Kaiser@Celebitchy (@KaiseratCB) November 26, 2023

I mean, we’ve seen that in real time, but the way Scobie lays it out in a coherent and compelling narrative, even I was like “wow, they are such unbelievably incompetent managers”

— Kaiser@Celebitchy (@KaiseratCB) November 26, 2023

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

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Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour came out on October 13 in AMC theaters. Essentially a filmed version of Taylor’s Eras Tour show, the movie made a gazillion dollars and broke as many records. (Taylor also just announced that it will be available to rent on demand starting December 13, her birthday.) Beyonce debuted her own concert film that comes out Friday on Netflix. Not to be outdone, Jennifer Lopez has just announced a film companion piece to her upcoming album, This Is Me…Now. Both the film and album will be released on February 16 on Prime Video:

When Jennifer Lopez first teased a new “musical experience,” it felt safe to assume her first studio album in nearly a decade was cause enough for the hype. Today, Lopez announced that her upcoming LP, This Is Me…Now, will be accompanied by a film inspired by the music. Both the film and album are set to be released on Feb. 16, 2024.

Directed by Dave Meyers, the film will see Lopez creating “a genre-redefining immersive cinematic experience,” according to a press release. The film is described as “an extravagant visual and sonic feast with impressive choreography, star-studded cameos, costumes, sets and blockbuster-worthy visuals.”

The film will be released on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide, while Nuyorican/BMG will distribute the album.

This Is Me…Then: The Album was written and executive produced by Lopez and Roget Chayed, along with Angel Lopez, Jeff “Gitty” Gitelman, HitBoy, Tay Keith, and INK, among others. The first single, “Can’t Get Enough,” will be released on Jan. 20 2024, and is available to pre-save on Nov. 27 on all major streamers along with a 30-second sound clip on social platforms.

This Is Me…Now also celebrates the anniversary of its sister album, This Is Me…Then, completing a 20-year journey. The LP promises to be “Lopez’s most honest and personal yet.”

A year ago, Lopez teased the release of a new project with a video where she recreates the cover of her 2002 album This Is Me…Then, transforming into the artist she is today. “This is me then,” she said in the video, as the camera zoomed into her face on the LP’s cover. As she removes her hat to show herself in 2022, with a sexier look, she says, “This is me now.” The words “The Musical Experience 2023” come on screen to end the short clip.

This Is Me…Then has been one of Lopez’s most successful albums, featuring songs like the iconic “Jenny From the Block” with Jadakiss and Styles P, “I’m Glad,” and “All I Have” with LL Cool J…

Lopez spoke to Rolling Stone in 2022 about working hard to be recognized for her music. “It’s just 20, 25 years of people going, ‘Well, she’s not that great. She’s pretty and she makes cute music, but it’s not really this and that.’ You know, I think I’ve done some nice work over the years, some really nice work,” she said. “But there is a club that I just wasn’t a part of. And I always acted like, ‘Yeah, I’m good. I’m fine. I’m OK.’ But it hurts to not be included. I don’t know if I will ever be.”

[From Yahoo! Entertainment]

Aw, those last quotes make me feel bad… for definitely being someone who’s had those thoughts about her music. Sorry Jennifer! But J.Lo is a hustler, and this new album is more than just another album. It’s all part of the life-affirming romance of Bennifer 2.0. She was still in Bennifer 1.0 when she released 2002’s This Is Me…Then, so This Is Me…Now is in line with this full circle moment of life she’s in. And you know she loooves that kismet synchronicity (yes, that’s my name, I said it in my own post, I think J.Lo would approve the act of brand reinforcement). I’m glad we’re getting another music film. I do wish, though, that they’d restrained themselves from saying “a genre-redefining immersive cinematic experience.” That’s a tall cup of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee to fill. Take a breath, let the work speak for itself.

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Paul Rudd is one of those ageless beauties in the same vein as Rob Lowe or Dolly Parton. It doesn’t matter how much time has passed; they age so flawlessly that they appear to be practically ageless. Le sigh. Rudd joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) back in 2015, playing Scott Lang aka Ant-Man. Even if you don’t know anything about the movies or the comics, you could probably deduct that they are (generally) about attractive, regular people going through something that turns them into hot, buff people with superpowers.

Throughout the years, there have been actors and actresses that have spoken out about the crazy training and diets they had to do in order to get and stay in shape for their action-hero roles. Hugh Jackman famously consumes 8,000 calories a day while working out nonstop in order to get into shape to play Wolverine. It never occurred to me that Rudd, the beautiful, beautiful man that he is, was also working really hard at getting buff in order to play Ant-Man. But, he was, and for him, it was not quite the rewarding experience he thought it would be. Before we go on, I want to give a gentle TW that Rudd discusses body image issues in the podcast interview that’s quoted.

During a recent appearance on the Off Menu podcast, Paul detailed what he had to go through diet-wise to portray Ant-Man in the MCU films — and, surprise surprise, it does not sound even remotely worth it.

“When I was having to train for the Ant-Man movie, and I was on a very restrictive diet, my reward was sparkling water,” he revealed. “That’s how horrible that diet was.”

“I was like, ‘Alright, I’m gonna have some sparkling water now, I’ve earned it.’ Yeah, it was great. It wasn’t flavored, I wasn’t gonna go crazy.”

Paul also explained that he adhered to the diet for all of his work in the MCU films, which comprised of eating “really boring food, every time, over and over again” — and that adhering to it was “actually not too hard” once he was in it. But Paul also said that, even though he engaged in workout regimens in a similar manner as his MCU costars, he could never quite achieve the same results as his colleagues.

“I worked out harder than anyone, I would eat better than everyone, and I looked worse than all of them,” he admitted. “I had to work out all the time, eat perfectly, just to look kind of bad. Not even like great.”

“I remember on Endgame, Chris Hemsworth would always have these Tupperware containers and he’s eating this gruel of just a mash of stuff,” he further recalled. “He’s working out, and then you stand next to a guy like that, and I just think, ‘Well, what’s the point of any of this?’”

“Why am I killing myself when that can exist, and then I look at myself and this exists. I can never achieve that…That was the good thing that it was Ant-Man, it isn’t Thor.”

“But I tried to work out, and it didn’t work.”

[From Buzzfeed]

I really feel for what Rudd went through, especially because he was comparing himself to colleagues much younger than he is (for example, there is a 13 year age gap between Rudd and Hemsworth). There’s also the fact that everyone’s body is different and what works for some does not work for all. Even if our bodies need the same types of healthy fuel, we’re still all built differently. I’ve also learned that the older I get, the more I need to make sure I eat enough because weight loss is no longer the catch-all “eat less, exercise more.” Sometimes, the more you exercise, the more your body needs you to eat for fuel or else it will go into starvation mode and stubbornly hold onto weight. But anyway, Paul Rudd seems to be an all-around genuinely decent person and I enjoy him as Ant-Man and, most recently, in Only Murders in the Building. FWIW, I recently rewatched Clueless and he truly looks just about the exact same as he does now, so he must be doing something right.

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Best Performance by an Actress in a Union-Supporting Role 2023 goes to Jessica Chastain. Throughout the SAG-AFTRA strike, Jessica was articulate on the issues at stake and why they were vital to working actors. She also had more opportunity to talk than her fellow thesps, as her latest film, Memory, received an interim agreement which allowed her to attend film festivals and give interviews. She dutifully explained how waivers worked and asked if independent studios could meet actors’ needs, then why couldn’t AMPTP? Now that the SAG-AFTRA strike is over, Jessica is touting all that’s good about the new contract. She’s currently serving as jury president at the Marrakech International Film Festival (where Memory is screening but not in competition) and talked to reporters about the film and the new deal:

Fair and just and historic: “I’m glad that our SAG leadership has gotten to a deal they think is fair and just and historic in its own right,” said Chastain on the red carpet… “We’re still waiting to find out what the voters are going to choose — if they’re going to ratify the contract. I’ve looked through it. I do think personally it’s a good deal, but of course, I only have one vote. It’s important to me what everyone else thinks as well. The beautiful thing about taking a vote is that everyone gets to have a say,” she told a reporter with Deadline.

Hollywood strike poster girl: Asked if she had planned to be the poster girl for Hollywood strikes, she said that she was put in that position by accident, and the move wasn’t orchestrated. “I became public by default … I didn’t choose to be so public about it. It just so happened because my film had an interim agreement, and because so many actors were nervous, I think, to speak out, I just ended up being one of the first, and I think when you end up being one of the first in that case, you really have a big spotlight on yourself,” she said.

An actor prepares: “I did my homework. I spoke to the leadership at SAG. I asked them, ‘How can I best support this acting community?’ because SAG is the most important community that I’ve ever been a part of. I would never want to do anything against them, and I only wanted to support them. It was kind of like I became public by default, but I was very happy to support in every way I could.”

Working with Memory director Michel Franco: “The way Michel works is transfixing. He shoots in a way where you feel as a voyeur rather than an audience falling into a scene … He doesn’t cut within a scene. Actors are given the freedom of doing whatever we feel like. While we stick to the script, everything is done in one take … It is like doing theatre where you get freedom, creativity, and inspiration,” said Chastain.

[From Gulf News]

I have to confess that my aunt can’t stand Jessica Chastain! I think it started when Jessica won the Critics Choice Award for Zero Dark Thirty in 2013 and quoted Bertolt Brecht. (Which was so silly to me, because if I were to hate Jessica Chastain it would be for her having natural red hair, my dream.) Jessica was exceedingly earnest back then, but remember, she was just breaking through after years and years of being broke on the sidelines. But all of that is why she was the perfect “poster girl” for the strike — she knows the cost of building a career from the ground up. She’s been there, having had no connections or family in the industry. And now that she’s comfortable, she loves nothing more than to advocate for her peers on the other side of that trajectory. Still earnest, but also just good, clean kindness. Backed by a killer wardrobe.

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Photos credit: Aurore Marechal/Abaca Press/INSTARimages, Getty

Eric McCormack’s wife Janet filed for divorce after 26 years of marriage. [Seriously OMG]
Beyonce wore Versace & blonde hair to the premiere of her Renaissance film. [RCFA]
Tiffany Haddish was arrested for a DUI. [The Root]
Review of Todd Haynes’ May-December. [LaineyGossip]
Do we love or hate Ridley Scott’s Napoleon? [Pajiba]
Timothee Chalamet is possibly being style-influenced by his girlfriend. [Go Fug Yourself]
Mark Harmon’s most famous character almost had a different name. [Just Jared]
There’s a new documentary called Venus Envy and it’s not about national treasure Venus Williams, but it does sound good! [OMG Blog]
A Bennifer sighting! [Hollywood Life]
A Sister Wife confesses her celeb crushes. [Starcasm]
Photos from the Soul Train Awards! [Buzzfeed]

In Endgame, Omid Scobie details how many times Prince Harry has simply tried to organize a sit-down with his father. Harry even tried to organize a post-Spare sitdown with Prince William too, but it went nowhere because William is obviously too incandescent. But the fact that Harry knows Charles is such a dogsh-t father and yet Harry still makes all of these efforts to at least try to get Charles to hear him… it’s sad. The whole thing reminds me of Harry’s Spare, where he was so achingly grateful for any acknowledgement from his father. According to Scobie, throughout 2022, several people within the family encouraged Charles to simply talk things out with Harry and even acknowledge Harry’s pain. After Harry called Charles around Christmas 2022 and their conversation was brief and icy, Princess Anne apparently gave her brother a different piece of advice: evict the Sussexes from Frogmore Cottage.

The Princess Royal persuaded the King to evict the Duke and Duchess of Sussex from Frogmore Cottage, according to a new book. Author Omid Scobie claims Princess Anne, 73, was the chief architect of the decision to evict Harry and Meghan from their Windsor home.

In the book, Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survival, to be released next week, Princess Anne is described as being “at the forefront of the supporters of the firm approach” taken with the Sussexes.

She “is said to have persuaded Charles to withdraw the use of Frogmore Cottage” from the couple, Scobie claims.

Meanwhile, Prince Edward, 59, is described as the only member of the family who felt “uneasy” about his nephew and was concerned about his mental health.

The Sussexes’ team received a letter from Sir Michael John Stevens, the Keeper of the Privy Purse, who stated that because the Duke and Duchess were no longer working members of the Royal family and lived abroad, they should return the keys to Frogmore Cottage, the use of which was a wedding gift from Queen Elizabeth II. Harry is said to have asked his father: “You don’t want to see your grandchildren any more?”

Meanwhile, Scobie describes the ultimately unsuccessful plan to offer the property to the scandal-hit Duke of York, “the true pariah of the clan,” as “incomprehensible”.

[From The Telegraph]

In Endgame, there are more details about the Frogmore eviction and just how bad it looked generally, beyond the rabid, right-wing media machine in the UK. It was not a carefully considered move by Charles – it was done out of spite, it was a king’s temper tantrum more than anything else. The Telegraph’s coverage of Princess Anne “persuading” Charles is interesting, but Scobie basically said that Anne wanted it to be a package deal, that Charles should evict Andrew and the Sussexes at the same time. But we know what happened there – Andrew is still in Royal Lodge, and we still don’t know who’s living in Frogmore now.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

While we know that the Princess of Wales is famously work-shy, it’s bonkers that Kensington Palace would telegraph that fact by allowing Kate to languish for more than a year without her own private secretary. Hannah Cockburn-Logie was Kate’s last private secretary, and Hannah quit that bitch in the fall of 2022, right around QEII’s passing. Kate then tried to hire Alison Corfield, only Corfield took one look at that wig-wearing palace gopher and said “nope” before she even started work. Now Kate has a big new keen plan to hire a veteran. He hasn’t said yes though, which makes this Telegraph article read like a pressure campaign.

The Princess of Wales is set to hire a war hero who served as Elizabeth II’s equerry as her new private secretary. The Princess, who has been without her own private secretary for more than a year, has invited Lt Col Tom White to join her at a public engagement to see what the job entails at close quarters.

The choice of the late Queen’s former equerry would be a radical departure from the previous person tipped to take the role, Alison Corfield, who was described as a “straight-talking” brand management expert who would “shake up” the palace. Lt Col White, in contrast, has already worked at the centre of the institution, at the late Queen’s side until her death in September last year. Before that, the Royal Marines officer served in Afghanistan in 2009 as a member of 42 Commando.

As a 22-year-old lieutenant serving as 7 Troop’s commander, he helped avert tragedy in Helmand after the Taliban placed a booby trap bomb in a school. However, wires under the school room door were spotted before detonation.

The rumoured choice of Lt Col White as the Princess’s private secretary would see something of a return to tradition for the household, reflecting the Royal family’s close ties to the military and a link with her late grandmother-in-law. It is understood that no appointment has yet been made but a source said that Lt Col White was “likely” to be offered the job.

The 36-year-old father would be the first man in the position, in a restructured Kensington Palace office overseen by a yet-to-be-appointed chief executive. A Kensington Palace spokesman said that they did not comment on staffing matters.

[From The Telegraph]

Kensington Palace is only eager to comment on staffing matters when it comes to how Meghan “bullied” staffers by existing. As for this guy… I will feel so sorry for Lt. Col. White if he does end up as Kate’s private secretary. Imagine trying to bring that military sense of preparedness, loyalty and duty to Kate’s jazz hands, budget wigs and busywork. It’s also funny to hear that after all of the “we’re going to hire a fancy new CEO” keenery, no one has actually been hired yet. I would imagine that most seasoned professionals want no part of the Kensington Clownshow.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.