This was Kate’s first full year as Princess of Wales, carrying the same tortured title as the late mother-in-law she never met. Diana was a humanitarian icon, an iconoclast, the proverbial mouse who roared. Diana was also a fashion icon who went from prim English rose to big-shoulder Dynasty ‘80s through the cleaner, more minimalist ‘90s looks. Kate has tried cosplaying Diana, cosplaying QEII and cosplaying her sister-in-law, all to no avail. Kate simply doesn’t have her own style, her own look, and she spends hundreds of thousands of pounds every year trying to figure out what her style should be. Except this year, she ended up wearing tons of repeats, which caused some lowkey discussion about whether Kate’s husband cut her clothing budget now that it’s coming out of his Duchy of Cornwall pockets. All of which to say, Kate really did spend less money on clothes this year than she did in 2022.

The Princess of Wales saw the value of her wardrobe decrease during 2023, after showcasing an extravagant collection of garments worth £176,664 in 2022. Kate, 41, has worn new clothing and accessories totalling £159,040.28 over the past 12 months, including a host of ball gowns and glittering jewels for royal engagements.

It marks the royal’s second most expensive year to date, with a host of new outfits on show – beating 2017 when she wore £119,000 of new outfits.

The future Queen has also continued to recycle some of her old favourites, as well as donning pieces from affordable high street stores, such as Hobbs, Zara and LK Bennett.

As expected, she displayed her most expensive outfit while attending the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla, opting for a bespoke Alexander McQueen dress and headpiece, made in collaboration with Jess Collett – estimated to be worth £3,000 and £32,000 respectively.

The King is understood to cover the costs of Kate’s closet for ‘work-related’ engagements through his official household budget, but it is not clear whether the Princess always pays full price for outfits or receives discounts.

In 2021, the royal slashed the sum of her new wardrobe, wearing just £48,845 worth of new clothing. This year’s total has also increased from 2020, when she wore £93,914 of new clothing, and 2019, when she wore £103,075 worth of clothing.

[From The Daily Mail]

It’s funny that she spent that much because she didn’t go on any royal tours this year, and to many of the red-carpet events, she repeated evening gowns which were already in her closet. That coronation headpiece should not have cost £32,000 either – that’s insane. It was some Home Ec project made with a glue gun and glitter. It’s also an insane number considering how many times she just wore pantsuits or somewhat casual clothes. Hm. Also: I don’t think Charles pays for her clothes anymore? William should be paying for her stuff from the Duchy of Cornwall funds, just as Charles did when he was PoW.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.

Sometimes I think about how Jennifer Lopez was snubbed for an Oscar nomination for Hustlers and I get mad all over again. Like… how did that happen? Be real – J.Lo was excellent in Hustlers, she put the film together, she produced it and it’s a film about working class minority women. That film deserved a lot more love. Anyway, I thought about all of that as I read J.Lo’s excellent Elle Magazine cover profile, one of many for Elle’s Women in Hollywood issue. This is not an interview where Jen talks about love or Ben Affleck – she’s talking about her business, what she’s learned throughout her professional life and what more there is to do. Some highlights:

She’s not interested in just producing rom-coms: “I want to tell the gamut of stories. Uplifting, empowering stories, and entertaining stories, and gangster movies. I want to do everything that men do. I want to do all of it.” She doesn’t like the notion that women only want to see love stories or romantic comedies. “I think that’s insulting.” Women, she points out, “have been leaders of countries. We have run empires; we have done all of these things throughout history, and we should tell all of those stories.”

The drive to do these things: “When people ask me, ‘How do I do this? How do I get into this?’ I think to myself, ‘You’re not going to do this.’ Because if you’re going to do this, there is a drive within you that will find a way and you don’t need anybody to tell you, ‘You should do this, or you should do that.’ That’s not how it goes. It’s just knocking on the wall and finding a way. When people ask that question, I go, ‘This person probably is looking for a shortcut.’ There is no one sure way to become an actor or start making music. People fall into it in different ways, in their own time.

She loves to mentor: “But I do like mentoring. I like sharing the experience that I have. When I work with younger actors and I see them banging their head up against the wall, really trying to make this moment work, it’s just like: The most important thing you can do right now is relax. Let’s just be, let’s just live. You start off and you have all of these ambitions: ‘I’m going to be the greatest actor of all time and I’m going to do this and I’m going to do that.’ You can and you will, but how you become that is to relax into it and understand that you know what you’re doing and that you’ve put in the work. The more relaxed, the more aware I can be, the better.”

Telling women’s stories: “People were laying the groundwork for this for a long time. It’s just that sometimes it takes time to move these mountains and these old ideas and paradigms and shift them to a place where there’s real change. We have been able to stand in our own power and say, We’re not going to be taken advantage of. We’re not just on the corners of life or on the outside of the stories. We are the stories.”

Learning as she went along: “One of those things was to be more particular with my choices. And I didn’t have that luxury, being Latina. I didn’t get called in for everything someone who wasn’t Latina would get called in for. I got called in for very specific things. As I started getting more leads here and there, I should have pulled back. I took that mindset with me instead of going, ‘I should only work with certain kinds of directors that I really want to work with. I should choose this material in a different way.’ I just wasn’t as particular as I could be, I think. And if I [could] start over, I think I would’ve done that. I would’ve known that the director is really the helm of the project when you’re acting. Just like in singing, the producers you work with are very important. I knew that with music, but I didn’t quite understand it as much when I was younger about directors.”

Working as a woman over the age of 50: “It has changed a lot, and I think it’s appropriate. As you get older and you have more experience, you become a richer human being and you have more to offer. The idea of, ‘There’s nothing really valuable about watching a woman over 30’ is so ridiculous, it’s the opposite of right. It just makes me laugh. People have realized that women just get sexier as they get older. They get more learned and more rich with character. All of that is very beautiful and attractive, and not just physically, but on the inside, the beauty that you gain as you get older, the wisdom you gain. I see myself working [as long as] I want to. I don’t know what that age is. It might be 70, it might be 80, it might be 90, I don’t know. But I know that it’s there for me if I want it and I want to create it. That has always been the mindset that I’ve had: to never let anybody put me in a box because of where I was born, where I’m from, what age I am, anything like that. Those boundaries don’t exist for me.”

[From Elle]

She’s right about wanting to see women over 30 on screen. Maybe I was always like that, but I never felt like “oh, I don’t want to watch older women.” It’s always been about the stories, and for so many years, Hollywood simply didn’t prioritize any female stories, much less stories involving women over the age of 30. I like what she says about rom-coms too – that she didn’t become a producer just to make rom-coms, that women can play leaders and gangsters and strippers and hustlers and everything else. I love that she scoffs at the rom-com paradox.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, cover courtesy of Elle.

My New Year’s Eves tend to be quiet, introspective nights at home. I do not like large, raucous crowds, nor am I much of a drinker. So instead I typically find a long, classic film on TCM (anything from My Fair Lady to Ben-Hur) and I fastidiously get to work on my calendars. Even in the midst of our digital age, I’m steadfastly clinging to wall calendars (one large for the kitchen, one mini for the bathroom) and a weekly engagement planner. And I force myself to wait until December 31 to fill in each of these with handwritten notes of birthdays, anniversaries, and other upcoming events for the next year. What really amps up the excitement for me is choosing the best colored pens to complement the image for each month or week’s page. I swear it’s not as sad as it sounds. But that’s just me! Good Housekeeping has done a timely roundup of New Year’s rituals observed around the world. It’s a fun, long list, and here are a few that really tickled my fancy:

The iconic ball drop, twists optional: Crowds have been gathering in New York City’s Times Square to watch the ball drop since 1907. And while the first one was just iron and wood, today you can watch a 12-foot, 11,875-pound geodisc sphere covered in 2,688 Waterford Crystal triangles and 32,256 LEDs make its descent, even from the warmth and comfort of your own home. Or, you can see something else fall as a visual countdown to the new year: Plymouth, Wisconsin hosts a Big Cheese Drop; Kennett Square, PA uses a giant mushroom and New Orleans drops a fleur de lis (formerly a big gumbo pot). No matter what symbol is used, it does make for a dramatic countdown.

Do not try this without community consent: In Denmark, broken dishes are a good thing: people go around breaking dishware on the doorsteps of their friends and family. The more shards there are in front of your home the next day, the luckier and more well liked you are (unless you’re the one who has to sweep them all up). But try to keep it on the doorstep: “I once threw a cup at my friend’s house,” a reveler told the University of Copenhagen’s University Post. “The cup didn’t break — his window did!”

Deck the halls with boughs of… onions: To Greeks, onions are a symbol of good luck and fertility, because they sprout even when no one is paying attention to them. On New Year’s Eve, families in Greece hang bundles of onions above their doors as a means of inviting that prosperity into the home. On New Year’s Day, parents also wake up their children by gently bonking their kids on the head with the onions that were outside.

Happy moo year: Walloon and Flemish farmers in Belgium make sure everyone can get in on the festivities, and that includes the livestock. They rise early on January 1 to wish a “Happy New Year” to all the cows, horses, pigs, chickens and other farm animals. That way, they’ll have a good farming year.

Peppermint piggies: In upstate New York, they sell special peppermint pigs all throughout the holiday season. Everyone gets to take a turn hitting it with a special candy-size hammer and eating a piece for good fortune in the coming year. The peppermint is very strong, so only take a small piece. At least you’ll start the year with fresh breath!

The new year hinges on underwear color: Certain countries, especially in Latin America, believe that the color of your underwear can bring good things to you in the next 12 months. Yellow is for luck, red is for love and white undies bring peace. And for heaven’s sake, make sure they’re clean and free of holes!

Another variety of smashing at the front door: In Turkey, pomegranates are symbols of abundance. Eating them is great, sure — but if you really want a good 2024, you’ll smash the fruit on your doorstep. The more pieces there are and the farther they spread, the more prosperous you’ll be. For a little extra luck, try sprinkling salt in front of your door to bring peace.

[From Good Housekeeping]

Argh, I totally have yellow underwear! But I didn’t bring any with me to my mother’s where I’ll be until New Year’s. Anyone know what the portents are for black or leopard-print underwear? At least I’ll be prepared with the right undies for 2025. Moving on from undergarments, I am fascinated by the Greek tradition with onions. First of all, acknowledging that “they sprout even when no one is paying attention to them” just became the second reason why onions bring tears to my eyes. It’s a lovely sentiment and I understand the symbolism. What I don’t understand is the next step of waking up your kids by whacking them with the onions. I feel like we’re missing one piece of the story of how this practice evolved, no? Or maybe not, because I couldn’t help but notice how many of these global rituals involve pretty strong undertones of violence. Breaking plates, smashing fruit, hammering peppermint pigs. And the new year is just getting started! Bless those Belgian farmers for observing a peaceable tradition. Happy Moo Year, ya filthy animals!

photos credit: Shvets productions and Victor Candiani on Pexels, Ries Bosch and Shahand Babali on Unsplash

I know Blake Shelton isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, but I adore reading his interviews these days. Blake is so happy to be settled down and married to Gwen Stefani. After the way Gwen and Blake’s respective ex-spouses treated them, it’s so lovely that they found each other and they make each other so happy. Blake seems especially awestruck that he found a wife who loves the more traditional family life, cooking and party-planning and decorating. Well, Blake is still giving interviews ahead of his New Year’s Eve special, and he spoke to People Magazine about how much he and Gwen love to decorate for the holidays.

The holidays aren’t just a season at Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani’s home — it’s an all-encompassing state of mind. “I think we’re the biggest celebrators of holidays of any of my friends and family members. We really go for it,” he told PEOPLE. “Gwen and I love to pull up to the house and see over-the-top Christmas decorations or walk into the house during Thanksgiving and see all the pumpkins.”

The country singer, 47, often feels “nostalgic” around the holidays.

“Gwen is the perfect person for me to be with because that is one of her passions. So we really lean into the holidays literally as much as we possibly can without just going broke doing it. We love it that much,” he said.

One thing Shelton doesn’t do: hang Christmas lights on the outside of the house. Stefani, 54, doesn’t either.

“That’s one of those things where it’s like, I’ve made my point. I’ve got some money. I’m not going to break my own neck to get up there. I’m going to hire some guy who’s way better at it than I am,” he joked.

While Shelton helps with the decor, he acknowledges that his wife (and hired help) does the brunt of it.

“Gwen’s got the little town set up in the house, the fake snow everywhere. I just love all of that stuff, the gingerbread houses. We really go over the top with it,” he said. “I’ll sit there and stare at that stuff all day long.”

However, Shelton and Stefani love to cook together, with their holiday spreads home-cooked every year. For the 2023 season, the couple enjoyed a Funyon-coated turkey for Thanksgiving, while Christmas was celebrated with an Italian feast they made themselves.

[From People]

Wow, obviously I knew that Gwen is Italian-American but I guess I didn’t realize that she does an “Italian feast” for Christmas. I wonder if it’s the traditional Feast of the Seven Fishes? Anyway, I enjoy how “domesticated” Blake seems with Gwen, but not just that – in a world where men fall all over themselves to mock or denigrate their wives and partners (especially over the holidays), Blake is like: no, I’m really into all of this, I f–king love your gingerbread houses, let’s start planning how we’ll decorate the house for Valentine’s Day, babe. It’s positive masculinity and he’s also telling his country bros: you too can get lost in the magic of holidays!

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Travis Barker bought Mercedes G-Wagons for Landon & Alabama Barker for Christmas. He dropped $150K per SUV. Alabama also got a Birkin bag from her dad because it was also her birthday! People are complaining but… eh, it’s fine. [Hollywood Life]
I love these “demotivational” posters. [OMG Blog]
2023: a great year for weird cinema. [Pajiba]
Shows which were canceled but they ended on crazy cliffhangers. Life needs to be on this list – while it wasn’t a huge cliffhanger, I still wonder what happened to those characters. Damian Lewis & Sarah Shahi need to fight for this to happen! [Buzzfeed]
Tom Hanks still spends time with Chet Haze. [JustJared]
The worst runway accessories of 2023. [GFY]
Derek & Jill Dillard are back in the Duggar fold? [Starcasm]
Barry Keoghan explains why he agreed to Saltburn’s final scene. [Socialite Life]
Imagine getting into the Guiness Book of World Records for this. [Seriously OMG]
The best looks of 2023. [RCFA]

Embiggening Season is upon us, IYKYK. The Princess of Wales turns 42 on January 9th, and People Magazine is getting the embiggening ball rolling with their cover story this week, all about how Kate has unique strengths and how she’s a huge asset to the monarchy. Yeah, we’ll see. I mean, I actually do think she’s an asset to the monarchy, but it doesn’t follow that Kate will be treated as such. If anything, the more she’s seen as “good for the monarchy,” the more jealous Charles, Camilla and William become and the more they want to diminish her and push her out. So that’s where we are. What’s interesting about this particular story is that Kate wants to be seen as super-close with King Charles. Hm.

Kate enjoyed the Diplomatic Reception in December: “She hugely enjoyed that evening and looked really at home,” a royal source tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “She knows the important role the family plays in building relationships globally on behalf of the U.K.” Adds the insider: “It is clear that she and the King are quite close — in some respects closer to him than William.”

The keen peacemaker: Noting Prince William and Prince Harry’s “fractious relationship” with their father, the insider says, “It’s only been recently that William has been closer [to Charles] — and Kate has acted as the honest broker in that.”

Kate guides her dumb husband: Of her role alongside her husband, a former staffer says, “She provides William with “directional setting. She guides the family and guides him.” Adds royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith: “They are pursuing the initiatives that are important to them. They are not pushing to supplant the King and Camilla—they are an incredible enhancement.”

Serious Kate: “She takes things seriously — and thank goodness for that,” says a source close to the royal household. Adds Simon Lewis, former Buckingham Palace communications chief and cohost of the BBC podcast When It Hits the Fan, “She’s very much seen as a player at the center of team Windsor.”

[From People]

“It is clear that she and the King are quite close — in some respects closer to him than William.” LOL. Kitty has gotten so bold. Back in May, she was blatantly feuding with Charles over her visit to the Chelsea Flower Show on Media Day, where she bused in children of color and stole the king’s thunder (his first flower show as king!). The palace punished her for weeks about that. As Omid Scobie’s Endgame made perfectly clear, there is no love lost between Charles and William and their respective offices – any times there’s a f–k up, the other office gleefully goes on a briefing spree. Kate always wants the “peacemaker” credit, when really she’s been revealed to be a sh-t stirring drama queen behind the scenes.

Note by CB: Get the top 8 stories about the Waleses stealing King Charles’s thunder when you sign up for our mailing list! I only send one email a day on weekdays.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

I sort of ignored this for a few days, but better late than never. As part of the Princess of Wales’s Together at Christmas event, Kate organized a special tea party/arts thing with kids and parents, and some clips of the tea party made into the televised Together at Christmas event. These photos were released by the palace or ITV, I guess. Kate wore a £1,350 Miu Miu cardigan for the party, but it was a repeat – she wore this exact same cardigan for a Together at Christmas photoshoot in 2021. That didn’t stop people from complaining about the cost though – the Mirror even did an article about how “fans” were disappointed that she wore something so expensive. Wait until they find out about the cost of all of those bespoke coatdresses she never wears nowadays.

Speaking of Kate with kids, People Magazine ran this exclusive as part of their big cover story this week:

As future queen, Kate Middleton’s power is rooted in her family — and her crucial role in shaping the next generation of royals. When it comes to raising the future of the monarchy, Princess Kate and Prince William are trying to bring up their children Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5, in as normal an environment as possible given their extraordinary life.

That means watching George play soccer on his school team and catching Charlotte’s field hockey games as they happily chat with other parents on the sidelines, insiders tell PEOPLE in this week’s issue.

In Norfolk, where they retreat to their country home, Anmer Hall, they attend birthday parties with their kids — and Kate has surprised locals by remembering all the neighboring kids’ names.

“She is very good at setting boundaries, which helps keep everything running smoothly. But the family is the priority, always,” a friend tells PEOPLE.

[From People]

Kate is being praised for… remembering children’s names? Granted, it’s a gift I don’t have – I constantly forget people’s names, although I have a better memory for the names of cats and dogs. But this seems like we’re scraping the bottom of the barrel for “reasons why Kate is amazing.” She knows the names of children she sees all the time.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Here are more photos of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson in Sandringham on Christmas Day. They were both allowed to walk with the royal family to and from the church on Christmas morning. This was the first time Sarah had been included on the Christmas walk in 32 years. She said afterwards that she felt “grateful” to be included. The British papers are full of stories about Fergie’s triumphant comeback after 30-plus years. There are lots of mentions of Prince Harry, because there’s a concerted effort to force the comparison between the Yorks and the Sussexes.

She was part of the Sandringham festivities last year but was kept out of sight. Her elevation to the church-going group was a clear statement that she was back in the fold of the extended family. She is not going to suddenly start taking on royal duties, but her presence in front of the cameras on Christmas Day was something that would have been unthinkable a few years ago, when Prince Philip was alive. He was regarded as her most implacable opponent within the family. A touch ironic then that last year she, Andrew and their daughters had the use of Wood Farm, the home on the estate where Philip spent time after he retired from public life.

“We are enjoying each other’s company and feeling grateful today,” she wrote on Instagram on Christmas Day, beneath an old picture of her with her daughters. “I hope everyone has a wonderful day. Happy Christmas to anyone who celebrates and season’s greetings to all.”

The King, whose broken relationship with his younger son, Harry, and daughter-in-law Meghan, has been further eroded by their insistence on telling their “truth” in unsparing detail, may simply have decided that he has little time for prolonging old feuds.

Andrew is a profound embarrassment to the family, but central to his unusual relationship with his ex-wife is that she is unwaveringly loyal to him. They still live under the same roof and are seemingly devoted to each other. Her most scandalous days occurred before some involved in this year’s Sandringham Christmas were born, or had married into the family. Perhaps the King, with so many other pressing concerns, thought it absurd that the mother of two of his nieces should not be there.

There has been speculation that the Queen has had a role in the warming towards the duchess. After all, Camilla knows a thing or two about rehabilitating a public image.

Compassion almost certainly also played a part in the decision to give Fergie the call-up. Earlier this year, after a routine mammogram, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery. Afterwards she told a podcast that she had named her “perky” new breast. “I’m just coming to terms with my new best friend Derek, on my left,” she said. “He’s very important because he saved my life.”

The Yorks will be bracing themselves for a fresh development in the Epstein affair in the new year, after a judge in the US ruled that documents in a civil case naming Epstein’s associates will be unsealed.

Any attempt by Andrew to rehabilitate his reputation is likely to be a very long game indeed. But he seems likely to have his ex-wife with him in the enterprise. Could her appearance on Christmas Day indicate the beginnings of a royal strategy, desperate though it might be? She was once persona non grata, but it is not inconceivable that some in the Firm see this mother, grandmother and ex-wife as an antidote to relieve some of the toxicity around the Duke of York.

And perhaps there is a signal too to members of the family in California that reconciliations can be achieved, even if they sometimes take three decades.

[From The Times]

“And perhaps there is a signal too to members of the family in California that reconciliations can be achieved, even if they sometimes take three decades.” The Sussexes left and, despite the British media’s fantasies to the contrary, they are not begging and pleading to come back. Harry does want some form of reconciliation, but it will have to come on his terms. As for Fergie… yeah, I don’t know what’s going on there. It probably was about the Epstein “client list.”

Also: the Ephraim Hardcastle column in the Daily Mail reports that QEII gave her permission for Fergie to be buried at the Royal Windsor estate. QEII “sanctioned a St George’s Chapel Windsor funeral for Fergie followed by internment at the Royal Family burial ground at Frogmore.” This was done because Fergie is the mother of “princesses of the blood royal.” Still, Fergie will not be anywhere near the royal crypt where QEII and Prince Philip are interred.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

What are the most rewatchable movies of 2023? Barbie is definitely up there, I just rewatched it this week! [Pajiba]
Bryan Tanaka confirms his split from Mariah Carey. [Seriously OMG]
Review of George Clooney’s The Boys on the Boat. [LaineyGossip]
Margot Robbie’s style before her Chanel contract. [Go Fug Yourself]
Wham’s “Last Christmas” finally reached #1 on the UK charts. [OMG Blog]
The history of kissing under the mistletoe. [Jezebel]
Rest in peace, Lee Sun-kyun. [Just Jared]
Who was the best-dressed man of 2023? [RCFA]
People don’t talk about Danny Kaye’s rizz enough these days. [Tom & Lorenzo]
Patrick Schwarzenegger is engaged. [Hollywood Life]
Great home products. [Buzzfeed]

If you’re a regular Jeopardy watcher, you’ve noticed by now that this fall’s season has been one tournament flowing into the next without any episodes featuring new contestants. This was the show’s workaround to the WGA strike: tournaments somehow allowed them to use previously written but unaired categories. For those of you growing weary of the endless tournaments, I regret to inform you that they’re likely to continue until April 2024. Again, the delay is due to the writers being on strike from May to October. Writers matter! Mayim Bialik walked away from hosting duties to strike in solidarity with the writers, leaving co-host and former champion Ken Jennings to man all episodes himself. As discussed here last week, Bialik and the show just officially confirmed her permanent departure. Jeopardy executive producers claimed “continuity for viewers” was behind their decision to stick with Jennings as the sole host, but new reporting from Matthew Belloni at Puck News suggests that Bialik’s actions during the strike may have been the driving force:

Bialik striking in solidarity upset Sony executives: “Bialik’s actions during the strike were at least a contributing factor, according to three sources close to the show.” Mayim hadn’t been on-screen since last May, walking out of all things Jeopardy! when the WGA went on strike, later citing solidarity for her union. The report continued: “Sony TV executive Suzanne Prete and [Jeopardy!] executive producer Michael Davies were furious when Bialik said in May that she would step away from the final week of filming last season in solidarity with the show’s striking writers. “After all, Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune are well-oiled machines, requiring precise timing to make the show’s five-episodes-a-day schedule.”

But Sony had other reasons, too: First, Bialik’s reception on set was less than favorable, and second, Sony had adjusted shooting schedules last season to accommodate her since-canceled Fox sitcom Call Me Cat. “Bialik wasn’t loved on set,” Puck News claimed, but did not specify further. “And Sony had switched up shooting that [previous] season to accommodate her sitcom.”

Egads! These hosting salaries: According to Puck News, the Big Bang Theory alum was pulling in an annual salary of $4 million. Bialik’s compensation was allegedly set to increase by $1 million each year that she remained with the franchise. Puck News also noted that Ken is also making $4 million a year, although that number is expected to increase now. The late Alex Trebek reportedly made $10M a year as host.

[From The Sun]

Meanwhile, Jennings was giving some interviews to hype new episodes of Celebrity Jeopardy, and The Hollywood Reporter squeezed in a question to him about Bialik’s firing. His answer was very diplomatic, if somewhat milquetoast:

“It took me off guard, because I loved working with my Mayim and I’m gonna miss her. I can’t speak to her decision-making process or her opinions about it.

But on my end, I’m just a fan of Jeopardy! and I’m always delighted to host when they call upon me. I just feel extremely lucky to have even been considered for this job as a non-broadcaster.

It’s kind of a weird thing to try to bring back an ex-contestant to host, and I’ve obviously been learning as I go. But I loved growing up with Jeopardy! where Alex was the host of that show for almost 38 years, and people just kind of felt like he was part of their family, and it’s impossible to fill those shoes. But it’s such an honor and hopefully I look forward to 37 more years of doing it, when I’ll be a very, very old man.”

[From The Hollywood Reporter]

So Jennings says a sentence or two about Bialik, but then deftly pivots to broad comments on hosting in general. The show’s PR team must love him! Honestly, I feel like no one comes out of this story looking good. Jennings mainly dodges the question, the least offensive action here. But then again Sony stuck with him in the first place because he worked through the strikes. Bialik did the noble thing by showing solidarity with the writers, but I’m not surprised, either, that Sony was fed up with continually having to reschedule her filming dates. Still, I think Sony earns the most stink of all because the main headline is that they fired Bialik for standing by striking workers. And all these people are being paid millions of dollars a year.

Here’s the kicker for me: the current tournament airing right now is “Second Chance,” wherein previous contestants who didn’t win get… a second chance. Something Sony producers declined to extend to Bialik. I’ll take Potentially Hypocritical Actions for $400, please!

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Photos credit: Avalon.red, Cover Images and via Instagram/Jeopardy