The first trailer for Where’d You Go, Bernadette, adapted from a novel by Maria Semple, was released yesterday, and it looks like a standard “quirky family dramedy”. It stars Cate Blanchett as Wacky Mom, Billy Crudup as her seemingly perfect but, I’m guessing, having-an-affair husband, Emma Nelson a…

Entertainment Weekly has a first look at the live-action Aladdin coming from Guy Ritchie in 2019 and it looks fine. It looks like a big budget movie with elaborate sets and costumes, and human people who will talk and sing. As this is a Guy Ritchie movie, I expect the “Street Rat” sequence, featured…

Miley Cyrus covers Ariana Grande’s “No Tears Left To Cry” and the result isn’t… terrible? I actually like Miley’s version? [Towleroad]
My dog had very specific taste in movies, so I would have to be careful about taking him to this Texas movie theater. [Pajiba]
Felicity Jones’ style is so sleepy, my lord. [Go Fug Yourself]
Blac Chyna & Rob Kardashian have hit pause on their custody battle. [Dlisted]
Miles Teller’s mustache looks so gross. [LaineyGossip]
Bad kitty was accidentally shipped 700 miles for Christmas. [Jezebel]
Lala Kent has seen a lot of stuff. [Reality Tea]
Jack Dorsey is as crazy as Azealia Banks? [The Blemish]
Frosty the Snowman lives in the Sunken Place? [Starcasm]

Michelle Obama’s book, Becoming, is the bestselling hardcover of 2018 – and it was only released a month ago. Probably many of you have asked for it for Christmas and you’ll be reading it over the holidays. Perfect. Read it and then listen to this episode because while it’s been called a memoir, we …

The Queen hosted her annual Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace today. This is when the extended family is invited before the closer, senior royals head to Sandringham. As expected, Prince William and Catherine were there, along with Big G, in the backseat, and Charlotte. Big G looks like he’s at t…

Richard Madden is everybody’s bae these days, years after he (spoiler!) was killed off of Game of Thrones. Madden seemed to struggle a bit post-Thrones, working consistently for several years but not doing anything particularly notable. Then he got the lead in the BBC series Bodyguard. And now he’s everybody’s bae. British people went crazy for Bodyguard, and Americans got to see it on Netflix, and it was popular here too (but not as huge as it was in the UK). So Madden sat down with British GQ to talk about Bodyguard, Game of Thrones, and those pesky James Bond rumors.

On finishing the first season of Bodyguard: “Yeah. I finished Bodyguard and didn’t want to act again. Really. It had taken so much out of me physically, mentally and personally. I didn’t see any of my friends for months, unless they came to set. It was just relentless. You didn’t get a day off. My character doesn’t get a second off. It took more out of me that anything else I’ve done.”

It’s actually realistic that bodyguards sleep with their ‘principals’: “It’s funny. A lot of people online were saying, ‘This is so unrealistic that they would have got together and ended up having sex.’ The bodyguards I spoke to, without naming certain names, were like, yeah, totally f–ked their principals. You get really into it with these people. So those things definitely happen. There’s a couple of stories… unrepeatable stories…”

When he was killed off Game of Thrones: “I sobbed and sobbed on that Friday. I was hysterical actually. I was so exhausted. I cried all the way home.” The air stewardess kept asking if I was OK. “And then people moved and the rows behind me moved. I was sobbing and covered in blood. I looked like I’d murdered someone and got on that flight.”

He wasn’t mad about leaving GoT: “No. I was ready to leave when I did. It was five years from the pilot until I finished filming. For any actor, five years is too long to play a part. I didn’t feel cheated at all. I was ready to leave.”

On the James Bond rumors: “My first reaction is always the same reaction, which is the papers make up a story on a Sunday so they can discredit that story on the Monday so they can sell papers on both days…. this is what happens with all these shows, like Tom Hiddleston in The Night Manager. Then there’s the next one. I’m the next one. Everyone just loves the rumour mill on that topic. I’m just the current one. There’ll be a different one next week.”

Whether he’s flattered by the rumors: “Lovely. I’m more than flattered to be mentioned, for people to consider putting me in that role. I’m very flattered and thankful. It’s a really brilliant thing to be in. I don’t want to curse anything by saying anything. I think that’s the curse of that. If you talk about it, you’ll curse it.”

[From British GQ]

I liked the part about how he did research with real-life bodyguards and they were all like “oh yeah, we totally slept with the person we were protecting.” Kevin Costner really would have slept with Whitney! And Princess Diana really did have an affair with her bodyguard too, didn’t she? I do think it’s probably more common than people realize, especially in royal circles and Hollywood circles. As for the Bond rumors… I mean, he’s right. He’s just The Guy this month. There will be a different guy soon enough.

This video is NSFW but it’s charming too – Madden watches and discusses the infamous Red Wedding scene from Game of Thrones.

Cover courtesy of British GQ.

I know Nina Dobrev was never going to set the world on fire with her acting, but I was hoping we’d see more of her after Vampire Diaries. The only movies she had out in 2017 were that terrible Flatliners and a film I’ve never heard of called Crash Pad. This year she did a film called Dog Days, which looks really cute actually it’s about people meeting each other through their dogs, and Then Came You, which is out early next year and looks like The Fault in Our Stars with a twist. She’s also on a new sitcom! It’s called Fam, it’s filmed in front of a live studio audience, and it’s out January 10th on CBS. So she’s coming back to TV, which is cool I’ll watch that and see if it’s funny. Nina is on the cover of Women’s Health‘s January/February issue. Like her bestie Julianne Hough, she’s known for being very fit. She of course talks about her routine and how she eats.

She does yoga, running, weight training, boxing, and group classes
“I’m getting older and more conscious of what I eat and how I eat it and what I do. Doing something different [when working out each day] has been the most fun, and I’ve seen the most benefit because you shock your system.”

She wakes up early to work out
“I need to sweat every single day somehow, even if it’s just in the steam room. Some days are better than others, I’ll be honest with you. Some days, Maverick (Nina’s dog) gets a shorter walk than she probably deserves, if I’m running late or don’t have it together or press the snooze button 18 times too many.”

She eats every two hours
“I feel healthier. You’re happier when your body is full, your brain functions better, and you’re a nicer person. I would get hangry, I think, because I was so busy running around that I wasn’t the best version of myself.”

On the pressure to start a family
“I can and will definitely have both [career and family]. I’m still working on me. When I do have a family, I can focus my full energy on that, but I’m not ready for it yet. In 10 years, hopefully, I will be – for my mom’s sake. My mom wanted me to have a baby 10 years ago. She gets me baby clothes for Christmas every year. She’s like “‘Hint, hint, nudge, nudge!’”

[From Health]

Nina has a partnership with Les Mills, which does group classes (I’ve done their RPM and Body Combat classes for years and I used to subscribe to their online classes, which I recommend) and Reebok. I originally wanted to make the title of this post about how she eats every two hours. I could get on board with that, and I’ve heard that it’s good for stabilizing your blood sugar. Then I read that her mom buys her BABY CLOTHES for Christmas every year! That’s so obnoxious. She’s not engaged or married, not that it would matter because that would still be a cheap move by a parent, and the last we heard she was dating hottie Glen Powell. However they broke up about a year ago, so sadly she’s no longer with the guy from Set it Up. (Watch that on Netflix if you haven’t already, it’s so much fun.) So Nina is 29, kicking butt as a working actress, and her mom is letting it be known in a very passive aggressive way that she’s not meeting expectations because she hasn’t given her any grandchildren yet. I’m mad on her behalf. I’ve never heard of a parent gifting baby clothes as a hint like that. I hope Nina is either donating the clothes or giving them to friends or coworkers. She shouldn’t give her mom the satisfaction of keeping them for “some day.”

View this post on Instagram

New couple alert. @brookslaich don’t be jealous. ?: @iflyheli

A post shared by Nina Dobrev (@nina) on Dec 14, 2018 at 7:43am PST

Nina’s dog has her own Instagram!! She had to wear a cone of shame, just like Hecate’s dog.

View this post on Instagram

“It’s not how hard you fall, it’s how fast you get up”. As a dog, I hate it when humans write cheesy quotes in their posts. But after today’s surgery, the meds they put me on make me loopy and do crazy things. I’m sure I’ll regret this caption in the morning…

A post shared by Maverick Do(g)brev (@mrs.maverick) on Dec 14, 2018 at 7:47pm PST

Photos credit: Ben Watts for Women’s Health, received via Hearst publicists. Instagram/Nina Dobrev

Donald Trump is quite fond of calling the Mueller investigation a “witch hunt.” It doesn’t track at all if you know the history of actual “witch hunts,” or how honest-to-God witches have been targeted and discriminated against throughout history. The term “witch hunt” is obviously a more modern invention, meant as a shorthand for “an investigation into someone completely harmless/innocent.” That obviously does not describe Donald Trump. Anyway, the Daily Beast has a new piece about how actual witches feel about Trump’s near-constant claims that the multiple investigations are all part of a witch hunt:

It may, on the surface, seem like a harmless way to trivialize Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. But to the actual community of witches, President Donald Trump’s constant invocation of a so-called “witch hunt” is deeply problematic and, frankly, a bit hurtful.

“Many are mad, and the rest are rolling their eyes,” said David Salisbury, a lead organizer at Washington-based witch community Firefly House. Witches are not a constituency with which politicians normally concern themselves. And there’s little sense in the community that Trump actually cares about what they truly think. But for those who practice witchcraft, the president’s words bring up a painful period in history, when men and women were accused of being witches and murdered, both in the American colonies and in Europe.

On Twitter, Trump has called the Mueller investigation a “witch hunt” more than 60 times, including four times on Sunday alone. Trump’s supporters have adopted the nomenclature as well, with former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich saying Friday that the Mueller investigation is both a witch hunt and a modern return of the inquisition. Witches view the use of the phrase as more than just a pejorative rhetorical device. They place it, rather, in the larger context of the president demonizing and marginalizing minority groups. According to witches who spoke to The Daily Beast, most contemporary witches are feminists and support other marginalized groups. Salisbury called Trump’s witch hunt tweets “disgraceful,” especially because of Trump’s attacks on immigrants and women.

“It is particularly horrifying because many modern practitioners of witchcraft devote their lives to seeking compassion and justice,” Salisbury said.

[From The Daily Beast]

The witches/warlocks quoted go on to say that while witches have been casting spells on Trump and Brett Kavanaugh, “most witches have opted not to use magic against Trump. I don’t think we need to attack Trump with spells. He’s in the middle of a process of self-destruction. Trump is safe from any ‘witch hunt’ because no self-respecting coven would have him.” Sometimes I do wish I belonged to a coven – it might be soothing, to cast spells on the Trumps, or really try to hex him. I’d hex the f–k out of Ivanka too.

Here’s one of the “witch hunt” tweets from Trump just this weekend. He tweets about “witch hunts” more than he tweets about anything else at this point.

….The Russian Witch Hunt Hoax, started as the “insurance policy” long before I even got elected, is very bad for our Country. They are Entrapping people for misstatements, lies or unrelated things that took place many years ago. Nothing to do with Collusion. A Democrat Scam!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 16, 2018

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Katie Holmes turned 40 yesterday and celebrated over dinner at Serendipity in New York with Jamie Foxx and her mother, Kathleen. Both Katie and Jamie were photographed but, as usual, they arrived and left separately so as to not give up any shots together.

It’s now been five years since we first…

I’m missing the “let’s try a trendy diet” gene. I’ve never tried a trendy diet in my life. Atkins missed me. I don’t understand the Paleo diet. The elimination diet seemed like bad science (to me). But “intermittent fasting” is one of the latest “trends,” I guess, and that diet at least makes a little bit of sense. At least it has some legit ties to ancient Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and Muslim belief systems. But of course, for intermittent fasting to go mainstream, I guess they need to divorce it from religion and get a celebrity involved. All of which to say, Chris Pratt is now doing intermittent fasting.

The latest celebrity to jump on the intermittent fasting bandwagon? Chris Pratt, and it’s already working! The Guardians of the Galaxy star, 39, is famously fit after years of training for his various superhero roles, and this time around he’s trying out the popular diet plan, which involves fasting for most of the day and eating only during a shortened time period.

“So I’m doing this intermittent fasting thing; don’t eat till noon, try to get my cardio in in the morning. It’s super exciting actor stuff,” Pratt joked on his Instagram story on Monday. “But I finally get my coffee and look: I’m drinking out of Minnie Mouse’s head!” he said, while lifting up his mug. Pratt encouraged his followers to read up on intermittent fasting after his quick success.

“Look it up! Check it out! It’s actually kinda cool,” he said. “Works pretty good and I’ve lost a little weight so far.”

The dad to son Jack, 6, also announced he’s bringing back “What’s My Snack,” the Instagram game he made up last year while filming Jurassic World 2. Pratt was also trying to stay slim for that role, and spent each day looking forward to the snack he would get on his restrictive diet.

“What’s my snack is back!” he said, explaining that he had black coffee during the fasting period. “To be clear, this is coffee with oat milk — I can have black coffee on the intermittent fasting.”

[From People]

As I said, this is one of the few diets out there that at least makes a little bit of sense to me. But since I’m missing the “trendy diet” gene, I’m also missing the “willpower to fast” gene. I can easily skip eating breakfast, because I’ve never been a breakfast person. But my problem is that I can’t “fast” later in the day. Sure, I love an early bird special for dinner, but that means I like to snack a bit in the evenings. Which every diet says is bad. Anyway, Chris Pratt has the willpower that I lack. Good for him.

Photos courtesy of WENN.