Dear Gossips,

“I certainly didn’t come all this way to suck.” – Matt Damon during his monologue this weekend on Saturday Night Live. And he definitely didn’t suck. It was the strongest episode of the season. It may have been the strongest episode in a year. And it was the most I’ve enjoyed Matt …

I think it’s perfectly possible – and acceptable – to acknowledge George W. Bush’s many faults as a man and a president and still be able to acknowledge his humanity and his moments of decency. I hated his presidency, and I still believe the way Bush & company lied us into the Iraq War was the beginning of the end of the American presidency. But I can also say that Bush, as a man, was capable and is still capable of moments of grace, decency and profound kindness. Those moments have become a stark contrast to the general era of indecency, rage and ignorance from Donald Trump.

Dubya has adored Michelle Obama from the word go – during the Obama presidency, Bush seemed to actively pursue a friendship with both Obamas, and he seemed especially sweet on Michelle. Over the years, we’ve seen their friendship play out – Michelle embracing Bush in the middle of an event, or Bush taking Michelle’s hand in prayer, or Bush sneaking a piece of candy to Michelle at McCain’s funeral. At his father’s funeral, Bush once again made a point of handing Michelle a mint.

Michelle has previously said that she thinks Bush is a “beautiful, funny, kind and sweet man.” Well, she’s still on her book tour – which is wildly successful, and her book is selling out – and she was asked again about her friendship with Bush, and the latest candy-passing moment:

Michelle Obama was just as charmed by former President George W. Bush‘s mint passes as fans were. The Becoming author and Bush were at the center of two viral moments this year when cameras caught the former president passing her mints — first at Sen. John McCain‘s state funeral in September and then at former President George H.W. Bush’s state funeral in December. Asked about the latter surprise on Friday during the San Jose, California stop on her ongoing book tour, Obama, 54, spoke sweetly of George W., 72.

“He has the presence of mind and the sense of humor to bring me a mint,” Obama said, according to ABC7. “And he made it a point to give me that mint right then and there, and that’s the beauty of George Bush.”

[From People]

Is Michelle overselling this? Or are we so hungry for ANY moment of grace, bipartisanship and just NICENESS in the Trump era? I think it’s a little bit of everything. We desperately want to see anything like the Bush-Obama friendship because we believe that, at the end of the day, we can all get along. And it’s genuine to boot – Dubya adores Michelle, and she seems to truly like him.

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Photos courtesy of Getty.

Kate Hudson Is @ww_us’s Newest Ambassador! ‘It Came at a Perfect Time For Me’ https://t.co/numSC6EGfH

— People (@people) December 17, 2018

Kate Hudson announced a couple of weeks ago that she was planning to lose 25 pounds by this spring. She just had her third child, daughter Rani Rose, on October 2 and will have to balance caring for the baby, nursing, working and taking care of her other two children, Ryder, 14, and Bingham, 7. It’s possible, especially since her time is flexible, she has help and she was quite fit when she got pregnant. At the time of her announcement she was promoting her own health and wellness brand, Pretty Happy. However Weight Watchers has now made Kate a brand ambassador. She made the announcement to People Magazine.

The actress is the newest ambassador for WW — formerly Weight Watchers — and she’s thrilled to join the healthy lifestyle program two months after welcoming her third child, daughter Rani Rose.

“It came at a perfect time for me, because at this point after having three babies it’s like sense memory. You want to start getting back into shape and to get strong again and focus on your own personal health,” Hudson, 39, tells PEOPLE exclusively. “It’s hard when you have babies. Everyone comes before you, and you have to find that time to just focus in on yourself.”

“I don’t think it’s as much about changing anything, as it is about knowledge of the things that you love,” she says. “That’s the thing that sets it apart to me from everything else. This is about understanding your wellness. It’s about understanding your fitness activity, understanding your food, understanding the things that you love. It’s about how to balance…

“I can’t wait to start hashtagging ‘zero points’ on everything!” she says, laughing. “I went and had sushi last night and I was plugging everything in, and I was like, ‘Ooh, edamame is zero points.’ I got really excited about that. It makes it fun…

“A skinny margarita is like 5 points,” Hudson says. “I’m going to leave myself my points so I can have my margarita!”

“One of my passions in life is wanting people to live their most optimum life, whether it be in health or in happiness. And I think that one of the number one things for that is community, and finding a community that can support you,” she says. “WW is, to me, the perfect community for that…

“I am excited to walk down a street and have someone come up and say they’re a part of the community, because it means they’re doing something good for themselves, and that they want to be a part of a community that’s about something that’s really inspiring,” she says.

[From People]

I think the appeal of WW is in the community as Kate mentioned. It’s simplified calorie counting emphasizing whole foods and fiber, but it does work, it’s less gimmicky than other diet programs, you don’t have to buy their food and it’s body positive. Out of all the commercial diet programs I think it’s the best. Kate has said in the past that she counts calories and uses MyFitnessPal. WW isn’t incompatible with that, it’s just a slightly different system that isn’t free. I understand why she’s pairing with them and they are a decent company, especially after Oprah got on board. They also hired Kevin Smith to represent them! Also Weight Watchers become WW in September, but this is the first I’m hearing about it. That’s a little weird.

Here’s Oprah and Kate facetiming. Yes she’s perfect for this:

We listened in on @Oprah and #WWambassador Kate Hudson’s FaceTime convo—and you’ll never guess what they talked about…Visit https://t.co/nSz1ClIJWI to get the full scoop, and tell us what drives YOU to get healthy with #MyWhy. pic.twitter.com/ZM7MNRgdfo

— WW (@ww_us) December 17, 2018

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I told you that Prince William’s fingerprints would be on at least one royal story before the end of the year, and here it is. Throughout the smear campaign of Duchess Meghan, a picture has begun to form. The picture: two brothers who were once quite close, just as long as the younger brother “knew his place” and never rocked any royal boats. But when the younger brother developed his own separate interests and fell in love with a woman imminently more suitable for public life than the older brother’s wife, suddenly everything fell apart. The older brother is used to controlling his younger brother, and keeping him “in line.” When the older brother finds that his younger brother no longer listens to him, the older brother blames the new wife. It’s actually incredibly common. The royals really are just like us. Anyway, the latest thing Meghan is being blamed for? Mean Diva Meghan doesn’t want Harry to go on the Boxing Day shoot at Sandringham. Meghan is driving the brothers apart, because Harry obviously has no agency here.

Prince Harry will miss out on the traditional Boxing Day pheasant shoot with his brother Prince William at Sandringham to avoid upsetting his animal-loving wife Meghan. Their father Prince Charles will be at the shoot and Prince William’s son George may go along to catch the spectacle. Harry, 34, has taken part in the family event for more than 20 years, but Meghan, 37, strongly opposes blood sports and refuses to wear fur.

Harry and Prince William have enjoyed hunting together over the years and it has provided them with the opportunity to strengthen their brotherly bond. Now Royal watchers fear that Harry’s absence will only serve to deepen the reported tensions between the siblings and their wives.

One Royal source told the Sunday Mirror: ‘William sees this as another concerning example of his brother being pulled away from his family by his new wife. Harry’s always loved hunting and it has provided them with a great chance to bond as brothers. But now it looks like Harry’s shooting days are over. It’s the latest point of contention between the Princes.’

Meghan’s aversion to hunting is believed to have first caused issues last year, when Harry reportedly took part in a wild boar hunt in Germany. Realising his then-girlfriend ‘wasn’t happy,’ he declined to join the Boxing Day hunt last year – before missing the grouse hunt at Balmoral three months ago. Insiders say that Harry has changed hugely since meeting his American wife.

When the one-time ‘Party Prince’ took Meghan to Jamaica to celebrate the wedding of his best friend Tom Inskip, the couple were the first to leave the party and go to bed. Since then, he has also become more distant from the group of friends he grew up with.

[From The Daily Mail]

For what it’s worth, there were similar stories written about the Cambridges, as in “Kate changed William, William no longer hangs out with the same group of friends like he used to, William is so different now and it’s Kate’s fault.” It’s like these “sources” don’t understand that people grow up, get married, start families and obviously their priorities shift and change. I don’t understand all the hand-wringing about the Boxing Day shoot, or why Meghan is getting the blame for it. If Harry wanted to go, he would go. He clearly prefers spending time with his pregnant wife rather than his brother. Oh well.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red.

As we discussed last week, Michael Weatherly sexually harassed his costar Eliza Dushku and CBS ended up paying her $9.5 million. Dushku guest starred on CBS’s Bull, and she was promised that her guest-star gig would become a full-time role. The full-time role never panned out, because Dushku rightly complained when Weatherly repeatedly said inappropriate things to her. CBS tried to fight Dushku’s lawsuit, but she had a pretty clear-cut case and they awarded her the $9.5 million as part of a very quiet settlement. The settlement only came to light because CBS has been doing a far-ranging investigation into Les Moonves, their long-time president/CEO, who was ousted this year after dozens of women came forward and spoke about his history of sexual harassment, sexual abuse and assault, and the toxic culture he created at CBS. As it turns out, Les Moonves oversaw the Dushku settlement himself:

As accusations of sexual harassment and sexual assault by Harvey Weinstein and others began flooding Hollywood early this year, CBS’ then-CEO Les Moonves stepped in to settle claims against one of the network’s biggest stars. Moonves was deeply and directly involved in the $9.5 million payout that CBS forked over to Eliza Dushku in January after the actor accused Bull lead Michael Weatherly of sexual harassment on the first season of the CBS drama, we’ve learned. Additionally, the confidential payment was sneaked into Bull’s production budget in an effort apparently motivated to avoid the sum popping up on the company’s books, sources say.

The confidential agreement was struck while CBS was engaging in ultimately unsuccessful talks of a potential merger with Viacom. The settlement and its machinations were not known to then-COO Joe Ianniello, who became acting CEO after Moonves resigned in September after a dozen women accused him of sexual aggression.

“Moonves was intimately involved in the Bull situation, as he was in almost all settlement talks and deals at CBS,” according to a person with knowledge of the situation. “The guy micromanaged this kind of stuff,” the source added of the Dushku settlement.

[From Deadline]

And people wonder why Weatherly felt like he could get away with acting that creepy and toxic way – it was because Les Moonves had his back, and Les Moonves created the creepy and toxic culture from top to bottom at CBS.

Speaking of, two of Michael Weatherly’s former female costars (both on NCIS) posted photos of him and messages of support. Sasha Alexander worked with Weatherly on the first seasons of NCIS, and Pauley Perrette worked with Weatherly for more than a decade on NCIS. I don’t doubt that both women have good things to say about Weatherly, and that they both consider him a friend. But again, that’s not a solid argument – “he didn’t sexually harass me, therefore he wouldn’t sexually harass anyone!”

This man… I love, respect, trust, and I KNOW. TWO decades of friendship and respect. The best. I love you @M_Weatherly Always and forever. pic.twitter.com/654ATa83w4

— Pauley Perrette (@PauleyP) December 15, 2018

I have been in trenches w/ my friend ?@M_Weatherly?. Always laughs, true friend & ?? as big as they come. pic.twitter.com/kiJz4ACyJA

— Sasha Alexander (@sashaalexander) December 15, 2018

Photos courtesy of CBS/’Bull’.

For more than seven years, we’ve heard about the Duchess of Cambridge’s keenness. She’s keen about so much – keen to really get going, keen to truly take on more work, keen to become a full-time royal. Despite all of the “she’s so keen” PR, we mostly see Kate as someone keen to NOT work. But that was before… you know. Now that she’s had her third baby, Kate’s keenness has come along once again. For months, we’ve been hearing that Kate will do a big launch for her new charity project, something she’s been working on for a while, something which will be the biggest thing she’s ever undertaken. It’s supposed to involve kids and mental health and the people who have fallen through the cracks of “Broken Britain.” The launch date seems to be getting pushed back – I could have sworn that Kate was supposed to launch it this month. But now she’ll launch it in January, maybe. And the Daily Express had a big hype piece about it:

The Duchess of Cambridge aims to become the Royal Family’s charity powerhouse next year and prove her credentials as a future queen. Kate, 36, who visited Her Majesty alone at Buckingham Palace last week, is to put any petty squabbles with sister-in-law Meghan Markle behind her. After months of planning, she is to announce a fresh care initiative for struggling children in the new year, which could change the balance between royalty and politics. A team of academics, advisers, experts and aides has been working with Kate for around a year and studying Britain’s most crippling social problems. Aides believe that the project will cement the duchess’s future as a serious-minded, hard-working royal and future monarch.

One family friend explained: “There are those who are satisfied to turn up to get headlines and raise money, and there are those who want to get stuck in and make a difference. That is very much Catherine. If you’re looking for the causes of poverty, poor mental health, poor housing and poor social care, the politics also have to be dealt with. So there might be bumpy times ahead for her. But she has given this everything she’s got and is determined to make it work. Catherine would be the last person in the world to use the phrase Queen of Hearts but if the crown fits…?”

The mother-of-three’s campaign is being co-ordinated with the Royal Foundation charity, set up by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry. Her aide Aida Cable – head of the foundation’s young people programmes – has been liaising with independent experts. Aida, daughter of Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable, is expected to submit a final report for Kate’s approval within the next few weeks, prior to the new year launch. The duchess’s plans are understood to have the full backing of the Queen and of veteran social campaigner Prince Charles.

[From The Daily Express]

“Catherine would be the last person in the world to use the phrase Queen of Hearts but if the crown fits…?” LMAO.

“There are those who are satisfied to turn up to get headlines and raise money…” That’s literally what’s expected of royal patrons. Many charities don’t want a duchess or a prince mucking around in the minutiae of their work because their work is complicated. Most charities really need a royal or celebrity patron who will come in and raise the profile of the charity and help them fundraise. And, incidentally, Kate has been terrible at that. She fails to show up at her patronages’ fundraisers, she fails to adequately represent them in public events, and there was a lot of talk that some of her patronages were looking to toss her aside and get new patrons.

As for the larger narrative of “Future Queen Kate’s Years of Keenness Has Finally Led to This,” we’ll see how the launch goes. I’m sure Kate has assembled a large team of people who have done a lot of work, for which Kate will get/take “credit.” But mostly I think Kate will be launching some initiative which will be like Heads Together – an umbrella organization for several different existing charities, and Kate will get credit for creating more of a bureaucracy around them.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, WENN.

Here are some photos of Donald & Melania Trump at the White House Congressional Christmas party. Melania’s hair seems to have gone back to a darker shade, which makes me wonder what that blonde tragedy was all about. Was it just a wig? Last week, Melania debuted her blonde rat’s nest tragedy hairstyle in an interview on Fox News. In the same interview, Melania bashed anyone and everyone who offers any kind of criticism of her or her husband, calling those critics “opportunists who are using my name or my family name to advance themselves. From comedians, to journalists, to performers, book writers…” This from the same a–hole who wore the “I Don’t Really Care, DO U?” jacket to see caged children at the border. The same a–hole who spent tens of millions of taxpayer dollars doing colonialist photoshoot in Africa. The same opportunist a–hole who used the Obama name to spread racist Birther conspiracies and advance herself.

After that Fox News interview, CNN posted an op-ed by Kate Andersen Brower in which Brower took Melania to task for being a terrible FLOTUS who doesn’t understand the role, especially given Mel’s comments in the Fox News interview. Which is true – Melania approached the FLOTUS role like she approaches everything else: like a lazy trophy wife who doesn’t give a sh-t. Melania can go weeks without doing anything publicly, her Be Best initiative is a joke, and her plummeting approval numbers show that fewer people are buying Mel’s bulls–t.

After CNN published Brower’s op-ed, Melania’s spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham decided to respond with her own competing op-ed, which you can read here. Grisham is very devoted to Melania, as we’ve seen over the past two years. I’ll give Melania some credit – her bare bones East Wing staff is a million times more stable than her husband’s West Wing. But even Grisham can’t hide Melania’s pettiness, laziness and racism. It’s sort of hilarious to even see Grisham inadvertently prove Brower’s point, which is that Melania is the worst FLOTUS in decades, that Mel doesn’t understand the role, that Melania is a petty and juvenile rich bitch. Grisham wants Melania to get “credit” for doing a handful of events this month, like Melania is the most magnanimous princess in the royal Bigly court, when it’s clear from Grisham’s words that Melania truly only keeps up a bare-bones schedule just so she can say she’s doing *something*.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

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Earlier this month, Cardi B announced that she had split from Offset, her undercover husband. Everyone knew that Cardi and Offset were together, but they only revealed that they’d quietly gotten married months after the fact. I am convinced that the divorce will probably be one of the biggest “messy” stories of 2019, but I was impressed with Cardi’s maturity in her split announcement. She didn’t attack Offset or denigrate him in any way. She really sounded like her priority was taking care of herself and their daughter Kulture, and that she still loved Offset and hoped they could coparent.

Unfortunately, a lot of people around Cardi and a lot of her fans were like “Cardi and Offset should get back together” or “this is just some stunt, they’re obviously still together.” No and no. Cardi knows her own mind. Respect that. Her fans should respect that she’s done with Offset, and Offset should respect that she’s done with him. Offset hasn’t respected that. Offset has been making a lot of noise about how he’s going to “win her back” and convince her to be together again, like he wasn’t cheating on her throughout their marriage or whatever.

Over the weekend, Cardi was in the middle of her performance at Rolling Loud when Offset “crashed” the stage. Offset had roses and a microphone, and he seemed to beg her for forgiveness, and for her to take him back. No one heard what Cardi said, but she didn’t throw her arms around him and announce their reunion, so I think we can assume that she was not into this sh-t. Here’s the video:

.@OffsetYRN offers @iamcardib an apology. [via @rapradar] pic.twitter.com/fOenMgaGdo

— Complex (@Complex) December 16, 2018

To all the young women and young men out there who think this is romantic, please stop. Granted, I’m old-school in that I almost always think that a big, PUBLIC gesture is going to be tacky and gross. But this specific move – to emotionally manipulate his estranged wife WHILE SHE’S WORKING, in public – is actually making me feel sick to my stomach. Cardi let the world know she was done with Offset, and the people around her don’t have her back at all. They were working with Offset so that he could do this emotionally manipulative stunt. To all the young people out there: when a man or a woman says NO, they mean it. This behavior is a red flag.

Hours later, Cardi behaved like so many women behave in these situations – she tried to smooth things over and minimize her ex’s creepy, toxic, manipulative behavior. I understand that she doesn’t want people to really go in on Offset. But for a lot of people, this is a teachable moment about respect, consent, relationship red flags and emotional manipulation.

.@iamcardib responds: pic.twitter.com/3uTdw57DQ5

— Complex (@Complex) December 16, 2018

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Photos courtesy of Backgrid and Getty.

Well, I was wrong. I thought the British tabloids would lighten up on the Duchess of Sussex ahead of Christmas, but as it turns out…not so much. Good Morning Britain organized a surprise for their broadcast this morning: an exclusive interview with Thomas Markle, in which he calls his daughter “controlling.” He also begged the Queen to step in and, like, order Meghan to answer his texts. Yeah. I still don’t care. Thomas Markle is only pulling these stunts because A) the racist British media will do anything to attack Meghan, including pay her father for these bullsh-t exclusives and B) he has no access, no new information, and he knows he needs “new” stuff to talk about if he’s going to continue to get paid. Or not, whatever. The British media doesn’t seem to mind that he hasn’t spoken to Meghan since May. They’re just going to keep paying him to act like a stunt queen a–hole.

Meanwhile, speaking of the Queen and Meghan, apparently the Queen did summon Meghan and Harry to Buckingham Palace last week. And it was about Her Maj passing on some patronages to Meghan:

The Duchess of Sussex is set to receive her first royal patronage from the Queen in the new year, as the monarch looks to further reduce her workload after turning 92 this year. Discussions are said to be ‘ongoing’ as to what role Meghan will take on, with royal insiders speculating that the former actress could be handed causes that reflect her interest in feminism and the arts.

The Duchess, 37, is reported to have met the Queen for tea at Buckingham Palace, along with her husband Prince Harry, last week to discuss her potential new patronages, with an announcement set to be made by February. She will then visit each of the charities or organisations ahead of giving birth to the couple’s first child in the spring, according to the Sunday Times.

[From The Daily Mail]

I hope Meghan gets a good patronage! I’d love it if it was something to do with the arts. I bet the royals really regret giving the BAFTA presidency to Prince William – since taking on the presidency, he’s only attended the BAFTAs a handful of times, he’s never attended the BAFTA reception at Kensington Palace, and he basically acts like BAFTA is some huge ass-ache. Why not give it to Meghan??? But more likely, she’ll get something related to theater, or maybe an arts program.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red and Backgrid.

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I only watched the first couple episodes of Revenge, which aired on ABC for four seasons, from 2011 to 2015. It didn’t pull me in for some reason but it was wildly popular. Emily Vancamp and Josh Bowman have been together since the show started, they played a couple on Revenge and even got married on the show, and now they’re married for real. They got married Saturday in the Bahamas. I want to go to a tropical wedding now. We just saw Malin Akerman’s wedding in Mexico which looked like so much fun! Maybe I’ll just go to the tanning booth for 10 minutes and imagine. Anyway unfortunately there aren’t any photos of the actual wedding, but we have some details along with pictures of their pretend on screen wedding.

Emily VanCamp and Josh Bowman, who played couple Emily Thorne and Daniel Grayson on the ABC primetime soap a few years ago, got married for real this Saturday in the Bahamas, in front of family and friends, according to People and Us Weekly.

The 32-year-old Canadian actress and 30-year-old British actor have been together for more than seven years and got engaged in May 2017…

In 2014, VanCamp spoke with Elle Canada about her relationship with Bowman, which has been largely private.

“I barely talk about him in interviews, to be honest. It’s just really funny in the moments when we’re playing these absolutely absurd things. I call him ‘wife-beater Daniel,’” she joked. “It’s hard for my family to watch—it’s also hard for them to see me in that light. But we’re actors. None of that lives in any of us. Thank God!”

She also talked about her desire to start a family.

“How excited I am to have children!” she said. “I find myself dreaming about it all the time.”

[From E! Online]

Judging from what Emily has said about keeping her private life to herself, and the fact that her Instagram is kind of vague, I guess she’s just not the demonstrative type. That’s her prerogative, and I find it sweet that these two got married married after seven years together and over a year and a half engagement. I know some people want to make it official right away and feel like they know, but I like hearing about these longer engagements that end up in happy marriages. Anyway congratulations to Emily and Josh! I want to see their real wedding photos now.

??

A post shared by Emily VanCamp (@emilyvancamp) on May 11, 2017 at 12:54pm PDT

How cute are they together?
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