The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrived in Cyprus today to do another holiday party for RAF personnel and RAF families. Yesterday, Will and Kate hosted a Christmas party for RAF families at Kensington Palace, and it seemed to go pretty well – Kate even made a speech! The palace party was exhaustively covered by the Kensington Palace social media, further confirming my theory that the Cambridges were at least partially to blame for the smear campaign against the Sussexes as a way to bring media attention to Will and Kate’s December activities.

I really liked Kate’s Christmas-y outfit yesterday, at the Kensington Palace party. I was hoping for more of the same today with the Cyprus visit – something warm and wintery, maybe in red. What we got was… an honest to God pantsuit. After seven and a half years, Kate finally wore a pair of proper trousers combined with a simple blouse and a professional-looking blazer in muted green. After years and years of coatdresses and lace and button-slathered blue dresses, Kate has FINALLY invested in some smart trousers and separates? It’s so weird. It’s almost like she finally realized that she doesn’t have to have a closet full of ONLY coatdresses. But that realization happened quite suddenly. This year. I’m sure it was just a coincidence. And I’m sure all of the British media outlets are preparing to write pieces on how Kate is “breaking protocol” by wearing trousers too. I don’t have an ID on the trousers yet, but WhatKateWore thinks the blazer is Smythe.

Will and Kate brought letters and gifts on their flight to Cyprus, and a palace aide wants us to know that William “had been very keen to do something for the RAF community for some time.” Yes, Jason, we know that Will and Kate have been keen for some time.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

The one-year anniversary of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s engagement announcement just happened last week. In a few weeks, it will be their seven-month wedding anniversary. Meghan has already undertaken one large charitable project – putting together the Hubb Community Kitchen cookbook – and traveled on one mini-tour in Europe, and one huge tour in the South Pacific. She’s already given several speeches and done dozens of events, starting before she was even a duchess. Before the engagement, Meghan also took a step back from her charitable work as an actress, the idea being that she would need a different kind of charity portfolio once she was part of the royal family. We’ve been waiting to hear what her next big move would be, and I think Poor Jason Knauf decided to use this moment, right now, as a chance to change the subject away from the smear campaign and focus on Meghan’s future charitable work. You can tell Jason has a hand in it because the word “keen” made a few appearances:

The Duchess of Sussex is to put education for women in developing countries at the heart of her public work, when she announces her first royal patronages next year, Mail Online can reveal. Meghan, 37, has been having secret briefings with a number of organisations, including CAMFED – the Campaign for Female Education – which works in several African countries, including Zambia, which was visited by Prince Harry last week. It is understood that she and Harry are keen to work together on the issue in their role as roving Commonwealth youth ambassadors.

Meghan is a passionate advocate of the work of charity CAMFED, which believes one of the best way to alleviate poverty and inequality is through education. It has already affected the lives of nearly three million girls and young women across sub-Saharan Africa. Its CEO, Lucy Lake, who was with the sixth in line to the throne in Zambia, revealed to the Mail that she had briefed his wife privately at Kensington Palace earlier this year about their work in the country, as well as Zimbabwe, Ghana, Tanzania and Malawi.

It is hoped that the pregnant duchess will be able to travel out to Africa and see CAMFED’s work for herself after she has had her baby next spring. Royal sources say the duchess has been having meetings with a number of organisations and is still finalising which areas to work in and what charities to support as she moves on with her public work. It is understood that she is particularly keen to support issues where she can work alongside her husband. Aides hope to make an announcement about her first patronages in the new year, eight months after she joined the Royal Family.

Although it is considered quite a long time to wait before announcing her patronages, it is understood that Meghan wishes to ‘really get to know’ the organisations she wants to work with in order to make a ‘real and lasting’ difference.

[From The Daily Mail]

This is Kensington Palace trying to contain two temperamental horses at once – they’re giving Meghan a timeline, and telling her that she can’t officially launch anything or announce anything until mid-January. We already know that Kate plans to launch her new ‘helping the children of Broken Britain’ initiative at some point, and she wants to do it this month (last I heard). In keeping with their duchess-brands, this is what I expect – Kate taking seven years to spearhead her own cultivated issue, which will narrowly focus on British-only concerns. And in her first year of marriage, Meghan gets to do “international” work, foreign work, feminist work, charities that do work in Africa. That being said, I don’t think either woman is being dictated to by Buckingham Palace about which charities to choose – I think Meghan’s interest was always going to go more towards women’s rights, human rights, the right to an education, poverty, all on an international scale.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red.

LOL, the other day I was thinking about whether Lady Gaga would really win an Oscar, and my mind wandered to Madonna and all of her attempts to be a “real actress,” and whether Madonna was mad about Gaga’s Oscar buzz. For those latecomers to the Gaga bandwagon, let me tell you… for the first four or five years of Gaga’s music career, she copied Madonna. A LOT. Gaga even had a few songs that just sounded like old Madonna songs. But one area where Gaga didn’t copy Madonna: Gaga can act, and Madonna never could. Madonna always craved legitimacy in the acting world, and she never got it. And now Gaga has that legitimacy. So…Gaga’s Little Monsters and Madonna’s stans are at each other’s throats again:

They have a feud stretching back years. And after a relatively calm period between Lady Gaga and Madonna, the Material Girl icon has hit out at her rival for supposedly stealing a famous quote of hers. The drama started when a video compilation circulated online of Gaga repeatedly using a quote during her A Star is Born press tour earlier this year.

‘There can be 100 people in a room and 99 of them don’t believe in you, but all it takes is one and it just changes your whole life,’ the singer and actress has said on multiple occasions.

But it turns out the quote is very similar to one said by Madonna in the 1980s, with the star herself posting an Instagram story on Monday showing herself being interviewed thirty years ago, saying: ‘If there are 100 people in a room and 99 say they liked it, I only remember the one person who didn’t.’

Madonna also posted an Insta snap of herself with the caption ‘Don’t F–k with Me Monday,’ leading to a flurry of comments and back and forths between her fans and Gaga’s Little Monsters.

[From The Daily Mail]

I’m including one of the videos below for comparison. Maybe I’m super-old (???) but this argument seems to be about different quotes which didn’t originate from either Madonna or Lady Gaga. I mean, Madonna was not the first person to ever say “If there are 100 people in a room and 99 say they liked it, I only remember the one person who didn’t,” right? People have been saying variations on that quote for a lot longer than Madonna has been around. As for Gaga’s quote… is it possible she had no memory of Madonna even saying that? Good lord.

Fans are convinced @Madonna shaded @LadyGaga by sharing video of herself saying a similar phrase to @LadyGaga’s “100 people”

Although similar, it appears Madonna only remembers the one person who didn’t like it, while Gaga is saying she only needs one person to like it. pic.twitter.com/9eOIgZIzqy

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) December 3, 2018

ME EVERY SINGLE JOB INTERVIEWhttps://t.co/ux9puktR6f

— Lady HaHa (@ladyrahra) November 29, 2018

Photos courtesy of WENN.

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I don’t know exactly why, but I don’t find Ariana Grande as calculating as some of you do. I think she’s an opportunist sure, and that she’s making specific moves for her career, but don’t we all do that? She’s not dropping blind item songs or feuding with other artists. She’s clear about whom she’s singing about and she uses names. She mines her personal life for her lyrics, but she’s open about it, it’s not like she’s playing games to get us to talk about her. Maybe I’m naive, but I like her.

That’s why I find it somewhat genuine that she stepped in to support and defend Pete Davidson after he revealed that he was bothered by trolls on Instagram. Ariana dumped Pete nearly two months ago and she moved on spectacularly by just killing it with a hit single about her exes. Then she dropped the video on Friday and it was the most viral video ever. It broke the record for views in 24 hours on YouTube. That must have brought more mean commenters to Pete Davidson’s Instagram because he posted that he was being bothered by people. He wrote that he’d been “online bullied and in public by people for 9 months” and that “no matter how hard the Internet tries to make me kill myself I won’t.” Pete has been open about his history of suicidal thoughts and bipolar disorder and it was worrying. Ariana posted a message to her Instagram stories in support of Pete yesterday. She didn’t mention him by name though, which was boss, but she did wrote “I will always have irrevocable love for him.”

i know u already know this but i feel i need to remind my fans to please be gentler with others. i really don’t endorse anything but forgiveness and positivity. i care deeply about pete and his health. im asking you to please be gentler with others, even on the internet. i’ve learned thru my own mistakes not to be reactive on socials so i do understand. but you truly don’t know what anybody is experiencing ever. regardless of what they choose to display on social media or how they may appear in public. i can promise u that. so please let whatever point you’re trying to make go. I will always have irrevocable love for him and if you’ve gotten any other impression from my recent work, you might have missed the point.

[Instagram stories via hot new hip hop]

That was nice, but she had to write something like that or people would accuse her of being cold to him. Later, Ari responded to a fan by saying that she’s blocked by Pete and hasn’t seen any of the bullying against him. She surely saw his post because it was widely reported and that’s what she was responding to, but I believe her that she didn’t see the messages that bothered him. It’s unclear what that was anyway. Here’s her message via E!

there’s nothing left to say…. pic.twitter.com/IY5WN1mz5K

— mona (@arianashijabi) December 3, 2018

I admire how she manages to be so gracious and kind but also makes it clear that Pete is being petty and blocking her. This time she used his name and she had to know this message would go public. Ari is definitely an opportunist, but again I admire that. She owned this whole mess and used it to further her career. Plus that song is just so damn cute.

View this post on Instagram

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A post shared by Ariana Grande (@arianagrande) on Dec 2, 2018 at 10:19am PST

photos credit: Getty, via Instagram, WENN

I believe the analysis of Robert Mueller’s investigation which theorizes that Mueller is “writing his report” by way of unfolding indictments, trials and DoJ documents. Michael Flynn was part of Donald Trump’s campaign – he stood on stage at the Republican National Convention and began the “lock her up” chant. Then Trump made him National Security Advisor, despite Sally Yates’ warnings that Flynn was compromised by foreign intelligence in about a million different ways. Flynn was also dealing undercover with Russian officials during the transition in late 2016, which is massively illegal too.

Flynn is one of the big reasons why Robert Mueller’s investigation exists. And so everyone was interested in the much-hyped document-drop from DoJ yesterday about the Flynn deal. It’s been known for some time that Flynn has been talking to Mueller, just as we’ve known that Flynn’s adult son was also up to his ass in illegal sh-t too, and that Mueller would have gone after Flynn’s son if Flynn didn’t talk. Well, Flynn talked. NINETEEN interviews. And the document drop was heavily redacted.

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III on Tuesday recommended that former national security adviser Michael Flynn serve no prison time, citing his “substantial assistance” with several ongoing investigations, according to a new court filing. Flynn was forced out of his post as national security adviser in February 2017 after the White House said he misled administration officials, including Vice President Pence, about his contacts with Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the United States at the time.

Since then, Flynn has been cooperating with Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, and his full account of events has been one of the best-kept secrets in Washington. He is one of five Trump aides who have pleaded guilty in the special counsel probe.

The special counsel’s filing Tuesday is the first time prosecutors have described Flynn’s assistance since the former national security adviser’s guilty plea last year. But Tuesday’s sentencing memo was heavily redacted, continuing to shroud in secrecy the details of what Flynn has told Mueller’s team and other prosecutors. The special counsel wrote that Flynn has provided information for several ongoing investigations — participating in 19 interviews with federal prosecutors and turning over documents and communications. The filing indicated that Flynn has provided extensive assistance to Mueller, including about matters that were redacted and hidden from public view. It also indicated that he has cooperated with a separate unidentified criminal investigation, the details of which were completely redacted.

Flynn pleaded guilty in December 2017 to one felony count of making a false statement, despite a longer list of charges he could have faced. Prosecutors said last year they would likely seek a prison sentence between zero and six months. On Tuesday, the special counsel’s office said that based on Flynn’s assistance, the government was recommending a sentence on the low end of that range, “including a sentence that does not impose a term of incarceration.”

[From The Washington Post]

This is something I don’t understand about the Trump loyalists – no matter how much loyalty you show to the orange one, he’s still going to throw you under the bus whenever he feels like it. So you might as well sing like a g-ddamn canary to the special counsel. Mueller WILL show you loyalty if you help him – he’ll even recommend that you spend the bare minimum in jail for your treason and felonious behavior. LOCK HIM UP. Some tweets:

Reminder: Flynn chanted “lock her up” at the RNC, said “If I did a tenth, a tenth of what she did, I would be in jail.” pic.twitter.com/GqgoGPKyLZ

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 5, 2018

As a former prosecutor, here is my view of the Flynn memo:

-Mueller is signaling to other targets that if they cooperate, they will get leniency;

-There are “several ongoing investigations”;

-Mueller believes his job is secure & felt no need to disclose what he has uncovered. https://t.co/cZVg9CL7RW

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) December 5, 2018

Ladies, if he’s:

– ??????????
– ??????????
– ??????????
– ??????????

He’s not your man. He’s Michael Flynn.

— marisa kabas (@MarisaKabas) December 5, 2018

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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It’s bugging me that the Duchess of Sussex’s meeting with Michelle Obama was so low-key. It was so quiet that Kensington Palace seemingly only confirmed that it had taken place to one of two journalists. It was so quiet that no photos were released… so far. The same thing happened last night – the Duke and Duchess of Sussex attended a private charity event to benefit the Henry van Straubenzee Memorial Fund. Henry was one of Prince Harry’s good friends, and his family runs the charity, which funds schools and resources and Uganda. The event was a “carol concert” and Meghan was even tasked with reading a poem. Again, there are no formal photos, just a handful of shadowy paparazzi photos.

Cute baby bump alert! #meghan #duchessofsussex looks like she’s popped! All KP have ever said is that she’s due in the ‘spring’. By the looks of things March or early April. H&M here leaving a charity carol concert in Chelsea for the Henry van Straubenzee fund, where both spoke. pic.twitter.com/91YX1cEWm3

— Emily Andrews (@byEmilyAndrews) December 4, 2018

While I’ll believe that Meghan’s biggest priority at the moment is just resting and taking it easy, it also feels like… Meghan and Harry are going out of their way to avoid being photographed at the moment. Which makes me wonder if the Cambridges’ two-week-long smear campaign/tantrum actually worked. The Cambridges succeeded in “taking Meghan down” a few pegs and making it so that Meghan is wary of being photographed or taking any spotlight right now. Was that the short-term goal?

Speaking of, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were also out on Tuesday night – they attended the Queen’s annual reception for the diplomatic corps. Kate wore the Cambridge Lover’s Knot tiara and of course all the headlines are back to Kate and how she’s “just like Diana” because she’s wearing “Diana’s favorite tiara,” plus she also wore a pair of Diana’s earrings. Kate seemed especially happy to have all of the attention back on her. Her dress is Jenny Packham.

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Unusually Buckingham Palace allowed a rota photographer in to cover tonight’s white tie Diplomatic Reception. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are attending.
Pic by @PA pic.twitter.com/bUaXrboPjH

— Rebecca English (@RE_DailyMail) December 4, 2018

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Photos courtesy of Getty, Twitter, Press Association.

This does not surprise me – Cardi B and Offset are no longer together. What does surprise me is that their relationship seemed to end in a pretty low-key way, and that Cardi has nice things to say about him now. Basically, ever since Cardi and Offset got together, there were rumors (and even receipts) about his infidelity. Cardi confronted some of Offset’s side chicks too, but I honestly didn’t keep up with all of the back-and-forth sh-t. Cardi and Offset welcomed baby Kulture over the summer, and it always sounded like Cardi was raising the baby by herself, with lots of help from her family, but that Offset just wasn’t that engaged with the baby. Cardi confirmed the breakup rumors with an Instagram video, saying in part:

“I’ve been trying to work things out with my baby father for how many now. And we’re really good friends and really good business partners. We’ve got a lot of love for each other but things just haven’t been working out for us for a long time. It’s nobody’s fault. I just guess we grew out of love. But we’re not together anymore.”

Oh, crap – I just saw that Offset and Cardi were low-key secret married in September 2017. I totally forgot about that – probably because for much of this year, it didn’t even seem like they were really living together as a married couple. So this isn’t just a breakup – she’s going to need to hire a divorce lawyer and this is going to be a HUGE mess.

Looks like Cardi B and Offset are splitting up pic.twitter.com/MevOWs47EA

— XXL Magazine (@XXL) December 5, 2018

Offset’s comment on Cardi’s Instagram:

Offset’s comment ??? pic.twitter.com/7LZC3mEnej

— Complex (@Complex) December 5, 2018

Photos courtesy of WENN.

The Guardian has a new interview with Joan Collins, 85. Joan is currently promoting her one-woman show and she’s also on American Horror Story. The last time I covered an interview with her was in 2015 so it’s been a while, but she makes an impression. I particularly remember a 2014 interview where she said the secret to her fifth marriage, to a man over 30 years her junior, was sex. They’ve been married since 2002 so something must be working. Joan was 45 when she started doing Dallas in 1978. She’s been around longer than you think, and she’ll tell you about it. Joan has some extremely bad takes in this interview, particularly on metoo and assaults on women and on her friendship with Piers Morgan. I’ve heard similar horrible victim-blaming takes from relatives and have argued briefly and walked away. Joan has not evolved with the times and there is no excuse for that. However I want to focus on what she said about her sister possibly visiting her as a fly. Jackie passed three years ago and I didn’t realize that she didn’t even tell Joan she had cancer.

On Jackie visiting her as a little fly
“Do you believe that little flies or butterflies or something can be old souls, people that you knew? I have this little fly that comes near me all the time. It’s really strange.”

“I think it might be my sister. I know that sounds weird, and I don’t know whether I believe in the afterlife or not,” she continues. “My opinion is still out to lunch about that, but it is weird that wherever I go, at least two or three times a week – wherever I am, France, London, here – this little fly comes. Now maybe it’s because the fruit’s rotting in the kitchen! I don’t know. But anyway… If it is: hello Jack.”

“You know, like sisters, we all have our problems, which the press loved to exacerbate, or exaggerate. But I mean, she was the closest person to me for many years and with me being the older sister she kind of worshipped me in a way.”

On Jackie not telling her she had cancer
“[She] only [told] her daughters. Thank God she didn’t tell me. I mean, I wish she had. But she didn’t want pity, and that’s what happens – in this town particularly, you know, gossip.”

[From The Guardian]

Is Joan serious about her sister or is she using that as a metaphor? We’ve heard similar things from other celebrities about their loved ones visiting them in other forms. The day my uncle passed I saw a red-bellied woodpecker in my backyard for the first time. My uncle was a bird lover, his career was in wildlife management, and I took it as a sign. I didn’t think the bird was him, but it made me think of him. Now that her incredible sister has passed (she was the queen of trashy novels, respect), Joan keeps getting visited by flies and that seems more than coincidental. I hope that my loved ones send less annoying signs to me, like a special kind of flower or some lovely animal outside that doesn’t bother me at random times. As for Jackie not telling her she had cancer, that would hurt me if a loved one kept something like that from me but it sounds like Joan understood.

photos credit: WENN

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Who among you is a Shelfer? For those who don’t know, Elf on the Shelf is a holiday tradition that originated from a kids’ book in 2005 by the same name. The idea is that the elves are ‘scout elves’ who stage a month-long home invasion between Thanksgiving and Christmas, watching and reporting back to Santa which list you belong on. They accomplish this by moving about the room, appearing on a different shelf every morning. But somewhere along the way, the Elf tradition evolved into a series of pranks in which the Elves wreak havoc on your belongings and terrorize the dog.

Jimmy Kimmel Shelfs and apparently, it helps keep his children in line. During his monologue the other night, Jimmy explained that his four-year-old daughter, Jane, believes in their Elf enough that’s she’s trying to work his endorsement by making offerings to her little brother, Billy.

Jimmy Kimmel has seen the magic of the Elf on the Shelf firsthand when it comes to making sure his own children share their toys during the Christmas season because they know the Elf is watching.

He also knows that making sure the Elf is in a new spot every day can be a chore, so the late-night host has a few hilarious suggestions on how to ease that burden.

“There needs to be a service that comes to your house and moves the Elf around for you,” he said on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Monday night.

Since that business doesn’t actually exist, Kimmel had one other idea that could kill two birds with one stone – cleaning the house and moving the Elf.
“Tonight I’m just gonna duct tape the Elf to a Roomba and let it move around itself,” he said.

Kimmel watched recently as his daughter, Jane, 4, shared a toy with his son, Billy, 1, all thanks to the Elf’s watchful eye.

“She gives it to him like, ‘Billy, I know this is mine, but I want you to play with it,’ and then I swear to God she did this – she turned and winked at the Elf,” he said.

[From Today]

Somebody needs to capitalize on a “Shelf Your Elf” service. I could see rich housewives in Manhattan bragging about their personal Shelfer over lunch. I’m sure the Roomba thing has been done before. I love Jane’s wink to the elf. This is where I would be with one of these interlopers in my house, I’d save all my good behavior for when I was standing in front of them. I am not a Shelfer (nor do I have any idea if that’s what they call themselves)/ I think this a fun tradition and if I had the energy, I’d do it. But since I get up between four and five in the morning, anything that requires me to stay awake past the kids is off the table. I stay away from this because I don’t want to have to think up new ideas. If you need some inspiration, check out some of these ideas people have pulled off. They are un-b-ELF-able! (See that – my elf just packed up and went back home).

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Photo credit: Getty Images and WENN Photos

Crazy Rich Asians opened in China last week and it was disappointingly not a success. For many reasons. They can watch real-life wealthy Asians being crazy with their money on Weibo every minute of every day. Remember, the story about the son of Chinese billionaire who bought two Apple watches for h…