Former Dancing With the Stars pro Cheryl Burke has had a turbulent past couple years. Early in 2022 she filed for divorce from Matthew Lawrence after three years of marriage, and hinted it was due to cheating on his part. A year later Matthew got together with Chilli Thomas and publicly declared that his life was “in complete bloom.” Most harrowing of all was the court custody case over their baby, French bulldog Ysabella (Cheryl won in the end). Amid her divorce drama, Cheryl also left her professional home of DWTS in 2022 after 26 seasons, but she is now returning in a new capacity (I guess they’ve shaken off her calling them out for strike breaking). No stranger to podcasts — she hosted Pretty Messed Up for two years — Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans will see Cheryl interviewing past celebrity DWTS contestants for a glimpse behind the mirror ball. While hyping the show to Yahoo’s The Unwind series, Cheryl reflected on difficult transitions in life and dance:

She was scared to say yes to DWTS: “I remember being asked to do Dancing With the Stars,” she says. “I was also living in Harlem at the time with my dance partner/boyfriend, and I was very comfortable there. I was scared to say yes to the show. And it took a long time for me to actually say, ‘OK, I’m going to try this.’ There’s a difference of feeling like, ‘No, I shouldn’t do this,’ like following your intuition and [knowing] ‘this is not a good idea’ versus ‘I’m scared to do it, but I know I should.’”

Bodily intuition: “For me, I know there’s always something that I feel in my body,” she explains. “Specifically, when [something] is not a good choice or something fishy is happening, it feels like my heart just dropped down to my stomach, like I’m on a roller coaster ride. I can choose to listen to it or not. Every time I didn’t listen to it, my life became stagnant, my whole energy became stagnant.”

No change without awareness: “You’ve got to step back from your own thoughts for a second and just observe.” And sometimes, when you do that, you may realize it’s time to create significant change — in your relationship with yourself and with others. “You are who you hang out with, you are who you’re raised by, you are your environment — unless you consciously change it,” points out Burke. “It’s like breaking a bad habit. There’s no mental health improvement without awareness.”

Her therapies have a mind-body balance: As she’s forged ahead into a whole new chapter of her life this year, Burke has prioritized her mental health by working with both a talk therapist and somatic therapist, who focuses on how emotions are felt in the body. She’s also tapping into the power of other mind-body practices, including transcendental meditation, which she says she has aimed to do twice daily since separating from Lawrence.

A pandemic in itself: “Suffering [when it comes to] mental health is a pandemic in itself. No one wants to talk about it. In order to normalize it, we have to talk about it… I’m going to do this work forever. It’s never gonna stop, that’s the thing. I will always be healing, I will always be working on me. And at the end of the day, it’s because I’m stuck with me. You’re stuck with [yourself] for the rest of your life, and you better like yourself.”

[From Yahoo! Life]

“You’re stuck with [yourself] for the rest of your life, and you better like yourself.” Oof, that’s a biggie. When I was in my early twenties I found myself saying to a teacher that I thought it was in bad taste to like myself. He very kindly suggested that I might want to take a look at that. We humans are funny creatures. Most of us spend a great portion of our lives figuring out just how to be… ourselves. You’d think that would be the one area where you had an advantage, given that you’re the only you out there. But no. We struggle to unpack the influences, circumstances, and Beyonce albums that have affected us the most, and next sift through what’s helping us versus what we can shed. Then to compound things, we’ve upheld a centuries-old tradition of assigning shame to honest conversations about mental health and self esteem. Outside of a Pixar movie, no other animal on this planet tortures themselves this way. I’m with Cheryl, we have to talk about it. And I love how she’s gone full hippie with somatic therapy and transcendental meditation. On that note, I’ll leave you with the first line (spoken, not sung) of the stage show HAIR: “Transcendental meditation on the ocean of reality is love.”

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Michael Gambon has passed away at the age of 82. He had pneumonia. [JustJared]
Bethenny Frankel chimed in on Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce. [Pajiba]
More photos from the big PFW Dior event this week. [Tom & Lorenzo]
Todd Haynes’ May-December looks creepy! I’ll watch anything with Julianne Moore though, and Natalie Portman’s performance seems unsettling. [LaineyGossip]
The funniest tweets of September. [Buzzfeed]
Kendall Jenner wore Bottega Veneta in Paris. [RCFA]
Ron DeSantis said words at last night’s GOP debate. [Jezebel]
I love this gown on Marcia Gay Harden. [GFY]
Hailey Bieber does ‘80s style so well. [Egotastic]
Bella Thorne used to have threesomes. [Towleroad]
Who will host The Daily Show now? Bring back Nancy Walls! [Seriously OMG]

Michael Gambon, the Irish actor best known for his role as Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore in six of the “Harry Potter” movies, has died, Variety has confirmed. He was 82.https://t.co/9WpPz14wIx pic.twitter.com/ynTNIllfR9

— Variety (@Variety) September 28, 2023

Here are more photos of the Princess of Wales at the Orchards Centre, a place for “early years” kids with special needs. Kate didn’t just do a breezy drive-up, she stayed and took part in some kind of session with kids and parents. Kate freeze-posed a lot and seemed to be forcing some of her reactions, but whatever. It is what it is – she’s a deeply unserious person, but I hope those kids and parents felt seen.

There was a lot of talk about Kate’s appearance again, because that’s all she’s really got. For Wednesday’s appearance, Kate wore a “messy bun,” because she saw Meghan do a similar hair look in Dusseldorf. It’s yet another style-stalk. Speaking of, she’s been wearing a lot of pantsuits and trousers-blazer combos lately, which has got people talking. I guess they think she invented pantsuits. Let me tell you the legend of an American woman who married a prince and dared to wear trousers to her events – legend has it, the British papers screamed, cried and threw up about how that American was breaking protocol and the QUEEN hates pants and how dare she. From the Telegraph’s latest royal-fashion piece:

Many of us choose September as a clean-slate moment for our wardrobes, using the new fashion season as an opportunity to refresh the way we dress. The Princess of Wales is no different; after returning to public engagements following her summer break, she has enacted an unmistakable new style strategy. For eight out of the ten new appearances she’s undertaken in the past three weeks, the Princess has worn either a full trouser suit or a blazer with coordinating trousers. She’s mostly chosen muted colours and she’s largely been recycling previously seen pieces.

These many tailored looks point to a very deliberate change in style direction from Catherine, who has always used her fashion choices to send messages. So what is she trying to tell us here?

“It’s a look of the moment, which works well on the Princess with her long legs, and those boxy jackets suit her,” said Ingrid Seward, the editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine and author of numerous royal biographies. “She wore those ‘little girl’ dresses for so long, but now she wants to look more sophisticated. It’s more of a work-day look; she doesn’t need to be in dresses anymore. A suit is snappier and smarter.”

A year after assuming their Wales titles, Catherine and William are shaping their new roles for a modern era. “Catherine’s suits come at a time when the Waleses are making the way they work much more businesslike,” Seward said, adding that their increased workload and fresh approach to running their office, with the imminent appointment of a CEO, points to a polished and professional attitude from the future king and queen.

If Catherine has spent the past decade being viewed as a mother and young duchess, with a wardrobe of ladylike looks to reflect that perception, then now that she is in her 40s it may feel like the right time to swing the narrative.

“Princess Diana also got into power suits because she wanted to be taken more seriously,” Seward added. “Indeed, the designer Jasper Conran once told me that one day in the mid 1980s, Diana had visited him and said she was fed up of ballgowns. He made her a series of sleek tuxedos to wear for evening functions instead and they became some of her most admired outfits.”

[From The Telegraph]

If only there was another style reference to make, something about her trouser-loving sister-in-law who got ripped to shreds for wearing smart, tailored pants and blazers. They screamed and cried about how Meghan should wear Victorian doilies or Downton Abbey-era coatdresses or, as Seward suggests, “those ‘little girl’ dresses.” Oh well! Personally, I like the idea of “Kate in pants” more than I like her execution of the style – Kate loves to copykeen but she always fails to really put the looks together in the right way. The trousers will be too flared, or the colors will be mismatched or the inseam is off. Still, this phase is much better than her “prairie dress/Sister Wife” era, and it’s a hell of a lot better than her twee, twirly little-girl miniskirt era.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red.

Here’s my question: do you think Prince William and Kate’s staffers are good at what they do and the Keens just f–k it up, or do you think the staffers are terrible at their jobs because they’re just an extension of Will and Kate’s laziness, pettiness and copykeening? I keep coming back to the fact that seemingly no one has told Kate that it’s extremely creepy for her to Single White Female her sister-in-law (not to mention William’s side-chicks). I also think someone should have tried to convince William – a long time ago – that his jealousy of his brother is completely unhinged. William’s New York trip was blatantly about William’s attempt to copy his brother and stalk his brother in America. Bad staff work or should the blame go solely on Peg and Buttons? Hilariously, Kensington Palace staffers are always briefing their favorite outlets about how THEY are so wonderful at their jobs and that’s why W&K are so popular. That and selfies?

No doubt there are many reasons the Waleses have seen a surge in popularity. There’s the dedication to duty and the generous good humour cultivated by both William and Kate. Who wouldn’t want to meet them, singly or together? At 41, the Prince and Princess have the advantage of relative youth and three charming children, a walking advert for domesticity.

All these things and more help explain why, according to a recent MailOnline poll, William is the most popular living royal with Catherine a close second. Even the New Yorkers seem to think so, turning out in hordes for William’s solo visit last week. Only the late Queen Elizabeth is viewed as having made a more positive contribution to the monarchy than William. This is no accident.

Much thought has gone into the way that William and Kate project themselves – and not least into a highly effective media strategy based on ‘selfies’ and artful video clips made by their own in-house videographer. Available on social media soon after a royal visit, these short clips have increased the sense of accessibility and allowed the Waleses to operate more flexibly and without the encumbering retinue of journalists and cameramen that might have been expected in previous times. Is it possible that William and Kate have learned something from those skilled ‘curators’ of their own image, Harry and Meghan? It certainly looks that way.

It’s not so long, after all, since William, Kate – and, for that matter, Charles – seemed suspicious of the camera lens. The late Queen was heard to comment how disappointed she was to be greeted by a wall of camera phones rather than a sea of faces. The new generation of selfie-savvy royals seems to have no such concerns.

[From The Daily Mail]

“Is it possible that William and Kate have learned something from those skilled ‘curators’ of their own image, Harry and Meghan? It certainly looks that way.” There we go. The change in how Will and Kate approach social media, videographers, selfies and general “image-making” was dramatic as soon as Meghan came on the scene. Not even the Wales hagiographers at the Mail deny it anymore, they openly discuss the fact that Will, Kate and their staff openly copy everything the Sussexes do with their own “keen” spin. Hell, the big CEO idea was stolen from the Sussexes too. Anyway, sucks to have an heir to the throne who is too lazy to get his own ideas.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Here are some photos of Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, in Rome this week. She attended the state funeral of Giorgio Napolitano, the former president of Italy. There was a big to-do and several major world leaders and diplomatic figures came out for the funeral. Sophie was the only one from the Windsor clan to attend, the Sunak government didn’t send any major representatives either. So much for European allies, eh? Sophie was seated in the first row with the other heads of state and Napolitano family.

It’s curious that King Charles didn’t send his global statesman son to the funeral – when Charles was PoW, he was always sent to these kinds of international state funerals and memorial services. I mean, Occam’s Razor – William wasn’t sent because William is not a global statesman, and he would have caused an international incident in Rome. William also skipped his godfather’s funeral in Greece in January of this year.

Meanwhile, I’ve been surprised to see that there are some internet rumors about the Duchess of Edinburgh and her husband Prince Edward. Those rumors haven’t bubbled up to legitimate reporting, possibly because people forget about Sophie and Edward constantly. There are rumors about their marriage and rumors about Edward’s health. Edward and Sophie are rarely seen together these days, and Edward looks like he’s lost a lot of weight over the past year or so. While Sophie headed out to Rome, Edward was visiting Turkey and meeting with President Erdogan (yikes). His trip has not made any headlines in the British press and I’m not even sure he’s traveling with any royal rota people?

Anyway, it feels like the Windsors are keeping a lot of secrets these days. Failing to disclose health issues, marriage drama, diplomatic drama. It’s weird.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Jason Sudeikis will pay Olivia Wilde $27K a month in child support. [Socialite Life]
Joe Jonas & Sophie Turner’s second daughter is named Delphine. [Just Jared]
Hollywood interns weigh in on what’s going wrong in their industry. [LaineyGossip]
I’ll disagree with Pajiba and say that the best part of the Fingernails trailer is Riz Ahmed, not the music. Riz Ahmed is always the best part. [Pajiba]
Donald Trump visited a gun manufacturer and called for the execution of a military general who criticized him publicly. [Jezebel]
Timothy Olyphant bleached his silver hair. [Go Fug Yourself]
Would you wear “the table skirt”? [OMG Blog]
Amanda Seyfried wore Prada to a Lancome event in Paris. [RCFA]
Kerry Washington, before she was famous. [Seriously OMG]
Kevin Durant had some dates at Drake’s concert. [Egotastic]
LOL and once again, Generation X is forgotten. [Buzzfeed]
There’s a big plot twist on Love Is Blind. [Starcasm]

My mom was/is a big fan of Inspector Lewis, the British copaganda series which ran for more than a decade. Laurence Fox was one of the stars of that show, and he actually had a decent career for himself in British television and film. He was married to certified hottie Billie Piper, then everything fell apart circa 2016. Fox turned into a self-styled right-wing lunatic, Billie divorced him (citing his “unreasonable behavior”) and Fox now regularly writes columns and does TV appearances all about how much he hates wokeness, women, immigrants and diversity. As such, Fox was naturally invited on Dan Wootton’s GB News talk show this week. This is now Wootton’s sole media gig – his Mail column was suspended as his current and former employers “investigate” Wootton’s decades of fraud, catfishing, bribery and abuse. Well, Fox and Wootton obviously turned into a toxic catastrophe on-air, and it’s become the British media story of the week:

GB News has issued an apology and launched an investigation after it aired “totally inappropriate” comments by the actor and Reclaim party founder, Laurence Fox, about the journalist Ava Evans. Fox made a series of derogatory comments about Evans, a political correspondent for online news site Joe, during an interview with presenter Dan Wootton on Tuesday night.

Evans posted the clip of the segment to X, formerly known as Twitter, with the comment: “Laurence Fox just did a whole speech on GB News on why men apparently won’t shag me,” adding in a reply: “I feel physically sick.”

Shortly after GB News issued a statement saying Fox’s stance “does not reflect our values”.

“Comments made tonight on GB News by Laurence Fox were totally unacceptable,” the station said in a response posted to X. “What he said does not reflect our values and we apologise unreservedly for the comments and the offence they have caused. We have launched an investigation and will be apologising to the individual involved.”

On Tuesday night, Wootton apologised as well, saying: “Dear @AvaSantina I think you’re brilliant … I apologise for what was said during the course of my show and should have done this immediately on air. This is not what our channel is about.”

Wootton issued another apology on Wednesday morning, saying: “I want to reiterate my regret over last night’s exchange with Laurence on GB News. Having looked at the footage, I can see how inappropriate my reaction to his totally unacceptable remarks appears to be and want to be clear that I was in no way amused by the comments.”

In the segment Fox had called Evans a “little woman” and went on to say: “Show me a single self-respecting man that would like to climb into bed with that woman ever, ever, who wasn’t an incel. We need powerful, strong amazing women who make great points for themselves. We don’t need these sort of feminist 4.0. They’re pathetic and embarrassing. Who’d want to shag that?” As both Fox and Wootton laughed, Fox added: “Sorry, it’s true though.”

[From The Guardian]

Wootton immediately “apologized” and tried to throw Fox under the bus, and in turn, Fox published some of their texts in a tweet, showing that Wootton thought Fox’s misogyny was funny. Some people think that this incident and Fox’s tweets might be the final nail in Wootton’s coffin. I doubt it? Like, this is a feature, not a bug. This is why he’s on air.

Laurence Fox just did a whole speech on GB News on why men apparently won’t shag me ? pic.twitter.com/XoQD0DUQVm

— Ava-Santina (@AvaSantina) September 26, 2023

Honesty is the best policy. https://t.co/snrQdY9Zbe pic.twitter.com/gQfg0P3pKA

— Laurence Fox (@LozzaFox) September 27, 2023

Really, really grateful to every person who reached out to me. From MPs, to journalists, to friends and people on here. I’m overwhelmed by how kind people have been.

I’m also immensely grateful to the incredibly courageous people who spoke out despite working on the station.

— Ava-Santina (@AvaSantina) September 27, 2023

Screencaps courtesy of GB News, additional photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

As we discussed yesterday, the Princess of Wales stopped by a textile factory in Leeds and Lancaster. She wore a dated Burberry suit with ten buttons, and she paired the look with chunky gold jewelry. Style-wise, this was a huge miss. But it’s considered a success because Kate did something and she didn’t make an ass out of herself. She did grab some merino wool and declare “I love the feel and smell of it!” Her office (the bewigletted gopher) also arranged for this People Magazine exclusive:

Fabric from the mill was used in the striking Colonel of the Irish Guards uniform that Prince William wore for his April 2011 wedding to Kate at Westminster Abbey, and the Princess of Wales was shown a photo from the big day while viewing a company timeline during a private reception.

“She is featured with her husband, and as she walked around, she clearly recognized it and was blown away,” Amanda McLaren, managing director, exclusively tells PEOPLE.

“She was so friendly and really engaged in our people and really interested in meeting as many people as she could get to. We took a slight detour — she was so interested,” McLaren added of the Princess of Wales’ enthusiasm.

Though Kate was on the move at AW Hainsworth, operational excellence director Zena Al Mausawe tells PEOPLE that she seemed especially excited by the production of the scarlet fabric.

“She loved it. It was great that she saw the scarlet tunic, which is the iconic red fabric that everyone associates with Buckingham Palace and the guards. It was great how she was trying to feel everything and get the tactile experience as well,” Al Mausawe says. “She loved the smell of the wool and the texture of it and the handle of it.”

[From People]

The event was literally Kate standing in a textile mill, touching fabric and declaring herself keen. But sure, I’m glad she’s doing something, I’m glad she’s getting out of the house. Speaking of, the royal commentators keep pressing Kensington Palace about how Kate needs to go to Singapore. They know it’s not up to Kate, so they’re basically trying to convince William and his staff:

Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams hailed the Prince and Princess of Wales as the “future of the monarchy.” He told Express.co.uk: “William and Catherine and their children are the future of the monarchy. Their joint and solo events are always popular and when they champion a cause it invariably gives it a boost. Whilst William took a solo trip to New York, Catherine visited the Royal Naval Air Station at Yeovilton where she has been appointed Commodore in Chief of Fleet Air Arm, and HMP High Down in Surrey, which was linked to her work with the Forward Trust and ahead of Addiction Awareness Week. She also attended a Rugby World Cup match in Marseille.”

“Her body language looked confident. Her new 1970s ‘Farrah Fawcett’ hairstyle looked gorgeous, she had poise and hopefully she and William will be maximising their popularity with more trips abroad shortly.”

[From The Daily Express]

“Hopefully she and William will be maximising their popularity with more trips abroad shortly,” hint hint, Peggington. None of your media keepers want you to fly solo to Singapore. Anyway, imagine praising a 41-year-old woman for her confident body language and Farrah Fawcett wig. My God.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s weeks-long relationship is now being covered by the paper of record, the New York Times. Instead of going to a Nazi diner in Ohio to see what Trump supporters think of the Swift-Kelce alliance, the Times took a different tack: “Travis Kelce Was a Star. Taylor Swift Put Him in Another Orbit.” It’s true! The football guys don’t want to admit it, but it’s true. Travis Kelce was a huge NFL star and every football fan in America knew his name. But “dating Taylor Swift” has him in a completely different level of global stardom.

Despite Kelce’s relative fame in the sports world, becoming part of the frenzied conversation around Swift’s every move is another ballgame. Kelce now has 3.2 million followers on Instagram. Swift has 273 million.

“This puts him on a completely different plane from where he was as a celebrity,” said Daniel Durbin, a professor of communication at the University of Southern California. “This is celebrity on steroids, and it has a powerful impact.”

That Kelce and Swift were in the same stadium this weekend brought together two fandoms that don’t often overlap. A spokesman for Fanatics, the N.F.L.’s official retailer, said that sales of Kelce’s jersey had spiked by 400 percent as of Monday.

Coaches and players from across the N.F.L. also took notice. Bill Belichick, the Patriots coach known for gruff answers to reporters’ questions, said on a radio show that “Travis Kelce’s had a lot of big catches in his career — this would be the biggest.” The star Cowboys defender Micah Parsons posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that one woman “can change your life!!!”

[From The NY Times]

That Instagram follower count is telling – while a football player having 3.2 million followers is HUGE, it really is nothing compared to Taylor’s cultural ubiquity. Not only did the Kelce jersey sell out – Swifties wanted to own the exact one Taylor wore to the game – the Chiefs game also had huge TV ratings, with 24.3 million tuning in, especially once Fox put the camera on Taylor.

Meanwhile, Taylor didn’t leave Kansas City until Tuesday – she was spotted boarding one of her private planes at Kansas City International Airport, with her security people in tow. So… she spent a few nights in Kansas City. I wonder what she and Travis did on Monday.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.

One of the funniest things I’ve seen this week are the TikToks where women are telling their boyfriends that Taylor Swift is going to help Travis Kelce make a name for himself and Tay will make him famous. The NFL dudes are steaming mad about it, because to them, Travis Kelce is one of the most famous men in the world. Like, I get it – he IS legitimately a huge deal in football, and football is an American obsession. But Taylor Swift is global, baby. There are now legions of Swifties paying attention to football because Taylor is dating “that guy.”

All of which to say, people are also suddenly paying a lot of attention to Travis’s romantic history now too. The Snake Fam is arguably the largest investigative body ever assembled, and they’ve spent more than a decade deciphering every clue, every Easter egg, every hint, every breadcrumb Taylor has ever given them. Running through Travis’s history was easy-peasy. Some of what I’m learning now is a total surprise – I actually didn’t know he had a dating show called Chasing Kelce. It was on that show that he met and fell for Maya Benberry. They were together for only a few months back in 2016, but she’s already chiming in about his relationship with Swift. First, Maya “liked” a comment which called Taylor a “5” (yikes) and then Maya gave an interview to the Mail (via Page Six):

Travis Kelce’s ex-girlfriend is sending Taylor Swift a stark warning. Amid the stars’ budding romance, Maya Benberry claimed “the man that [she] knew him to be when [they] dated” is an unfaithful one.

“Taylor seems like such a fun girl with a beautiful spirit, so I wish her the best of luck, but I wouldn’t be a girls’ girl if I didn’t advise her to be smart!” Benberry, 31, told DailyMail.com Tuesday — even though she recently “liked” a comment calling the pop star a “5.”

“I’m sure by now she has mastered the ability to see who is really there for her — and who is just using her.”

The marketing and brand consulting expert — who dated the Kansas City Chiefs player for a few months in 2016 after winning his E! reality dating show, “Catching Kelce” — hopes Swift “comes out the teacher in this situation and not the student.”

“Only time will tell,” she went on, “but like the saying always goes: Once a cheater, always a cheater.”

Though Benberry did not elaborate on her claims during the interview, she previously seemed to accuse Kelce, 33, of cheating on her with his next girlfriend, Kayla Nicole. “When you and your ex broke up five months ago but you find out via social media that he’s supposedly been in another relationship for 6…” she wrote in a since-deleted tweet.

[From Page Six]

This is so Kardashian. This is the exact kind of situation in which Khloe would find herself. Anyway, “Kelce sources” ran to TMZ to clap back at Maya, saying that she and Travis only dated for a month and it was mostly contractual (meaning, part of the show). The source also called her interview “A poor excuse of someone trying to get her 15 min of fame.” It’s true! It’s also the kind of messy drama which Taylor kind of hates. She hates it when a man has adjacent drama. Taylor wants to be the only drama in his life.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instagram.