Last year, you could see the unease fall across Cillian Murphy’s face as soon as the Oppenheimer promotion began. He quickly developed a thousand-yard stare, a sort of forced blankness as he tried to promote his starring role in the biggest movie of his career. He eventually swept the awards season, winning the Golden Globe, BAFTA, SAG and Academy Awards. By Oscar night, his social battery was completely drained and it showed, but he still managed to get through it. In between filming Oppenheimer and promoting Oppenheimer, Cillian produced and worked on Small Things Like These, set in Ireland and filmed there too. It’s based on a bestseller by the same name, and the story is based on the real-life Magdalene Laundries, which continued well into the 1990s. To promote the film (which comes out in November), Cillian recently spoke to Vanity Fair, and he confirmed that the awards season was super-painful.

How Matt Damon came on a producer: “I gave the script to Matt [Damon] when we were shooting, and he loved it,” the Irish native tells me. Murphy made a specific sell to his Oppenheimer costar that won Damon over: “I remember saying that it’s a different film, but it would share some thematic crossover with Manchester by the Sea, which Matt also produced…. It was like I was pitching between Manchester by the Sea and Doubt.” From there, Murphy gave Damon the script, and swiftly, Damon signed on to produce the project via Artists Equity, the company he cofounded with Ben Affleck. “They paid for the movie,” Murphy says bluntly. “It was remarkably quick, the way it came together.”

The tragic history of Magdalene Laundries: “It’s so seemingly simple, but it’s incredibly complex, actually, when you look at it. It’s massively intertwined with Irish people, our history and our culture and trauma and all of that stuff. I feel that sometimes art is a gentler way of addressing or confronting that than, perhaps, government reports or academic papers.”

How he felt after Oppenheimer: “I was pretty broken after Oppenheimer. Just physically and mentally, I was a bit worn out. We shot that film so fast, and the prep for it had been very intense. Losing all that weight was hard to do—and it was hard to get back to normal.” It’s no wonder, then, that the actor took a long break, of well over six months total, once filming finished on the Christopher Nolan epic. Small Things Like These was his first time back on a movie set, months after wrapping Oppenheimer, and he needed that recharging period before delving into another intense character.

Shooting the film in Ireland: “I was very happy to make a film at home.” But Murphy found the weight of Bill’s trauma difficult to carry at times, particularly after filming an especially emotionally draining scene in a barber shop. “It does exact a bit of a cost,” Murphy says. “Your psyche is trying to understand why you’re feeling what you’re making yourself feel.”

He hasn’t fully processed his awards season: “It was a bit of a fever dream, and very overwhelming.”

[From Vanity Fair]

It sounds like working on Oppenheimer was harder than promoting it, although Cillian lucked out (inadvertently) with the actors’ strike and writers’ strike. I’m glad he had time to decompress after he shot Oppenheimer, and I would assume he did the same after the awards season too. It’s so funny to watch a full-grown introverted adult man deal with all of the craziness that comes with a huge box office success and winning a lot of awards. Props to Cillian though – he did it without whining or throwing tantrums. As for Small Things Like These, I’m really interested in seeing it, although I know it’s going to make me mad. All of that Catholicism and Church abuses, all of it in plain sight. More art pieces need to be made about this awful chapter of Irish history.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Back in September when Lady Gaga was just beginning the Joker 2 promo tour (What tour? The world tour), she covered Vogue, and the profile was a hard launch for her and fiance Michael Polansky as a couple. Rumors had been floating ever since Gaga was spotted by the papa-paparazzi in April sporting a diamond ring on that finger. And then in the summer the couple were outed by the French Prime Minister at the Olympics when he posted a TikTok of Gaga introducing Polansky as her fiance. But the Vogue article was the first time Gaga and her man were speaking about their engagement, themselves. In that piece, the author described the rock in Gaga’s ring as “Wilma Flintstone-size,” and I was besotted. Reported to be eight carats, the diamond is apparently quite something in person. And on video, too, as it turns out. Gaga just appeared on a special Christmas edition of Carpool Karaoke (with Zane Lowe filling in for James Corden) and holy carats, Batman — the diamond looked huuuuuuge!! And I wasn’t the only one struck dumb with awe, gazing into the brilliance of all those facets:

Lady Gaga showed up on carpool Karaoke’s surprise holiday special to bless us with her first performance of “Christmas Tree” in 16 years, which, if you missed it, please fix immediately. While she was at it, Gaga flashed her engagement ring from Michael Polansky several times, and though this isn’t our first time seeing it, this is definitely our first time seeing it so up close and sparkly.

…Apparently they made it official in March — before Gaga’s 38th birthday. “The couple shared the happy news with family and close friends right away but wanted to keep the engagement private otherwise,” a source explained to People. “Everyone’s excited about them getting married.” They added that Michael is private but fully supports the public nature of Gaga’s job, saying “He can’t stand being in the spotlight but lets her shine. He has his own business priorities that she’s supportive of.”

Meanwhile, an Entertainment Tonight insider said that Gaga and Michael are thinking of exchanging vows somewhere in Europe: “Gaga and Michael are the happiest they’ve ever been. Michael has always known Gaga was the one. They had an engagement party at her home in Malibu with their loved ones and everyone is thrilled for them. They are already thinking about wedding plans and talking about possibly having a destination wedding in Europe. They’d love to get married sooner than later and both want to start a family.”

[From Cosmopolitan]

Oy, Cosmo! The People Mag article they reference about the engagement happening before Gaga’s b-day in March is way outdated. People put that info/speculation out in July, right after the TikTok video, but in September Gaga told Graham Norton that the proposal came on April Fool’s Day, thus making her doubt the veracity of Michael’s intentions at the moment. Also, going back to that Vogue interview, Gaga talked about how she was expecting it on her birthday and was disappointed, but then only had to wait four days. (What? I’m not obsessed with Gaga’s every move… I just care about FACTS!)

But getting back to what really matters: that ginormous diamond ring! I know I’m a smart cookie. But I don’t care what high intellectual pursuit or nuanced conversation I’m engaged in, if someone waves a diamond in front of me I instantly turn into Marilyn Monroe’s character from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and am hypnotized by the stone. Without fail. There’s sorcery involved in those baubles, I swear. (Don’t tell One Million Moms!) And you know what, I don’t feel bad for being so easily possessed by them. Not ever since I saw Ang Lee’s 2007 film adaptation of Lust, Caution, where **spoiler alert!** a long-in-the-making assassination plot is bungled after the target gifts the spy a knockout diamond ring (I tried cueing it up, but just in case the scene starts at the 3:30 mark and the diamond is shown at 5:00). If even Ang Lee, master of cinematic sweeping romance, understands the profound impact of a diamond, then surely its magical powers are legit.

Wishing the happy couple a lifetime of happiness, and Gaga a lifetime of good physical therapy for the extra weight-lifting her left hand is doing.

Photos are screenshots from Apple TV’s A Carpool Karaoke Christmas and credit: Jeffrey Mayer/Avalon

Tilda Swinton & Julianne Moore held hands at the Paris premiere of The Room Next Door. This was supposed to be Oscar-buzzy but nothing really happened. [JustJared]
Jessica Simpson looks wildly different. [Seriously OMG]
Jennifer Lopez is still serving fashion & gossip before Christmas! [LaineyGossip]
Harris Dickinson thinks his Babygirl character falls under the sign of Cancer. More of this! More actors should think about their characters’ astrological signs! This is excellent character work! [Jezebel]
Carry-On is the Christmas action movie we need? [Pajiba]
The funniest tweets of December 2024. [Buzzfeed]
Marion Jones takes on Special Forces training. [Socialite Life]
Happy birthday, Sarah Paulson! [Hollywood Life]
Queen Letizia wore an Alberta Ferretti tweed suit. [RCFA]
Countess LuAnn appeared on Very Delta. [OMG Blog]

There have been many moments in recent years where I’ve seen photos of Victoria Beckham and thought that she looked like she was/is full of fillers and Botox. Notably, at the premiere of her husband’s Netflix series last year, I thought it looked like her fillers/Botox didn’t have time to settle. But as far as plastic surgery, I don’t think she’s had anything major on her face. She basically has the same face she had in the ‘90s, just with some injectables. Well, Victoria was on the Today Show this week, and she claims that she’s never had a nose job and she looks different nowadays because of makeup and contouring.

Victoria Beckham wants fans to stop right now with the plastic surgery speculation. During Monday’s episode of “Today With Hoda & Jenna,” the former Spice Girls singer doubled down on “never” getting a nose job — despite people questioning her looks for years.

“There’s been a lot of people in the past that have said to me that I’ve had some kind of surgery on my nose,” she said in a pre-taped interview with Zanna Roberts Rassi, while discussing makeup tips and tricks. “I have never, ever, ever, ever had anything. No, never.”

Beckham, 50, then credited her “clever contouring” skills for making her nose appear a certain way. The Victoria Beckham Beauty founder — who does her own makeup “95 percent” of the time — frequently posts tutorial videos on social media, showing fans how she contours and creates her “signature” looks.

Despite her step-by-step videos, the fashionista has still found herself having to address cosmetic surgery rumors from time to time. Although Beckham has denied ever getting rhinoplasty, she has owned up to getting breast implants.

[From Page Six]

It’s such a weird thing for her to say “I have never had plastic surgery specifically on my nose!” Like…okay? But you’ve absolutely gotten some cosmetic tweaks over the years and that’s fine. I also think “contouring” is the new go-to excuse for women when they look noticeably different/tweaked these days. Remember when Jennifer Lawrence said the same thing, that her face looks so different because of makeup and contouring? Yeah.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.

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Last week we celebrated Rita Moreno turning 93 years young by covering the Mardi Gras-themed party she threw on the “Fat Saturday” before her December 11 birthday, which fell on a Wednesday this year. So what did Ms. Moreno do on the actual day of? Appear on Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Wiser Than Me podcast! And what did the ladies talk about? How Rita is a “lucky little bitch,” (her words, not mine) who manages to eat whatever she wants without gaining weight and has similarly had nary a single skin cancer scare despite having been a serious suntanner earlier in life. “I was just born with fantastic genes,” she told Julia. Way to rub it in, Rita!! (I was going to say “way to rub salt in the wound,” but it just reminded me of more food she can probably eat without consequence.) Here’s more on this unfathomably fabulous creature and her fantastic genes:

“I try not to watch what I eat. I eat pretty much what I like. I am what my doctor calls ‘pre-diabetic,’ so I do have to be careful about sweets and stuff like that, but I’ve been that for years and I’m still good,” Moreno told Julia Louis-Dreyfus on the Dec. 11 episode of the Seinfeld alum’s Lemonada Media podcast, Wiser Than Me.

“So to hell with it,” Louis-Dreyfus replied.

“I’m just a lucky little bitch,” Moreno said, prompting the Veep alum to reply, “You really are.”

“I was just born with fantastic genes. I have really good skin for someone who is, you know, 93 today,” Moreno shared.

When Louis-Dreyfus brought up Moreno’s history of tanning, saying “I read you used to sit out in the sun and become like a piece of bacon…you haven’t had skin cancer?”

“Never, never, never,” Moreno said. “Isn’t that amazing? My mom did, she had little skin cancer things, but I never had a problem with my skin. It doesn’t mean I don’t have wrinkles.”

The accomplished dancer, who won an Academy Award for her work in the 1961 musical West Side Story, said these days, “I don’t work out at all.”

“My knees are shot to pieces from all the dancing. I mean, West Side Story,” she explained, adding that “the thing that really killed my knees was playing Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard.”

“I loved doing that show,” the actress previously told PEOPLE about the London production, which she starred in from September 1996 to October 1996. “I love every minute of it.” However, as she told Louis-Dreyfus, playing the fading movie star took a painful toll on her body.

“You know how she makes these incredible entrances down the steps? Well, in order to come down steps, you have to go up steps backstage, right? And that almost killed me,” Moreno shared. “That really ruined my knees. It’s ruined many knees.”

“So I don’t do things that call for knee work — and that’s almost everything,” she explained, saying that to stay fit, she walks her dog. “I can’t bend them very much,” Moreno said. “When and if I am asked to accept a wonderful award — which happens more now that I’m older and they’re saying, ‘Quick, before she kicks the bucket, let’s give her this award’ … I always have to say, ‘Am I going to go up steps to the stage to accept this award? Because, if so, then I really need some help.’”

When Louis-Dreyfus pointed out that she saw Moreno accept an award without help, the Broadway icon replied, “like, 40 men came over and practically lifted me.”

[From People]

Rita is such a gifted storyteller and conversationalist. I just love her. Sure, I’m dripping with hunger, I mean envy — or let’s face it, all of the seven deadly sins — over her winning the genetic lottery when it comes to eating. And sunbathing, which she really is super lucky never led to skin cancer. My grandmother was also of the generation who loved to sit out and cook in the sun, and she later had melanoma on her leg that my aunt described as “the size of a small country.” So please wear sunscreen! Only Rita Moreno could be so lucky as to beat those odds! But I guess the great leveler in life is our knees taking us down. Rita had me in stitches with the line, “Well, in order to come down steps, you have to go up steps backstage…” Like they say, what goes down must first go up, lol. I may not have just turned 93, but I too try to avoid things that call for knee work, and would greatly appreciate 40 men coming over to lift me up to my morning train each day.

Happy Birthday to Rita once again, you lucky little bitch.

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In September, Prince Harry traveled solo to New York for several days. It was a work trip, and his appearance and speech at the Clinton Global Initiative got the most headlines. But he also did so many other appearances. As I wrote back then, “Imagine being 40 years old and having all of this work to show for it – founder of Travalyst, founder of Sentebale, co-founder of Archewell, founder of The Parents Network, founder of the Invictus Games, patron of WellChild, patron of The HALO Trust, patron of The Diana Award.” Not to mention, he’s a veteran, a bestselling author, COO of BetterUp and he’s on the board of African Parks. He’s got like a few dozen other titles too.

As I said back in 2023, the British media rarely discusses Travalyst, which Harry started in 2019. It was basically the last project he launched as a “working royal,” and he already had one foot out the door. He took Travalyst with him, and it’s grown so fast. Travalyst has big corporate partners and a staff of dozens, plus a board of directors and everything else. Harry is still involved with Travalyst and when he was in NYC, he went to the five-year anniversary event. He was also named on Time’s 100 Climate list, specifically for founding Travalyst. Now Travalyst has made a video highlighting their 2024:

Prince Harry’s Travalyst releases 2024 highlights.

“A lot can happen in a year….and what a year it’s been for Travalyst. We grew, expanded our coalition..Thank you all for your support in 2024”#Travalyst #PrinceHarry pic.twitter.com/8LDhbmyEwr

— ChrisBaronSmith (@ChrisBaronSmit1) December 17, 2024

It’s sort of crazy that Travalyst was always some little side-project for Harry, and it’s turned out to be one of his most successful ideas. I hate to bring up the Other Brother, but if William had just one idea which panned out as successfully as Travalyst, we would never hear the end of it. They would be embiggening William for decades as “remember when he came up with Travalyst?!?” But because Harry did this, it’s virtually ignored by the British media.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Someone close to Prince Andrew publicly confirmed that Andrew and Sarah Ferguson would not attend “royal Christmas” at Sandringham this year. The Yorks were invited to Sandringham, but then Andrew’s involvement with a Chinese spy was outed last week and all hell broke loose. The alleged spy had a wide variety of contacts within the British establishment, which is probably why everyone seems comfortable making this all about Andrew and HIS bad judgment alone. On Thursday, King Charles will apparently host the annual pre-Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace, and the Sun claims that Andrew still intends to come to that event, because it’s a “family occasion,” even if it would look bad if he was photographed pulling into BP. Meanwhile, sources close to Andrew are playing a “poor pitiful Andrew” card and suggesting that the Windsors won’t have a credibly accused rapist to kick around for much longer. Andrew might just pick up and move to Bahrain!

The Daily Beast can reveal that Prince Andrew is eyeing a move to Bahrain and could “do a Harry” and leave the country after being effectively kicked out of the royal family all over again due to his links to an alleged Chinese spy.

Andrew is now likely to spend [Christmas Day] effectively in hiding at his home, Royal Lodge, where the former helicopter pilot has taken to projecting flight tracking apps on the walls. His ex-wife and children are also reportedly not attending Sandringham festivities so they may join him. Sarah likened herself in an interview this weekend as a “carer” to Andrew, whom she described, sympathetically, as a “sad man.”

However, it could be Andrew’s last Christmas in the U.K. The Daily Beast has been told by two friends of Andrew, who claim that he has been unfairly portrayed in the unfolding spying scandal, that he is now “sick and tired of being painted as a pariah” and is “seriously contemplating a move to the United Arab Emirates or Bahrain.”

He has wealthy if sometimes dubious supporters in both jurisdictions, but especially in the autocratic monarchy of Bahrain, where he has been a regular visitor for decades and has been feted by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

One friend of Andrew’s who has known him and his wife for decades told The Daily Beast: “The whole thing stinks to high heaven. You’d think Andrew had been passing state secrets to the man. Andrew is sick and tired of being painted as a pariah in the British media and is seriously contemplating a move to the United Arab Emirates of Bahrain. None of us would blame him if he decided to do a Harry and leave. He can’t do anything here anymore, he can’t leave the house, he can’t do any business, and now he is apparently Kim Philby.”

Another friend said: “Andrew has a vast array of contacts in the Middle East and could be leading a meaningful life there. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he thought enough was enough after this latest stich-up by the establishment.”

When asked if they were suggesting Andrew’s relationship with the alleged spy—named on Monday as Yang Tengbo—had been misrepresented by the security services to harm Andrew’s reputation, the friend said: “Andrew doesn’t have any power. He was entirely open about Yang’s involvement with Pitch@Palace. This guy was meeting prime ministers and god knows who else. And yet mysteriously it’s his relationship with Andrew that matters? Come on.”

[From The Daily Beast]

It’s a situation where, sadly, Andrew and his friends are making some decent points but no one will pay attention because Andrew is so contemptible and compromised. Yes, Andrew was super-close to this spy and Andrew provided all kinds of access. But… other people were involved with the spy as well, and it’s not like Andrew knows the launch codes. Andrew is being forced to take the fall for a much bigger situation which involves much more powerful people. You could even argue that it’s somewhat similar to the Jeffrey Epstein situation – while Andrew has been credibly accused of all kinds of seedy, sleazy and criminal things with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, his involvement ended up protecting much more powerful people who were also involved with Epstein and Maxwell. King Charles is also using this spy drama to make his final push to get Andrew out of Royal Lodge.

As for Andrew’s dream of moving to Bahrain and starting over… I honestly don’t care, but it would shake things up a bit. It would be interesting from a gossip standpoint if Andrew went into self-imposed exile, living a life of luxury in Bahrain and making whatever deals he could. Would Fergie go with him?

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Instar and Avalon Red.

Last Friday, NBC News aired an interview with the woman who accused Jay-Z and Sean Combs of raping her at an unknown home after the 2000 MTV VMAs. She told her story to NBC News, then the outlet did some fact-checking to authenticate what they could about her story, and all they found were glaring inconsistencies: she claimed she was driven 20 minutes to a home from a traffic-jammed Manhattan; her father had no memory of driving five hours from Rochester to pick up his 13-year-old daughter; the Madden brothers were not even in New York and she claimed to have met them; she claimed the VMAs were shown on the Jumbotron and they weren’t, and on and on. NBC went back to the woman and she admitted that yes, there are inconsistencies but she still insists that she was raped by Jay-Z and Sean Combs, all while an unidentified female celebrity watched. Jay-Z has insisted that the woman’s lawyer, Tony Buzbee, did nothing to vet his client’s claims, and that this is all an extortion attempt by Buzbee. As in, Buzbee thought Jay-Z would throw some money at the problem and none of this would end up going to court. Well, on Monday, Jay-Z’s lawyer Alex Shapiro did a full briefing to reporters at Roc Nation.

Lawyers for Jay-Z plan to ask a judge to toss a lawsuit accusing the rapper of raping a 13-year-old in 2000, pointing to what they described as “glaring inconsistencies” that emerged in an NBC interview of the accuser, who was not named in the suit.

Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Mr. Carter, wrote a letter Friday night to U.S. District Court Judge Analisa Torres saying that Mr. Carter intends to file a motion to strike the complaint, citing the NBC report. “The interview outs plaintiff’s allegations for what they are: a sham,” he wrote in the letter.

And on Monday, Mr. Spiro spoke to reporters at the Manhattan offices of Roc Nation, Mr. Carter’s entertainment empire. He provided a timeline of the night in question that he said undercut the plaintiff’s account and displayed a photo that he said showed Mr. Carter at a nightclub after the Video Music Awards, not a private residence. “The story doesn’t work,” he said. “It doesn’t check out.”

Tony Buzbee, the lawyer for the woman who sued, wrote in an email that his client remained “adamant” about her claim even as she acknowledged that she may have been mistaken about which celebrity she encountered at the party that night. “We are talking about events from 20 years ago,” he said in an email. He said that he did not think the photograph of Mr. Carter at a nightclub “proves or disproves anything.”

“Courts exist to resolve factual disputes,” he said. “I don’t think it’s appropriate to do so in a news article.”

On Monday, Mr. Spiro — a well-known lawyer whose celebrity clients have included Elon Musk, Alec Baldwin and Mayor Eric Adams of New York — spoke to the press in an effort to discredit the plaintiff. In seeking to get the claim thrown out, Mr. Spiro, in his letter to the judge, accused Mr. Buzbee of violating a federal rule requiring a lawyer to “conduct a reasonable inquiry” into the facts of their client’s claim before signing their name onto a case.

Mr. Buzbee, in an email, defended his firm’s handling of its client’s claim, saying that while the case was referred by another law practice, at least three lawyers from his firm interviewed her before filing the amended complaint. He said a background check was run on her, an investigator was engaged to vet some of the details in her claim and she signed two affidavits related to her account. “Our conduct has been beyond reproach and will continue to be,” Mr. Buzbee said.

[From The NY Times]

I completely understand why Jay-Z and his lawyers are attacking Tony Buzbee so heavily and so consistently. Buzbee’s client’s story fell apart in one interview with a news outlet, and it seems clear that Buzbee and his firm did zero due diligence on checking out this woman’s story or trying to find anything to authenticate any part of her claims. If this case ends up going to trial, it will be bad for Buzbee and his client, not Jay-Z. Jay and his lawyers are on the warpath now, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they try to get Buzbee disbarred over this.

Jay-Z’s lawyer shuts down claims that Jay-Z is close friends with Diddy and says Jay-Z has no close association with Diddy. pic.twitter.com/6CsdwPCLD9

— The Art Of Dialogue (@ArtOfDialogue_) December 16, 2024

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.

This past weekend was full of dumb stories about Prince Andrew. Last week, it was revealed that Andrew had a close association with a guy who turned out to be a Chinese spy. Andrew had provided extensive access to the spy, in exchange for what I can only imagine would be grocery bags full of cash? Whatever the quid pro quo entailed, it was clear that Andrew was once again up to his eyeballs in criminal/tacky shenanigans. Which introduced the plotpoint that many royal insiders fretted over all weekend: would Prince Andrew be welcome at “royal Christmas” at Sandringham? Would King Charles ban Andrew? Would Charles brief against Andrew constantly and hope that Andrew would just take the hint? Well, it happened. Andrew took the hint and someone confirmed that Andrew will not go to Norfolk for Christmas.

Another scandal involving Prince Andrew was the last thing the Royal Family expected to be dealing with as they prepared to gather for Christmas. But as one former member of palace staff put it to me, it now represents “a dichotomy for the King, in that there is only so much tolerance and forgiveness one can exercise even within a familial context”.

Nonetheless, it is still surprising that Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson have decided not to go to Sandringham. Christmas is the one time of the year when we usually see Prince Andrew in public. We see with our own eyes that his family haven’t entirely forced him out into the cold.

This time it’s not entirely clear if he’s just decided to “do the honourable thing”, as one palace source put it, and realised he would be too much of a distraction if he walked to church with the family, or if they’re not going because their daughters are off to their in-laws for Christmas instead.

But there is still a big question over whether he will attend the annual Royal Family lunch at Buckingham Palace on Sunday. Palace insiders admit it’s a grey area. It’s a family occasion and he’s usually invited to those, but this one is happening inside the most symbolic building of the institution, seen as Monarchy HQ. As it was put to me, “it’s not just how things are, it’s how they look”, and an image of the Duke of York driving through the gates could be seen as deliberately provocative. They are hoping he wouldn’t want to be that level of a distraction.

It’s hard to get a full picture of how much the King is engaged in all of this. Someone who knows the family well told me that our current monarch “doesn’t like confrontation”, just like Queen Elizabeth II. They added there remains “a warm familial feeling between the two brothers”, but one “tempered by the King’s responsibilities as head of state to be entirely separate from the perceived, real or alleged, activities of the Duke of York”. It means that when there are family events the duke is welcome. When his brother is at an event in his role as King, Andrew isn’t to be seen.

And what of Prince Andrew? I’m told “he is robust”, “he is self-contained and always has been”, there is a sense he’s never really needed the affirmation of his family.

[From Sky News]

The most interesting part, to me: “or if they’re not going because their daughters are off to their in-laws for Christmas instead.” Are Eugenie and Beatrice not spending Christmas with Fergie and Andrew? To be fair, both princesses have spent the past two Christmases in Sandringham with the larger family. It would be perfectly reasonable if Eugenie is spending the holiday with Jack Brooksbank’s family, and Beatrice is spending the time with Edo’s family. Anyway, it’s so funny that before this spy story broke, Charles was rushing around, insisting that it was going to be such a huge Christmas gathering and he wasn’t inviting the Sussexes. Now it looks like the Yorks will be missing, and I bet some other people will be too.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

I always love when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex release their Christmas card before Harry’s brother. It always emphasizes how Meghan and Harry are doing things on their own terms and their own schedule, and they’re not waiting to see what the left-behind Windsors are doing. To be fair, King Charles and Camilla already released their card last week (people barely paid attention).

So, this year’s card is a lovely grouping of six photos. Five of the photos are from Harry and Meghan’s trips to Nigeria and Colombia this year, and one of the photos is a personal one from their home in Montecito. You can see the backs of Archie and Lili’s heads as they run into their parents’ arms. The three dogs are there too – Guy Markle, Pula Sussex (Mountbatten-Windsor??) and Mamma Mia Sussex. I’m not well-versed in beagles enough to know which one is Guy and which one is Mia, but I think Guy is probably the one closest to mom. As in, Guy got there before Archie!!

Obviously, people are really excited by any glimpse we get of the kids (and the dogs). Lili’s hair is so long! And Archie is still so gingery. I felt like Archie’s hair would start getting darker as he got older, but his hair is still really red. Lili will probably be more of a strawberry blonde as she gets older. These kids really got Prince Harry’s genes, and by that I mean… the Spencer genes. Imagine Kate, Charles, William and Camilla crashing out so massively at the thought of dark-skinned babies and Meghan gives birth to two pale little gingers.

Sussex Christmas card, courtesy of Archewell. Additional photos courtesy of Getty, Cover Images.