Taylor Swift’s fan base is one of the most passionate fan communities out there. Taylor plays into this with all her Easter eggs, encouraging her fans to pay attention to every tiny detail. Having a fan base so devoted comes with a dark side, as we have seen in recent years. Fans have called in death threats to Taylor’s enemies at Big Machine and The Kid Mero, and as far as I know she doesn’t usually intervene or ask them to stop doing this stuff. So this might be something of a first. Ahead of the re-release of her third album, Speak Now, Taylor’s asking fans not to harass one of that album’s main muses: John Mayer. Kind of. She didn’t address him directly, but if you’re in the know, it’s not hard to figure out who she’s talking about.

She never said his name, but Taylor Swift asked fans not to attack ex-boyfriend John Mayer when she releases her version of the album Speak Now—which contains the song “Dear John”—next month.

“I’m 33 years old. I don’t care about anything that happened to me when I was 19,” she said during a concert in Minneapolis on Saturday night.

“I’m not putting this album out so that you can go and should feel the need to defend me on the internet against someone you think I might have written a song about 14 billion years ago.”

Swift was 19 when she briefly dated Mayer, who was 12 years older than her—and fans have long been convinced the scorching track is about him and their breakup.

[From The Daily Beast]

There is no doubt the song is about John Mayer. Everything about it points to him, down to the fact that the guitar lick in it sounds just like him. I also think that whatever she says to the contrary, she has some residual bitterness toward him. On the extended edition of her latest record, Midnights, she released a song called Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve that is also believed to be about John, since it references her “dancing with the devil” at nineteen. (If you aren’t well-versed in her lyrics just trust me on this.) I have to be honest and admit that Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve is my favorite song Taylor has ever done. For one thing, Aaron Dessner produced it and it is so much better than her work with Jack Antonoff. For another, I experienced a traumatic event at nineteen that triggered a religious crisis just like she sings about, so the song maps onto my own life in a way that’s downright spooky. Anyway in it she sings, “I can’t let this go/I fight with you in my sleep/The wound won’t close/I keep on waiting for a sign.” Those don’t sound like the words of someone who has resolved their anger, just saying. Maybe she wrote the song years ago, but she also knew her fans would make the connections to Dear John. They’re right there. I noticed them on my first listen. I think John is a sleazebag but I also think Taylor’s fans frequently take things too far. Here’s what I wonder: if the Swifties go after him after all, is she going to say anything then? Or is she going to let it happen? My gut tells me it’s too little, too late for Taylor to speak up about this now.

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photos credit: Backgrid, Instar and Getty

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What kills me about the Rehabilitation of Susan Hussey is that no one cares about that racist old bag anyway. Like, all of this effort, all of this hand-wringing and careful PR to rehabilitate an 84 year old woman who is still dreadfully racist, rude and well-connected, and for what? Everyone knows that she’s still terrible. Everyone knows that she’s still deeply unpleasant. But people just go along with it and for what? So an 84-year-old can rub elbows with King Charles and Queen Camilla and no one will say sh-t? Well, after Hussey was racist to Ngozi Fulani last November, she was let go from her emeritus position as some kind of lady-in-waiting to Camilla. Except that only lasted a month or so before Buckingham Palace organized a careful rehabilitation campaign to protect Hussey and bring her back into the royal fold. Hussey began appearing at royal events, she continued to get palace invitations, she contacted her friends in the media who dutifully proclaimed that she attends church with Black people, therefore she’s not racist. She attended the coronation, and last week, she was laughing it up with the king and queen at the royal box at Ascot.

Lady Susan Hussey appears to have been reinstated as a permanent fixture at big royal events, as she attended Ascot in the monarch’s box for the second day in a row. The former lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth II, who was known as the Queen’s Number One Head Girl, was pictured smiling with Queen Camilla on day four of the famous race meet in Berkshire.

Lady Hussey was also seen engaged in conversation with the King in the royal box on Thursday, and last month attended his Coronation less than six months after resigning from royal duties in the wake of a race row. The 84-year-old was forced to step down from an honorary role supporting the King after being accused of “interrogating” a Buckingham Palace guest about where she was “really” from.

However, she was welcomed back into the royal fold for a church service in Sandringham at the end of January. While no longer employed by the palace, her appearances in the royal box at Ascot this week suggest she has been welcomed back into the inner circle.

[From The Telegraph]

Again, all of this effort and for what? Are Charles and Camilla so desperate for racist company that Susan Hussey was the only one who could provide what they needed? It was clear from the start of this whole debacle that Camilla and Charles didn’t even care – they shared Susan Hussey’s opinions and mindset, and judging from these photos, their sense of humor. I can only imagine what racist sh-t Hussey said to make Camilla laugh like that.

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Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid, Getty.

Phoebe Waller Bridge and Harrison Ford have been traveling around North America and Europe to promote Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which comes out this week. I feel a little bit sorry for Harrison – he’s old to do these kinds of international promotional tours, although he’s always loved playing Indiana Jones, so I get that he wants to “say goodbye.” Plus, he just refuses to retire. Phoebe has enjoyed every minute of her time with Harrison, and she’s been doing a little fashion tour during the promotion. Phoebe plays Indiana Jones’s goddaughter, and she drags him into some adventure with the Dial of Destiny. There are Nazis! And weird de-aging technology!

Last night, for the big London premiere, Phoebe wore an Ashi Studio Couture look. While this photographs as a “cape,” it’s not. It’s some kind of backless cape-hybrid with the look of a cape but only on the shoulders. Anyway, I think she looks stunning here. Probably her best look of the promotional tour.

Phoebe also wore Roland Mouret at the Berlin premiere a few days ago – this also looks great on her, and I continue to have a lot of jealousy about how clothes look on small-chested women.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Some people wondered if the past few weeks of coordinated attacks on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s American business were some kind of move by Prince William, ahead of his “big announcement.” Not so much – William can’t walk and chew gum at the same time, and I just have trouble believing that he could arrange any or all of this. I believe the coordination against the Sussexes is something else entirely. Another reason why I don’t think William is behind it is because he couldn’t even manage the rollout of his new program, Homewards, a £3 million scheme to… put some Royal Foundation money into halfway houses for homeless peeps. That’s it – he’s putting a relatively paltry sum of money into a relatively small solution. People probably would have praised the program if William and his team hadn’t gone completely overboard by lavishing praise on Peg for his “authenticity” and envious “ability to relate” to peasants. William’s staff have blanketed the media with talking points about how Peg will “end homelessness,” and then when people ask how or they criticize his little project, those same staffers get very huffy:

Prince William will also face challenges about how someone with such wealth and extensive property holdings can make such calls over homelessness.

“The last thing we need is for William to get involved in this issue, a man who has three huge homes and a vast estate gifted to him by the state,” says Graham Smith, of the anti-monarchy group, Republic. He says homelessness is about government policy and investment and will not be “resolved by charity or royal patronage”, accusing Prince William of being “hypocritical”.

But a Kensington Palace spokesman said it was about the prince using his public platform to make a positive difference.

“This isn’t about a PR stunt. This is about trying to change the way that we as a society think about homelessness,” said the spokesman.

[From BBC]

On the very first day of the rollout, within hours of the big launch, KP staffers had to huffily declare to the BBC and a dozen royal reporters “This isn’t about a PR stunt!” I beg to differ. Speaking of, the BBC also ran another critical about William’s Homewards: “Can Prince William navigate politics and privilege to cut homelessness?” Ouch.

Being accused of meddling in politics is an occupational hazard for any Prince of Wales. And any involvement in addressing a shortage of affordable housing is inescapably political, not least when there is so much anxiety about rising rents and mortgage costs.

But being accused of being a bit too political might not actually be a bad thing, according to royal author Prof Pauline Maclaran, particularly for a younger generation.

“The real risk is being irrelevant,” says Prof Maclaran. “Prince William needs to resonate with young people. He has to do more than cut ribbons and smile and wave. He needs to give back to the public,” she says.

In that respect, being seen as pushing the boundaries and fighting a cause will be seen as a positive benefit, says Prof Maclaran of Royal Holloway, University of London. Prince Harry has his own public cause in taking on the tabloid press, so now Prince William will be out there fighting homelessness.

But Prof Maclaran says a key to its credibility will be showing that he has made a personal contribution. The Royal Foundation of the Prince and Princess of Wales is initially providing £3m – with £500,000 seed funding for initiatives in six locations.

[From BBC]

Yikes. Oddly, it feels like people were really prepared to criticize William’s latest big keen project. It sort of felt that way several months ago when Kate re-launched her stupid f–king Early Years thing with the “Shaping Us” rebrand. People have known that there’s no there there for years, but now that William and Kate have the Wales titles, suddenly there’s more criticism, more cynicism, an attempt to really point out how desperate William and Kate are. Desperate to be relevant, desperate to “compete” with the Montecito royals, desperate to be seen doing something.

PS… He invited Ginger Spice to one of the launch events. He’s just doing this to hang out with celebrities, yet again.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Prince William is out and about today, doing the second day of “events” related to the flop launch of Homewards, his homelessness project. Given that William’s office has blanketed the British media with out-of-touch quotes about how William is the savior of homeless people, I thought that Kensington Palace would have demanded that Kate stay home, to give William all the headlines. Turns out, not so much. Kate stepped out today to open a new charity office. Hilariously, King Charles and Queen Camilla are also out and about today – looks like no one got the memo that this week belongs to Pegwards!

To be fair, Kate’s event today seemed pretty low-key. She even repeated a dress from her closet – she previously wore this £1,335 Alessandra Rich dress to the Wimbledon men’s singles final last year. The dress is very Kate – polka dots (or fabric buttons!) and ruffles, something which was designed with a sense of whimsy but Kate wears with earnestness. Everything’s so matchy-matchy with Kate too – the navy-and-white heels with the white purse… I think the shoes should have been different, but that’s just me.

The event was opening One Small Thing’s new Hope Street center. One Small Thing provides housing and support to recently incarcerated women as they re-enter society. This new center will provide housing for five women (you read that correctly) who are re-entering society. So this is sort of like a half-way house too, which is sort of what William is trying to do.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

The thing about Donald Trump is that he’s always done crime out in the open, for everyone to see. It’s not a matter of “oh, how will we ever catch this elusive and wily criminal?” The issue has always been the desire to prosecute, and that’s only shifted in recent years, sadly. Now the DOJ has a rock-solid, 38-count indictment against Trump for stealing classified documents and lying about stealing classified documents repeatedly. The federal government’s case against Trump looks and sounds open-and-shut, especially since, oh right, Trump incriminated himself repeatedly. Speaking of, CNN got their hands on one of the audio recordings of Trump incriminating himself in 2021 about all of the classified documents he stole:

CNN has exclusively obtained the audio recording of the 2021 meeting in Bedminster, New Jersey, where President Donald Trump discusses holding secret documents he did not declassify. The recording, which first aired on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” includes new details from the conversation that is a critical piece of evidence in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of Trump over the mishandling of classified information, including a moment when Trump seems to indicate he was holding a secret Pentagon document with plans to attack Iran.

“These are the papers,” Trump says in the audio recording, while he’s discussing the Pentagon attack plans, a quote that was not included in the indictment.

In the two-minute audio recording, Trump and his aides also joke about Hillary Clinton’s emails after the former president says that the document was “secret information.”

“Hillary would print that out all the time, you know. Her private emails,” Trump’s staffer said.

“No, she’d send it to Anthony Weiner,” Trump responded, referring to the former Democratic congressman, prompting laughter in the room.

Trump’s statements on the audio recording, saying “these are the papers” and referring to something he calls “highly confidential” and seems to be showing others in the room, could undercut the former president’s claims in an interview last week with Fox News’ Bret Baier that he did not have any documents with him. “There was no document. That was a massive amount of papers and everything else talking about Iran and other things,” Trump said on Fox. “And it may have been held up or may not, but that was not a document. I didn’t have a document, per se. There was nothing to declassify. These were newspaper stories, magazine stories and articles.”

The audio recording comes from a July 2021 interview Trump gave at his Bedminster resort for people working on the memoir of Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff. The special counsel’s indictment alleges that those in attendance – a writer, publisher and two of Trump’s staff members – were shown classified information about the plan of attack on Iran.

[From CNN]

LMAO: “The special counsel’s indictment alleges that those in attendance – a writer, publisher and two of Trump’s staff members – were shown classified information about the plan of attack on Iran.” I mean, it’s not funny. But holy sh-t, everything about Trump is such a f–king clownshow. Trump was truly just waddling around his various golf clubs, showing highly sensitive classified material to random people. But Her Emails got a special mention too, which just makes this *chef’s kiss*…

Wow CNN got the tape of Trump’s conversation about classified documents pic.twitter.com/0NVQYAEkor

— Acyn (@Acyn) June 27, 2023

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, DOJ.

Prince Christian of Denmark is the heir to the heir – the eldest son of Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary, and grandson of Queen Margrethe. Prince Christian will turn 18 years old in October, and I kind of forgot that he’s so old. After Christian, Mary and Frederick welcomed Princess Isabella, who just turned 16 in April. Their youngest children are 12-year-old twins Vincent and Josephine. So, Christian is getting ready for his big coming-of-age birthday in October, and he has some thoughts. Thoughts about money, and how he’s not going to take the allowance the government will offer him on his birthday:

Prince Christian of Denmark won’t be accepting a royal allowance just yet. On Monday, the Danish Royal House announced that the future king will not be taking the government funding he is entitled to by law when he turns 18 in October. Instead, the eldest son of Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary will continue to focus on his studies, and the issue will be revisited when he turns 21 or if there is a change of throne. Christian’s grandmother Queen Margrethe is currently Denmark’s reigning sovereign.

“His Royal Highness Prince Christian turns 18 on 15 October 2023,” courtiers said in a statement on Instagram Monday, posting the prince’s cypher. “Prince Christian’s main priority in the coming year will be the completion of the Prince’s upper secondary education. In continuation of this, the Royal Palace will provide information on Prince Christian’s further youth and education courses when the time is right.”

“It has thus been agreed with the Prime Minister’s Office that support will only be sought in the Folketing [Danish Parliament] for a law on annuities when the Prince turns 21 or upon a possible change of throne, if it takes place before that,” the update from the Danish Royal House continued. “Only after this is the expectation that His Royal Highness will participate to a greater extent in official contexts. However, it depends on where the Prince is at this point in his education. Until then, just like today, Prince Christian will only participate in official contexts to a limited extent.”

While Christian has stepped out with his parents and siblings Princess Isabella, 15, Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine, both 12, for royal events like the Royal Run in Copenhagen and Queen Margrethe’s birthday celebrations, he is not yet a full-time working royal. The prince follows his father Frederik, 54, as second in the line of succession and currently attends the Ordrup Gymnasium school.

[From People]

The Netherlands’ Princess Catharina-Amalia did the same thing two years ago, ahead of her 18th birthday – she turned down the $2 million royal allowance she was entitled to as heir. I suspected, at the time, that she turned down the money because she wanted to have a few more years of just being a young adult, traveling and going to university. I suspect that’s part of the reason why Christian has turned down the allowance too – he’s not ready to participate in the quid-pro-quo of what the allowance means in the larger sense, that the Danish people might feel like he should do more or be seen more. It’s also interesting to me that there’s so much transparency with “royal allowances” outside of the UK.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

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Selena Gomez is, as always, having a busy year. She was dating a Chainsmoker for a little bit, then said she was single. She was spotted with Zayn Malik at least once, then said she was single. There was some social media drama with Kyle Jenner and Hailey Bieber. She wrapped the third season of Only Murders in the Building, got two new cooking show gigs on the Food Network, and filmed a movie with Zoe Saldana in Paris. So I guess Selena was due for a little more drama? Fans noticed that over the weekend she unfollowed a few fellow celebs on IG, including Zayn Malik, the Hadid sisters, and Zendaya. But sources insist there’s nothing to see here.

There’s no feud in the building!

Over the weekend, eagle-eyed fans noticed Selena Gomez seemingly unfollowed a handful of celebrities on Instagram — including Bella and Gigi Hadid, Zayn Malik and Zendaya — but a source close to the Only Murders in the Building actress says rumors of any drama are unfounded.

“There are absolutely no hard feelings with anyone she unfollowed,” the source tells PEOPLE exclusively. (While fans claimed Gomez had unfollowed Dua Lipa, the “Levitating” singer still appears on the Rare Beauty founder’s follow list.)

Earlier this year, Gomez and Malik sparked romance rumors after they were spotted on a date in N.Y.C. However, the “Back to You” singer confirmed her relationship status in a hilarious June 8 TikTok that showed her hollering “I’m single!” at the athletes during a soccer game.

“I’m just a little high-maintenance,” she joked in the clip. “But I’ll love you soooo much.” In the comments section, Gomez wrote, “The struggle man lol.”

Over the years the star, 30, has been open about her complicated relationship with social media, saying it was healthier for her to limit her time online.

Gomez recently returned to the States after spending two months in Paris to film the upcoming movie Emilia Perez alongside Zoe Saldaña.

“Thank you Paris for being a home to me for two months!” Gomez — who’s been garnering Emmy buzz for her work on Only Murders’ second season — captioned the post. “I loved every moment. Working on this film has completely changed my life. I can’t wait to share more soon! Love you all.”

While she was in the City of Light for work, Gomez also fit in some exploring with family and friends, including sharing an oversized croissant with younger sister Gracie and a rooftop hang with her girlfriends with the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop.

[From People]

I really like Selena, but I also can recognize that girl likes a little drama, and that’s okay! But she also likes to pretend she doesn’t because it doesn’t go with her whole be kind, Rare Beauty, mental health thing. And I don’t totally buy the source’s claims that “there are no hard feelings with anyone she unfollowed” because of precisely who Selena unfollowed — two women whose long term exes she dated and one of the exes in question. (The only one that truly seems random is Zendaya.) Like, maybe there’s no new/current beef, but she just got sick of seeing them in her feed. Sometimes you just get tired of people and need a break, but that’s what the mute button is for. Apparently, Zayn also unfollowed Selena. Anyway, it’s a little bit dramatic. Even if there was no special reason, at the very least she knew that people would notice and talk about it because fans notice stuff like this and it becomes a story. Like I said, she likes a little drama.

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Lately Billie Eilish has talked a lot about embracing her feminine side and how hard it is to grow up in the public eye. For most of her career, Billie dressed in a lot of boyish silhouettes that kept her body shape hidden. Recently her style has shifted to more feminine and grown-up styles, like her Met Gala look. British Vogue interviewed her to talk about her newest perfume launch, Eilish 2, but the quotes about her style were the most interesting to me. She says she’s done proving that she’s a tomboy and she wants to get more comfortable wearing a lot of makeup. She also shared how she deals with body shaming and learning self-acceptance.

She is multifaceted: “I spent most of my life being very masculine and boyish, and recently, in the last couple of years, was kind of like, ‘You know what, I’m allowed to be whatever I want to be when I want to be it,’” she says. “I don’t need to always prove to everyone that I’m a tomboy. Like, that is what I am, but I also am this kind of girl. I’m also feminine, and I’m also sexy, and I’m also cute, and I’m also just like, none of the above, and I’m just me.”

She wants to wear more makeup but is scared: “I’m trying to be more comfortable wearing make-up, like a lot of make-up,” says Eilish, who notes that she strives to embrace the power that comes with hyper-femininity. “Obviously, I wear a little make-up all the time, but it’s just like, big faces of make-up… it’s something that I look up to, and I admire, and for me, I’m just like so scared of it.”

How she deals with body-shaming comments: “Dude, I don’t even know. It’s tough, man,” says Eilish. “Honestly, nobody can say anything about my body that I don’t have a stronger opinion about […] I also think that if I was younger, like if the internet talked about me the way they do now when I was like 11, I don’t think I would be able to exist, to be honest,” she continues. “I like myself more than I used to, and I’m more interested in how I feel than how they feel. But then also that might be a load of bullshit, because it still hurts my feelings like a son of a b–ch.”

[From British Vogue]

I think Billie is learning what a lot of us learn as we grow up. Sometimes we cling to one identity very hard in adolescence, but then we find that we don’t want to fit into the same box all the time. I think most people spend their teen years trying on different identities. For Billie, the “tomboy” identity may have resonated with her, but it also shielded her from the overt objectification that most teen pop stars experience (Britney, Christina, et al). Now that she’s an adult, I think she feels safer expressing her more feminine side. For what it’s worth I think Billie has one of those faces that responds to a lot of makeup. I feel like when I put on eye shadow I look completely the same, but Billie’s face looks different when she sports a dramatic look. I hope she continues to have fun with it. I’ve loved seeing Billie’s style evolution. Going from ‘teen pop star’ to ‘adult pop star’ relatively unscathed is no mean feat. And of course she would be hurt by body-shaming comments. But I’m glad that she says she’s more interested in how she feels than what other people think. I know I sound like her maiden aunt but I’m really proud of Billie.

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After the Oscars, people were talking a lot about “the Ozempic diet” and which celebrities had suddenly and dramatically lost a lot of weight. Mindy Kaling was at the top of a lot of lists. Mindy has lost a lot of weight in recent years, and what’s interesting about her weight loss is where the weight has come off. Her face has gotten thinner, her arms are tiny (not muscular) and I can really see the weight loss in her shoulders and chest. Mindy was never a bigger girl, she was normal-woman-sized in a sea of size-2 actresses. A few months ago, she talked about how the dramatic change came about, and she said nothing about Ozempic. She claimed that she’s been hiking 20 miles a week and lifting weights. Both things will contribute to weight loss, but will it be this dramatic? Well, Mindy has a new birthday post on Instagram, and she talks about how healthy she is now.

Look I know I’m clearly materialistic but the best birthday gift to me, for the rest of my life, are these two guys. I was never a “kid” person. When my mom passed though, it just clicked in me: I wanted kids with such intense certainty. I bet some of you can relate.

Now I’m just trying to be present for them (hard for me! I’m impatient!), being up for anything (again hard for me, I am not whimsical!), and stay healthy for these two guys (ALSO hard! I just want to eat cheesesteaks every meal in front of the TV) for until I’m an old gray skeleton they’re like “mom, you gotta go”.

My doctor told me that this year I was the healthiest I’ve been in years. That’s a pretty damn good gift, right? I’m usually kind of low-level anxious, so I’m just gonna take one minute on my birthday to acknowledge that I am happy. Man, there are ups and downs in this life!! But my ups seem to be the most important ones right now. Thanks for my birthday love. (Also maybe I will buy myself that trendy Dior bag that looks like a kidney bean).

[From Mindy’s Instagram]

She should definitely buy herself the Dior bag. As for what her doctor says… like, she wasn’t unhealthy in the first place! Mindy’s fans know that sh-t got real for her when her mom passed away, and that she began planning out her family as a single mother soon after. I get that becoming a single mom by choice dramatically changed the way she views her health, but again, she wasn’t “unhealthy” or in poor health. She was already fit and diet-obsessed, etc. Yes, it’s her business and she doesn’t have to share what medications she’s taking and all of that. But I really feel like she’s gaslighting us about this.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instagram.