Maybe I missed it, but Thomas Markle was keeping a relatively low profile ever since QEII died, correct? He got some mileage out of faking a stroke last year, just before the British tabloids were about to fly him out for the Jubbly. They had big plans to parade him around all of the events and “force” some kind of awkward reunion between Thomas and the Duchess of Sussex. Much like his “heart attack” just before Meghan’s wedding, the stroke was conveniently timed to avoid a more thorough examination of his actions, words and behavior. Now, Samantha Markle has been trying to sue Meghan for a while and Samantha’s lawsuit just keeps getting more and more unhinged. Well, long story short, these grifters are back. They sat down for an interview with an Australian outlet:

Apparently, this airs tonight? It features Toxic Tom’s “deathbed plea” to Meghan, as he sits beside two of his other grifter children, and begs (to camera) “How can I fix this?” Let me take a swing at this one, Toxic Tom: you should try to do what Meghan advised back in 2018, which is stop talking to the media, stop selling her out, stop listening to your unhinged grifter daughter Samantha, and actually act like you have the good sense god gave a goose. Then, within the same f–king beat, Samantha says that Meghan “would still be a waitress if it wasn’t for dad.” And Samantha also claims that Meghan and Harry are “very unhealthy for each other, it’s a toxic relationship.”

Imagine being this grasping, this disgusting, all for a relatively paltry payout. Notice, as well, that while the British media is covering these quotes, they’re not the ones paying for it. Dan Wootton, Piers Morgan, the Mail, the Sun, they’ve all spent years paying Thomas and Samantha thousands of dollars to recite scripts and lie about Meghan. The British media has stopped paying – which is why Tom and Scammy ran to an Australian outlet.

Photos courtesy of ‘60 Minutes Australia’ and WENN.

The Met Gala is on Monday and it doesn’t seem to be as buzzy as years past. Granted, in 2021, the gala was pushed back until September, and barely anyone flew in from Europe so it was like this weird American-centric gala. I don’t even remember last year’s. Maybe the pandemic sort of changed how we talk about the Met Gala and what we expect from it. Maybe some celebrities and fashionistas are just like… who cares? Blake Lively is one of those people. Blake usually attends the gala and she always tries to go big with her look. To mixed results, in my opinion. But this year, Blake’s not going.

The show will have to go on without Blake Lively. On Thursday during the grand re-opening of the Tiffany & Co. Fifth Avenue in New York City, the It Ends with Us actress said she would not be attending the 2023 Met Gala.

“You will not,” Lively, 35, told reporters including PEOPLE when asked on the red carpet whether fans would see her at the annual biggest night in fashion. “But I will be watching.”

After being complimented the star on her 2022 ensemble, she said, “Thank you, that’s very sweet. I’ll be wearing that on my couch on Monday.”

[From People]

When I saw this, I genuinely thought “yeah, but who was desperate to see Blake?” Then there were thousands of tweets with people losing their minds about Blake not attending this year. Truly. I’m sure I’ll get slammed, but Blake was always so boring at the gala – it was always “a Mall Girl gets dressed up” aesthetic. The thing is, I don’t think Rihanna is going either, and Beyonce hasn’t gone in years. So there will be a dearth of big-name “fashionistas” at this year’s gala.

So far, these are the people who have confirmed: Megan Thee Stallion, Penelope Cruz, Kendall Jenner, Kaia Gerber, Kristen Stewart, Michaela Coel, Roger Federer, Dua Lipa, Kim Kardashian, Elle Fanning, Paris Hilton, La La Anthony, Priyanka Chopra, Florence Pugh (who will wear Valentino), Camila Morrone and… Choupette. Literally, I think they’re going to bring Karl Lagerfeld’s beloved cat onto the carpet.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Harry Styles appeared on James Corden’s final episode of The Late Late Show. Apparently, Prince Harry was in the audience as well. [Just Jared]
Kirsten Dunst & her husband Jesse Plemons turned up for the Love & Death premiere this week. He’s lost a lot of weight since I last saw him. [Go Fug Yourself]
Bam Margera surrendered to authorities after going on the run. [Dlisted]
Of course Angelina Jolie did her research before this week’s White House state dinner. She still decided to honor her family’s ties to Korea. [LaineyGossip]
I disliked the way Ted Lasso dealt with love-bombing. [Pajiba]
Black Mirror Season 6 has a trailer! [OMG Blog]
A Nebraska Republican claims no one is forcing people to be pregnant as he argues for an abortion ban in the state. [Jezebel]
Ethan Hawke & Pedro Pascal are my dream couple, honestly. [Egotastic]
Millennials loved the late Jerry Springer. [Buzzfeed]
Curly-haired Blake Lively wore a great Brandon Maxwell. [RCFA]
Jerry Springer testified in front of the US Senate? [Seriously OMG]
Jimmy Kimmel jokes about Fox News’ file on Tucker Carlson. [Towleroad]

Emma Thompson did some Oscar-campaigning in recent months for her indie film, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande. She ended up getting nominated for a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and a bunch of critics awards for her performance, but she didn’t get the Oscar nomination. And I think she’s fine with it – for years now, she’s been anti-Hollywood and anti-awards season, or perhaps she’s just very, very British. In any case, Emma spoke to the Radio Times podcast about the Oscars and about whether she believes in “romantic love.” Some highlights:

Romantic love is a myth: “It’s philosophically helpful and uplifting to remember that romantic love is a myth and quite dangerous. We really do have to take it with a massive pinch of salt. To think sensibly about love and the way it can grow is essential. Long-term relationships are hugely difficult and complicated. If anyone thinks that happy ever after has a place in our lives, forget it.”

She felt ill every time she’s gone to the Oscars: “Both times I had to do the Oscars I got ill, quite seriously ill, before and during it. I just found the pressure of it and glare of it too much … It’s sort of astonishing – and then you think you want to lie down in a dark room. You think, ‘Please don’t ask me any questions or make me talk about myself.’ It’s horrible. I quite quickly developed a sort of allergy to that, but it’s sort of part of the job.”

On fame: “Fame doesn’t happen overnight, it’s gradual. I’m lucky from that point of view; I think it must be awful if you have to deal with being James Bond, or one of those people who really can’t go anywhere. To lose your anonymity completely … it’s not very pleasant for you or the people around you. If that’s what you want, to be recognised, then I suppose you can deal with it, and it’s not so intrusive. But it’s not what I wanted, and I think it’s a highly toxic condition.”

[From The Daily Mail and The Guardian]

I don’t think romantic love is a “myth,” but I agree that you need more than romantic love or sexual chemistry to make a marriage or partnership work long-term. That’s basically what she’s saying – you need to do the work and you can’t expect “romantic love” to be enough to sustain a relationship. But romantic love isn’t a myth! As for the stuff about the Oscars… I’ve never really understood why so many British actors are so anti-Oscars or anti-Hollywood in general. They pride themselves on “keeping it real” and being authentic… and then they cozy up to the Windsors. Emma does that. She’s anti-Hollywood-fakery and then she cozies up to King Charles and the rest of them.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Joshua Jackson is currently promoting the Fatal Attraction limited series, where he plays Dan, the character originally played by Michael Douglas, and Lizzy Caplan plays Alex (originally played by Glenn Close). The series is on Paramount+, which basically means that they can do an explicit, R-rated show with graphic sex scenes. Don’t tell the Puriteens, who cry on Beyonce’s internet every day that sex, nudity and intimacy should not be shown in films or television shows. This is not Joshua’s first “sexy” show, and he seems to be fine with showing his body and working out the mechanics of sex scenes with a partner. Variety also spoke to Lizzy Caplan, who sings Jackson’s praises and you can tell they had a good rapport and they worked well together and with the intimacy coordinator. From this Variety interview with Jackson:

The importance of sex scenes: “The sex scenes are of great importance because they’re furthering the narrative. You have to believe that these people want to f–k each other.” He adds that the show works hard to create “something in the beginning that’s transgressive and animalistic, then moving into something sweeter as the sex scenes progress — which is in its way more transgressive, because he’s married.”

The series shows Alex’s point of view as well: “I went back and watched the original and was like, ‘Holy sh-t, we’ve come a long way.’ The movie is incredible, but the gender dynamics are impossible to wrap your head around.”

Jackson thinks Dan is a sh-thead: “The second his principles bump up against his convenience, he chooses his convenience.”

His pet peeves: “One of my pet peeves is two characters have sex, and it’s the most amazing sex she’s ever had. She wakes up in the morning, and she pulls the sheet up over her breasts. I’ve never in my life had great sex with somebody and then have them be like, ‘But I don’t want you to see my nipples in the morning.’”

He feels like the show is about the female gaze: “God bless Silver for being amazing and coming at this from the female gaze. There are so many ways to tell the story of a sex scene that don’t need to be about certain pieces of a woman’s body. There are so many different ways that this can give you all of that stuff without it having to be exploitive of the women’s body.”

Lizzy Caplan couldn’t have been more comfortable with Jackson: She’d just welcomed her first child as filming began, so wasn’t feeling so secure shooting close-ups. “As I’m trying to figure out how this new postpartum body works, Joshua was right there to help me out. Want to know what true feminism is? That, in a man.”

Having a daughter with Jodie Turner Smith: “There are things I would have been interested in doing before having the baby, like playing a real racist motherf–ker. Now, it’s just not something that I want to put on camera and have my daughter see.”

Jodie isn’t bothered by his sex scenes: “Jodie is not fussed about my sex scenes,” Jackson says. And, anyway, he finds more intimacy in scenes between characters falling in love, since sex scenes are more technical. After a pause, he laughs and adds, “The sex scenes themselves, Jodie kind of enjoys them, actually. It’s a weird thing where she’s like a voyeur. So that works! If that’s your thing — excellent.”

How he views Dawson’s Creek: “‘Dawson’s Creek’ never ever thought that young people are stupid. It never spoke down to anyone. We weren’t trying to be too cool. ‘Gossip Girl’ was trying to be in the zeitgeist and be cool to kids. We were all nerdy kids. It doesn’t have to be ‘Euphoria’ to have an impact.”

[From Variety]

I would actually find it icky if Joshua was the only one from the show talking about how great it is to shoot sex scenes, but it’s clear that Lizzy Caplan felt respected and protected by Joshua, the director and the crew. Plus, this is Fatal Attraction – of course there are going to be sex scenes, that’s the whole point, a married man has a torrid affair and everything goes sideways. It would be a total bait-and-switch if they didn’t have tons of sex scenes. As for Joshua calling Jodie a voyeur… well, okay then! No comment, I guess.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Last month, we got a lot of set photos from Netflix’s The Crown. The production moved to Scotland, where they filmed in or around St. Andrews and focused on Prince William and Kate Middleton’s “college romance.” In Season 6, Meg Bellamy was cast as the college-aged Kate, and Ed McVey takes over as college-aged William. This week, Netflix released some official photos of Season 6’s “Will & Kate.” One of the shots is supposed to be Will & Kate walking arm-in-arm at St. Andrew’s, probably in what would have been their second or third year of university.

Can I just say? I’m enjoying the casting a lot. Sometimes The Crown can be really hit-or-miss with their casting and how they employ certain actors, but they got it right with these two. McVey looks remarkably like William at that age. But Meg Bellamy is actually perfect for this – she has such a similar look to Kate before Kate became all glossy and overly “done.” The messy, too-heavy eyeliner, her natural hair before she had a wiglet room, the energy of a “middle-class girl” who caught the prince.

Now, will the realistic casting choices reflect a realistic story about how Kate and William eventually began dating? Probably not. Kate and her mother stalked William for years and Kate repeatedly threw herself in William’s path before he ever noticed her. She also put up with a lot of sh-t from William when they were at St. Andrew’s. Even Tina Brown couldn’t put a bow on it – once Kate got her claws in William, she wouldn’t let go, and Carole advised her to do whatever it took to get the ring. They won’t show any of that.

Photos courtesy of The Crown/Netflix and Cover Images.

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Dolly Parton has a new children’s book out called Billy the Kid Makes It Big. The hero of the story, Billy the Kid, is based on her manager’s dog, the same dog that inspired her marketing campaign for her Doggy Parton pet wear line. Dolly just adores this mutt. Doll adores those around her so much, it drives her to make the world a better place, which is the message of her new book. The story is about a dog musician who has a hard time making it in the beginning. But through hard work, determination and putting faith in the right people, Billy makes a career for himself. It’s cute, kids will love it. As always, the larger message Dolly is spreading is just as wonderful. She’s looking to stand up to bullies and let kids be just exactly who they are going to be.

What the book is about: [The book] is about confidence, about standing up to bullies. So it’s really got a lot of meaningful things, I think, for children from four to seven. It’s a story about him coming to Nashville, trying to make it in the business and being discouraged by some others and feeling sad. And finally meeting some friends that gave him confidence.

On being bullied as a kid: I have a song and a book called, Coat of Many Colors. My mama had made me a little coat out of rags, because she didn’t have enough of the same material to make me a coat and it was getting winter time. So, while she made that coat she told me the story about Joseph in the Bible. And boy, I thought I just really looked like Joseph, and I was so proud of it, and wore it to school. And the kids laughed and said it was just rags, and I didn’t look like Joseph, and that we were poor and all that. I remember crying so hard. And kids always remember things like that, your first deep hurt.

So that followed me and years later, I didn’t really know it was so in there, I wrote a song about it. So since then, I’ve written lots of songs that I know are things that children deal with, whether it be the bullying, or just being hurt, or having no confidence, and being able to stay strong and believe in who you are.

Be who you are: I believe that we all should have the chance to be exactly who we are. And I even wrote a song [Be That] about how whatever you are, be that. Whatever you do, do that. Anything else is just an act. You can’t be something different than you are. And when you try, it’s just a fake, and you’re never complete as a human being.

What inspired her Imagination Library: My dad didn’t get a chance to read or write. And that bothered him. And that bothered me that it bothered him. So, I got this idea to start the [Imagination Library] program where we give books to children from the time they were born, once a month, till they started school. We were just thinking about our home county, and it grew so fast. And then it went all over Tennessee. And then went into Canada. And now we’re all over the world.

My dad took great pride in that. He got to live long enough to see it doing really well. He just told me he was very proud of me. And that he felt like I was doing something special. I was proud that he got to be part of something great. And he could feel better about himself.

[From NPR]

That last bit about her dad hit me. My grandfather ran away from home when he was 14. He never learned to properly read or write either. This was never made public to us, I think he was ashamed of it. He had a photographic memory, though, and was a marvelous storyteller, but he was really intimidated by book-smart people. I felt bad for him because he was an intellectually capable man, a lovely addition to any conversation, he was simply illiterate. And most of my grandma’s family looked down on him. We shame people for the wrong things. Of course Dolly would turn her father’s challenges into this beautiful opportunity for children to have access to books so they don’t face the same feelings her dad did. And she made him proud by doing so. Now I’m all weepy.

It also speaks to Dolly’s point about being allowed to be who we are. Sometimes who we are is by circumstance. As she said, “anything else is just an act,” and that act is exhausting. I wish we were doing more in this country presently to tell kids they were safe being who they are. But for now, we have Momma Dolly saying it. I know I’d rather listen to her than most state governments anyway.

Speaking of Dolly books, she has another one coming out in October called Dolly Parton Behind the Seams, her story as told through her hair and costumes.

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One of the things I enjoy about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s relationships with Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King is that we really don’t know how often they talk or whether advice is sought or received. Oprah and Gayle keep it private and they maintain (publicly) that Meghan and Harry aren’t asking them for advice. Still, people ask them all the time if they’ve spoken to Meghan and Harry about this or that. For good reason – post-Oprah interview, Harry called up Gayle and gave her information which she revealed on air. It’s good to put that out there – at any time, Meghan or Harry could call Gayle and Oprah and get their side out. Anyway, Gayle was asked this week about Harry’s attendance at the coronation:

Showing her support. Gayle King is proud of how Prince Harry and Meghan Markle handled their final decision about King Charles III’s coronation.

“I think Meghan and Harry should do what’s best for them,” the journalist, 68, exclusively told Us Weekly at the Time100 red carpet on Wednesday, April 26. “Clearly they know what’s going on in their family life. They know what’s going on over there.”

King explained that she doesn’t offer the Duke and Duchess of Sussex any unsolicited advice about their relationship with the royal family. “They consult me about nothing when it comes to that or anything for that matter,” she added. “I think they make the decision that’s best for them. But I think — as [far as] his dad — I’m glad he’s going.”

According to King, Harry and Meghan are in “a really good place” amid public ups and downs with the royals. “You’ve seen the two of them together and I know what they have is really true-blue. And it’s good to see the happiness that they give each other,” she gushed on Wednesday about the pair, who also share daughter Lili, 22 months.

[From Us Weekly]

I also think they’re in a good place. 2023 is an era of sweeping change for the Sussexes – it started with Harry’s memoir and promotion, then how they handled being evicted from Frogmore, how they handled the coronation invitation, how Harry is handling his lawsuits against the British newspapers, and don’t forget – they’ll go to Germany for Invictus, and I’m sure Meghan will have more projects coming out this year too.

I’m not going to devote a post to this, but that nutcase Angela Levin has been everywhere this week, spreading lies and saying unhinged crap about the Sussexes. She was on Dan Wootton’s GB News show, and she actually said that Harry is “desperate to get the headlines taken off King Charles and Queen Camilla and to actually get there on the newspaper.” Because Harry and Meghan went to a basketball game! She also said: “You cannot stand how they can be so rude and they’re laughing. They were laughing at us actually, rather than together.” The Sussexes: laughing at their haters!

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Photos courtesy of Backgrid, CBS, Instagram.

Here are some photos of Hugh Grant attending the preliminary court hearing in his case – and Prince Harry’s case – against News Group Newspapers, aka The Sun. Hugh has been to court every day this week, watching the proceedings, taking notes and speaking to his lawyers. Grant has a lengthy history of using his name and position to fight the British tabloids and shine a light on their criminal methods. Like, I’m sure Hugh is a real sh-thead in most parts of his life, but in this narrow situation, he’s great. I also believe that Hugh and Prince Harry are in contact and that they’re strategizing with each other. As for Hugh’s part of the case, there were some big moments from his witness statement on Thursday:

Hugh Grant has claimed the Sun burgled his flat and placed a tracking device in his car in an attempt to obtain stories about his personal life. The actor appeared at the high court on Thursday for a hearing which set out his allegations that the Sun also tapped landline telephones and hacked his voicemails.

In a witness statement to the court, Grant said: “My claim concerns unlawful acts committed by the Sun, including burglaries to order, the breaking and entering of private property in order to obtain private information through bugging, landline tapping, phone hacking and the use of private investigators to do all these and other illegal things against me.”

Grant said that in 2011 his London flat was broken into, with the front door forced off its hinges but nothing stolen. He says the following day a story appeared in the Sun that “detailed the interior of the flat, including the signs of a domestic row”. Grant said at that time he had no idea who had carried out the break-in: “I had no evidence that this burglary was carried out or commissioned on the instruction of the press, let alone the Sun.”

In his witness statement, the actor claims he was prompted to launch his latest legal claim after being passed information which “showed, for the first time, evidence that the Sun had targeted unlawful activity at me and my associates directly”.

Grant said: “I found it astonishing that the Sun carried out these unlawful acts against me at a time when I was preparing to give evidence to a public inquiry on press ethics. Of course, all of this was concealed from me at the time.”

Grant also alleges that during the 2000s the Sun employed private investigators to break into two properties connected to his film production company and his ex-girlfriend Liz Hurley. The actor claims these burglaries were carried out with “knowledge and approval of Rebekah Brooks who was editor of the Sun at the time”.

The court also heard claims about how the Sun allegedly obtained details of Grant’s first child, despite the child’s mother giving birth under a fake name to try to keep it out of the media. Grant alleges the tabloid obtained the fake name using “blagging or … bribery”. He alleges that a senior reporter at the paper commissioned the “blagging” of private information about individuals including “the child of a former prime minister, a very senior female member of the royal family and victims of terrorist atrocities”.

It is trying to block both cases from going to a public trial on the basis that both Grant and Harry waited too long to file their legal paperwork. They argue that they were slow to file their claims because the newspaper publisher concealed the behaviour of its staff.

[From The Guardian]

Wait… not to nitpick, but Hugh’s home was broken into and then the next day, the Sun published a description of his home’s interior and he didn’t think that the Sun was behind it at the time? Granted, the criminality is at every level – can you imagine having any kind of public profile, and the tabloids break into your home, you report the break-in to the police who are (guess what?) on the tabloids’ payroll, so the cops are being paid to slip the police report to the tabloids (when the tabloids did the original crime)? Yeah. That’s exactly what happened. Over and over again, to celebrities, to victims of crime, the victims’ families, to government officials, to anyone who caught the eye of a tabloid editor.

Now, at the moment, Hugh Grant and Prince Harry are merely fighting to take this to trial. That’s why NGN is arguing that they’ve waited too long. If this does go to trial – and who knows – then NGN’s position will be “prove it, prove that we did all these things, you can’t prove it because we did a good job of covering up all of our crimes.”

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

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The Prince and Princess of Wales stayed at a bed-and-breakfast in Wales last night, following their busy afternoon of abseiling, hiking and pizza-eating. I wondered if they would do any events in Wales today, and here’s my answer. They visited Aberfan, the site of the 1966 disaster which left 144 people dead. 116 of those people were young children. The Crown devoted an episode to the Aberfan disaster, and if you’ve seen it, you know how badly QEII mishandled and misjudged the disaster. She should have been there first thing, within 24 hours. Instead, she waited eight days to go to Wales and NOT comfort her subjects.

William and Kate visited the Aberfan Memorial Garden, which sits on the site of the former primary school which was buried in the landslide with more than a hundred children inside. They were shown around by Aberfan survivor David Davies and Profession Peter Vaughn. They also met with trustees of the Aberfan Memorial Trust. This was William and Kate’s first-ever visit to Aberfan.

For the event, Kate wore a new Zara dress, a Catherine Walker coat (which might be a repeat?) and a Mulberry bag.

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Photos courtesy of Getty.