Margot Robbie wore Versace to the Australian Babylon premiere. People had strong feelings either way about this dress, but can we agree that it’s better than what Chanel gives her? [LaineyGossip]
Everybody hates HBO Max’s Velma. [Dlisted]
People are hyped about The Last of Us. [Pajiba]
Prada’s latest men’s collection is kind of meh. [Tom & Lorenzo]
Wait, Kendall Jenner & Hailey Bieber share a makeup artist? [JustJared]
This isn’t very flattering on Patricia Arquette. [GFY]
Austin Butler mourns Lisa Marie Presley. [Buzzfeed]
Love After Lockup or an episode of Maury?? [Starcasm]
No, Martin Luther King Jr. would not have been a MAGA Republican. [Towleroad]
Bella Hadid’s bikini is awful! [Egotastic]
I also miss this – women and men should be able to treat premieres more like a “date night” than an awards show. [Jezebel]

I went into this Lea Michele profile/interview thinking that I would end up writing about Lea’s quote about people telling her to get a nose job, but then the funniest thing happened at the very start of the interview. So, some minor background: there is a years-long internet joke about Lea Michele’s illiteracy. I’ve mentioned it before and Lea even addressed the joke/rumor in a NYT interview this year, only she made it worse. She apparently only recently heard about the conspiracy that she can’t read, which just proves that… she can’t read, because that joke has been repeated online for years. Arguing “I know my lines” is not the same as arguing “I can read my lines.” But I digress. It turns out, Barbra Streisand sent her a letter. Lea can’t tell us what’s in the letter. Because she can’t read it. Some highlights from Town & Country:

She got a note from Barbra Streisand: “It was so surreal and such a wonderful moment. The fact that she acknowledged my performance—I could cry. I called Jonathan [Groff] and Ryan Murphy sobbing.” In fact, the 36-year-old actress isn’t sure she’ll ever let anyone else know what Streisand wrote her. “It was a beautiful, hand-written note that I will cherish. She was incredibly complimentary. It exists. It happened, and now I feel like so many dreams can come true.”

Starring in ‘Funny Girl’: “Honestly, it’s all been one incredible dream on top of an incredible dream.” Growing up, “people would tell me to get nose jobs, that I wasn’t pretty enough for film and television,” she recalls. The comparisons with Streisand were inevitable. “She was an icon for me in my life.”

On Ryan Murphy: “Sometimes I FaceTime him during intermission and say, ‘Can you believe this?’ He’s been such an incredible source of support for me. I’m so grateful for him in my life.”

Her costar Ramin Karimloo, who plays Nick Arnstein: “It’s like playing tennis with someone who’s just as good as you are. It’s thrilling, and our voices just match.”

No wild times on Broadway after the show: “Sometimes Ramin will have a little tequila in my room, but that’s as wild as it gets. My mom asks me the same thing, but calming down is not as hard as you think. I’m really happy to come home,” she says. Once there, she makes two pieces of toast with a lot of butter to eat in bed, “and I’m asleep in two minutes.”

[From Town & Country]

I’m not saying that Lea Michele can’t read, but I will say that she doesn’t do a great job of proving that she can read? What’s in the note Streisand sent you? Oh, I’ll never tell a soul, trust that it’s all complimentary though! It’s also sort of weird and gross about people telling her to get nose jobs, and it just shows the gross need for the entertainment industry to homogenize everyone – there are several generations of actors and actresses who are all interchangeable, little small-nosed blonde bots who look alike. Lea Michele has some terrible qualities but those qualities are about her character and personality – she’s a beautiful woman with an interesting nose. #KeepYourEthnicNoses

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Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Lisa Marie Presley passed away last Thursday in Los Angeles. So far, no one is saying much (on the record) about what will happen to Lisa Marie’s 14-year-old twin girls, Harper and Finley. Lisa Marie was still fighting with her last ex-husband Michael Lockwood over custodial issues regarding Harper and Finley. I suspect (but have not seen confirmed) that Lockwood will probably have full custody of the girls now, although it does seem like the custody issue will go to court. For now, everyone is trying to figure out what will happen with Lisa Marie’s estate, which includes full ownership of Graceland.

Elvis Presley’s iconic Memphis, Tenn. mansion, Graceland, will stay in the Presley family. Following the death of Lisa Marie Presley on Thursday, the property, which is in a trust, will benefit Lisa Marie’s three daughters, Riley, Harper and Finley, a representative for Graceland confirms to PEOPLE.

The King of Rock and Roll’s former home was passed down to his only daughter, Lisa Marie, after he died in 1977. It is now open for a variety of tours and overnight stays.

Lisa Marie had two children from her marriage to Danny Keough: Riley, 33, and Benjamin, who died by suicide at age 27 in July 2020. She married Michael Lockwood in 2006 with whom she had her now 14-year-old twin daughters, Harper and Finley. Presley and Lockwood split in 2016 and their divorce was finalized in 2021.

According to the official website of Graceland, the estate was left to Lisa Marie in trust when she was only nine years old, and the trust officially dissolved upon her 25th birthday in 1993 giving her full ownership of the home. She then formed The Elvis Presley Trust to manage the property alongside her mother, Priscilla Presley, and the National Bank of Commerce.

[From People]

It was smart for Lisa Marie to form the trust to take care of Graceland and keep it open as a museum and tourist destination. I would also imagine that Lisa Marie left specific instructions in her will, for Graceland and the distribution of her assets. Do you think everything will be split equally between Riley, Finley and Harper? Or will Riley get more because she’s older?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Omid Scobie has a new Yahoo UK column, all about the Dignified, Silent Windsors who are maintaining their dignified silence in the wake of Prince Harry’s “attacks” in Spare. In fact, one might even say that the very thing Harry is attacking is his family’s silence in the face of a torrent of racist abuse launched at his wife. That and the fact that his family is neither dignified nor silent. Which brings it back to Scobie’s column, where he lays out exactly what’s happening behind the scenes. Hint: they’re being anything but quiet. Some highlights:

Dignified silence: But, while it may be true that Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace have chosen not to answer requests for comment from journalists (including myself) about the revelations in Spare, in my experience of royal reporting the reality of the institution’s silence might not be quite what it seems. Despite the tired “never complain, never explain” facade, an assortment of Royal Family sources and friends have all been busy speaking to media outlets since the contents of the book first leaked to British newspapers ahead of its 10 January debut.

The unnamed royal sources are spilling their guts: Whilst these sources may be speaking out entirely independently, given how tight knit the Royal Family inner circle is, I doubt they would speak to the media without at least some form of tacit approval from the royals. Follow this beat long enough and the location of each quote won’t surprise you. First up was a Sunday Times article by the go-to journalist for Prince William and his inner circle. “He won’t retaliate, he never would, because he’s dignified and unbelievably loyal,” said a source, retaliating on the Prince of Wales’ behalf. “It’s cruel, cowardly and so sad for William to keep taking the punches. He’s keeping quiet for the good of his family and the country.” A friend threatened, “You could have a f***ing field day with sh-t on Harry. So could William, who is as clean as a whistle.”

The Independent got in the action too: “He has been kidnapped by a cult of psychotherapy and Meghan,” their source added. “It is impossible for him to return in these circumstances.” It’s one of the few times the left-leaning site has published anonymous royal source quotes, but perhaps the start of a new direction for the publication since former Daily Mail boss and Camilla pal Geordie Grieg took over as editor-in-chief last month.

Royalists have been blanketing British TV: The wagons are circled just as tightly on television, too, with individuals often sympathetic to the institution quick to have their say. Royal photographer Arthur Edwards – who Camilla and Charles posted birthday wishes to on social media – sat down with Piers Morgan and a former Boris Johnson girlfriend (both friends of Camilla) to discuss Harry’s “attacks” on the Queen Consort. “I really wanted to smack him one,” said Edwards. “[Camilla’s] been nothing but nice to him!” Charming.

The Windsors’ events will be overshadowed by Harry: Media coverage of engagements by King Charles and the Waleses after the book’s release largely ignored their work and instead centred around Harry’s book. And while ignoring Spare is one thing, brushing away the problematic issues of misogyny, image manipulation (and toxic relationships with the press), institutional cruelty and unconscious bias that it raises may not lead to such a positive outcome in the long term. Just like the Sussexes’ Oprah interview in 2021, today’s “dignified silence” will soon start to look like the Royal Family yet again not caring about upholding the values it supposedly promotes.

Harry has wanted accountability for a long time: And what’s a shame is that so much of this could have been avoided. As I have been reporting since as far back as summer 2020, Prince Harry has only wanted accountability from his family for some of the things that he and wife Meghan experienced during their time as working royals. That makes it well over two years King Charles has had to stop the unresolved grievances between ‘The Firm’ and his son from escalating. Instead, he chose to bury his head in the sand. Charles may have done a solid job of continuing the Queen’s busy schedule of daily duties, but his inability to convene and command his own family has left his leadership skills looking weak.

Cruel silence: It reminds me of how the Royal Family ignored Princess Diana’s cries for help after the breakdown of her marriage. That stiff upper lip in public may have briefly lived up to their brand of keeping calm and carrying on, but the long term outcome of their cruel silence still haunts them to this day. Twenty years from now I have a feeling we will be saying the same thing about Spare.

[From Yahoo]

The comparison with Diana is no longer apt though, even if I understand why Scobie is positioning it that way – Diana’s treatment and her death mean that Diana still exists as the specter at the feast, especially for Charles and Camilla. She is a pesky ghost, and one which can be ignored and appropriated, but people still remember her fondly 25 years later. But what Harry is doing is so much different – he’s alive, he’s in America, he won’t shut up, they have no leverage on him, and what he’s asking for publicly sounds quite reasonable: an apology, accountability and oversight. If you ask me, Harry is merely finishing what his mother started. As for what Scobie is saying about all of the dumb f–king leaks from the royal courts… these people have the PR instincts of dung beetles. The Windsors do not attract the best talent when it comes to communications, strategy or crisis management.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Queen Elizabeth II passed away at Balmoral on September 8th. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex happened to be in Windsor at the time, because they were on a week-long charity visit to the UK and Germany. I remember it well, the British media was screaming, crying and throwing up about Meghan’s speech at One Young World in Manchester in early September. Several British media outlets were doing wall-to-wall coverage of the Sussexes’ “arrival” and travel to Manchester, plus there was an insane amount of focus on the Sussexes’ journey to Dusseldorf, Germany for an Invictus hype event. Harry and Meghan returned to Windsor after their German trip and they were due to appear in London at the WellChild Awards the day the Queen died. I bring all of this up because, in Spare, Prince Harry reveals something pretty incredible: that he and Meghan had actually arrived in the UK days before the media found out, and Harry took Meghan to Althorp to see Diana’s grave for the first time:

I helped Meg into the boat. It wobbled, but I quick-stepped to the middle, got it righted in time. As she found a seat in the stern, I took up the oars. They didn’t work. We’re stuck. The thick mud of the shallows had us in its grip. Uncle Charles came down to the water’s edge, gave us a little shove. We waved to him, and to my two aunts. Bye. See you in a bit.

Gliding across the pond, I gazed around at Althorp’s rolling fields and ancient trees, the thousands of green acres where my mother grew up, and where, though things weren’t perfect, she’d known some peace. Minutes later we reached the island and gingerly stepped onto the shore. I led Meg up the path, around a hedge, through the labyrinth. There it was, looming: the grayish white oval stone. No visit to this place was ever easy, but this one… Twenty-fifth anniversary.

And Meg’s first time. At long last I was bringing the girl of my dreams home to meet mum.

We hesitated, hugging, and then I went first. I placed flowers on the grave. Meg gave me a moment, and I spoke to my mother in my head, told her I missed her, asked her for guidance and clarity.

Feeling that Meg might also want a moment, I went around the hedge, scanned the pond. When I came back, Meg was kneeling, eyes shut, palms against the stone. I asked, as we walked back to the boat, what she’d prayed for. Clarity, she said. And guidance.

[From Spare, by Prince Harry]

I saw commentators criticize Meghan for “throwing herself on Diana’s grave” but that’s not what she did. She did what many mourners or family members would do – she prayed and tried to speak to someone in her family. And as with all of the criticism of the Sussexes, I found it very interesting that the British media chose not to focus on the fact that their very public meltdown about the Sussexes’ September visit was not based on facts – H&M managed to get into the country days before the media realized. They even managed to make it to Althorp without anyone knowing. The Daily Mail was literally making and publishing maps and timelines of the Sussexes’ movements that week – it’s bonkers that they got it so wrong.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.

In Spare, I was surprised to see Prince Harry detailed some of what happened at the Sandringham Summit in 2020. The summit was to negotiate the terms of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s exit from the UK, following weeks and months of leaking, abuse, threats and harassment. Of course Meghan wasn’t invited – the summit was only agreed to after Meghan left the UK to return to Canada, where Archie had stayed behind. A good chunk of this chapter was devoted to “the Bee,” aka Edward Young (QEII’s private secretary) lying to Harry about the options on the table, about how there were five options to be discussed but it turned out that Young had only printed out the agreement for Option 5 – the Sussexes walk away completely. Young told Harry that his printer was on the fritz so that’s why the copies for Option 5 were the only ones available. Harry went to Young’s office and found out that wasn’t the case, his printer was fine. Soon after that discovery – that Young had lied to him in front of witnesses – Harry stepped away to get some air. He and William ended up talking:

We went up and down the yew hedges. The day was freezing. I was wearing only a light jacket, and Willy was in a jumper, so both of us were shivering. I was struck again by the beauty of it all. As in the state room, I felt as if I’d never seen a palace before. These gardens, I thought, they’re paradise. Why can’t we just enjoy them?

I was braced for a lecture. It didn’t come. Willy was subdued. He wanted to listen. For the first time in a long time my brother heard me out, and I was so grateful.

I told him about one past staff member sabotaging Meg. Plotting against her. I told him about one current staff member, whose close friend was taking payments for leaking private stuff to the press about Meg and me. My sources on this were above reproach, including several journalists and barristers. Plus, I’d made a visit to New Scotland Yard.

Willy frowned. He and Kate had their own suspicions. He’d look into it. We agreed to keep talking.

[From Spare, by Prince Harry]

I haven’t seen the British media pick this up? They are so busy trying to make it sound like Harry didn’t break any news or that he spent the whole book talking about his “todger,” when really, Harry left some breadcrumbs for some very big, important issues. He actually went to Scotland Yard about what was happening within Kensington Palace. He knew who was being paid for information. He suspected another staffer was sabotaging Meghan. The thing is… guess what, William already knew all of this, or parts of it, because he was intimately involved in the campaign against Meghan and Harry.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, WENN, Backgrid.

The annual BAFTA Tea Party in Los Angeles ebbs and flows in importance in past awards seasons. I tend to think it depends on whether there are many British films getting Oscar buzz, but that buzz will often dictate turnout, as awards hopefuls want to be seen at all of the biggest and most significant events with Oscar voters. This year is not a big year for British films. In fact, one of the most buzzed-about films this year is (gulp) an Irish production, The Banshees of Inisherin. The only British actor getting film-award buzz this year is Bill Nighy, and his campaign has been very subdued.

My point? This year’s BAFTA Tea Party was kind of meh anyway – it fell on the Saturday of a three-day federal holiday weekend (with Martin Luther King Jr. Day) in America. It happened the day before the Critics Choice Awards. The tea party did get an okay turnout, with Cate Blanchett, Angela Bassett, Brendan Fraser, Michelle Yeoh and Kate Hudson in attendance. But I think this year’s event will go down in history as “the BAFTA tea party which tried to clout-chase the Duke and Duchess of Sussex by announcing that Harry and Meghan were snubbed.” For real. All of this is coming from BAFTA, by the way. None of it is coming from the Sussexes.

Harry and Meghan were not invited to the biggest British showbiz night in Hollywood — because they were “not welcome” amid the fallout from his attacks on the Royal Family. They were “snubbed” by the Bafta Tea Party in LA on Saturday, sources claimed yesterday.

The pre-awards bash at the plush Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills attracted megastars including Cate Blanchett and Kate Hudson. And excited US PR advisers had been keen to capitalise on publicity surrounding Harry and Meghan’s Netflix series. But a Bafta insider claims executives in ­London rejected the idea of inviting the Sussexes.

The source, a Bafta consultant, said: “Bafta decided it was a terrible idea, they thought it would be a PR disaster. Prince Harry, in his book and docu-series, has roundly attacked the Royal Family. The US team was reminded that Harry’s arch-nemesis, his brother Prince William, is president of Bafta. So for them to roll out the red carpet to Harry and his wife would be like setting off a nuclear bomb. It’s a no go. Any interviews he or Meghan gave would go viral. Anything negative on William would be devastating.”

The rumblings at Bafta have been kept secret and Prince William’s PR team had no knowledge or involvement in any of the decision-making. A spokesman for William did not want to comment. A Bafta spokeswoman denied a Harry and Meghan invite had been discussed.

[From The Sun]

First of all, hahahaha. Second of all, BAFTA wishes. Third of all, this pettiness reeks of Peggington using his position as BAFTA president to call people with this dumb story. Fourth of all, Harry and Meghan did not ask for an invitation to a stupid BAFTA tea party. Who f–king cares? They only turn up at events where they’re receiving awards!!! It’s far more likely that IF Harry and Meghan ever come out for an awards-season event, it will be one of the biggest ones, like the Oscars. Or the Vanity Fair Oscar party. Or both. Imagine the British Film Academy wanting everyone to know that they got their panties in a bunch about NOT sending an invite to the Sussexes. William is such a moron.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, WENN.

I hope I’m doing this study justice because I feel like I need more science education to understand it. Researchers at the University of Leeds broke down the steps in eating chocolate. They used a model of a mouth to find that the fat on the outside of chocolate breaks down, coats the tongue and makes eating chocolate so enjoyable. They hope that by maximizing the location of fat healthier chocolate can be developed without sacrificing the experience.

Summary: Researchers have decoded the sensory processing mechanisms that make the sensation of eating chocolate so irresistible to most people.

Source: University of Leeds

Scientists have decoded the physical process that takes place in the mouth when a piece of chocolate is eaten, as it changes from a solid into a smooth emulsion that many people find totally irresistible.

By analysing each of the steps, the interdisciplinary research team at the University of Leeds hope it will lead to the development of a new generation of luxury chocolates that will have the same feel and texture but will be healthier to consume.

During the moments it is in the mouth, the chocolate sensation arises from the way the chocolate is lubricated, either from ingredients in the chocolate itself or from saliva or a combination of the two.

Fat plays a key function almost immediately when a piece of chocolate is in contact with the tongue. After that, solid cocoa particles are released and they become important in terms of the tactile sensation, so fat deeper inside the chocolate plays a rather limited role and could be reduced without having an impact on the feel or sensation of chocolate.

Anwesha Sarkar, Professor of Colloids and Surfaces in the School of Food Science and Nutrition at Leeds, said: “Lubrication science gives mechanistic insights into how food actually feels in the mouth. You can use that knowledge to design food with better taste, texture or health benefits.

“If a chocolate has 5% fat or 50% fat it will still form droplets in the mouth and that gives you the chocolate sensation. However, it is the location of the fat in the make-up of the chocolate which matters in each stage of lubrication, and that has been rarely researched.

“We are showing that the fat layer needs to be on the outer layer of the chocolate, this matters the most, followed by effective coating of the cocoa particles by fat, these help to make chocolate feel so good.”

The study – published in the scientific journal ACS Applied Materials and Interface – did not investigate the question of how chocolate tastes. Instead, the investigation focused on its feel and texture.

Tests were conducted using a luxury brand of dark chocolate on an artificial 3D tongue-like surface that was designed at the University of Leeds. The researchers used analytical techniques from a field of engineering called tribology to conduct the study, which included in situ imaging.

Tribology is about how surfaces and fluids interact, the levels of friction between them and the role of lubrication: in this case, saliva or liquids from the chocolate. Those mechanisms are all happening in the mouth when chocolate is eaten.

When chocolate is in contact with the tongue, it releases a fatty film that coats the tongue and other surfaces in the mouth. It is this fatty film that makes the chocolate feel smooth throughout the entire time it is in the mouth.

[From Neuroscience News]

I was gifted luxury handmade chocolate for Christmas and it was the most amazing chocolate I’ve ever had in my life. It felt like sex in my mouth and the taste was so complex and rich. They were like jewel toned little presents that melted in my mouth with notes of earl grey, passion fruit and orange. After eating those chocolates Hershey’s tastes like cardboard, although I’ll still eat it I’m not that picky.

Also I lived in Germany for a few years and even the store brand chocolate tastes better than American chocolate for some reason. Maybe they have better ingredients along with a better mouth feel. I did some half assed research and German brand Ritter milk chocolate has 18% fat while Hershey’s has 20% so it’s not just fat content.

I used to watch a lot of “how it’s made” videos on YouTube and I saw one from Cadbury where scientists were working on a “healthier” chocolate bar with less sugar. It was due to UK government regulations on sugar content. It’s been out for a few years now and has just 15% fat and less than 8 grams of sugar. They replaced some of the sugar with fiber. That sounds kind of unappetizing, but this type of science can hopefully make healthier chocolate taste better and that’s a good thing.

Photos credit: Eniko Kis, Budgeron Bach and Mikhail Nilov on Pexels

We were told back in 2017-18 that Meghan Markle’s engagement ring consisted of two diamonds from a piece of Princess Diana’s jewelry. It was said that Prince Harry used one of Diana’s old pieces and repurposed the diamonds, plus the largest stone in Meghan’s three-stone ring was ethically sourced from Botswana. I know I’m a broken record about this, but I enjoy the jewelry stories and I was fascinated by Harry’s goal of including Diana as much as possible, even the original plan was to have Meghan wear the Spencer Tiara. In Spare, Prince Harry details how he went about putting the ring together. His description includes a notable little story about Prince William and Kate too:

I took a ring from Meg’s jewelry box and gave it to a designer, so he’d know her size. Since he was also the keeper of Mummy’s bracelets, earrings and necklaces, I asked him to harvest the diamonds from one particularly beautiful bracelet of Mummy’s and use those to create a ring.

I’d cleared all this in advance with Willy. I’d asked my brother if I could have the bracelet, and told him what it was for. I don’t recall him hesitating, for one second, in giving it to me. He seemed to like Meg, despite his oft-cited concerns. Kate seemed to like her too. We’d had them over for dinner during one of Meg’s visits, and Meg cooked, and everything was good. Willy had a cold: he was sneezing and coughing, and Meg ran upstairs to get him some of her homeopathic cure-alls. Oregano oil, turmeric. He seemed charmed, moved, though Kate announced to the table that he’d never take such unconventional remedies.

We talked about Wimbledon that night, and Suits, and Willy and Kate weren’t brave enough to admit to being superfans. Which was sweet.

The only possibly discordant note I could think of was the marked difference in how the two women dressed, which both of them seemed to notice. Meg: ripped jeans, barefoot. Kate: done up to the nines. No big deal, I thought.

Along with the diamonds from the bracelet I’d asked the designer to add a third—a blood-free diamond from Botswana. He asked if there was a rush. Well…now that you mention it…

[From Spare by Prince Harry]

First off, I wonder if William and Kate ever confessed to being Suits fans to Meghan. Harry makes it sound like W&K always avoided telling Meg, like it was a shameful secret that they both knew who Meghan was long before Harry started dating her. No wonder Kate and the Middletons were so unsettled! Secondly, Harry is such a shady B – “He seemed charmed, moved, though Kate announced to the table that he’d never take such unconventional remedies.” Kate is so rude, my God. Even if Kate privately side-eyed Meghan’s homeopathic cures, Kate should have the class to not announce it to the table – Kate was a guest in their home, where Meghan had cooked dinner. There’s also kind of a consistent narrative that Kate and William would visit Nottingham Cottage but they barely asked Meghan and Harry over to their luxurious apartment in the main palace. Poor Meghan had to cook AND be stared down by Kate wearing some designer ensemble AND Kate insulted Meghan’s vitamins.

As for the jewelry stuff… I wonder how many pieces of Diana’s private jewelry are left and whether Harry still has any kind of access to those pieces.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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Aside from mental health, one topic about which Selena Gomez speaks with regularity is body positivity. Like most female celebrities, Selena gets a lot of scrutiny and criticism, which is especially gross when coupled with the fact of her physical health issues and need to take medication. Sometimes she claps back or defends herself as she did after the Golden Globes, chalking up her (lovely, I thought) appearance to holiday indulgences, saying that’s why she’s “a little bit big right now.”

Selena Gomez is still not letting her critics get her down.

The Only Murders in the Building star, a longtime advocate for body positivity, drew several body-shaming comments on social media after she walked the red carpet at the 2023 Golden Globes on Jan. 10. Selena, 30, later appeared on Instagram Live with her award show date, her little sister Gracie Elliot Teefey, 9, and spoke about gaining weight.

“I’m a little bit big right now because I enjoyed myself during the holidays,” she said, as seen in a video reshared on TikTok, before asking her sibling, “Right?”

Gracie replied, “Yeah,” after which Selena began laughing.

The pop star spoke while dressed in her Golden Globes attire—a strapless, plum velvet Valentino Fall 2022 Haute Couture gown with puff sleeves and a long train. At the award show, Selena was nominated for her first Golden Globe, for best performance by an actress in a television series, comedy or musical for her role of Mabel Mora in Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building.

[From E! Online]

It’s unfortunate that she feels she has to make videos like this justifying her appearance/weight. I hadn’t seen any particular body criticism, but she must have or was just generally feeling self-conscious. But I thought she looked great and wish people didn’t expect female celebrities to look exactly as they did at 15. (Although some of her fashion is another story.) I don’t think she needed to say anything at all, but I can certainly understand feeling insecure and wanting to. But she doesn’t need to defend herself over her body! But something she might need to justify — her new boyfriend, Drew Taggart from The Chainsmokers. EW. US Weekly had the exclusive: “The former Disney Channel star is ‘so affectionate’ with the rocker and ‘Selena can hardly keep her hands off him,’ the insider tells Us, adding that the pair are ‘having a lot of fun together.’” I mostly know him as a skeeze from his music, dealings with Halsey, and general vibe. Selena seems to have matured a lot in the past few years, but it seems her taste in men hasn’t.

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