My guess is that Penguin Random House’s sales strategy was to get Prince Harry’s Spare in as many hands as possible as fast as possible. The business model was never “slow-burner sales by word-of-mouth.” Harry and his memoir were the targets of a massive hate campaign and a campaign of disinformation. Look no further than the British media’s unhinged efforts to make wild accusations about Harry’s military service – they all view him as an existential threat to their way of living and doing business. So Penguin Random House didn’t care about markdowns or discounts, the goal was purely about units sold. And Spare has sold a lot of units.

Prince Harry’s memoir, “Spare,” has become a record-breaking success, with first-day sales that exceed some of publishing’s biggest hits, including blockbusters by Barack and Michelle Obama.

“Spare” sold more than 1.43 million copies in all formats in the United States, Canada and Britain, including pre-orders, according to its publisher. The figure marked the largest first-day sales for any nonfiction book ever published by Penguin Random House, the world’s largest publisher.

“We sold books in every location — and we sold a lot of them,” said Shannon DeVito, the director of books at Barnes & Noble. “Some people came in right before work, some people came in on their lunch break, some people came in after,” she continued. “But the velocity of sales throughout the day was gigantic.”

The magnitude of its sales puts “Spare” among some of the best-selling hardcover books in recent memory. Barack Obama’s “A Promised Land” sold more than 887,000 copies across formats in the United States and Canada on its first day of publication, according to its publisher, Penguin Random House. Michelle Obama’s memoir, “Becoming,” also published by Penguin Random House, sold more than 725,000 units in the U.S. and Canada on its first day, the company said.

Only publishers have access to the complete sales data for their books, including the number of print, audio and e-book copies sold, and they tend to release figures only when they are favorable. NPD BookScan tracks print sales independently, and will report the first week of sales for “Spare” on January 19.

[From The New York Times]

I like the perspective of how the Obamas’ books sold in their first days. Spare has been on top of the preorder charts for weeks, and judging from my Twitter timeline, people were eager to get the book by any means necessary, be it Kindle or Audible or what have you. Even though “slow-burning word-of-mouth sales” wasn’t the publisher’s goal, I bet a lot of people will order or buy a copy in the coming days and weeks based off the social media raves and gossip-blogs’ coverage. I haven’t finished Spare (I’m in Part 2, after his first tour in Afghanistan) but it’s very readable and accessible.

Also: Prince Midas Touch’s Late Show interview was Stephen Colbert’s highest ratings in two years. Book Haz on more talk shows!!!

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Spare cover and ‘The Late Show’.

Just days before the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Oprah interview aired, Valentine Low at the Times of London published his piece on the “bullying accusations” lodged against Meghan. This was always a desperate smear organized by Kensington Palace, specifically by Jason Knauf and Prince William. Knauf wrote a memo about his “concerns” about Meghan bullying staffers in the fall of 2018, then Knauf leaked the memo to the Times in March 2021. Buried within Low’s own report was the fact that two of the alleged “bullying victims” had withdrawn their complaints and they didn’t want any of this to go on the record. My point? The only person (arguably) Low ever spoke to was Knauf. Knauf was the source. Well, Valentine Low spoke to Page Six – because the Times and the NY Post are both part of Rupert Murdoch’s empire – about how he’s spoken to “the people” bullied by Meghan.

Those bullying charges against Meghan Markle aren’t going anywhere. Valentine Low, author of “Courtiers: Intrigue, Ambition, and the Power Players Behind the House of Windsor,” tells Page Six exclusively that the palace aides who quit, claiming they were bullied by the “Suits” alum, are sticking to their guns.

“The people I spoke to are absolutely still sticking to their story, claiming that Meghan bullied them,” he says. “I can’t speak to the truth of that, of course, because I wasn’t in the room and I haven’t heard Meghan’s side. But my sources still very much stick to their story.”

In fact, Prince Harry revealed in his newly released memoir, “Spare” that Markle was an exemplary boss who “checked on staff who were ill, sent baskets of food or flowers or goodies to anyone struggling, depressed, off sick.” She also “bought pizza and biscuits, hosted tea parties and ice-cream socials” for staff members.

Surprisingly, Low doesn’t think it’s “terrible” that the couple is no longer working royals.

“This was like a divorce,” he explains. “There are acrimonious divorces and there are amicable divorces. This was horribly acrimonious, but it didn’t have to be like that. Part of the fault is Harry and Meghan. I think they behave like teenagers, I think they’re blinkered, they’re stubborn. They didn’t engage well with the royal family. Also, I think, the royal household, in general, is an institution that didn’t handle it well, because they didn’t see it coming.”

“It could have been done so much more amicably. It didn’t have to be like this,” he added.

[From Page Six]

I imagine Knauf is sticking to his story, after all that was the whole point. To launch a desperate smear, to encourage the royal rota to endlessly parrot the talking point. It was always a clownshow, especially given the layers of abuse William and Kate laid on Harry and Meghan. Who can talk about William violently assaulting his brother when Meghan made white women cry? Who can even pay attention to Charles’s financial abuse of his younger son when Jason Knauf is still leaking sh-t about Meghan? Anyway, Queen Elizabeth buried the whole bullying investigation, which should tell you a lot about how damaging it was to Kensington Palace and the Keens. Harry also said that they sent a 25-page rebuttal – which I hope will eventually see the light of day.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Prince Harry has dragged his stepmother a lot in Spare. Harry’s biggest qualm about Camilla was that Camilla was happy enough to use William and Harry for her own PR. Harry wrote that he “did not know how to feel about the idea of having a stepmother who, as I thought, had sacrificed me on the altar erected by her PR.” To be clear, he’s also talking about grudges on William’s behalf, since Camilla was caught up in a notable snafu where her office leaked details about her first meeting with Prince William, who was a teenager at the time. Well, of course now-Queen Camilla would never deign to correct the record formally, that’s why she still employs former tabloid editors to do her dirty work for her. From the Telegraph:

The Queen Consort did not leak a story about the time she first met Prince William to a newspaper, royal sources have insisted. The Duke of Sussex uses his memoir, Spare, to accuse his stepmother of leaking stories about her first private conversation with the teenage prince to the press.

The accounts contained “pinpoint accurate details”, he writes, “none of which had come from Willy, of course. They could only have been leaked by the one other person present.”

However, the details of that meeting were actually leaked, inadvertently, by Camilla’s own private secretary, who was eventually sacked over the incident.

A royal source said: “Harry has created a very crisp narrative which in parts is a conflation of different versions of stories.”

The Queen Consort, or Camilla Parker Bowles as she was then, was said to have been “furious” when she discovered that details of her first meeting with William had been leaked. She had told Amanda MacManus, the top aide who she had hired shortly after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, about the 1998 meeting. Mrs MacManus told her husband, a media executive, who in turn was said to have told a former colleague, who told a newspaper. Camilla took the unusual step of releasing a public statement, announcing that Mrs MacManus had “resigned” following an investigation. It said: “Mrs Parker Bowles agrees that her position had become untenable.”

South African-born Mrs MacManus, a mother of two, had worked three and a half days a week for Camilla. She was later reinstated, going on to work as her private secretary until just last year.

[From The Telegraph]

I barked with laughter at the last line. “How dare you suggest that Camilla leaked the information, the source was her employee, and Camilla fired her… (and then hired the employee back and the same woman has been working for Camilla for decades since then).” In any case, Camilla WAS THE SOURCE. Harry was absolutely accurate – Camilla got drunk and she was telling everyone about her meeting with William, of course it made its way into the papers. Besides, many people think that the Amanda MacManus incident was just a cover story for the larger machinations by Charles’s office. It’s not *just* that Camilla leaked sh-t about Charles’s sons, it’s that Camilla and Charles worked in concert to leak about Harry and William whenever it was convenient to them.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images, Instar.

We know, for sure, that there were shenanigans all around the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s 2018 wedding. Thomas Markle was being managed by the British media – if not Kensington Palace – and Prince William and Kate (the Wedding Karens) seemed hellbent on bringing misery to Meghan throughout the entire wedding planning. Therefore, it’s always surprised me a little that Meghan is always so positive about the wedding and how perfect it was. I think most brides, having dealt with endless bulls–t for weeks/months beforehand, would allow those bad experiences to taint their memories of their big day. But not Meghan. The issue is that Harry is a grudge-carrying Virgo who never forgets, and his memoir is full of all of those grudges. He’s still mad – as he should be! – that Meghan was accused of being careless about Princess Charlotte’s health because Charlotte wore a little flower crown at the wedding. I remember this dumb story too.

A “poisonous” claim by the UK press pushed Prince Harry over the edge. In “Spare,” the Duke of Sussex, 38, detailed some of the incidents leading up to him and his wife, Meghan Markle, suing Associated Newspapers Limited — which owns the Mail on Sunday — and the royal said he felt “energized” about the lawsuit after one particular story in the Express accused his wife of giving Princess Charlotte deadly flowers.

In the book, Harry wrote about the vicious media attacks carried out against his wife, and how a claim by the British paper sensationally accused Markle of putting Charlotte’s life at risk due to having the flower girls wear crowns containing lily of the valley to the couple’s 2018 wedding.

The flower, which can be “potentially poisonous” if ingested by kids, the duke wrote, was included in the adorable white headpieces and is a traditional choice for royal brides to use on their big day; both Princess Diana and Kate Middleton featured the flower in their wedding bouquets. While it might sound like a scene from “Breaking Bad,” it’s true the flower can be deadly if eaten. However, Harry explained that the chances of fatal harm are slim.

Writing that the reaction to ingesting lily of the valley in most cases is “discomfort,” he shared that “very rarely” would such an incident end in death.

The paper even went on to use a picture of his “poor niece” sneezing, but appearing to be in “agony” alongside one of Markle in her wedding dress appearing serene, “ignoring the imminent death of the little angel.”

The duke went on to say that it wasn’t his bride who made the alleged “reckless decision” to use the flower and that the crowns were “made by a professional florist.”

“None of it mattered,” Harry wrote, claiming “the ‘Meghan the Killer’ story was too good to pass up” for the paper.

[From Page Six]

I forgot that part about “ignoring the imminent death of the little angel.” They were laying it on a bit thick, my God. Lily-of-the-valley is a super-common flower for bridal bouquets and wedding crowns. Brides who choose the flower aren’t trying to kill anyone. What’s also interesting about this is that the British commenters’ oft-repeated claim that Harry and Meghan were so “beloved” and “popular” around the wedding, and then Harry and Meghan destroyed their own popularity by… you know, existing and trying to work in the same office as Jealous & Buttons. Except that this story shows that the media was always trying to start sh-t with Meghan in particular.

This is another somewhat “minor” issue which actually should have been worked out by the KP communications office – a simple “please, this is idiotic, Meghan isn’t trying to kill a child with flowers” might not have stopped the story, but it would have drawn a line in the sand and set a better tone. We’re not talking about some huge moment of moral courage here, just general competence from KP’s communications office. Of course KP couldn’t manage that.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

I’m well into Part 2 of Prince Harry’s Spare, but it took a long time to get through the first forty pages of the memoir. The first part is about Harry, then 12 years old, being told his mother has died and what happened in the days and weeks afterwards. In the earlier reporting about then-Prince Charles telling his younger son that Diana died, people were making a big deal about how Charles didn’t hug Harry at any point when Charles told a 12-year-old child that his mother was dead. But the most shocking and appalling part is that… Charles left his child alone for hours in his room right after:

They tried, darling boy. I’m afraid she didn’t make it. These phrases remain in my mind like darts in a board. He did say it that way, I know that much for sure. She didn’t make it.

And then everything seemed to come to a stop.

That’s not right. Not seemed. Nothing at all seemed. Everything distinctly, certainly, irrevocably, came to a stop.

None of what I said to him then remains in my memory. It’s possible that I didn’t say anything. What I do remember with startling clarity is that I didn’t cry. Not one tear.

Pa didn’t hug me. He wasn’t great at showing emotions under normal circumstances, how could he be expected to show them in such a crisis? But his hand did fall once more on my knee and he said: It’s going to be OK.

That was quite a lot for him. Fatherly, hopeful, kind. And so very untrue.

He stood and left. I don’t recall how I knew that he’d already been in the other room, that he’d already told Willy, but I knew.

I lay there, or sat there. I didn’t get up. I didn’t bathe, didn’t pee. Didn’t get dressed. Didn’t call out to Willy or Mabel. After decades of working to reconstruct that morning I’ve come to one inescapable conclusion: I must’ve remained in that room, saying nothing, seeing no one, until nine a.m. sharp, when the piper began to play outside.

[From Spare, by Prince Harry]

Charles just… left him there. For hours. Alone. The whole family let a 12-year-old boy sit alone for hours after his mother died. I made this point on Twitter yesterday and I’ll make it again here: I know very well that there was no “right thing” or perfect way to handle this situation. God knows, Charles was probably in shock as well (although…). But for no one in the family to simply come sit with him or hold his hand or try to get him to talk, that broke my heart. It doesn’t sound like anyone did that the entire week. Then, when his mother’s coffin went into the ground at Althorp, Harry broke down in tears… and no one comforted him at Althorp either. He had to comfort himself:

When the hearse finally got to Althorp the coffin was removed again and carried across the pond, over a green iron bridge hastily positioned by military engineers, to a little island, and there it was placed upon a platform. Willy and I walked across the same bridge to the island. It was reported that Mummy’s hands were folded across her chest and between them was placed a photo of me and Willy, possibly the only two men who ever truly loved her. Certainly the two who loved her most. For all eternity we’d be smiling at her in the darkness, and maybe it was this image, as the flag came off and the coffin descended to the bottom of the hole, that finally broke me. My body convulsed and my chin fell and I began to sob uncontrollably into my hands.

I felt ashamed of violating the family ethos, but I couldn’t hold it in any longer.

It’s OK, I reassured myself, it’s OK. There aren’t any cameras around.

Besides, I wasn’t crying because I believed my mother was in that hole. Or in that coffin. I promised myself I’d never believe that, no matter what anyone said. No, I was crying at the mere idea. It would just be so unbearably tragic, I thought, if it was actually true.

[From Spare, by Prince Harry]

NO ONE REASSURED HIM. No one held him. No one put a supportive hand on his shoulder. He had to reassure himself. The consistent references in his early years to this magical thinking, his mother’s “disappearance,” his mum “hiding,” that kept breaking my heart too. The fact that Harry even has empathy for his father being terrible at parenting too – Jesus Christ.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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Austin Butler went so method to play Elvis in Baz Luhrmann’s film. Austin was so subsumed by the role that he ignored his family, ended up in the hospital, and continues to do his Elvis impersonation when he speaks. Much has been made of him continuing to talk like Elvis so long after completing the film, the latest occurrence being during his Golden Globes win speech. According to Austin, he doesn’t think about it and he doesn’t hear it and he’s actually not doing it anymore. Lol, okay.

Austin Butler, 31, disagrees with fans who think he still sounds like Elvis Presley, after transforming into the King of Rock and Roll for Baz Luhrmann‘s movie. Austin won his first Golden Globe on January 10 and was mocked online for talking like Elvis in his acceptance speech. The actor was asked about his voice change later in the press room, and he said, “I don’t even think about it. I don’t think I sound like him still, but I guess I haven’t noticed ’cause I hear it a lot.”

Austin further told reporters, “I think, I often liken it to when somebody lives in another country for a long time, and I had three years where that was my only focus in life, so I’m sure that there’s just pieces of my DNA that will always be linked in that way.”

Austin’s been open about the great lengths he went to in order to play Elvis for the 2022 biopic. In December, he revealed to Janelle Monáe for a Variety interview that he “didn’t see my family for three years” while he was preparing for the role.

“I had months where I wouldn’t talk to anybody,” he shared. “And when I did, the only thing I was ever thinking about was Elvis. I was speaking in his voice the whole time.”
Austin further told reporters, “I think, I often liken it to when somebody lives in another country for a long time, and I had three years where that was my only focus in life, so I’m sure that there’s just pieces of my DNA that will always be linked in that way.

[From Hollywood Life]

He is still talking like Elvis. Is this going to be his schtick forever or just for the duration of awards season? Maybe it’s part of his Oscar campaign. I’ve seen him in a couple of things before and his voice is not that deep and the cadence is not like that. His real voice sounds like he looks, a floppy-haired blond dude from California. But I guess saying that he doesn’t even think about it just shows how ingrained Elvis is in his DNA. He truly changed for this role, Oscar voters take note. Anyway, this is such a pretentious, eye-rolly, affectation at this point. Also eye-rolly: the awkwardly over-the-top PDA with Kaia Gerber. The age difference is the early version of that old cliche and it’s weird how she somehow seems to only date the buzzy guy of the moment. I also find it a bit rude that he referred to Vanessa Hudgens, whom he dated for like 10 years, as the “friend” who encouraged him to play Elvis. Stop with the Vanessa Hudgens erasure and namecheck the woman who encouraged you to take the life-changing role!

Austin Butler responds to those that say they still hear traces of Elvis’ accent in his speaking voice:

“I had three years where that was my only focus, so I’m sure there’s pieces of him in my DNA and I’ll always be linked.” pic.twitter.com/qj3jCDzktS

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) January 11, 2023

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photos credit: BauerGriffin/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images and Getty

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Part of my enjoyment of the Golden Globes ceremony is that it’s less uptight than the other award shows. That, of course, is usually due to the fact that they drink during the ceremony. I’m sorry if that reads as an endorsement for booze, I just enjoy seeing actors let their guards down for once. Some, of course, let their down too much. Especially those winning awards later in the evening. Here’s a tip: if there’s even the slightest chance you might have to go on stage at the end of the night and there’s little more than crudité being offered for dinner – pace yourself.

Two folks who learned that lesson the hard way were Milly Alcock from House of the Dragon and Mike White of The White Lotus. As CB mentioned yesterday, Milly was a background attraction when her cast went onstage for their big win for Best television series – drama. I’ll be honest, I didn’t watch the speech or Milly as it unfolded because Severance was robbed, which HotD director Miguel Sapochnik basically acknowledged. If not Severance, at least Better Call Saul. Even The Crown. But I digress. Milly stood behind Miguel as he gave his acceptance speech and giggled, pointed and swayed her way through his speech. She clung to co-star Emma D’Arcy, who had to split their time between listening to Miguel’s speech and babysitting Milly. Twitter became fascinated with Milly.

The “House of the Dragon” actress delighted viewers with her seemingly tipsy demeanor while onstage with co-star Emma D’Arcy and director Miguel Sapochnik Tuesday night.
The 22-year-old leaned on D’arcy as Sapochnik accepted the award for Best Television Series.

Throughout his speech, Alcock giggled, pointed at someone in the audience and put her finger to her mouth.

Delighted fans took to Twitter to break down the “Upright” alum’s antics.

“Milly Alcock wasted at the golden globes is top tier,” one person wrote.

Another Twitter user noted, “Milly Alcock drunk off her arse at the Golden Globes being my spirit animal is sending me.”

“drunk milly alcock at the golden globes you will always be famous (ft. emma d’arcy),” added a third.

[From Page Six]

Mike White, on the other hand, came right out and told the audience he was drunk. He blamed the lack of food and said he’d intended to give the speech in Italian (he didn’t) but he was too inebriated to do so. Instead, he got emotional about everyone on the show and then gave a verbal middle finger to all the other networks in the room, reminding them you coulda had a bad b*tch.

The White Lotus has dominated again as the year’s best limited series, anthology or TV movie at the 2023 Golden Globe Awards.

The HBO show’s creator Mike White accepted the award onstage at Tuesday’s awards show, where he said he was “still so choked up” over White Lotus star Jennifer Coolidge’s acceptance speech earlier in the night for best actress in a limited or anthology series or television film.

“I was gonna give this speech in Italian but I’m too drunk, because there’s no food,” White, 52, then joked of season 2’s Sicilian setting.

“So, thank you to HBO. If there’s one place that gets you, let it be HBO,” he continued. “And thank you, the HFPA. And thank you to these guys, I would take a bullet for you guys, maybe not in the heart, but in the foot or the leg or whatever. And I want to thank all the actors.”

“And Jennifer, I love you. We went out with a show we wanted to do with Jennifer, and everybody passed. I know you all passed, you all passed on this show. So yes, it’s very gratifying to have this moment,” White said.

[From Yahoo!]

In these two instances, I feel like it was kind of harmless. Personally, if I knew I even had the possibility of being in front of a camera, I would hold off on the wine until after the show. But that’s me. Milly was silly on stage, but I don’t know that she upstaged Miguel’s speech. And Mike was the speech, so he didn’t detract from anything. It’s never cool when someone in the spotlight is inappropriate, especially if they target someone in the audience who has to take it because a camera is on them and they have to appear a good sport. Neither Milly nor Mike did that, but it’s happened in years past. Mike hit the nail on the head, the onus is on the Globes. Any event planner will tell you, if you’re serving booze, you need to serve food to balance your culpability.

Mike White is drunk #goldenglobes pic.twitter.com/OlOH8EkbiK

— Vulture (@vulture) January 11, 2023

Milly Alcock, Emma D’arcy and Miguel Sapochnik receive the #GoldenGlobe for Best Drama Television Series for House of the Dragon pic.twitter.com/AFhMyiJYuS

— best of milly alcock (@millysource) January 11, 2023

Gwyneth Paltrow was one of the coolest It Girls in the 1990s. It was all about Gwyneth, Winona and Kate Moss. There were others, but those were the Big Three. They were impossibly chic – not that they cared – and they dated the coolest guys at the time (many of whom turned out to be giant losers). You get the point: Gwyneth was cool and popular. Paparazzi trailed her. The tabloids loved her. But it was still the ‘90s – she could still have a private life, she could still go to parties and hook up with randos and do rails in the club bathroom.

Gwyneth Paltrow was living the high life in the 1990s. The Goop founder reflected on the raucous decade that benefited from a society without cellphone cameras and social media, meaning she and other people could get away with illicit activities.

“It was great. I mean, talk about doing cocaine and not getting caught!” Paltrow said on “The Late Late Show with James Corden” Monday, laughing. “Like, you could just be at a bar and be, like, having fun, dance on a table, you could — no camera phones, especially in New York. Interestingly enough, there were no paparazzi,” she continued. “You could stumble out of a bar and go home with some rando and no one would know.”

[From Page Six]

Eh, she was trailed by paparazzi, but maybe she’s saying that it didn’t happen that often in New York, which is possible. I remember when she was with Brad Pitt, there were always paparazzi photos of her in LA. Maybe she always disappeared in the crowd a lot easier in NYC. But yeah… everything has changed for celebrities, but for regular old people too. I have no idea what it’s like for the peeps in their early 20s now – are they going to clubs, doing blow, picking up a rando and nothing ever gets documented on their phones or their friends’ phones? I mean…?? (And yes, Gwyneth did coke. Of course she did!)

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red, Cover Images.

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I wasn’t going to make it a priority to watch the Golden Globes on Tuesday but then I received bad news and needed the distraction. They were… fine, I guess. They were definitely chaotic, but the GGs always have a hint of chaos about them. That used to be why they were worth watching. One of the biggest threads of the evening had to do with the music. There were two main things goings on: The first is that they hired the amazing pianist Chloe Flower to accompany the awards. She played the show in and out of commercial breaks with nostalgic themes from Globe-winning shows from years gone by. The second was some emotional and significant speeches were being cut off with the music being played over them.

As Kaiser and CB touched on yesterday, the GGs were trying to make a point this year about not silencing voices – you know, because of the decades of racism and exclusion. When the recipients and presenters saw that speeches were not getting played off, they started rambling. When the GG producers noticed their running time going up in flames, all of a sudden the cut-off music came back. And everyone got mad… at Chloe. Colin Farrell told her “You can forget that piano.” Michelle Yeoh told her to “shut up. I can beat you up, OK?” Poor Chloe was just doing her job. Only she wasn’t because she said it wasn’t her kicking people off stage.

If your favorite winner’s acceptance speech was cut off during the Golden Globes, don’t blame Chloe Flower.

Flower — a Korean American performer who was discovered by Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds and has previously collaborated with Celine Dion, Meek Mill and Cardi B — spoke up about the matter online in the middle of NBC’s telecast. “I would never play piano over people’s speeches!!” she tweeted. “I’m only playing when you see me on camera!”

Additionally, host Jerrod Carmichael introduced Flower to the audience for a round of applause, and clarified onstage that the speeches’ cue was indeed a prerecorded track.

[From Yahoo!]

Jerrod Carmichael was stumping for Chloe all night. He was really trying to take the heat off her. I’ll admit I thought it was her in the beginning too, but I didn’t hold it against her. I figured she was doing what producers told her to do. It’s not like she was sitting over there randomly deciding to kick people off stage, “Eh, I hated you in Banshees, Farrell – get off *plays C Cord*” And you could also tell as the music swelled that it was more than piano so clearly it wasn’t just Chloe. It’s too bad she got caught up in this too, because her playing was gorgeous. I really enjoyed it.

As for the music playing people off in general, I heard a bunch of thoughts on this on Twitter. Many of whom felt people should be able to speak as long as they want. I assume those folks were not around when that used to happen. Trust me, you don’t want to go there. Time limits on speeches were believed to have come about in 1943 when Greer Garson gave a five-minute acceptance speech for her Oscar. After that it was only a loose time limit, with shows running over due to long speeches all the time. In 1981, Jane Fonda accepted her father’s Best Actor Award for him. He was dying, it was very emotional. It was also a four-minute speech. I watched it as it happened and with all due respect, it was a-lot. The occasional exception is fine but actors left unchecked would mean five, six hour award shows. Think of the people who have to cover them. *Please*

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.@BenAffleck working the drive-thru window @dunkindonuts in Medford, MA today

I just spoke with one of his customers who described him as “incredibly funny and quick-witted” handing her order

Photo credit: Lisa Mackay @NBC10Boston @NECN pic.twitter.com/HWapCHvBEa

— Darren Botelho (@DarrenBotelho) January 10, 2023

Ben Affleck worked at Dunkin Donuts for a day. This has to be for a Super Bowl commercial, right? Jennifer Lopez was there too. [Dlisted]
A wonderful takedown of Brad Pitt’s presence at the Globes. [Gawker]
The Oscar buzz for RRR is growing by the hour. [LaineyGossip]
Yeah, I’m of the same opinion – the Golden Globes are a waste of everyone’s time and money. And for what? They don’t matter anymore. [Pajiba]
Allison Williams, coat model. [Go Fug Yourself]
The kitty behind A Man Called Otto. [Seriously OMG]
Best moments of the Golden Globes. [Just Jared]
A Sister Wife daughter eats placenta. [Starcasm]
Penelope Cruz posed for Dust Magazine. [Egotastic]
Funny tweets about the Golden Globes. [Buzzfeed]
Good lord, this story about a Virginia cop is horrifying. [Jezebel]
A Republican wants to investigate… Dr. Jill Biden?! [Towleroad]

no one has ever seen Ben Affleck smile this hard in Hollywood. man needs to quit his job and start picking up shifts at Dunkin’ pic.twitter.com/eqyMMoJ6jU

— Fletcher Peters (@fIetcherpeters) January 10, 2023