Brad Pitt was nominated for Babylon at the Golden Globes, but he didn’t win and he didn’t walk the carpet. His new rent-a-girlfriend wasn’t with him (that I saw), so he arrived undercover and then he was seated at the Babylon table with Margot Robbie. It’s probably a good thing he didn’t walk the carpet – we would have gotten more unflattering angles of his very recent face work. We saw some telephoto-lens pics of him in Cabo a few weeks ago and he looked visibly “worked on” even in those pics. I think he was probably healing – this is Pitt all shiny and pulled and tweaked in time for the Golden Globes. Anyway, it’s just a reminder that Pitt was welcome in that room and people gave him shout-outs on stage, even though he assaulted his wife and children on a plane.

Margot Robbie wore this boring-ass Chanel dress – she was nominated for Babylon as well and she lost. Robbie should be counting down the days until her Chanel contract runs out, this collaboration has been awful. Someone described this as Midwestern prom dress and they’re right.

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Ana de Armas also phoned it in with her contractual Louis Vuitton look. It’s weird because LV has actually made some nice stuff for Ana in the past, but this was not great.

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Lily James was hilariously doing way too much in this giant Versace gown. It was super-unflattering too, the cutouts were too tight.

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Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Getty.

I went into Tuesday night’s Golden Globes with low expectations and the Globes met them. I’m surprised that many celebrities came out, honestly. It seemed so last minute – I imagine most women only got their dresses about 48 hours beforehand, and there was a general air of “incomplete” in the air. Like, half-assed styling, people getting drunk early in the evening, people weren’t even being served food at their tables (there was a buffet of sandwiches and veggie platters in the back). It felt like a useless exercise, but here we are.

You can see the winners list here – in film, the big winners included The Fabelmans (Drama and Director), Banshees of Inisherin (Comedy), Cate Blanchett (Drama actress, and she wasn’t there), Michelle Yeoh (Comedy actress), Colin Farrell (Comedy actor), Austin Butler (Drama actor) and Angela Bassett (supporting) and Ke Huy Quan (supporting).

One of the few highlights was everyone remembering that Colin Farrell will literally flirt with anyone and everyone, and Colin deciding to shoot his shot with Ana de Armas. The man had me convinced that Blonde was a good movie (it was not).

Michelle Yeoh’s speech was amazing too. The Best Actress race – between Michelle and Cate Blanchett – is going to rip apart Hollywood this year! I kind of wonder if that’s why Cate didn’t go to the Globes – she’s like, “give everything to Michelle Yeoh.”

Fashion notes: Michelle wore Armani and she looked amazing and expensive. Bonus pics of Ke Huy Quan and the Banshees team.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

Can the Golden Globes make it work? I hope not. [Gawker]
Who’s coming out to tonight’s Golden Globes? [JustJared]
Rooney Mara hated working on Nightmare on Elm Street. [Buzzfeed]
Do you want to see photos of fluffy cows? [OMG Blog]
Everyone’s obsessed with Jenna Ortega (and Enid!). [LaineyGossip]
Dr. Dre shut down Marjorie Taylor Greene. [Dlisted]
Are y’all watching Tulsa King? [Pajiba]
Janelle Monae wore a great Valentino. [RCFA]
Kate Hudson wore a pink Huishan Zhang. [Tom & Lorenzo]
I love Jessie Buckley but I’m not sure about this look. [GFY]
Kevin McCarthy is going to have a hellish time as Speaker. [Towleroad]
Bella Hadid is on vacation. [Egotastic]

Omid Scobie still has an “in” with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, although who knows if he’s actually talking to people in their orbit at this point, or whether he’s just making educated guesses/assumptions. Scobie was interviewed on BBC Radio 4 yesterday, in the middle of Prince Harry’s Spare promotional blitz, and he predicted that, following Harry’s book promotion, they’ll take some time away from the spotlight.

Prince Harry and Meghan will retreat from the Royal Family “soap opera” for the rest of the year after a string of bombshell allegations made in Harry’s book, the author of a biography on the couple has said. Omid Scobie, who co-authored Finding Freedom – a biography about the Sussexes which is understood to have been written with their blessing – said he believes the couple will shift their approach in the months ahead as there “isn’t really much else to say.”

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the journalist, who has been dubbed ‘Meghan’s unofficial spokesperson’ in the past, dismissed the suggestion that the Sussex brand is going to be defined by repeated attacks on the institution. Mr Scobie said he thinks the couple “have to be quite careful right now”, adding there has been a lot of focus on their private life recently and the brand has been “very much about drama” and a “soap opera” that has played out very publicly.

“I think we’re going to see for the rest of this year a couple sort of retreating from a lot of what we’ve seen over the last few months,” he said. “They’ve both shared their sides of the story. Harry… in more ways than we could have ever imagined.

[From The i news]

I kind of hoped that 2023 would be the year of Brand Sussex – not so much Harry and Meghan attacking the Windsors, but rather the Sussexes in brand-building mode, doing more humanitarian work, doing more work with Netflix and maybe Meghan writing another children’s book. I’m quite sure they have other projects in the pipeline, but maybe Scobie is saying that those projects have nothing to do with the royal soap opera.

Speaking of – and I do believe this is connected – Harry apparently told Anderson Cooper that “a partial royal role based overseas” is still “on the table.” That’s curious.

In part of the interview that wasn’t broadcast, Prince Harry teld @andersoncooper the offer of a partial royal role based overseas is still on the table for the U.K. monarchy pending ‘frank discussions that don’t leak out.’

— Max Foster (@MaxFosterCNN) January 9, 2023

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid and Instar.

Can we just stop for a second and recognize that Prince Harry’s book promotion is great? I haven’t seen such an amazing, confessional book promo since… Jessica Simpson, honestly. That’s not a slam! J-Simpson’s memoir was well-received and it sold well, and that’s what will happen with Prince Harry too. Anyway, as you can see, Harry covers this week’s issue of People Magazine. They got an exclusive interview AND an exclusive photoshoot. He looks amazing and he sounds great too. In all of the interviews, Harry has looked younger and unburdened. He’s so happy to finally tell his story! Some highlights from People’s exclusive interview:

Relatable prince: “While I know much of my life may seem unrelatable, I do think most siblings can relate to struggling with comparisons, and my brother and I are no exception.”

What he hopes his family will takeaway from Spare: “I don’t want to tell anyone what to think of it and that includes my family. This book and its truths are in many ways a continuation of my own mental health journey. It’s a raw account of my life — the good, the bad and everything in between. My hope has been to turn my pain into purpose, so if sharing my experience makes a positive difference in someone’s life, well, I can’t think of anything more rewarding than that!”

Diana’s death: “I struggled for years to accept or even speak about my mother’s death. I was unable to process that she was gone. I’m not sure anyone can ever truly have closure when they lose a parent, or anyone for that matter, especially when that grief may be the only thing left of them. The healing process has allowed me to get to a place where I now feel the presence of my mum more than ever before. She’s with me all the time — my guardian angel.”

His two tours in Afghanistan: “I don’t know that you ever fully reconcile the painful elements of being at war. This is something each soldier has to confront, and in the nearly two decades of working alongside service personnel and veterans, I’ve listened to their stories and have shared mine. In these conversations, we often talk about the parts of our service that haunt us — the lives lost, the lives taken. But also the parts of our service that heal us and the lives we’ve saved. It’s a duty, a job, and a service to our country — and having done two tours of duty in Afghanistan for my country, I’ve done all I could to be the best soldier I was trained to be. There’s truly no right or wrong way to try and navigate these feelings, but I know from my own healing journey that silence has been the least effective remedy. Expressing and detailing my experience is how I chose to deal with it, in the hopes it would help others.”

Why he left Salt Island: “My relationship with Meghan has opened my eyes to so much I fear I otherwise would have never fully understood. To this day, I’m doing important and necessary work to understand and address unconscious bias — it’s ever-evolving and requires us to step up and speak out where we can — even when it’s our friends, families or loved ones.”

He wants his kids to know their British family: “I’ve said before that I’ve wanted a family, not an institution — so of course, I would love nothing more than for our children to have relationships with members of my family, and they do with some, which brings me great joy.”

He is where he is meant to be: “I have a beautiful and blessed life — one that comes with a platform, and with it responsibility that Meghan and I plan to use wisely. I feel I am exactly where I am meant to be and exactly where we [my family] are meant to be. I don’t think I could have written this book otherwise.”

[From People]

That last quote made me think of Diana. All of the bitter royal commentators would have you believe that Diana would be aghast by Harry, that she would “force” him to reconcile with and capitulate to the Windsors and… I just don’t think Diana would feel that way at all. Harry is living the life Diana dreamt for herself. I also like what he says about his military life and how he hopes his story can help veterans. The reaction from the British media to the Afghanistan parts of Spare have been incredibly damaging to the veteran community, and Harry wants to refocus and point out: “There’s truly no right or wrong way to try and navigate these feelings, but I know from my own healing journey that silence has been the least effective remedy.”

Cover courtesy of People, additional photos courtesy of Backgrid.

This Telegraph story is what I was expecting ahead of the Princess of Wales’s 41st birthday, but they waited to publish it on the day of. Gordon Rayner’s piece is “Why Kate Will Rise Above Prince Harry’s Poison.” The “poison” being “Kate actually made Meghan cry over the bridesmaid’s dresses and then threw a tantrum about sitting with her husband at the wedding.” Thankfully, it’s not all “poor Kate has been poisoned by Harry’s memoir!” We have our first promise to be keen of 2023! They actually have a big plan to announce something “substantial” for Kate. Fingers crossed it’s another insane video where she compares the launch of her Keenwell Centre for Buttons, Wiglets and Early Years to JFK, Nelson Mandela and Malala. Some highlights from the Telegraph:

Kate will not be blown off course by ‘Spare’: Its pages drip with poison about the princess, and the way she responds to it will help to define a year in which she has big plans for her future. Palace staff refuse to discuss Prince Harry’s book, but it is clear that Kate has no intention of being blown off course. “Whatever might be happening behind closed doors, she has always had an ability to put the job first,” says someone who has worked with her. “Aside from all the things the public knows about, there have been plenty of times when things have cropped up in private, but what you see in public is always [Kate] behaving in the exact same way. So this won’t knock her off her stride.”

How she spent her birthday: As she celebrates her 41st birthday today (Monday January 9) quietly with her family at Adelaide Cottage, the five-bedroom property on the Windsor estate that is now their main home, the princess will be spending tomorrow getting her three children ready for their second term at Lambrook School in Berkshire.

Her first event of 2023: Later in the week, the couple will be in the north of England for a long-standing engagement supporting one of the country’s most hard-pressed communities, a theme that will run like “a golden thread throughout the year”, according to aides. It will be the Waleses’ first public engagement since the media first got its hands on copies of Spare, but anyone expecting to see signs of strain on the princess’s face is likely to be wide of the mark.

The importance of Carole: [Kate’s resilience] is thanks in no small part to the support she has around her, most importantly her mother Carole, to whom she speaks on an almost daily basis (her sister Pippa is a far more independent spirit, friends say) and who is never far away now that the Waleses live in Windsor, just 30 miles from the Middleton family home in Bucklebury. Carole Middleton is often to be seen getting a commuter train from Theale, her local station, to pop across Berkshire to visit her daughter and grandchildren, and locals in Bucklebury are used to the presence of police patrol cars signalling that a family visit is being made in the other direction. “You can’t underestimate how important the support of Kate’s mother, father and sister are to her,” says one ally. “They remain incredibly tight as a family.”

Curious aside about who they vent to: During school holidays, when the Waleses are staying at Anmer Hall in Norfolk, the princess can call on the company of the ‘Turnip toffs’ who include Lady Laura Meade, Sophie Carter and Hannah Carter, another Marlborough alumna. The Prince of Wales, in contrast, cannot turn to his mother when he needs to vent steam, nor his brother, leaving only his father, the King, who may not always be available.

Cold fish: Inwardly, the princess would not be human if she failed to be hurt by some of the brickbats thrown at her by Prince Harry. He portrays her as a cold fish, too aloof or uptight to engage in girl talk with Meghan and petty in the extreme.

The fallout from ‘Spare’: The biggest risk of damage from Spare is in America, where sympathy for Harry and Meghan – and suspicion of William and Kate – remains higher than it is here.

Her big new keen thing: Later this month she will launch what royal aides describe as a “substantial” new initiative in her flagship Early Years campaign. One source said she would be “straight out of the gates” with a “big moment” for her which she hopes will get the whole country talking about the importance of child development in the under-five age category.

No spring flop tour: Preparations for the King’s coronation mean the couple will not embark on a spring tour this year, meaning they will have more time to spend in Wales, deepening their bond with the principality whose name they bear.

The Waleses are not moving into Windsor Castle anytime soon: One big move they will not be making this year is to Windsor Castle. Despite speculation at the time of Queen Elizabeth II’s death that they would move into the big house, they are so happy at Adelaide Cottage that they may well stay there for years, friends say. “It gives them an opportunity to spend time as a family, and to have the privacy they craved,” said one source. “Kensington Palace was always a little bit of a fishbowl for them, and now they can just enjoy each other’s company.”

[From The Telegraph]

“He portrays her as a cold fish, too aloof or uptight to engage in girl talk with Meghan and petty in the extreme.” That’s literally who she is though? Notice the Telegraph doesn’t even dispute that. They’re like yeah, she’s petty and prissy but she keeps calm and carries on in public. But at what cost? It sounds like Kate only has two events booked for the whole month. What do you think her big reveal will be at the end of January? A second Keenwell center? Another survey, perhaps SIX Big Questions?

The bit about the Waleses not moving into Windsor Castle is interesting too. My interpretation is that Kate will not be moving into Windsor Castle, but William now has the run of multiple residences. William gets Kensington Palace, he’s probably carved out some space at Windsor Castle, he has access to many Duchy of Cornwall properties. We may never learn where William lives at this point. Also: no spring flop tour, LMAO!!!

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid and Cover Images.

In his ITV interview, Prince Harry made some comments about racism and unconscious bias which… were not his best moment. I called the comments “messy,” although I acknowledged in my post that it was more than likely that Harry had tailored his comments for the British audience, an audience which believes the victims of racism are just as culpable as the perpetrators of racism. Interestingly, in his 60 Minutes interview, Anderson Cooper asked Harry specifically about the “royal racist” who had “concerns” about what color his children’s skin would be, which is the story Harry and Meghan told in the Oprah interview. That clip was shown on the CBS morning show:

Prince Harry tells @60minutes that he and his wife, Meghan, made a decision to not further publicly discuss their claim that a member of the royal family wondered how dark their son’s skin color would be, saying the comment was evidence of “unconscious bias,” not racism. pic.twitter.com/4OihHWK7U5

— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) January 9, 2023

First of all, while I have respect for Hans Zimmer, this clip shows why 60 Minutes should have just devoted the whole hour to Harry. There’s no reason to withhold this clip on the 60 Minutes broadcast and then give it to CBS Mornings. Harry says in the clip: “The way the British press reacted to that was fairly typical. There was like a hunt for the royal racist. Neither of us believe that that comment or that experience or that opinion was based in racism. Unconscious bias, yes.” Harry says that white people are always going to “wonder” what mixed-race babies are going to look like. Harry also says “the key word here was ‘concern’ – as opposed to curiosity.” He also maintains the same thing he said in the Oprah interview, which is that he won’t reveal who said that.

I mean, given everything we know now and the other “concerns” William had about Harry and Meghan’s marriage, I think we can absolutely figure out who said it. I understand why Harry isn’t naming him specifically. I also understand how Harry saying the word “racism” tends to suck all of the air out of the room and it becomes the sole story, no matter what, in the British media. All that being said, it’s racism. We can say that. He can say that. The person who tried to convince Harry to not marry Meghan because of what their children would look like is racist. And Susan Hussey’s interrogation of Ngozi Fulani was racist too.

Photos courtesy of ‘60 Minutes.’.

One of my tweeps is Kara Calavera, who watched Prince Harry’s 60 Minutes interview and tweeted out: “Prince Harry dragging Camilla up by her horse hairs, letting the world know she sold stories about him and his brother to bolster her own image. I love it.” I’m still laughing about “dragging Camilla up by her horse hairs.” Anyway, yes, Harry dragged Camilla. He dragged Camilla in the ITV interview and the 60 Minutes interview. In 60 Minutes, he actually said these words:

“The need for her to rehabilitate her image made her dangerous because of the connections that she was forging within the British press. There was open willingness on both sides to trade information. With a family built on hierarchy and with her on the way to being queen consort there was going to be people or bodies left on the street because of that…If you are led to believe as a member of the family that having positive stories written about you is going to improve your reputation or increase your chances of being accepted by the British public, then that’s what you’re going to do.

[From 60 Minutes via Celebitchy story]

I bring this up because the Independent had a curious cover-story reaction to Harry’s Spare promotional blitz. Their cover story was to accuse Harry of being “kidnapped by a cult of psychotherapy.”

A reconciliation with Prince Harry is “impossible” because the King, Queen Consort and Prince William fear anything they say will be made public, The Independent understands. A source close to the royal family said the King, Camilla and William believe the situation will remain unchanged while the Duke of Sussex remains effectively “kidnapped by a cult of psychotherapy and Meghan”.

“They are trapped,” said the source. “They really can’t engage because everything they say will be shared with the media. It is impossible to have a conversation or write a letter because of the risk that anything they say being put in the public domain by Harry, potentially for commercial benefit. There has been a complete breakdown of trust.”

The royal source said: “They aren’t going to apologise because they don’t recognise Harry’s version of events.”

The source also likened Harry’s removal to California, and isolation from the rest of the family, to joining a cult – a comparison likely to prove explosive.

“He has been kidnapped by a cult of psychotherapy and Meghan. It is impossible for him to return in these circumstances.”

[From The Independent]

So this story is explicitly Camilla and William’s reaction to Harry’s interviews and the early excerpts from Spare. They have no answer to Harry’s very specific accusations of violence and briefing the media, so Camilla and William are united in thinking that Harry has simply had too much therapy. Plus, it’s all Meghan’s fault. Nevermind the fact that Harry looks and sounds happier and healthier than he ever has in his entire life, that he looks like a man who has been unburdened by an enormous weight on his shoulders. Camilla and William are like: who is this happy man who is doing the work? He’s been kidnapped! He should back in this miserable, dreary island.

Anyway, you know how I mentioned Camilla’s horse hairs? Omid Scobie tweeted this:

“Kidnapped by a cult of psychotherapy and Meghan”

An unusually tabloid-style royal front page for The Independent. Former Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday editor-in-chief Geordie Greig—a close friend of Camilla, the Queen Consort—was recently announced as the paper’s new editor. pic.twitter.com/JrKNfTOwCo

— Omid Scobie (@scobie) January 10, 2023

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red.

As I’m writing this, I still haven’t read Prince Harry’s Spare. It seems like Harry devoted a section to everything that happened around Prince Philip’s funeral, including a violent meeting with his brother and father. Keep in mind, this was April 2021, just weeks after the Sussexes’ Oprah interview aired. Just days before the Oprah interview aired, the Times of London reported on Jason Knauf’s letter to Simon Case – a letter from 2018 – in which Knauf claimed Meghan kept looking at Kensington Palace staffers and making them cry. Knauf and Kensington Palace conveniently leaked the letter just before the Oprah interview to make Meghan sound like an angry bully. At Philip’s funeral, apparently William and Charles brought up the bullsh-t bullying accusation, and here’s what Harry wrote:

Harry claimed Charles and William were “delusional” over allegations Meghan had bullied staff and he and his wife filed a 25-page report rebutting the allegations.

He said: “Meg was apparently a bully, that was the latest vicious campaign they’d helped orchestrate. It was so shocking, so egregious, that even after Meg and I demolished their lie with a 25-page, evidence-filled report to human resources, I was going to have trouble simply shrugging that one off.”

Blaming his family for dealing with the media, he added: “They began talking over each other. We’ve been down this road a hundred times, they said. You’re delusional, Harry. But they were the delusional ones.”

[From Yahoo]

I hope there’s even more context for the “25-page” filing to human resources. Hell, I hope Harry includes more details about just how Kensington Palace staff treated Meghan and how she was victimized by staffers just as much as she was victimized by William and Kate. I kind of wish Meghan and Harry had just released the 25-page rebuttal publicly at the time, in 2021. Then we wouldn’t have had to spend the past year and a half listening to asinine royal reporters say “Harry and Meghan never sued the Times about it, the accusations are true, she’s a bully!”

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

Tom Hanks’ new film, A Man Called Otto comes out this Friday. As I mentioned, I loved the book upon which this movie is based and think Hanks will make a good American version of lead character. In the film, there are flashbacks to a younger Otto. Apparently, producers Tom and Rita Wilson thought their son Truman Hanks, who is an actor, would be well cast as the younger Otto, so they hired him for the role. I guess someone cried “nepotism hire!” which, of course, it was, and now Daddy Hanks has entered the Nepo Baby discussion. He said it’s fine for kids to work in the “family business,” because everyone does it.

Tom Hanks has weighed in on the ongoing debate around nepotism in Hollywood, with the A Man Called Otto star taking the stance that his and other families working in entertainment are creative businesses.

The actor was promoting the upcoming film, which sees his son Truman playing a younger version of the Oscar winner’s character, Otto. Hanks’ wife, Rita Wilson, co-wrote and performed an original song for the movie and also produced the film alongside her husband. While speaking to Reuters (via The Sun) in a video interview shared Wednesday, Hanks explained his position on having his four kids — all of whom he says are “very creative” and ” involved in some brand of storytelling” — working in the same, or an adjacent, industry as him.

“Look this is a family business. This is what we’ve been doing forever. It’s what all of our kids grew up in,” he said. “If we were a plumbing supply business or if we ran the florist shop down the street, the whole family would be putting in time at some point, even if it was just inventory at the end of the year.”

Hanks has two children with his first wife — Colin and Elizabeth Hanks — and another two, Chet and Truman, with Wilson. All work in some arm of entertainment to various degrees, whether it be as actors, producers, cinematographers or musicians. Hanks noted that regardless of their last name, for him, it’s ultimately the quality of their work that matters most and speaks the loudest.

“The thing that doesn’t change no matter what happens, no matter what your last name is, is whether it works or not,” he said. “That’s the issue anytime any of us go off and try to tell a fresh story or create something that has a beginning and a middle and an end. Doesn’t matter what our last names are. We have to do the work in order to make that a true and authentic experience for the audience.”

For Hanks, “that’s a much bigger task than worrying about whether anybody’s going to try to scathe us or not.”

[From The Hollywood Reporter via DListed]

Tom should have sat this one out. Especially since he was trying to take such a huge leap with his shoelaces tied together like this. Nepotism is the exact opposite of bringing family in to help out or sacrifice during vital/crunch time to keep the family business afloat. A Man Called Otto wasn’t going to fold if Truman wasn’t cast. Nepo Babies are the ones who benefit from the business, not the other way around. There are family business analogies Tom could have made that would have worked here and he walked right past all of them to pick the one that failed. Plus, nothing proves the Nepo Baby point more than to have Daddy coming to Truman’s defense on his hiring. Good lord, at least let Truman defend himself. And lastly, “The thing that doesn’t change no matter what happens, no matter what your last name is, is whether it works or not,” Tom is going to say this with a straight face knowing he’s defending Chet Hanks along with the rest of his Nepo Offspring?

The funniest part of all this is that Franklin Leonard, for whom I hold a great deal of respect, actual had a decent argument for the casting of Truman in this film. Tom should have retracted his answer and sent Franklin a fruit basket.

When an actor’s child is cast as the younger version of them, it’s arguably not nepotism, if only because the physical similarity is inevitably part of their merit. https://t.co/vDzIQ55pZe

— Franklin Leonard (@franklinleonard) January 5, 2023

Embed from Getty Images

Photo credit: Justin Ng/Avalon, Getty Images and Cover Images