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November 29th was the date of Queen Camilla’s Buckingham Palace reception for charities and activists involved in gender violence work. That was when Susan Hussey, an 83-year-old aristocrat, began her racist interrogation of Ngozi Fulani. In the two-and-a-half weeks following Fulani’s reporting of the Hussey incident, she’s faced a torrent of racist abuse, to the point where she had to shut down (temporarily) Sistah Space, and she and Sistah Space are being investigated by the British Charity Commission after some random person claimed that Sistah Space misused the paltry grants they were given. For two-and-a-half weeks, Buckingham Palace stayed silent as Fulani was abused, and I would even argue that the royal establishment lined up to protect that racist a–hole Susan Hussey.

The palace’s silence was contemptible and repugnant. So… on Friday, the palace finally did something. The palace invited Fulani to come back… and they sat her down with Susan Hussey, so Hussey could make a personal apology. Note that there is no video, probably because they could only sit through one photo without Hussey hissing “but where are you really from???” The Palace also released this huffy statement:

A meeting took place this morning, 16th December, at Buckingham Palace between Ms Ngozi Fulani, founder of Sistah Space, and Lady Susan Hussey to address the incident that took place at a Palace reception last month.

At this meeting, filled with warmth and understanding, Lady Susan offered her sincere apologies for the comments that were made and the distress they caused to Ms Fulani. Lady Susan has pledged to deepen her awareness of the sensitivities involved and is grateful for the opportunity to learn more about the issues in this area.

Ms Fulani, who has unfairly received the most appalling torrent of abuse on social media and elsewhere, has accepted this apology and appreciates that no malice was intended.

The Royal Households will continue their focus on inclusion and diversity, with an enhanced programme of work which will extend knowledge and training programmes, examining what can be learnt from Sistah Space, and ensuring these reach all members of their communities.

Both Ms Fulani and Lady Susan ask now that they be left in peace to rebuild their lives in the wake of an immensely distressing period for them both. They hope that their example shows a path to resolution can be found with kindness, co-operation and the condemnation of discrimination wherever it takes root.

It is the wish of both parties that, at the end of the UN’s 16 days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, attention can now return to the important work of Sistah Space in supporting women affected by domestic abuse.

Their Majesties The King and The Queen Consort and other members of the Royal Family have been kept fully informed and are pleased that both parties have reached this welcome outcome.

[From Buckingham Palace]

A pure PR question: is this the way it should have been handled, and should it have happened sooner? If I was working for BP, I would have organized a stunt like this just hours after Fulani’s reporting of the incident on November 30. Fulani should have been invited back to the palace by the end of that week. So, no, they don’t get a f–king cookie for organizing this over two weeks after the first incident of racist abuse. As for the sit-down between Fulani and Hussey… Camilla should have been there, right? Camilla was the one who organized the initial reception on November 29. Hussey worked for both Camilla and Charles. There should have been much more (seen) involvement by Camilla. From a PR perspective, it would have been such an easy win for Camilla too, but I guess no one working for that ancient boozehound has the good sense god gave a goose.

Anyway, I genuinely hope that people stop attacking Fulani for being victimized by these racists. I’ve been called a “race baiter” for merely covering the story, I can only imagine the racist invectives hurled at Ngozi Fulani.

Photos courtesy of Buckingham Palace, Cover Images, Avalon Red, Sistah Space, screencaps.

In 2001, Angelina Jolie became a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commission on Refugees. Ten years later, her position with the UNHCR was elevated to the status of “special envoy.” Over the years, we’ve heard stories about Jolie’s UNHCR work, all of it good – she has the respect of the diplomats and the aid workers on the ground, she brings her own media and writes her own speeches and statements, she donates her own money and she helps with fundraising and public advocacy on behalf of the UNHCR. I thought she would be with the UN in an official position for the rest of her life, but it looks like she’s now focused on working with other organizations. Jolie has stepped down for her UNHCR position. This shocked me!

The United Nations and Angelina Jolie announced in a joint statement on Friday morning that Ms. Jolie would end her role as a special envoy for the U.N. refugee agency after 21 years of humanitarian work as one of the most famous public faces representing the organization. The statement said Ms. Jolie “was moving on” from the United Nations to expand her humanitarian work and engage with a “wider range of actors on a broader set of humanitarian issues as well as work more directly with local organizations.”

Ms. Jolie, 47, has toured the globe’s conflict zones, including Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and Myanmar, making 60 field visits since 2001, first as a good-will ambassador and then, starting in 2011, as a special envoy of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

“Angelina Jolie has been an important humanitarian partner of U.N.H.C.R. for very long,” Filippo Grandi, the high commissioner for the refugee agency, said in the statement. “After a long and successful time with UNHCR, I appreciate her desire to shift her engagement and support her decision.”

In May, Ms. Jolie visited Ukraine, volunteering with local nongovernment organizations in the western city of Lviv in a personal capacity and outside of an official role with the United Nations. The trip appeared to be the first sign that she was preparing to part ways with the global organization.

“After 20 years of working within the U.N. system, I feel it is time for me to work differently, engaging directly with refugees and local organizations and supporting their advocacy for solutions,” Ms. Jolie said in the statement.

[From The NY Times]

The Times also gives Jolie her flowers, describing just some of the work she did on the ground, how much she cares about the refugees she meets, how she visits the same camps multiple times so she can check in the same refugees. The Times also pointed out that Jolie seemed to be increasingly critical of the UN on the whole, perhaps because she saw it as unwieldy and perhaps wasting money which could be better spent elsewhere. It will be interesting to see if Jolie seeks an official alliance with a smaller refugee organization, or whether she just becomes a self-styled lone humanitarian, lending her support short-term to organizations on the ground at various crises.

I also think it’s worth noting that Jolie has been making a lot of visits to DC now that Joe Biden is president, including multiple trips to the Biden White House. Did she resign as UNHCR special envoy because she’s about to take a position with the Biden administration or State Dept?

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Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

Lily Collins covers the December-January issue of Vogue France to promote Emily in Paris’s third season (out December 21). I love Emily in Paris, I don’t even care. I know I’m not the target demographic or anything and the show can be very dumb (especially Season 1). But I also enjoy it – it’s light and silly. Lily is very good at playing Emily, the fish-out-of-water marketing pro from America, sent to work with a bunch of Parisians. She lives, she loves, she wears terrible clothes. No Frenchwoman would wear Emily’s clothes. Very few American women would either. Anyway, Lily is a nepo baby – her father is Phil Collins, and she’s obviously had a leg up in the industry. But to hear her tell it, her dad’s fame, success and money has nothing to do with how she made it in Hollywood. Some highlights from Vogue France:

She shunned the idea of getting any special treatment for being Phil Collins’ daughter: “It was out of the question that people would think that I use a free pass thanks to my name. I’m proud of my dad, but I wanted to be me, not just his daughter. For that, I was ready to wait to break through.

While she loves to sing, her real love is acting: “By dint of failed castings, I learned to focus more on my work, and I managed to make acting my job. But I’m not resting on my laurels: this environment is very competitive and places are expensive! I love to sing. But as I wanted to make my own way, far from the paternal genius, I preferred to be an actress. I played in a few musicals because it’s the only setting in which I allow myself to sing. Frankly, I would be too afraid of comparisons!’

She didn’t know Emily In Paris would become a hit: “Even if while reading the script, I felt that something could happen… Moreover, we were several young women hoping to get this role. I’m incredibly lucky…”

She thinks the pandemic helped with EIP’s popularity: “Being confined to your home, but seeing the scenery, laughing, crying a little: this is what Emily in Paris has allowed, arriving at a time when the public, but also us, the teams, needed it the most.

[From People & The Daily Mail]

Something I appreciate about EIP is that Lily actually listened to the good-faith criticism of the show’s first season (the one-dimensional characters, the absurd plots, the racial stereotypes) and actually used her power as a producer to make positive changes which made the show a lot better in the second season. The secondary characters became much more fleshed-out, Emily fails in big ways, there are consequences, etc. As for Lily and her belief that she got where she is all on her own… yeah, her dad’s name got her in a lot of doors. She also grew up wealthy and she’s never had to worry about making the rent if she didn’t book a job. Why can’t any of these nepo babies just admit that?

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Emily In Paris’s Lucas Bravo has a mustache and I’m upset about it. [Go Fug Yourself]
As always, 30 Rock was so prescient about where television programming would go. TLC is copying Jack Donaghey’s original concept for MILF Island!! [Gawker]
TJ Holmes & Amy Robach are still together. [Dlisted]
The Critics Choice Award nominations came out this week too. [LaineyGossip]
The 25th anniversary of Good Will Hunting – I saw it like three times in its original theatrical run, and I still love that movie. [Pajiba]
Donald Trump’s big announcement was… digital trading cards. [Jezebel]
Jane Fonda is in remission! [Seriously OMG]
Charlie Hunnam’s Shantaram was canceled after one season. [Just Jared]
I keep forgetting that Kaley Cuoco is preg. [Egotastic]
Khloe Kardashian took a lie detector test & she said she’s not sleeping with Tristan Thompson. The lie detector said she was telling the truth. [Buzzfeed]
I like Natalie Portman’s pilgrim-y Dior, but I dislike her styling. [RCFA]
Club Q survivors testified before Congress. [Towleroad]

So there’s a lot of talking and complaining about Netflix’s Harry & Meghan. The complaints are about everything from “where’s the proof?!?!” to “how dare they” to “Netflix is just like the Daily Mail!” One of the funniest f–king complaints I’ve seen is all of the performative outrage about Harry and Meghan’s comments about Nottingham Cottage. When they met, Harry was living in NotCot as a bachelor – it’s a two-bedroom “cottage” within the Kensington Palace complex, and while the real estate is prime, it wasn’t suited for two fully-grown adults, two dogs and what would soon become a growing family. Meghan spoke about how Oprah came for tea and she was shocked by the state of NotCot:

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s first home of Nottingham Cottage took Oprah Winfrey by surprise when she popped by for a visit.

“Oprah came over for tea, didn’t she?” the Duke of Sussex, 38, asked his wife in episode 4 of their new Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan, the second volume of which premiered on Thursday.

“She did,” said Meghan, 41, to which Harry responded, “And when she came in, she sat down and she goes, ‘No one would ever believe it!’”

“‘No one would ever believe it!’ ” the Duchess of Sussex echoed, laughing.

The couple had been discussing the size of Nottingham Cottage, the residence on the grounds of Kensington Palace in London where they first lived together following their 2017 engagement.

“As far as people were concerned, we were living in a palace — and we were, in a cottage on palace grounds,” Harry said.

“We were living on palace grounds, yeah,” Meghan added. “Kensington Palace sounds very regal — of course, it does, it says ‘palace’ in the name, but Nottingham Cottage was a small [house].”

“The whole thing’s on a slight lean. Really low ceilings — I don’t know who it was ever for. They must’ve been very short,” the prince joked.

“He would just hit his head constantly in that place, ’cause he’s so tall,” Meghan said with a laugh. “Me with a hoe, and H varnishing. It was just a chapter in our lives where I don’t think anyone could believe what it was actually like behind the scenes.”

[From People]

To be clear, I don’t think Meghan and Harry were complaining, per se, they were just emphasizing that NotCot probably wouldn’t be realistic for them when they grew to a family of three (plus two dogs). Even back then, I noted how unusual it was that QEII didn’t offer them an upgrade as soon as they got married, which is what she usually did once someone got married. The newlyweds would get the gift of new titles and a new home. It was months and months after the wedding when QEII offered Frogmore Cottage to the Sussexes, and back then, Frogmore was little more than a dilapidated shack. The Windsors really didn’t want to put Harry and his biracial wife in a nice house.

The photos from NotCot – which were shown in the Netflix series – were hilarious too. The too-short doorways! Guy and Bogart Markle were like “we were living in a luxurious pad in Toronto and now we’re living in this tiny dollhouse??” It’s so sweet how Harry immediately fell for Meghan’s dogs though.

Photos courtesy of the Sussexes/Netflix.

Here are more photos from last night’s Together at Christmas event, which the Princess of Wales nominally “organized.” The show doesn’t air until Christmas Eve, so we have no idea if Kate decided to organize another piano recital, or perhaps hand the mic to King Charles to cover “Little Drummer Boy” as George puts on a skit. Speaking of, King Charles and Queen Camilla were in attendance, the whole Windsor and Middleton clans put in a big appearance. Charles seemed happy, Camilla seemed comfortably numb.

The Middletons were there, as I said. They all came out for last year’s special too. Pippa even wore the same shade of burgundy as her sister.

Zara Tindall also made a point of wearing the same plummy/burgundy shade to the event. Is this some kind of coordinated message (literally) about what Meghan said about color protocol and not wanting to wear the same color as senior-royal women?

Embed from Getty Images

The York princesses were there with their husbands. Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi want to be in the royal fold so much. Eugenie and Jack, less so, but they look blissed-out after moving to Portugal this year. I liked both of the York princesses’ looks, by the way. I thought Beatrice looked the best out of everyone.

Embed from Getty Images

Behold, the Countess of Wessex in white. Wearing the same color as Camilla? They definitely coordinated this in reaction to Meghan.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Getty and Backgrid.

Here are some photos of Prince William and the Princess of Wales last night at her second annual piano recital. This year, they brought out their two older kids, Prince George and Princess Charlotte. After the multiple incidents during the Jubbly, it will probably be years before Prince Louis is trotting out like that again. He’ll never live it down. Charlotte and George look like they’re already pretty tired of being their parents’ buffers too. William, Charlotte and George arrived separately – Kate was already at the venue, fussing about with decorations (allegedly). She walked out to greet her kids.

So much for “Kate is a big hugger” – she showed her husband and children all the warmth of an icicle with that greeting. All about the photo-op, except the photo-op screams “separate lives, separate homes.”

As for her fashion… the coatdress is Eponine and I think it’s new-to-us, although she does have so many coatdresses, I can’t be sure. All of the blue ones and burgundy ones blend together. I will say this though – she’s doing better with her button addiction lately. I expect a Christmas button-relapse though, she’s due. She also wore £14 earrings from Accessorize. Oi! Get this lass some of the queen’s looted jewels, for god’s sake.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Richard Pohle / Avalon.

I loved loved loved all of the stuff in Netflix’s Harry & Meghan about the You Coulda Had A Bad Bitch Tour. Harry and Meghan referred to it as their farewell tour, but I will forever call it the Bad Bitch Tour. That was when they returned to the UK in March 2020 for the final events as working royals. Meghan looked especially gorgeous and she says in the series that she wanted to wear a lot of color for the final appearances. They brought their own photographer to capture behind-the-scenes photos, and the photos appear in the Netflix series. Then they come to Meghan’s final event, and their only event with the rest of the family: a trip to Westminster Abbey for the Commonwealth Day service. Those photos are so iconic now – Meghan in that gorgeous green dress, Kate giving bitter bitchface, Harry looking like he was ready to punch someone, and the visual confirmation that the white establishment was closing ranks and expelling Harry and Meghan.

“The first time that we saw the other members of the family was in public at Westminster Abbey,” Meghan recalled.

“We were nervous seeing the family because all the TV cameras and everybody watching at home and everybody watching in the audience. It’s like living through a soap opera where everybody else views you as entertainment,” Harry said. “I felt really distant from the rest of my family, which was interesting because so much of how they operate is about what it looks like, rather than what it feels like,” he continued. “And it looked cold. But it also felt cold.”

After the event, which highlights the global network of 54 countries that comprise the Commonwealth, Meghan recalled the feeling of finality.

“We had left Westminster Abbey, and then that was it,” she said. “Of course it was emotional.”

[From People]

It looked cold. It looked very, very cold, particularly between the Sussexes and William and Kate. Meghan tried to say hello to Kate and Kate just pursed her lips and turned away like a Disney villain. The Windsors also showed the world that Harry and Meghan were being frozen out, physically and emotionally. Meghan ended up leaving London right after the Commonwealth service, and Meghan got very emotional describing her feelings on that day – that she really tried and it still wasn’t good enough:

“I tried so hard… That’s the piece that’s so triggering. Because … it still wasn’t good enough, and you still don’t fit in.”

Markle, 41, describes leaving England, saying in the docuseries that a man overseeing the plane’s crew took his hat off and shared his appreciation for “everything [she] did for [the] country.” The Duchess of Sussex remembers, “It was the first time that I felt like someone saw the sacrifice, not for my own country, for this country. It’s not mine.”

When the couple landed in Canada, Markle says she collapsed into the arms of one of Prince Harry’s longtime security guards. Meghan shares that she then told her husband’s employee that she “tried so hard,” to which he replied, “I know you did. I know you did, ma’am. I know you did.”

[From Page Six]

She really did try hard, and what I keep thinking – and what I’ve thought for years – is that she tried for much longer than I would have. As soon as they started saying racist sh-t about her son, or when Karen Cambridge began spilling white tears to Camilla Tominey, I would have done things a lot differently. I would have been out of there, or I would have been giving interviews to Oprah from Frogmore Cottage. I’m not saying Meghan was wrong or right to handle things her way – what I’m saying is that no one can say that Meghan didn’t give it a full effort, or that she didn’t give that f–king island a chance to act right. She gave them time, she gave them chances. They’re still smearing her and attacking her.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Instar and Netflix.

The trailer for Shotgun Wedding, starring Jennifer Lopez & Jennifer Coolidge, is a lot. But it also looks sort of stupid-funny? [Egotastic]
Aubrey Plaza has a story about tripping on mushrooms. [OMG Blog]
Glen Powell & Kate Hudson chat for Variety. [LaineyGossip]
Will Smith is back with interesting interviews. [Dlisted]
Penelope Cruz in Chanel… it’s okay, not great. [Tom & Lorenzo]
What in the world is Adam Driver doing in this movie? [Pajiba]
Is it cold enough in LA for Jennifer Lopez to wear fur? [JustJared]
Carolina Herrera’s latest collection is beautiful. [GFY]
Lots of Duggars have gotten married. [Starcasm]
Ten years after Sandy Hook. [Buzzfeed]
I bet Don Trump Jr. gets “tricked” by paper bags. [Towleroad]
Who are Hollywood’s top nepo babies? [Gawker]

The so-called Sandringham Summit was held in January 2020. It was scheduled at the last minute after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced their exit, and they only announced their exit because Clarence House and/or Kensington Palace leaked the plan which Prince Harry sent his father. I suspect Harry knows who leaked what, but he didn’t specify who did the leaking, only that he knew the plan would be leaked. What we knew at the time (obviously) was that Harry attended the summit alone, as Meghan had flown back to Canada, because they left Archie there. What we didn’t know was that Prince Charles, Prince William, Queen Elizabeth and the royal staff waited until Meghan left the UK before they decided to do a sit-down with Harry. Meghan and Harry addressed this in Netflix’s Harry & Meghan:

Harry: I’d sent an email to three most senior private secretaries saying let’s get together and have a meeting, let’s talk about this. Because what was playing out in public was crazy. That meeting was rejected.
Meghan: After the announcement, I had to get back because Archie was in Canada
Harry: It was only once Meg had left and gone back to Canada that it was then arranged that there was going to be a meeting at Sandringham the following Monday.
Meghan: Imagine a conversation, a roundtable discussion, about the future of your life, when the stakes are this high and you as the mom and the wife and the target in many regards, aren’t invited to have a seat at the table.
Harry: It was clear to me that they planned it so that you weren’t in the room.

It’s absolutely disgusting. We knew that at the time, that Harry was dealing with all of these terrible people all by himself, but the fact that they made it so obvious about not wanting Meghan to be there, not wanting Meghan to have a voice or a seat at the table about her future and her children’s future. The institution is fundamentally broken. While it goes unsaid, it was also clear that William, Charles and probably the Queen too, they all believed that if they could get Harry alone, they could manipulate him and bully him even more at the summit. Harry says this about the summit in Harry & Meghan:

It was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me and my father say things that simply weren’t true and my grandmother, you know, quietly sit there and sort of take it all in. But you have to understand that from the family perspective, especially from hers, there are ways of doing things and her ultimate sort of mission, goal slash responsibility is the institution. People around her telling her that proposal, these two doing x, y, zed, is going to be seen as an attack on the institution, then she’s going to go on the advice that she’s given. It was really hard. The meeting finished without any solidified action plan. I think from their perspective they had to believe that it was more about us and maybe the issues that we had as opposed to their partner, the media, and themselves and that relationship that was causing so much pain for us. They saw what they wanted to see. The saddest part of it was this wedge created between myself and my brother so that he’s now on the institution’s side. Part of that I get, I understand, that’s his inheritance. To some extent it’s already ingrained in him that part of his responsibility is the survivability and the continuation of this institution.

“Have my brother scream and shout at me” – so much for “William was sad and didn’t say much at the summit,” which is what we were told for years. Harry’s own words: William was screaming at me at the summit, in front of everyone. William is a contemptible rage monster.

So for much of the summit, everything was being debated and Harry still believed that there could be some middle ground, some half-in solution where, as he said, he and Meghan would still work for the monarchy for free, and they could just pursue careers outside of the UK and get away from the racism and misogyny of the institution and the media. While the people within the summit were probably always going to reject that half-in proposal, the real breaking point came – in the middle of the summit – when Kensington Palace issued a denial about “William bullying Harry” and KP signed Harry’s name to it, even though he had not signed off on any part of it.

That day, a story came out that part of the reason why Meghan and I were leaving was because William had bullied us out. Once I got into the car after the meeting I was told about a joint statement that had been put out in my name and my brother’s name squashing the story about him bullying us out of the family. No one had asked me permission to put my name to a statement like that. I rang M and I told her and she burst into floods of tears. Within four hours they were happy to lie to protect my brother and yet for three years they were never willing to tell the truth to protect us. There was no other option at this point. I said ‘we need to get out of here.’

“Within four hours they were happy to lie to protect my brother and yet for three years they were never willing to tell the truth to protect us.” So, specifically, it was a lie to say that William did not bully Harry. KP lied about Harry signing off on a joint statement, all to protect angry, screaming, bullying William. And that was the breaking point. I get that.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, WENN and Backgrid.