Catherine, the Princess of Wales, is not a demonstrative, affectionate person. I feel safe in saying that – while it’s true we don’t know exactly what she’s like in private, we have seen her over the years enough to know that she’s physically and emotionally reserved, sometimes even awkward. She flaps her jazz hands in the air, but those jazz hands rarely land in a jazz embrace. I don’t think William is particularly affectionate, demonstrative or warm either, in that way, they’re perfectly and frigidly matched. In Netflix’s Harry & Meghan, Meghan spoke about how she didn’t realize that she wasn’t supposed to hug Will and Kate in private – Meghan believed they would be different in private, that they would act like a normal family. Meghan is a sweet summer child. But her comment landed, and now “sources” insist that Kate is affectionate too, damn it! Just the other day, she allowed her jazz hand to briefly touch a Black person for one full second before wincing.

Kate Middleton greets everyone with a “big hug and kiss,” according to a friend. Although Meghan Markle said in the new Netflix show Harry & Meghan that she was surprised by Kate and Prince William’s formality behind closed doors, a friend of the Princess of Wales tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story that the royal is quite affectionate.

“Kate’s a big hugger,” the friend says. “She is warm and friendly and greets everyone with a big hug and kiss. It comes naturally to her to be like that.”

Recalling the first time that Meghan met Kate, the Duchess of Sussex said on the docuseries that she was “in ripped jeans and barefoot” when Prince William and Kate came over for dinner.

“Like I was a hugger, always been a hugger,” Meghan said. “I didn’t realize that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits…I guess I’d start to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside, carried through on the inside. There is a forward-facing way of being and then you close the door and you relax now. But that formality carries over on both sides. And that was surprising to me.”

[From People]

This… this is not the way to play it, Kate. Your brand is Frigid Karen, own it, you’ve maintained that brand for more than a decade. I would almost have more respect for this whole exercise if the “friend” (cough KP communications assistant cough) just admitted something like “yeah, Kate is more reserved, it’s not a crime, Meghan should respect people’s personal space.” That would be the smart way to play it, like Meghan did something wrong. The problem is that Kate is so unwell, she’s still trying to copykeen everything about Meghan. If Meghan is warm, affectionate, demonstrative and lacking in deference, then Kate has to be that way too! Or at least Kate has to order her staff has to tell people that she’s like that! *jazz hands in front of the Meghan Look Book*

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red.

Tyler Perry is a mensch. Granted, many of us knew that already, but the way he supported and helped the Duke and Duchess of Sussex really moves me, still, to this day. While Tyler had never met Harry and Meghan prior to 2020, he sent Meghan a letter in 2018, around the Sussexes’ wedding. Tyler basically told her that he supported her and if she ever needed anything, don’t hesitate to call. When the Sussexes were in Canada in March 2020 and trying to figure out their next moves after their Sussexit, Meghan called Tyler:

Meghan: “One day when we were in Canada, I called him. I was just a wreck, I was just crying and crying. Sometimes it’s easier to just open up to someone who knows nothing at all. That was that moment with me and Tyler.”

Tyler: “I could hear the fear. It was palpable. I asked her what she was afraid of and she took a deep breath and she started listing all of the things ‘I’m afraid of.’ I just told her that every one of her fears were valid. The most I knew about the royal family was around Princess Diana’s death… I realized that after the marriage ended, she was thrown to the wolves. So to tell Meghan that her feeling were valid hurt. I didn’t want to say that to her. I didn’t want her to feel that. But I didn’t want to lie to her.”

[From OK! Magazine]

He was right. He was right to not sugarcoat it or play it off like she was crazy – Meghan understood the threat and Harry did too. This was at the moment where they knew they would only have security for a few more weeks and photographers were surrounding their rented Canadian home. Tyler sent his plane for them, he put them up in his LA mansion. Meghan was trying to make it sound like it was just going to be temporary, like they would only need to be there a week. Tyler said no, you’ll be staying for a while, you should stay until you work out your next moves. It moved me to tears – the generosity, the heroism of that, to protect this family after Harry’s family had fed them to the wolves.

Perry also spoke about his own mother, who was abused, and how he recognized that the same thing was fundamentally happening to Harry and Meghan:

“She was afraid of them destroying her or going crazy or them making her think she was crazy. I saw my mother be abused for years. I knew the symptoms, I knew what it was like. Everyone’s like, ‘Tyler, how dare you compare this to the abuse of your mother?’ This woman was abused and so was he.

“To use the institution to try and do all the things a batterer would do, like, here’s what we’re gonna do, ‘we’re gonna cut off the money; we’re not gonna leave you security; we’re gonna do all those things to make you comply and come back’. And for the both of them to have the wherewithal to say ‘I don’t give a damn if it’s the palace. I’m outta here,’ I applauded that.”

[Via The Independent]

Tyler Perry is exactly right, and I’m glad he points out that the Windsors acted as the abusive ex, punishing their victims for leaving, cutting off their security, and trying to financially abuse them. I’ve long believed that the Windsors told Harry to sink or swim, believing that he would either drown or come crawling back. They’ve been thrown for a loop this whole time that other people stepped in to help the Sussexes and help them land on their feet.

Oh, and Tyler is Lilibet Diana’s godfather!!!!

Photos courtesy of Netflix.

I forgot to put this in the earlier Tyler Perry post about his interview within Netflix’s Harry & Meghan – so there’s a discussion about the Oprah interview and the reaction to the interview. It’s remarkable to me that Meghan believed that the biggest headline would be that she was suicidal and begging for help and no one would help her. Then the headline turned out to be “the Windsors are racist AF.” But I liked what Tyler Perry said about the Oprah interview, which was: “I thought there’s so much more [Meghan] could have said but because she’s such a classy elegant woman, she didn’t.” That’s very true. It’s true about the Netflix series too – even though there were notable moments and there will of course be big, negative headlines about the Windsors, what struck me (yet again) was how much was being left unsaid. Kate was barely mentioned, Meghan didn’t even get into the tears-at-the-dress-fitting story, they didn’t repeat the stories about royal racism (they just showed the clips from the Oprah interview). Now, the Netflix series did capture some interesting stuff in the days after the Oprah interview:

The docuseries shows also Meghan and Harry in their office the day after it airs dealing with the fall-out. Meghan, who is on a call with her friend Tyler Perry, reads out a statement from Queen Elizabeth reacting to the couple’s claims in the interview (in which Her Majesty memorably said “recollections may vary”) before Harry interrupts his wife to show her his cellphone.

“Wow, H just got a text from his brother,” she tells Perry, who then says his goodbyes and hangs up.

The couple don’t share the contents of that text from William with Garbus and her crew but the cameras do catch them discussing how they plan to react to it. “I wish I knew what to do,” Harry says as Meghan gets up and wraps her arms around him. She says: “I know. Let’s take a breather, get some air and then decide.”

The docuseries also captures Meghan receiving a text message from Beyonce following the Oprah documentary. At the time, Meghan is sitting alongside Harry in their joint office at their home in Montecito when she says: “Beyonce just texted.” Harry mock-gasps in response and quips, “Shut up!”

“[She’s] just checking in,” Meghan says. “I still can’t believe she knows who I am.” Meghan then reads out the message: “She said she wants me to feel safe and protected. She admits and respects my bravery and vulnerability and thinks I was selected to break generational curses that need to be healed.”

“That’s well said,” Harry replies.

[From Variety]

I laughed my ass off at the Beyonce moment. Harry was super-pumped that Beyonce texted Meghan. The moment where William texted Harry though… God, I wish they had gotten into that. The chronology is interesting though, because apparently William didn’t text Harry until the Queen made that stupid “recollections may vary” statement, which happened two days after the Oprah interview aired. And they didn’t show Charles calling or texting Harry, although we’ve heard that happened.

I’m reminded again of Harry and Meghan believing that the Oprah interview would be the closing of that particular chapter, and that maybe after that, there could be some accountability, some apologies and some healing. Were they surprised that the Windsors instead went into ass-covering, racism-denial mode? Not really surprised, but I think they were disappointed.

Photos/screencaps courtesy of Harpo/CBS.

Megan Thee Stallion testified in court that Tory Lanez tried to bribe her with $1 million to stay quiet after he shot her. [Jezebel]
Mariah Carey is the queen of Christmas (royalties). [Dlisted]
I hope no one goes to the Golden Globes. [LaineyGossip]
Review of Antoine Fuqua’s Emancipation. [Pajiba]
Salma Hayek looks like an old Western saloon lady. [Go Fug Yourself]
People are giving themselves elf names now? [Seriously OMG]
Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested and someone snitched? [Gawker]
It does not appear that Grant Wahl’s death was foul play. [Just Jared]
Vanessa Hudgens went blonde for Christmas. [Egotastic]
What minor hill are you ready to die on? [Buzzfeed]
Sigourney Weaver looked fab at the Avatar premiere. [RCFA]

The Prince of Wales and Princess of Wales have released their Christmas card. It came out late Tuesday the 13th. It feels early to me, so I looked up when they released their card last year – on the 9th/10th of December. So… it’s not actually a conspiracy, right? They always release their cards around this time. It’s just that this year, Peg and Buttons wanted to get it out before Harry & Meghan Volume 2 drops on Netflix. Also: King Charles and Camilla released their Christmas card days ago, so this must be the week.

As for the card itself… the thing about William and Kate is that I don’t think either of them really has an artist’s eye? They wouldn’t know composition or style if it pulled on Kate’s doll wig. Any photographer worth a damn would say “hey, the image is slightly off because William is looking away and Louis is the only one without a toothy grin.” But whatever, it is what it is. At least this year’s card wasn’t from a photoshoot from a mysterious family vacation in Jordan (like last year’s). At least Kate did a better job of a color theme this time around. She does love a blue color story. She loves it when sh-t looks like a denim ad. (Hilariously, the Sussexes’ Christmas card last year was very denim-forward too, so the copykeening has now ventured into Christmas cards.)

Judging from the background solely, I also believe this was taken in Windsor and not Norfolk. Considering they’re supposed to be “living” at a four-bedroom cottage in Windsor, this must be one of the walking paths around the Royal Windsor Estate.

Here’s Charles and Camilla’s Christmas card. While the photo wasn’t taken during a holiday, at least it has a Christmas-y feel to it with Camilla in green and Charles in tweed. That’s something that is consistently off-putting about William and Kate’s Xmas cards – they rarely feel appropriately seasonal. The Waleses’ card looks too summery.

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Christmas card image courtesy of Matt Porteous and Kensington Palace. Additional photos courtesy of ITV/KP, Instar and KP

Harry & Meghan Vol. 2 drops tonight – or tomorrow morning, depending where you are in the world. East Coast gets it at 3 am, I believe, and I will be able to watch two episodes or more before I start work. I’m hoping that we start getting to the meat of the story quickly, after a three-episode love story wind-up. While I think there are a lot of bad takes about the series thus far, I also think some people have some nuanced analysis and even some good-faith criticism. My good-faith criticism is that their courtship up to their engagement should have been two episodes, not three. Still, you can’t deny that people are watching and that everyone has an opinion. As such, Netflix released some astounding numbers:

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s controversial Netflix special Harry & Meghan was the second most-watched English language television show on the streamer over the past week, the platform announced Tuesday, with 81.5 million hours watched since the first half of the documentary series premiered Thursday.

The debut represented the largest premiere in Netflix history for a documentary in its first week, according to the platform, with more than 28 million households tuning in to the first three episodes. In the U.K. alone, more than 2.4 million people tuned into the first episode when it first began streaming on Thursday.

The series was overshadowed only by Tim Burton’s smash series Wednesday, which brought in nearly 270 million hours of viewership, marking the third consecutive week the show was part of Netflix’s top 10 English-language programs.

Harry & Meghan was listed as Netflix’s top television series on Friday, the day after it premiered, before being replaced by Wednesday again.

[From Forbes]

To be fair, Wednesday is a lot of fun! It doesn’t have to be either-or. I loved Wednesday and I get why that show hit the audience sweet-spot of appealing to tweens, teens, 50-somethings and everyone in-between. Now, I would love to see a demographic breakdown of the viewership for Harry & Meghan, and I strongly suspect that many people will pick up the series and watch the whole thing in one weekend once Volume 2 comes out. Especially if it’s as explosive as everyone thinks it will be.

Photos courtesy of Netflix.

It looks like all of the Sussex haters are watching Netflix’s Harry & Meghan. This week, we heard from Howard Stern, who watched Volume 1 with his wife, and Stern had many opinions about the Sussexes being “whiners” and more. Bethenny Frankel, a longtime Meghan hater, also watched the series. It really would never, ever occur to these people to just… not watch the series, I guess. Like, I understand how the Sussexes aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, I get that. But surely the haters can just NOT watch what Harry and Meghan are doing? Like, don’t go out of your way to read their interviews or watch the Netflix series. It takes more effort to hate on them than it does to simply pay attention to other sh-t. Anyway, Bethenny speaks:

Bethenny Frankel says Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s new Netflix docuseries, “Harry & Meghan,” practically put her to sleep.

“I found it a little bit boring,” the “Real Housewives of New York City” alum, 52, said in a TikTok video on Monday. “It didn’t hold my attention. It seemed like they really wanted to be humanized. They wanted us to know that they are real human beings… We believe that you are really in love and we believe that you’re really human beings.”

The Skinnygirl founder then suggested Markle, 41, “wanted” to “hang out with major celebrities” and gain notoriety by being a part of the British monarchy. “It felt like this entire documentary was about how famous we are … it’s relentless,” Frankel said.

“If you are being trolled by the media, the royal family gave you the advice to say nothing because that’s the advice that most very famous people are given. If you add gasoline to a fire, the fire blows up even bigger. It feels like they — and Meghan in particular — just keep wanting to tell us more.”

The former Bravolebrity also suggested that the series was “a smash-and-grab job for money” after the couple left the royal family in 2020 and began a new life in Montecito, Calif.

“It feels like, ‘Grab the bag because we’re leaving this thing and we gotta take everything we can,’” the “ReWives” podcast host continued.

[From Page Six]

This isn’t the first time Bethenny has used Meghan’s name to get clout. One of the last times she did it, TikTokers turned on her and ripped her a new one. I wish I could find that TikTok where the woman was talking about Frankel’s “bitter hag energy.” It was dead-on – that’s exactly what Bethenny has, her Bitter Hag Energy is off the charts. Meghan didn’t want to “tell us more,” she wanted them to correct false, damaging and racist stories. Meghan wasn’t being “trolled” by the media, she was being smeared, defamed and abused by two racist institutions at once. Anyway, love it when haters watch three hours of programming, declare themselves bored and then go out of their way to make a video about it.

The fact that these women don’t like Meghan Markle but still read every article, watch every show, and listen to every podcast she does??? Sweetheart this is FAN BEHAVIOUR. You’re one of Markle’s Sparkles pic.twitter.com/whIhQP3bcX

— Meech (@MediumSizeMeech) December 13, 2022

Photos courtesy of Netflix, Cover Images, Avalon Red.

It’s still funny to me that Prince William’s Boston Flop Tour didn’t get the cover of People Magazine last week. Kensington Palace did work with People though – they gave People Mag some behind-the-scenes photos from Earthshot, but William didn’t provide any quotes to the magazine, not even to highlight the Earthshot winners who weren’t invited to attend the awards ceremony in person. A total flop. Meanwhile, Netflix’s Harry & Meghan series has been dominating the media and conversations in America and the UK. The series is a huge hit for Netflix, proving that (as always) the Sussexes are an excellent investment. So much so that People Magazine put Harry and Meghan on this week’s cover. The cover story is fascinating too, because it’s pretty sympathetic to them, even with the quotes from commentators. Some highlights:

The series is about love: “These are two people who really love each other and who have respectively given up everything at different points to be together,” says a source close to them. “There’s a lot of beauty in that.”

The “allegations” about the palace planting stories: Such allegations, shared with a global audience by a senior member of the family, come as Harry’s relationship with his father, King Charles, 74, and brother Prince William, 40, remains strained. “It will take a long time before there is harmony between the brothers. There is a lot of anger there,” says a source close to the royal household.

How Charles, William & Kate have reacted: A palace source confides that William and his wife, Princess Kate, 40, are avoiding the series and having aides watch instead. As for Charles, the royal household source adds, “The door [to reconciliation] is always open where the King is concerned, and he would certainly rescue the situation if he could. He would love this to stop.”

Catherine Mayer’s take: The documentary places the couple “in the wider [conversation] around racism and the culture wars that they’ve become inextricably bound up with,” says royal biographer Catherine Mayer, author of Charles: The Heart of a King. “There are people in communities of color and young people who are going to take from this the message of institutional failure. And that is really powerful.”

Collateral damage: Given all that has transpired during the tumultuous past few years, “the collateral damage to the institution is not insignificant,” says another source close to the royal household, who also acknowledges, “It’s an organization that’s behind the times in terms of corporate responsibility and structure.”

Ingrid Seward’s take: Adds royal biographer Ingrid Seward, “There is always a way for reconciliation if both sides want it. As for Charles, who as head of the family and the institution is tasked with protecting both—a challenging duality that his mother, Queen Elizabeth, previously wrestled with—”the King can’t do anything more than play a waiting game,” says Seward, “and let it ride.”

[From People]

For what it’s worth, it does feel like Buckingham Palace – meaning King Charles – hasn’t gone on a briefing spree against Harry and Meghan in a few months. Charles was panicked about The Crown for a while and that seemed to take up a lot of his time. There was panic about Spare as well. But in recent weeks, there hasn’t been much of “the king thinks this or that about Harry.” Meanwhile, William literally spent hours briefing against Harry in the middle of the Waleses’ Boston trip. Willileaks by name, Willileaks by nature. I do wonder if we’ll continue to see this holding pattern in the next 48 hours, with the KP machinery locked and loaded against the Sussexes while BP tries to sit it out.

New clip!!

Harry & Meghan. Volume II: December 15. Only on Netflix. pic.twitter.com/ZfCcsieTHx

— Netflix (@netflix) December 14, 2022

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Netflix, Cover Images. Cover courtesy of People.

Michelle Yeoh looked great in Valentino at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, where she picked up the Kirk Douglas Award. [GFY]
Gisele Bundchen walked her first post-divorce red carpet in Brazil. [JustJared]
First look at Joker 2: Folie a Deux. It’s not great. [OMG Blog]
An interesting piece on the Duchess of Sussex, Doria Ragland and race. [LaineyGossip]
Spoilers for The White Lotus finale. [Dlisted]
Jessica Chastain looks icy in Armani. [Tom & Lorenzo]
Hollywood’s love of fatsuits is truly offensive. [Pajiba]
Some of the latest Sister Wives drama. [Starcasm]
TikTokers are mad at Lana del Rey for a 2013 song. [Buzzfeed]
Janet Jackson is going on tour! [Towleroad]
Kylie Jenner is partying in Aspen. [Egotastic]
Olivia Wilde took her kids to Disneyland. [Gawker]

Drew Barrymore is letting us in on the holiday traditions she’s building with daughters Olive, 10, and Frankie, eight. One of which is that Drew does not buy her daughters Christmas presents. Instead, she takes the girls on trips for the holiday. While she admits she doesn’t think her daughters, “love it,” at their current ages, she does think they will hold the memories of their experiences on those adventures more than any toy or trinket they unwrap under the tree.

Drew Barrymore’s daughters won’t be unwrapping presents under the tree come Christmas morning. ET’s Nischelle Turner spoke with the 47-year-old host of The Drew Barrymore Show, and she revealed why she doesn’t buy Christmas gifts for Frankie, 8, and Olive, 10, the girls she shares with her ex, Will Kopelman.

“I always take them on a trip every Christmas. I don’t get them presents, which I think at their ages they don’t love, but I say, ‘I think we’ll remember the place and the photos and the experience and that’s what I want to give you,’” she explained. “They get plenty of things throughout the year, so I’m not like some weird, strict, cold mom who’s like, ‘You don’t get any gifts!’ I just feel like a better gift would be a life memory. I’d rather invest [in that than in] a doll house or something. It all evens out and it’s fine.”

“[I try] to remember that one holiday won’t be probably the same as one 10 years from now, that your life can dramatically change, and new people and new traditions can come into it,” she said. “I like looking at the holidays through a comedic, realistic lens of, we’re gonna have a lot of different holiday stories. What one do you want to keep going and build as a tradition? Rather than, ‘This is my tradition and I’m stuck in it.’”

[From ET via DListed]

The quotes above are from Entertainment Tonight, but Drew also discussed this a little more on her show. Drew’s childhood Christmases were, as she said, confusing, because she was often alone. Her own mother didn’t buy her presents, if she wanted Christmas gifts, she had to use her own money to buy them. I also want to call attention to Drew’s comment, “they get plenty of things throughout the year.” Drew isn’t trying to make some consumerism is evil point here, she’s just trying to create something for her and the girls. They have a whole other family with their dad and his wife, I’m sure they get presents under that tree. For two divorced parents of means, this a nice way to make two unique celebrations. On that note, Drew said on her show that she realized after she mentioned the trip thing that not everyone can afford to take their kids on trips every year and felt bad bringing it up. She also mentioned that sometimes they just “get in the car and drive,” for their Christmas trips. But the part I agree with is everyone is coming at the holidays differently and that’s how it should be. Whatever you celebrate or don’t, it should be completely catered to your family or the people you spend them with.

Also, Drew said she did get Olive and Frankie gifts during lockdown when they couldn’t travel. But Drew has a point about what we remember. I vaguely remember gifts I got as a kid, but what I really remember is that one I kept asking for and never got. For me it was an Easy Bake Oven. My mom said if I wanted to bake, I could use the big oven. That’s not the point, Mom! And this year we are traveling right before Christmas, which is our Big Gift for everyone this year and it better suffice come Christmas Day. I think it will be fine, my kids are teenagers and getting ready to move out, so we really are in the memory making stage.

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