Here are some photos from Prince William and Kate’s first appearance in Boston on Wednesday afternoon. It appears that they were able to land in Boston without some big tarmac greeting, so they likely had the chance to check into a hotel and get cleaned up. Kate wore an Alexander McQueen pantsuit in a dark purple-navy (depending on the lighting, it could go either way). Kate has this exact suit in several colors, including white and pink. To be fair, it’s a good suit – I’m glad she has it in multiple colors, because it’s one of the most flattering and professional looks she’s worn in recent years. She paired the suit with some sapphire-and-diamond jewelry. Upon their arrival, William’s office released a “personal statement” about his first visit to America in eight years.

“Catherine and I are delighted to be back in the United States and are extremely grateful to Governor Baker and The First Lady of Massachusetts for their warm welcome into Boston,” he said. “On this, our first overseas visit since the death of my grandmother, I would like to thank the people of Massachusetts and particularly of Boston for their many tributes paid to the late Queen. She remembered her 1976 bicentennial visit with great fondness.”

“My grandmother was one of life’s optimists. And so am I,” he said. “That is why last year we launched the Earthshot Prize with the ambition to create a truly global platform to inspire hope and urgent optimism as we look to save the future of our planet. To the people of Boston, thank you. I’m so grateful to you for allowing us to host the second year of the Earthshot Prize in your great city. Catherine and I can’t wait to meet many of you in the days ahead.”

The royal couple last came to the U.S. in 2014 for a visit to New York City. They also toured Los Angeles in 2011, their first joint trip to America after getting married in April of that year.

“This is a huge moment for the Prince and Princess — it’s their first visit to the U.S. since 2014, and they’re very excited to be here,” a spokesperson for the couple says.

“It’s fair to say, having spoken to them yesterday following the coverage here in the U.S., that the Prince and Princess were really struck by the warm response of the American people to the news of their trip this week,” the spokesperson continues. “And they’re really looking forward to meeting communities across Boston over the next few days and trying to meet as many folks as possible.”

[From People]

“The warm response” was, from what I saw, a sparse crowd on a rainy Boston day in December, but sure. I also don’t really understand why William had to immediately invoke his dead grandmother as soon as he arrived. “This is our first time traveling since the Queen died!” My dude, you are 40 years old, you shouldn’t beg for a gold star for traveling like a big boy. Also: you took a three-week holiday and no one had any idea where you were. I’m just saying, I doubt this was his first flight since his granny died.

Don’t ask me what’s going on with Kate’s feet either.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Quinta Brunson is one of People’s 2022 People of the Year. Well deserved, I feel. She’s made a great TV show, Abbott Elementary, that is both critically acclaimed and wildly popular. She acted immediately to make the popularity matter by getting school supplies to schools and raising the profile of many comedians. She’s been true to her hometown of Philadelphia and shown it in the best light possible. In her People interview she talks about Abbott, her confidence, and her upbringing. One thing she doesn’t talk about much? Her husband Kevin Jay Anik, whom she married in 2021. But that’s by design because Quinta wants to keep her marriage “sacred and safe.”

Her name means ‘fifth’ in Spanish: My name’s really simple. I’m the fifth child, and my parents [Norma Jean and Rick Brunson] weren’t necessarily creative, but I love it. My siblings [brothers Kwei and Kalid and sisters Njia and Kiyana] all have real names that mean things, and they have a lot to live up to. My name is just a number, and I could decide it meant whatever I wanted.

Instagram changed her life: I was doing improv around L.A. and broke. Very, very, very broke. A hearty meal was a banana and a Cup Noodles. If I could get both or get two bananas in one day, I was doing well. I was working at [an] Apple [Store], but I still loved comedy so much. At the time SNL was kind of a goal. Then Instagram added video. I loved making my friends laugh, and then it took off, and that kind of changed my life.
She’s always been confident: I think it’s always been there. I was a very confident kid. My parents always taught me to look at people and situations like everything’s equal. Nothing seems too intimidating to not be confident. I think the most intimidating situation I was in recently was meeting Malala [Yousafzai, the Pakistani education rights activist].

On doing Oprah justice in Weird: When the script got sent to my agent, and they said Daniel Radcliffe was playing Weird Al, I was like, “Yeah, I would love to come hang with him.” And then they said Oprah, and I was like, “Whoa, hold on!” But I read it and thought I could do it justice. It wasn’t too serious, but it also wasn’t too dumb, because I didn’t want to insult Oprah or tarnish her legacy. The movie is so stupid, and I say that in the best way. I love dumb comedies. Austin Powers in Goldmember was my favorite movie growing up. My mom wanted to burn the DVD. She hates stupid stuff.

Husband Kevin is off limits: I don’t talk about my relationship that often, because it’s something that I like to keep sacred and safe. Nor do I bring him out to be analyzed or attacked by the world. We’ve had such a year together. He truly has been by my side and supportive every step of the way, so for him to be there with me at the Emmys and help me up to get my award and to be able to thank him was so special.

This tearful fan encounter: I don’t go out that much to public places. I have a little bit of social anxiety that I’m working through. The biggest risk I’ll take is Universal Studios, ’cause I kind of feel like that’s my turf, even though I have no right to say that. But I had a really interesting fan interaction at a party recently, where a girl came up to me and said she had a friend she was watching Abbott with before she passed away. One of the things her friend asked her to do was to finish the show. And now I’m crying at this party. Part of me was like, “Why would you tell me that right now?” But also I’m so happy she did. It put into perspective what a good comedy can do. The best thing I can hear is that it’s bringing people together.

[From People]

I remember people were shocked to learn Quinta was married. I also remember there was some rumbling on Twitter about the fact that Kevin is white. I didn’t know Quinta was married or anything about Kevin, but I wasn’t shocked when I found out. Because I don’t know anything about Quinta besides her work and what I’ve come to learn in interviews. She really does keep her personal life on lockdown. For instance, she was asked again about the bit in which Jimmy Kimmel stayed “passed out” on stage during her Emmy acceptance speech. Once again, she was truly unbothered by it primarily because of her friendship with Kimmel. I had no idea they were such good friends prior to her success, either. It’s funny how much familiarity we assume when we like a person’s work so much.

Also, I posted the quote about Quinta playing Orpah in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story to give that movie another shoutout. She’s great as Oprah, it’s a great romp, watch it if you can. I love Quinta’s description of the script. She’s spot on.

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Photo credit: People, Instagram and Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon

Aaron Taylor-Johnson is the “frontrunner” to be the next James Bond?? [LaineyGossip]
Rebel Wilson didn’t include plus-sizes in her clothing line. [Dlisted]
Review of Leopard Skin. [Pajiba]
Alyssa Milano gives an update on Who’s the Boss? [Seriously OMG]
Sad clown loser Dr. Oz wants his daytime show back. [Jezebel]
I cannot wait for Severance Season 2! [Go Fug Yourself]
Meghann Fahy is the breakout star of The White Lotus! [Gawker]
Chris Hemsworth looks ripped. [Just Jared]
Kourtney Kardashian is shilling sleep supplements. [Egotastic]
Non-Americans are always shocked by 24-hour stores and chicken & waffles. [Buzzfeed]
Taylor Russell wore vintage Gucci. [RCFA]
Team USA beat Team Iran in the World Cup! [Towleroad]

Prince Harry is currently suing the British government and the Met Police over their refusal to provide his family with security when the Sussexes are in the UK. Harry has repeatedly offered to pay the security costs back to the police, but they refuse. The Daily Mail and several royal commentators have taken the position that Harry is “arrogant” for wanting armed police protection of his family during visits, and that security should follow rank and not threat. It’s all been extremely idiotic and one of the most aggravating examples of how the British media gaslights the Sussexes. The media gaslighters would have people believe that Harry and Meghan are being “above their station” (meaning “uppity”) for believing that they face horrendous security threats in the UK. Well, the former assistant commissioner for the Met Police now says that Meghan was targeted directly by right-wing racists:

Meghan Markle’s life in London wasn’t exactly a fairytale. In a new interview with Channel 4 News, the former head of counterterrorism for the Metropolitan Police said that there were genuine threats to the Duchess of Sussex’s life while she lived in the U.K.

Neil Basu opened up about the alarming allegations amid his resignation as Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations for the Met Police in an interview released Tuesday. Basu, 54, is leaving the force after 30 years, during which he earned the Queen’s Police Medal for distinguished service and served as the senior-most officer for the counterterrorism unit of the Met Police starting in March 2018 — two months before Meghan and Prince Harry’s royal wedding.

“You were in charge of royal protection. How would you characterize the threats that Meghan and Harry received?” journalist Cathy Newman asked in a quick clip shared on Twitter.

“Well, disgusting and very real,” Basu replied, calling extreme right-wing terrorism the “fast-growing threat” to the country.

“But there were many serious, credible threats against Meghan, were there? Emanating from the far-right?” Newman chimed in.

“Absolutely, and if you’d seen the stuff that was written and you were receiving it… the kind of rhetoric that’s online, if you don’t know what I know, you would feel under threat all of the time,” he replied.

When asked if the Duchess of Sussex’s life was genuinely threatened more than once, Basu had a frightening reply. “Absolutely. We had teams investigating it. People have been prosecuted for those threats,” he said.

Basu was the senior-most officer of color in the Met Police and said elsewhere in the Channel 4 interview that he was turned down from running the National Crime Agency because of his outspoken views on diversity and inclusion, The Guardian reported.

[From People]

I believe it, and over the years, there have been legitimate reports about various charges and criminal trials for people who made credible threats against the Sussexes and even plotted to do violent harm to Harry and Meghan. The online hate is likely only a drop in the bucket of the real-world danger for the Sussexes. And remember this too – even with all of these credible threats against Harry and Meghan (mostly Meghan), the Met Police and the Windsors still didn’t give royal protection to Archie. Also remember that even with years of steadily increased hatred and racist abuse towards the Sussexes, the Windsors and the British government still signed off on pulling the Sussexes’ protection suddenly in March 2020.

“There were many serious, credible threats against Meghan Markle emanating from the far-right?”

“Absolutely.”

Former head of counter terrorism for the Met Police, Neil Basu, tells @cathynewman about the “disgusting and very real” threats Prince Harry and Meghan Markle faced. pic.twitter.com/JPqfBFaCDO

— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) November 29, 2022

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

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I wrote about Elf on the Shelf back in December 2018. For anyone unfamiliar, this is a tradition that stems from a children’s book written in 2005. Parents place an Elf around the house the month prior to Christmas who is supposedly doing reconnaissance for Santa Claus. Somehow it became an Instagram opportunity to one up your friends and family about who can stage the Elf performing the cleverest prank instead. Back in 2018 I said, “I think this a fun tradition and if I had the energy, I’d do it,” and then made up some bs excuse about not being inventive enough to come up with ideas for the elves each year. That was a lie. I don’t Elf on the Shelf because I don’t want to and I never have. I don’t know why I told you I did, I must’ve wanted you to like me. I’m not alone. Parents spoke to Yahoo Life about why they don’t do Elf on the Shelf. Only their reasons are a lot deeper than mine, like they feel it’s wrong to use “a spying elf as a behavior management tool” and the fear of eroding trust with the child when they learn the Elf isn’t real.

About a month before Christmas, many children find a new resident in their home: an Elf on the Shelf. By day, the small creatures spend their time watching how children behave. By night, elves fly back to the North Pole to deliver a report, only to return the next morning to resume their watch from a different spot.

Some parents take the tradition to the extreme, spending hours planning how to present their elf each morning and executing their plans every night after their children go to bed.
But other parents resist the idea of the elf entirely, with some citing concerns about using a spying elf as a behavior management tool.

“I don’t love that [my son] would feel he is being evaluated every second of every day,” mom Taylor Bealtells Yahoo Life. “He doesn’t have to perform for us to celebrate the magic of Christmas.”

A key component of the Elf on the Shelf story is that children believe they will get better presents if the elf delivers a good report to Santa. Traci Williams, a board-certified child and family psychologist, says she’s concerned that when elves are used to control a child’s behavior, parents engage in empty threats. They often tell their children that if the elf doesn’t deliver a good report Santa won’t bring them gifts, which never happens. Moreover, the elf is only around for a month so parents need to develop other ways to reinforce good behavior the rest of the year, creating inconsistency. Children may even wonder why they need to behave if the elf isn’t watching them.

Zoe Kumpfmueller has resisted the elf in part because she believes it’s important “to give our children the message that they should try to be on their best behavior all year round, rather than just in the run-up to Christmas.”

Though Williams loves the holidays and believes that family traditions are important, she warns that leaning on a made-up story to control one’s kids “may erode trust and the child might wonder what else you were lying about.” Asking children to accept the elf without question also discourages children to think critically at a time when parents should be encouraging this essential skill.

Another aspect of the Elf on the Shelf tradition she and other moms who spoke to Yahoo Life object to is the great lengths many parents go to create elaborate, Instagram-worthy displays, many of which require pricey props. Parent Sally Allsop warns that over-the-top elfing might not go as expected since it’s hard to stop. “Friends of mine have started it and regretted it.” Another danger according to Allsop: “One [friend] even said her child was getting up at 4 a.m. to see where the elf was.”

[From Yahoo]

These elves are literally an extension of the Santa Claus myth so how is their story different? Santa sees us when we’re sleeping. He’s knows when we’re awake. The implication was Santa could see us all the time and that’s how he made his infamous list. I haven’t read the Elf book but isn’t it just an explanation of how he had eyes on the ground? Almost all the arguments made above against the elves can be made against Santa. Granted I’ll never win any parenting awards, but I absolutely used Santa Claus to my advantage, “Don’t make me call Santa.” “You know Santa can see you, right?” “This close to Christmas, really?” The same goes for the ‘lying’ part, eventually they will find out the truth about Santa, I assume. And the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy and any other childhood invention we told them about. There are parents who feel you shouldn’t tell kids these stories for this very reason, like Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard, and that’s fine. But you can’t single the Elves out.

The article also addressed the peer pressure of Elfing. That’s more relatable, for me at least. I would smash my head into a wall if I had to come up with Elf pranks every day for three weeks before Christmas every year. And my kids would absolutely be the ones up at 4AM looking for the little bastard. One of the moms interviewed sounded just the slightest bit bitter at seeing the lengths her friends go to on these things. I imagine competition to out-Elf each other is fierce. One mom said she said no to the Elf. She told her son, who wanted to know why all the other kids got visited and he didn’t, that he was already so well behaved, he didn’t need one. She thought she was quite cunning, boosting his confidence and all. But you know he rubbed that in the other kids faces at school (after Christmas, of course. When Santa wasn’t watching).

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Robert Pattinson played matchmaker for Taika Waititi & Rita Ora. [OMG Blog]
Glen Powell is ambitious and he wants a bigger breakout. [LaineyGossip]
George Takei & William Shatner: still beefing. [Dlisted]
T&L talk about Naomi Biden’s wedding & TAR on their pod. [Tom & Lorenzo]
A thinkpiece about The Crown’s Season 5. [Pajiba]
James Cameron explains why the Na’Vi peeps are blue. [JustJared]
Kendall Jenner argues that tights are pants. [GFY]
Gwendoline Christie’s styling in Wednesday was gorgeous!! [Buzzfeed]
Kylie Jenner’s Christmas decorations are surprisingly tasteful. [Starcasm]
Russia’s trans community is in danger. [Towleroad]
Kind of forgot that Bella Hadid is a Victoria’s Secret model. [Egotastic]
I agree, caffeine-free Diet Coke is for psychos (like Elon Musk). But I think Diet Coke from the McDonald’s fountain is the far superior version of Coke. [Gawker]

Oprah Winfrey is very rich. Howard Stern is also very rich. Oprah was/is the first Black woman billionaire. Stern is close to being a billionaire too, if he’s not already – his contracts with SiriusXM are worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Oprah has homes in Hawaii and Montecito and probably more? Howard Stern has a huge apartment in New York, a huge spread in the Hamptons and a lot more. They both have working class origins and they are both uniquely American success stories. They should not get involved in a pissing contest about whose wealth is more embarrassing or showy. Oprah is just sitting in Montecito, enjoying her mansion and her kitchen garden while Stern seethes. Apparently, he follows her on Instagram and he thinks she’s flaunting her wealth inappropriately.

Howard Stern is taking Oprah Winfrey to task over showing off her wealth on social media. During the Nov. 28 episode of “The Howard Stern Show” on SiriusXM (via Mediaite), the radio host said that “Oprah’s not embarrassed by her wealth at all” and somewhat lacks self-awareness considering she frequently posts about her wealthy lifestyle despite people struggling out there in the real world.

“It’s f–king mind blowing when you follow her on Instagram,” Stern said. “You see her estates, her gardens, the people who service her and, you know…She’s got servants and, like, people cooking and it’s f–king wild. She knows how to be rich…She kind of likes to show it off, which is something I’m not comfortable with. I don’t think that people should show off their wealth.”

Stern’s radio co-host Robin Quivers pushed back against Stern, claiming Oprah is merely offering a window into her life and “not showing off.”

“Well you gotta be a little self-aware and know that there are people struggling out there, Robin. You got to,” Stern said. “You gotta kind of think about people who don’t have — to eat. You know what I’m saying? I mean, come on. You gotta be a little bit aware of this sh-t… I make a good living, and I’m having trouble watching Oprah. I go, wow. Look what’s going on over there? Her estate is unbelievable. When she goes shopping, she goes shopping in her backyard cause everything is growing back there. There’s a farm back there.”

Later in the episode, Stern was a bit more complimentary toward Oprah when discussing her annual tradition of inviting students from her South African school, The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, to her home for Thankgiving.

“The girls, they are so sweet,” Stern said. “They — I think they believe Oprah’s God because let me tell you, she provides, she gives them an education. She gives them meals, don’t ask. They love her. And it, it’s impressive. I gotta be honest. I mean, you know, it’s real charity work.”

[From Variety]

People are already yelling at Stern for these comments, especially the part about Oprah’s backyard farm. Having a kitchen garden or a small farm isn’t especially elite – for generations, tons of low-income or middle-class people had vegetable gardens or small working farms. In recent decades, the idea of a “backyard kitchen garden” has come to represent a certain kind of socioeconomic elitism though. I think there are worse ways for Oprah to spend her money than “maintaining a small farm in her backyard” and “paying people to cook for her and maintain her farm.” Plus, if you’re following Oprah on social media, you want to see how she lives – she’s not “flaunting” her lifestyle anymore or any less than most Instagram influencers or “people who are good at Instagram.” It’s aspirational, not a documentary on the Great Depression.

And yes, there’s a racial element to this as well. Stern is an intelligent man most of the time, but he has a racial bias here, of “how dare a Black woman be rich and live well.”

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Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instagram.

Will Smith is currently promoting Emancipation, which will stream on AppleTV. It’s his passion project, and Apple put a lot of money into the production. Emancipation was on track, earlier this year, to be another Oscar-bait film and tour-de-force performance from Smith. Then on March 27th, Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on stage at the Oscars and people in Hollywood have convinced themselves that the slap was simply the worst thing any actor has ever done. Keep in mind, Babylon will still have a huge Oscar campaign, complete with “Oscar buzz” for Brad Pitt, a man credibly accused of violently assaulting and terrorizing his then-wife and six children on a plane. But sure, the slap. In any case, Will’s promotional tour is already an extension of his post-Oscars apology tour. Last night, Will did his first big TV interview – with Trevor Noah on The Daily Show. Wouldn’t have been my choice for his first interview, but here we are.

Will Smith made his return to late-night television on Monday when he appeared on The Daily Show With Trevor Noah for the first time since he slapped Chris Rock on the Dolby Theatre stage at this year’s Oscars. When Noah asked the Academy Award winner about his journey in the months since the slap incident, Smith began by saying that it was “a horrific night.”

“[There are] many nuances and complexities to it, you know, but at the end of the day, I just, I lost it, you know,” Smith told Noah. “I guess what I would say, you just never know what somebody’s going through.”

He continued by explaining that he was going through something that night, not that that “justifies my behavior at all.”

“You’re asking, what did I learn? And it’s that we just got to be nice to each other man,” Smith said. “You know, it’s like, it’s hard. And I guess the thing that was most painful for me is, I took my hard and made it hard for other people. You know, it’s like, I understood the idea when they say hurt people hurt people.”

Noah said he had a friend call him, saying he felt they saw the real Smith onstage that night, but Noah disagreed, saying he thought the actor just stood up for the wrong thing at the wrong time. The Daily Show host continued that things were becoming “relentlessly sh-tty” and Smith reacted for the first time.

“It was a lot of things,” the actor said. “It was the little boy that watched his father beat up his mother, you know, is that you know, all of that just bubbled up in that moment. You know, I just that’s not who I wanna be.”

When Noah told Smith he thinks he made a mistake and doesn’t think that’s who the actor is, The Daily Show audience cheered, and Smith began tearing up. Later in the conversation, he explained that he had a lot of rage that had been bottled up for a long time.

“I had to forgive myself for being human,” Smith said. “Trust me, there’s nobody that hates the fact that I’m human more than me. And just finding that space for myself within myself to be human. It’s like, I want, I’ve always wanted to be Superman. I’ve always wanted to swoop in and save the damsel in distress, you know. And I had to humble down, you know, and realize that I’m a flawed human, and I still have an opportunity to go out in the world and contribute in a way that fills my heart, and hopefully helps other people.”

In an interview with Washington D.C.’s Fox affiliate ahead of his Daily Show appearance, Smith said he “completely” respects if audiences aren’t ready to see him in his upcoming film Emancipation, but that his “deepest hope” is that his actions during the 2022 Academy Awards “don’t penalize my team.”

“I completely understand that, if someone is not ready. I would absolutely respect that and allow them their space to not be ready,” Smith told Fox 5.

[From THR]

I thought Will was right to apologize in the immediate wake of the slap, and he did so multiple times – he apologized to his family, he apologized to Chris Rock, he apologized to the Academy and the Oscars audience. Whether or not individuals accept his apology and move on, that’s up to them. But after seven, eight months? It’s giving Janet Jackson-at-the-2004-Super-Bowl. The powers that be are making an example out of a Black artist. There are too many people exhibiting performative and selective outrage about this sh-t. I wish Will would say that, although I know he won’t. He feels so guilty and his guilt is what the industry is exploiting. At some point, I hope he just says “it is what it is, I f–ked up but it doesn’t have to define my life from here.”

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

Ah, yes – another piece in the wall-to-wall panicked previews of the Prince and Princess of Wales’s three-day trip to Boston. Kensington Palace continues to emphasize that this is merely a “trip” and not a “tour.” Meanwhile, the royal rota continues to emphasize that they’re disappointed in the lack of glamour and headline-grabbing events during William and Kate’s trip. So here we are, with yet another preview, this time in the Telegraph. The lede here is hilarious: William and Kate will not “be distracted” by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. As in, Harry and Meghan’s mere existence in America is potentially a huge “distraction” for the Waleses but they will stay strong and keen. Interestingly, I wonder if the American media covering their trip will adhere to a “no questions about those Montecito distractions” rule. Some highlights from the Telegraph:

American hearts & minds: For the Prince and Princess, the Boston trip is a big moment, their first overseas visit since taking on their new roles and a critical opportunity to whip up more of an international buzz around the Earthshot Prize. Both royal and government sources privately acknowledge that it also offers the chance to reposition the Royal family in American hearts and minds, casting them in their own light rather than the racist, neglectful version peddled by the Sussexes.

The trip wasn’t planned with the Sussexes in mind: However, a foreign office source insisted that the visit had not been planned with the Montecito-based couple in mind. “The Palace team are highly cognizant of Meghan and Harry, but equally, they’re not scared of their shadows on this,” they said. “William is the future King. Harry has taken his path, she’s doing her podcast, they’ve got their issues, but the palace isn’t going to run scared of that, so kudos to them.”

The first Earthshot Prize was a big, dumb snooze: The inaugural Earthshot Prize was held in London last year and while it was hailed a great success, it did not generate significant attention abroad. “America is your best chance of projecting it internationally,” the source said. “That was the logic behind wanting to do it in Boston.”

The global brand of the Waleses: Hannah Jones, the chief executive of the Earthshot Prize, told The Telegraph: “Our goal is to become a global brand and we are one year into it. It’s very early days and it’s quite incredible the amount of momentum we have already got. We’re just building up. Think of it like a flywheel. You know, Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

The Kennedys: By chance, just days after the Prince and Princess join forces with President Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy, and grandson, Jack Schlossberg, in Boston, an opposing branch of the political dynasty will be lauding the Sussexes with a prestigious humanitarian award.

The Sussexes are super-busy in December: In the battle for hearts and minds, it seems the Waleses may only have a small window. On Tuesday evening, Meghan will speak at an event in Indianapolis, for which guests have paid $5,000 for a table for ten. The Power of Women: An Evening with Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex, will involve an interview conducted by Rabbi Sandy Sasso, the first female Reconstructionist rabbi. Members of the media are banned and those buying tickets must confirm that none of their guests work in the field. On the following Tuesday, December 6, the Sussexes will receive their humanitarian award from Kerry Kennedy. Two days later, their Netflix documentary, which the Duchess says will tell their “love story”, is released.

William is solely focused on Earthshot: He will not let any noise from the Sussex camp drown it out, as one well-placed source made clear. “Our number focus next week is the Earthshot Prize and we won’t be distracted by other things,” they said.

[From The Telegraph]

Here’s the thing: the Keens weren’t interested in being a global brand until they saw the Sussexes build their global brand. The Keens want the superficiality of a “global brand” without doing the work and without being interesting/hard-working public figures. They literally want to show up in Boston and be hailed as “better than the Sussexes” while doing next to nothing. I’m also incredibly curious about what American media will be allowed at William and Kate’s events – one way in which the Boston trip could fail miserably is for the Keens to treat this like they treat royal tours, with every event being done solely for their domestic audience, i.e. the British tabloid media. There’s probably a huge concern that if they hand out media credentials to American and international outlets, suddenly the Sussexes will be a huge “distraction” because those are the questions they’ll be asked and that’s where the interest is.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

The Daily Beast’s Royalist column has yet another preview of Prince William and Kate’s Boston trip. It wasn’t written by Tom Sykes (who is the self-styled “royalist”) – it’s written by Clive Irving, who uses the preview to bitch and moan about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex AND King Charles. Irving presupposes, bizarrely, that William and Kate are truly the modern face of the monarchy and that everything they touch will be golden, unlike Charles, Meghan and Harry. The framing is bizarre, that’s all I’ll say. Anyway, I continue to be fascinated with the preview coverage, so here we go – some highlights:

The Flop Tour: Royal visits abroad became subject to new scrutiny earlier this year when William and Kate made an official royal tour of the Caribbean with consequences that went viral. William was nonplussed and embarrassed when confronted with the record of slavery in Britain’s Caribbean colonies and demands for reparations. This couldn’t simply be blamed on poor briefing by those who initiated the tour: William had one of the best educations of any royal. The fiasco led to renewed calls to follow the example of Barbados and remove British monarchs as the head of state. As a result, the Palace has been at pains to stress that the Boston trip is just that, a trip, and not a royal tour—a spin that unwittingly suggests that some people in the Palace might still feel it necessary to avoid the impression that America remains susceptible to colonial-style glad-handing.

The faces of the modern monarchy: William now arrives as the immediate heir and that, in turn, means that he has been enlisted in his father’s program that promises to “modernize” the monarchy and, since William and Kate are by far the most convincing faces of change, they will bring that role and message to America. The problem is that the more they create the impression of their own relevance—which they will—the more aware we become of the anachronisms of King Charles III. There is, for example, the pose that Charles chose to mark officially becoming the Ranger of Windsor Great Park.

The Keens’ innate glamour: Whether William and Kate, with their innate glamour and clearly serious intent to do good works, can ever really serve as an effective counter to the shallow window-dressing that so far serves as the “reforms” of King Charles III is open to question. But William’s appearance in Boston comes at a time when the new season of the Netflix series The Crown presents him in a deeply sympathetic light, enduring the toxic fallout from his parents’ wreck of a marriage with a stoicism ahead of his years.

Oh so William & Kate do love celebrities after all: The Friday night Earthshot awards ceremony is being billed as William’s “Superbowl moment.” It will open with clips showing the achievements of previous award winners, narrated by the father of all environmental crusaders, David Attenborough, as well Cate Blanchett, Caroline Kennedy and her son, Jack Schlossberg. Headline performers include Billie Eilish, Annie Lennox, Ellie Goulding and Chloe.x.Halle—a lineup that concentrates celebrity halo effect like no other. That will surely eclipse in production standards and credibility the event in Manhattan four days later when Meghan and Harry receive their Ripple of Hope accolade.

[From The Daily Beast]

Irving’s complaint about King Charles appointing himself the Park Ranger of Windsor Great Park is… odd. I’m including the image and announcement below. Does it look out-of-touch? Yes. Does it seem hilariously narcissistic that Charles keeps “appointing” himself to all of these fancy positions? Yes. But is Charles’s narcissism and elitism so divergent from that of William and Kate? William and Kate… who have five homes on record, who show up empty-handed to visit refugees? William, whose staff created an awards scheme and spent more than the award grants on his embiggening campaign? William and Kate who disappear for weeks and months at a time with zero events on their schedule?

It’s also so strange to me that there would be a direct comparison between Earthshot and the Ripple of Hope Award as far as “production value.” Like, it’s not a flex to say that William is burning through donor money to produce an “awards show” for environmentalism. It’s also not a flex to point out that William was so desperate for some big, fancy “thing” to compete with his brother – the same brother who is so iconoclastic that he’s being given an award for standing up to racism within the royal family.

The King has officially become Park Ranger of Windsor Great Park, 70 years after his father, The Duke of Edinburgh, was appointed to the post.

The Ranger offers guidance to the Deputy Ranger and his team in the day-to-day stewardship of one of the country’s oldest estates. pic.twitter.com/yNLMwfOLoa

— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) November 14, 2022

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