As of this moment, I’m four episodes into The Crown Season 5. I’m surprised by what’s already been covered and what hasn’t, and I’m struck yet again by how much of the show will piss off the Windsors. The almost-casual way that Peter Morgan deconstructs the Windsors’ awfulness, their selfishness, their inherent uselessness. It’s incredible. While I loved the second episode, “The System,” about Diana’s collaboration with Andrew Morton on Diana: Her True Story, I was fascinated by Peter Morgan’s choice to introduce such an extensive background on Mohamed Al-Fayed in the third episode, “Mou Mou.”

In “Mou Mou,” what Morgan did so well was so people who were considered peripheral to the Windsors’ story – and Diana’s story in particular – when really these peripheral characters expose so much about the racism, carelessness and selfishness of the royals. Mohamed Al-Fayed had been trying to buy his way into British establishment legitimacy for decades, only to be constantly rebuffed and looked down upon. Before now, I had no idea about the life and times of Sydney Johnson either – Johnson was born in the Bahamas, and he began working for the Duke of Windsor when he (Sydney) was just 16 years old. Edward taught him how to be a royal valet, and Johnson served Edward to his last days. Wallis fired Johnson soon after her husband’s passing, and years later, Johnson and Al-Fayed became acquainted, and Al-Fayed hired him as not only a personal valet, but someone who could help him restore Villa Windsor in France.

The story of Sydney Johnson and Al-Fayed is one of outsiders treating each other with dignity, respect and grace all while their societal “betters” treat everyone they encounter like garbage. It struck me as I watched “Mou Mou” that THIS story was worse for the Windsors than any cold recitation of the tampon phone call. Morgan was brilliant for putting Diana with Al-Fayed at the horse show too – it showed the ease with which Diana charmed everyone, and how it came to be that Diana had so much affection for Al-Fayed and he with her. They were both fundamentally outsiders, drawn to each other.

Also: Peter Morgan gave humanity to Dodi Al-Fayed too. He wasn’t just a plus-one in the story of Diana’s final days. Dodi was beloved by his father. Father and son would have done anything for each other. Dodi was there, with Diana, because his father asked him to be there.

Photos courtesy of Netflix/The Crown.

On Tuesday, Norway’s Princess Martha formally stepped down or stepped away from her royal life. She will no longer do royal duties, nor will she have royal patronages. This has been more of a gradual thing, especially when it comes to Martha’s commercial interests. The family has tried to limit her use of her royal styling and title on her side-businesses and side-projects, most of which involve holistic medicine, angels, shamans. The catch is that Martha was only made to step down from her royal role until after she got engaged to Shaman Durek Verrett, a Black American man. Verrett has been very direct about how he has felt unwelcome in Norway and unwelcome in the Norwegian royal world. I was unsure about how all of this would play out, but I had to give the House of Glücksburg some credit – they made a big show of making it seem like everyone was on the same page. I thought Martha and Shaman Durek would be the ones to spill the tea, but no – Queen Sonja is the one saying some shady sh-t.

Queen Sonja of Norway is speaking out on a big change for her daughter. The 85-year-old Queen and her husband, King Harald, addressed the press after their daughter Princess Märtha Louise announced this week that she would be exiting her royal role. In a press conference on Tuesday, Queen Sonja said that Americans fail to grasp the gravity of monarchy’s significance ahead of her 51-year-old daughter marrying her American fiancé, Shaman Durek — before adding that he is a “great guy.”

“Americans have no idea what a kingdom is. So it’s no wonder he doesn’t realize,” Sonja said, according to Hello! Magazine. “Americans don’t understand the bearing of this here. They don’t. He thought he could do whatever he wanted without compromising us at all,” she continued, before adding that Princess Märtha Louise’s step back from royal life fits everyone’s best interests.

“Even if we disagree on things, we are happy with each other,” Queen Sonja said. “I have the feeling that the family is now very close to each other in a new, nice way,” she continued, adding that Durek, a Los Angeles-based spiritual guide and healer, is a “great guy” and “very fun to be with.”

In similar sentiments, King Harald, 85, said he was “sorry that the princess will no longer represent the royal house” and that “we agree to disagree,” the Associated Press reported.

“We have looked at this process from all sides,” Queen Sonja stressed. “This has been a unanimous decision.”

[From People]

On one hand, this is much more conciliatory from “the horse’s mouth” than the Windsors would ever allow. Like, King Charles isn’t going on the record in a press conference about “we agree to disagree with the Sussexes, but we still love them and they’re still family.” Charles would be wise to do something like that, btw.

As for what Queen Sonja says about how “Americans have no idea what a kingdom is” – I mean… we have some notion, I think the average American has a Disney-level understanding of monarchy. Once we learn about what is actually happening within monarchies, we don’t really get it. I write about royalty all the time and there are moments when my American-ness jumps out and I really don’t get it either – why would anyone choose to live in these f–ked up families? Why are these royals refusing to modernize? Why are they so incapable of breaking these endless cycles of dysfunction and family trauma? Why not give back all of your stolen loot? Do you know how dumb it is to throw out your most charismatic royal stars just because you’re jealous??

Photos courtesy of Martha’s IG and Marius Gulliksrud / Stella Pictures / Avalon.

The midterm elections were bad for Donald Trump at almost every level. Trump’s dream of a red wave propelling his 2024 re-election is now dead in the water. There was no red wave, and many of the Trump-endorsed candidates lost, sometimes not even in particularly tight races. Worse yet, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis won reelection handily and DeSantis is now being touted as the face of the new, post-Trump Republican Party. DeSantis isn’t any better or worse than Trump, he’s just… Trump-as-Florida-governor. All of the same evil policies, all of the same racism and misogyny, just in a different package.

The NY Times ran a sad-sack story about Trumpland post-election and how Trump’s efforts were all for naught. Maggie Haberman co-authored the piece, which means that the actual awful destructiveness of everything around Trump was soft-pedaled to the extreme, almost as if the Times’s official position on Trump is set to “wistful longing.” Other political reporting went a bit deeper, thankfully. From ABC News:

Bigly fuming: Sources close to Trump described him as “fuming” at his Mar-a-Lago estate Tuesday night as GOP candidates he had backed started to lose or underperform. In addition, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ strong performance in Trump’s adopted home state was a wakeup call for some Trump advisers, sources said. DeSantis, seen as a potential 2024 presidential rival for Trump, easily won reelection. “This is a sinking ship,” one top Trump adviser told ABC News. “We’re not going to beat that.”

The dawn of the DeSantis era: “This was the end of the Trump era and the dawn of the DeSantis era,” a Republican operative close to the Trump orbit told ABC News. “Like every other Trump catastrophe, he did this to himself with stupid and reckless decisions.”

Bigly unhappy with Melania: Sources say Trump has been angry with his wife, Melania, and Fox News host Sean Hannity, for pushing Trump to endorse Oz. The former president is also blaming aides for misguiding him on some of his other endorsements.

The saddest treason war-room: As the results came in, the phones of Trump’s top political aides began ringing off the hook — and by the end of the night only a handful of aides remained around him, sources told ABC News. As the night progressed, Trump told top aides he wasn’t particularly interested in addressing the crowd he had gathered there, although he did end up speaking for a few minutes, telling the crowd that the numbers were “amazing” so far.

When he’ll announce his 2024 run: Trump announced on Monday that he planned to make a “big announcement” next week about plans for his 2024 presidential run. Some close to Trump told ABC News they hope the vague nature of the statement could give him an escape hatch should he decide not to run. But others who have spoken with Trump say he’s unlikely to renege on his plans because he’s spent the last two years teasing a run, official announcement or not. “Hard to back out now,” one adviser said.

[From ABC News]

I’m sorry, but he’s going to announce his candidacy for 2024 just because it would be too tough to renege on his bigly plans? That’s some Elon Musk-esque strategizing. “I can’t actually afford to buy Twitter for $44 billion but I also don’t want to admit that I’m broke-ass, so sure, I’ll buy it!” And now we’ve got “I know no one wants what I have to offer but I’m going to run for president anyway, just because I can’t admit that I suck!” I’m also just… shocked? Shocked that Melania would even chime in about Dr. Oz, shocked that Trump’s advisors are admitting that the SS Hamberder Fart Machine is dead in the water. Shocked that DeSantis managed to outmaneuver Trump so effectively too.

LOL, inject this into my veins:

This adviser said it’s unlikely Trump would delay his expected presidential announcement because “it’s too humiliating to delay.” But the adviser said there are too many unknowns at this point.

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) November 9, 2022

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.

I didn’t know Broke shields had a podcast. I should probably assume everyone has a podcast and just be surprised to find out when they don’t at this point. I love Brooke, though, and her openness about her issues with her stage-manager mom Teri, her postpartum depression, her objectification at a young age and the issues growing up in the spotlight has helped countless people, myself included. On Tuesday’s episode of Now What? With Brooke Shields, she talked about telling the world she was a virgin back in 1985. My gawd, I remember that. It was the 80s so you told your parents you were a virgin, but you told you friends you’d “totally done it.” The truth was somewhere in there. But the media definitely pushed the idea that we were all getting plowed in the upstairs guest room at a high school kegger. When Brooke announced she was a virgin after Pretty Baby and her Calvin Klein ads, it was, in fact, shocking. And a pain in the neck for Brooke, apparently. She said that her intention for the admission was to support girls who felt pressured by their boyfriends. The fallout was having to wear the title of the Most Famous Virgin in the World everywhere she went.

Brooke Shields doesn’t regret any of her past — but she might rethink publicly disclosing that she was a virgin.

On Tuesday’s episode of her iHeart podcast, Now What? With Brooke Shields, the veteran actress and model answered friend Ali Wentworth’s question about whether Shields had many any “poor choices” as a young person.

“I mean, I think it was, in hindsight, a bit of a mistake for me to be so open about my virginity because it never left me alone,” Shields said.

She said the topic had come up in a 1985 book that, although it was credited to her, was actually written by someone else. On Your Own is a book of guidance for college-age women, released as Shields herself attended Princeton University. The Pretty Baby star said she had written an in-depth first chapter, but the publisher didn’t want it.

“They wanted a simple, stupid book,” Shields said. “Like, ‘I like leg warmers.’”

Shields addressed her sex life, because she wanted to help others.

“In it, there was one part of a chapter, where I discuss — not abstinence per se — but owning your choice,” she said. “I would get a lot of fan mail from kids saying, ‘Oh, my boyfriend’s pressuring me, and I don’t want to have sex. What do I do? My narrative was, ‘You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.’”

She recalled that it being “very creepy” that she then had to go on talk shows and speak to older men about the topic.

“I became the most famous virgin in the world,” she said. “To be in the line of fire at such a young age in that way, I gained a resilience and it set me up to be ready for anything in this industry which can be difficult.”

[From Yahoo!]

I remember those interviews. Brooke couldn’t talk about anything without having to answer a question about whether she was still a virgin. Each host hoped she’d say, “Nope! Lost it last night,” and bag the exclusive. And everyone just allowed it because she’d brought it up. It makes it so much worse finding out Brooke’s hope was to stand in solidarity with women who didn’t want to be pressured into sex. Every time I want to wax poetic about the 80s I’m reminded of their underbelly. Honestly, I don’t know how any of us, but especially people like Brooke, made it out still standing.

What’s worse is I forgot that when Brooke actually did lose her virginity, it was to Dean Cain. At the time, I was hella jealous because my gawd he was so handsome. But being he’s become such a narrow-minded d*ckhead, I want a do-over for Brooke.

Embed from Getty Images
Photo credit: Robin Platzer/Twin Images/Avalon, UPPA/Avalon and Getty Images

Do you think someone sat down with Kate, the Princess of Wales, and told her that she needs to stop flapping her hands and making crazy-looking expressions when she’s doing events? I think that might have happened because suddenly, Kate is actually making somewhat normal expressions and she’s not freeze-posing so hard. Did someone train her? Did she decide to try something new? It’s a mystery. Here are more photos from Kate’s event on Wednesday, where she visited the Colham Manor Children’s Centre. I didn’t realize this at the time, but it was her inaugural event as patron of the Maternal Mental Health Alliance. So there, she’s also added a new patronage. She even spoke off-the-cuff during the round-table. By that I mean, she didn’t read off of notes, but I’m sure some comments were prepared for her and she memorized them, that’s my guess.

Praising the work of the centre, she said: “You hear time and time again about the stigma associated with reaching out for help.

“…so much of the adversity comes from the lack of connection, whether that’s relationships or your physical connections with people within your community and you’re providing both here, so I think more places like this would be so valuable.”

In a later conversation she added: “People are so isolated and disconnected [so] to be able to come together and feel that they are part of something, the sense of family comes up all the time – feeling like they belong, feeling like they can have trusted people that can listen to them.”

She continued: “It’s so needed in communities across the board, whether that’s talking to the vulnerable, homelessness, or addiction – they need the same as what mums need and if we can try and join the dots within community provision right from the start, ultimately you’re helping that next generation.”

[From Sky News]

Sky News praised her to the hilt for what she said, and her comments amount to “people need a sense of community, people need help.” I also feel like Kate and William’s public comments these days – just in general – always have the feel of some kind of subtweet of Meghan and Harry. Like… Kate is taking about women who feel isolated in their pregnancies and isolated as mothers, you know, just like Kate and the royals isolated Meghan when she was suicidal and begging for help, remember?

Here’s a video from her visit. I’ll give her some credit, she’s gotten a lot better at solo events and speaking in these round-table discussions. I can tell that she’s still got issues with speaking off-the-cuff, but this is a vast improvement from where she was two years ago. The thing with the little boy and the poppy was a set-up. The boy barely knew what was happening.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

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I feel bad because I kind of wrestled this story from CB. We both saw Weird: The Al Yankovic Story and loved it. But I’m a bit of a fangirl for Al (a Weirdling? A Yankook?). His music is fine, but it’s him as a person I get giddy over. Weird Al not only started kindergarten early, he skipped second grade. So he graduated high school – as valedictorian – two years younger than his classmates. And got a BA in architecture from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Cal Poly SLO is a state school, however its architecture program is one of the best in the country. We liberal arts Poly students weren’t allowed in the architecture buildings, we could only steal a peak through the windows and wonder about what was happening in those hallowed halls. (Kidding, we hung outside trying to snag a senior looking to “unwind”.) The point is, Al is a very intelligent and talented man who pursued a degree in architecture at one of the most competitive schools in that field, and ended up with a lucrative musical career no one could have predicted. So how did he get where he is? By standing out. Not vibing with the sports crowd and opting to DJ for the college radio station at Poly rather than getting drunk with the co-eds earned him the derogatory nickname “Weird Al.” Instead of letting them isolate him as the class weirdo, Al reclaimed the word and excelled at being different in a way that made him a five-time Grammy winning, platinum album selling multi-millionaire.

If there’s one thing that “Weird Al” Yankovic knows for sure after four decades in the entertainment business, it’s that weird is the way to go.

“We’re trying to reclaim the word,” Yankovic tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “Historically it’s been sort of a derogatory thing like, ‘Don’t be weird,’ ‘Oh, that person’s weird,’ like it’s bad to be different. No. That’s what you aspire to. You want to be different. You want to stand out from the crowd. What’s the point of doing the same thing everybody else is doing? Come on, be weird!”

The beloved accordion-playing musician and comedian, who first rose to fame in the ’80s with hits like “Eat It” (a parody of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”) and “Like a Surgeon” (inspired by Madonna’s “Like a Virgin”), has won five Grammys and sold more than 12 million albums.

With no plans to retire, Yankovic, who just celebrated his 63rd birthday, says that although there are “people who still don’t get what I’m trying to do or they think I’m a hack,” he is grateful to his devoted fan base for their unwavering support over the years and what he calls a “comfortable” level of fame.

“I feel extremely accepted. I’ve got great fans that’ve followed me for decades, and they’re extremely supportive,” he says. “I don’t have crowds following me on the street or people going through my garbage when I’m sleeping, but every now and then somebody will recognize me and go, ‘Hey, how you doing? What have you done since “Eat It” ‘?”

[From People]

“You want to be different. You want to stand out from the crowd.” It’s true. People want to be unique so much we have to keep coming up with new ways to call ourselves weird. For a while it was ‘quirky’ and now those who want to stand out call themselves the ‘obnoxious one.’ While I appreciate Al’s drive to reclaim the word weird, I doubt we’re ever going to embrace it in the way he hopes. But I agree with what he’s saying and different has always appealed more to me than blending in. And I’m all for doing something that brings you joy. What’s funnier is that Al is a sweet, happily married, respectful vegetarian who is beloved by the musicians whose music he’s parodied. The ‘weirdest’ thing about Weird Al is how normal he is in the crazy business of music.

I can’t really talk about Weird without spoiling it. We were told it was a tongue in cheek look at his life but all I can say is you have no idea. And it’s a flipping riot. You keep thinking it’s going to be cheesy, but it gets funnier instead. The cameos are fantastic, Daniel Radcliffe is a dream and Evan Rachel Wood is darling. The whole thing is just so, well, different.

Lastly, I love that Al took a swipe at Pity Me Musk:

Oh no, they suspended @danielradcliffe‘s Twitter account! Wasn’t it obvious he was doing a PARODY???

— Al Yankovic (@alyankovic) November 7, 2022

Humble beginnings: Did you know that prior to his career-defining role as “Weird Al” Yankovic, actor Daniel Radcliffe appeared in a number of movies about a boy wizard, in which he played the title character? #MovieTrivia

— Al Yankovic (@alyankovic) November 8, 2022

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Photo credit: Instagram, Twitter, Cover Images and Getty Images

The Menu looked like one of the craziest horror-dramas of the season and I was looking forward to eventually seeing it, but then Ralph Fiennes doubled-down on his JK Rowling bullsh-t so I’m wondering if I should skip it. For what it’s worth, Fiennes skipped the UK premiere last night and it looks like the producers are just going to sell the movie on the backs of Anya Taylor Joy and Nicholas Hoult. Fair enough! Take my money!

Anya and Hoult looked kind of amazing together – I know they have relationships with other people, and Hoult has a whole child with his partner, but damn, they’re really pretty together. Tall, beautiful people with cheekbones. Mmm. Hoult wore a fantastic suit by Tom Ford, with a lush velvet dinner jacket, basically. The dark purple looks great, and I love that Tom Ford still dresses Hoult for big premieres and red carpets (they worked together on A Single Man). Meanwhile, Anya wore Alexander McQueen. She has a Dior contract and I’m so used to seeing her in (some of the better) Dior looks, so this threw me for a loop. The color is great and I don’t hate the idea of a leather/vinyl dress, but the cut on this dress is horrible. The gloves… well, gloves are “in” right now. Eh. Anyway, pretty people looking pretty.

Photos courtesy of Justin Ng / Avalon and James Warren / Bang Showbiz / Avalon.

Elisha Cuthbert seems to work pretty steadily on TV and in movies here and there. She had a couple of movies this year and has another in pre-production. She also appears on podcasts and talks about how her reputation as a sex symbol affected her life and career. Elisha was on Rachel Bilson’s podcast over the summer and talked about the pressure from studios to pose for men’s magazines after The Girl Next Door came out. And Elisa just appeared on her old friend Paris Hilton’s podcast to talk again about the pressure of living up to that role and how people make comments about her aging.

Elisha Cuthbert’s role as an ex-porn star in 2004’s The Girl Next Door solidified her reputation as a sex symbol. Now, nearly two decades later, the actress says society still pressures her to live up to that title.

“There was this pressure of, like, maybe the fashion world or whatever saw me as a certain thing when really it was a character,” she told Paris Hilton on Monday’s episode of her podcast, This is Paris, of the attention that came after the movie was released.

Even today, she says it’s rare for people to not bring up the fact that she was once named the “most beautiful woman in television” by men’s publications like Maxim and FHM in the mid-2000s.

“It ends up getting in the bio somehow, and you’re just like, what does that even mean? It’s not really a reflection of me as an artist,” the 24 alum explained. “But on the flip side of it … if that’s what they see and they liked that, too, I’m OK with it. For a long time, I’ve had a lot of disdain for it and wanted to push against it, but I kept getting thrown back into that sort of stereotype. Now I’ve learned to sort of embrace it.”

Though her role in The Girl Next Door “struck a chord with a lot of people,” it’s not something she dwells on in her everyday life.

“I certainly don’t try to keep up with it,” Cuthbert, 39, said. “I would go crazy if I felt like I had to, every time I showed up [to an event], I looked like her. For me it’s not even me, it’s that character. So it seems so strange to live up to a character I played when I was 21.”

Given the impact her role had at the time, Cuthbert says fans refuse to let her age.

“Comments are just so weird. It’s like, ‘Oh you look older!’ Sure I do. That’s the way the world works,” she said. “I’ll be on social media and I’ll see a comment like, ‘Oh, why are you so old now?’ Because I am! Because I’m just older than I was. I’m like, I don’t know what you’re comparing it too. Do you know what I mean? There’s this weird feeling, like, people don’t want to see actors or musicians age in any way. So it’s a sorta strange thing.”

[From Yahoo! Entertainment]

The comments really are weird. Obviously Elisha looks older, that movie was filmed nearly 20 years ago. I don’t know if it’s people not wanting her to age so much as people not used to seeing the natural aging on celebrities. Elisha does not look old by any means, but she does not look as tweaked and ‘toxed as other celebs who try really hard to stave off the aging process. I also wonder if part of it is streaming and the fact that people have may watched Girl Next Door for the first time and then go to check out her social media and are shocked it’s 20 years later. Anyway, I guess it’s good that Elisha isn’t trying to hang on to that character and live up to expectations of her looks based on that. I do think she may actually be the one that keeps bringing up all her men’s magazine accolades. She’s definitely embracing it and possibly putting in the bio herself. It’s been a talking point of hers in two recent podcasts and it kind of seems to me that she has a lower profile than she thinks she does.

Elisha and Paris in 2006

photos credit: Michael Williams and Xavier Collin/Avalon and Insight News and Features, Inc.

Claire Danes looked great at the Fleishman is in Trouble premiere. [Go Fug Yourself]
Carl Sagan was a Scorpio, omg. [Dlisted]
Stylist Law Roach and all of his A-list clients came out to the CFDAs. [LaineyGossip]
$1200 sneakers for a horse? People have too much money. [OMG Blog]
The red wave didn’t happen. [Jezebel]
Is Adam Brody sexy? Eh. [Gawker]
Miles Teller works out in the morning. [Just Jared]
What is Manifest even about? Apparently, religion? [Pajiba]
Mckayla Maroney deserves the world so I won’t say anything about her bangs. [Egotastic]
This week’s funny tweets by ladies. [Buzzfeed]
YouTuber Nikita Dragun was arrested for felony battery. [Starcasm]
I’m so happy that Pennsylvania Democrats got so many big wins! [Towleroad]

It’s so weird that the Princess of Wales has done one public event in the past month and suddenly she’s making a surprise outing today, the same day The Crown Season 5 dropped on Netflix. That’s not a coincidence. I doubt it was Kate’s call, however. This feels more like King Charles ordering his lazy daughter-in-law to go out and do an event, do anything to change the headlines away from The Crown. Good luck to the Windsors on that very obvious play! Even the Daily Mail noted in their coverage of Kate’s event today that The Crown was released today and it has “sent shockwaves” through the royal household. LMAO.

Anyway, Kate visited the Colham Manor Children’s Centre, where she spoke to staff about maternal mental health. It continues to be bizarre that Kate has made “maternal mental health” one of her causes, given how Kate was completely fine with Kensington Palace’s massive smear apparatus attacking the Duchess of Sussex throughout her pregnancies. Concerns about maternal mental health should probably start in your own family, but what do I know.

Kate wore a dark olive coat by Hobbs, which retails for £369. She paired it with “a £625 Jimmy Choo bag and £550 pearl drop earrings from designer Kiki McDonough.” I actually like the coat a lot, and I’ve always thought that Kate looks good in really dark, saturated colors like burgundy, olive and navy. The way she’s wearing the coat though, with the belt loosely tied, it’s reminding me of someone! Gee, I wonder who.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.