Genie Bouchard covers the new issue of FLARE. It’s been almost a year since Genie made it to the Wimbledon final. As you know, she lost. And she was devastated. She was also criticised for the way she reacted afterwards. Here’s how she explains it now, with some perspective:

“I’m very hard on…      

Genie Bouchard covers the new issue of FLARE. It’s been almost a year since Genie made it to the Wimbledon final. As you know, she lost. And she was devastated. She was also criticised for the way she reacted afterwards. Here’s how she explains it now, with some perspective:

“I’m very hard on…      

If today feels like a holiday, you’re not imagining things. After a busy weekend that saw “the fight of the century,” the birth of a new British princess and an epic Game of Thrones episode, people are sort of taking a pop-culture breather today in preparation for the onslaught tonight. The annual Met Gala is happening tonight in NYC. The theme – which was announced months ago – is “China: Through the Looking Glass.” Actually, that theme replaced the first announced theme, “Chinese Whispers: Tales of the East in Art, Film and Fashion.” Likely because “Chinese Whispers” has a negative connotation.

My first thought was that Anna Wintour is actively looking to court Chinese designers and most importantly, Chinese money. There’s a thirst for overpriced designer clothes and accessories in China, and Wintour is smart to court Chinese designers and Chinese money in a big way. But… there is a concern that the theme will lead to some big, BIG problems. Problems like… cultural appropriation, if not outright racism (accidental or otherwise). There are several women invited to this year’s Met Gala who already have a problem with cultural appropriation, like Katy Perry and Lady Gaga. I’m also sort of worried about what Beyonce will do. There are also concerns that the focus on Chinese influences specifically will lead to some disasters when women arrive in, say, Indian or Japanese or Korean-influenced outfits because some Westerners don’t know the difference.

Fashionista did a big breakdown of what celebrities should avoid tonight, like “heavy ‘Oriental’-looking makeup” and “chopsticks in hair.” For real? People actually have to be told not to wear outright costumes? People have to be told not to “dress up” as a racist stereotype? Yes… this is going to be a disaster. The worst thing to happen to Chinese people since…Rupert Murdoch? Yes, Murdoch’s ex-wife Wendi Deng-Murdoch is one of the official chairs of the event, along with Jennifer Lawrence, Gong Li and Marissa Mayer. It’s going to be so messy you guys. We’ll have full coverage of the Met Gala all day tomorrow.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Mad Men Season 7 Episode 12 recap

You know, last week Matthew Weiner gave an interview about the endless analysis (hi Matthew!) of the show, and dealing with people who don’t like where he’s taken the last seven episodes, and basically saying people who want to complain should get their own s…      

I know Chad Coleman as the recently departed Tyreese of The Walking Dead. He also played Cutty on The Wire. Coleman recently had a bit of a meltdown on a NY subway train after he overheard two people talking about him. They realized he looked familiar and one of them said “No, we don’t know that n-word.” That seemed to set Coleman off because he then started pacing and yelling loudly to the entire train “My name is Chad L. Coleman. I’m on The Wire, The Walking Dead… Yes I’m an actor… I want to know where my humanitarians are? Where is your humanitarian?!” which makes no sense. I would assume he meant to say “where’s your humanity,” but got the words mixed up. He did correct himself toward the end and said “at the end of the day, where’s the humanitarian in you?” It’s good he clarified, because otherwise it sounded like he asked the passengers where their personal humanitarian was. I would like my own humanitarian, a kind of therapist who caters to my needs, like bringing me food while I talk it out. I guess that’s what moms are for. Coleman needs that kind of humanitarian, but I digress.

Coleman got really mad and hoarse as he yelled “If you need to write about it, if you need to record it get your phone out… tell me what the f you expose, nothing but the truth.” We of course know all this because someone did record it, the video is above and on TMZ. Then Coleman calmed down and the guy taping (presumably) told Coleman that he loved The Wire and that Cutty was the best character. Coleman kept trying to explain himself. He said “I”m saying, ‘here I am. That’s what I do. The stories that I tell… I’m just trying to help move forward, evolve.‘” At the ends he adds “I’m telling you, they will always judge who you are… decide that first.”

He sounded kind of wasted to me, but he later told TMZ he “was not drunk,” that he’s sorry to the other cast of The Walking Dead and also sorry to his family. “He’s not proud he couldn’t control his emotions.”

Coleman told TMZ he had “built up frustration” following the the turmoil in Baltimore. It’s been a bad week for so many people, and if someone did call him the N word his tirade makes more sense. It’s still not excusable though. This makes me sad because I loved him on Walking Dead and I’m mad they killed off his character. Judging from this video, he’s not taking it too well either.

Game of Thrones Season 5 Episode 4 Recap

Slightly boring episode this week since there isn’t a strong theme uniting the different narrative threads. We do get to catch up with the agenda down in Dorne—chiefly that Ellaria Sand and the super awesome kickass Sand Snakes are going to f*ck some L…      

Dear Gossips,

The only conversation I want to continue about The Fight is about the coverage. And specifically the two prominent female journalists who’d been critical of Floyd Mayweather and were not initially issued credentials. Several journalists, in fact, were allegedly banned by Team Ma…      

Rick Santorum is a frothy mixture. He’s spent decades as a politician, political figure, political commentator and Republican presidential nominee saying awful things about the LGBTQ community. These statements weren’t just a couple of off-hand remarks in an interview 10 years ago either – as a senator, he used his bully pulpit to pontificate about how homosexual sex acts are not private, gay people should be punished and shunned for being gay and equating LGBTQ people to people who commit bestiality.

What’s the point of all of this? Two things. One, it’s very likely that Santorum is going to run for president again (lucky us, huh?). Two, Santorum answered a question about Bruce Jenner’s transition with a surprising amount of… compassion? Is this real?

Possible Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is weighing in on Bruce Jenner’s transition. After revealing to Diane Sawyer that he is transitioning from a man to a woman, the 65-year-old Olympic gold medalist and parent of six received some “respect” from the conservative politician.

“If he says he’s a woman, then he’s a woman,” Santorum told a group of reporters Saturday at the South Carolina Republican convention. “My responsibility as a human being is to love and accept everybody. Not to criticize people for who they are.”

During his two-hour sit down with ABC News, Bruce also admitted to being a Republican. In fact, he told Sawyer that he would go to House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to help promote the LGBT cause.

“In a heartbeat, why not,” he told Sawyer. “And I think they’d be very receptive to it.”

Santorum, however, has not always been open about LGBT rights. The politician recently made headlines with his strict views on same-sex marriage after saying that he would not attend a same-sex wedding because it “would be a violation of my faith.” But on the topic of Jenner, the 56-year-old urged the public to react in a “compassionate and respectful” manner.

“I can criticize, and I do, for what people do, for their behavior. But as far as for who they are, you have to respect everybody, and these are obviously complex issues for businesses, for society,” he said. “And I think we have to look at it in a way that is compassionate and respectful of everybody.”

[From E! News]

As you might remember, I thought the most shocking thing in Jenner’s 20/20 interview was his admission that he’s a Republican. Which… I mean, his body, his choice and I would assume Jenner’s politics are more about “conservative economics” than anything else. I think it will be interesting to see more potential or actual Republican politicians get questions about transgender Americans. Honestly, I can see a lot of them parsing their words like Santorum. If you really look at what he said, he’s saying that as a Christian, it’s his duty to “love and accept everyone” but as a politician, he would criticize (and punish) transgender and gay people for “their behavior.” So, it’s sort of okay if you’re LGBTQ, just don’t DO anything about it. No transitioning, no gay sex. NEVER!

Photos courtesy of WENN.

SPOILERS!!!!!

Spoilers for last night’s episode of Game of Thrones.

There seems to be a thirst for more Game of Thrones coverage, so let’s get to it. This is not a full-on recap, because while Episode 5.4, “Sons of the Harpy” was jam-packed full of interesting moments, some moments were more interesting than others. So let’s just do some highlights.

Stannis loves his daughter Shireen. I’ll admit it, I cried. I’ve always been sort of a Stannis apologist though. Do I think he’s a perfect leader? No. Do I think he would make an amazing king? No. But he would have made a better king than his brother Robert, and Stannis has hidden depths. I loved that this “hard man,” this warrior, this cold bastard just flat-out adores his little girl.

Stannis doesn’t believe Jon Snow is a bastard. Stannis’s wife: “A bastard by some tavern slut.” Stannis: “Perhaps. But that wasn’t Ned Stark’s way.” O RLY?!?

Jon Snow Knows Nothing. Melisandre tried to seduce Jon Snow. It was sexy, I thought. I mean, it must have been really uncomfortable for Carice van Houten to be naked with a fully dressed Kit Harington, but I liked the way she put his hand on her breast and that he was sort of into it until he thought of Ygritte. Poor Jon Snow and his affection for redheads. When he shut her down and Melisandre stands in the doorway and says “You know nothing, Jon Snow” I literally said “OH MY GOD” to the TV.

Kit Harington on the seduction: “I think that’s how the director wanted it to play out, in a way. There’s a small age difference between me and Carice and that kind of helped it, but it is that—it is quite maternal. He’s got all those mother issues, you know. He’s very Freudian, old Jon. He really does have a thing for redheads, too. And they come on in quick succession!” He also says he “respects” that Jon Snow is “a man of honor and principle and he swears—and has sworn—off women, and that’s because he believes he has a bigger task at hand, and if he falls in love he won’t be able to do that. He also sees Melisandre for the dangerous person that she is, and that’s a tribute to Jon.” You can read more of Kit and Carice’s interview here.

Sansa in the crypt. I like Sansa and I’m actually not tired of her moping around like a sad sack. I think she’s still figuring out how to manipulate people and be a leader. I like the idea of Littlefinger as a mentor/dodgy molester uncle for her because I genuinely think Littlefinger believes in her and wants to help her. Does he have a sketchy agenda? Of course. But he actually sees her potential as a leader, as a potential “wardeness of the North.” I also loved Littlefinger’s story – known to book readers now for years – about Prince Rhaegar presenting Lyanna Stark with the winter roses. Sansa still has the official Stark story of what went down, that Rhaegar kidnapped Lyanna and raped her. The look on Littlefinger’s face tells us that was not actually what happened.

The Sand Snakes. I had been looking forward to the introduction of Prince Oberyn’s daughters but in an already busy episode, I was really disappointed with that scene. I thought it was… poorly written? Which is something I rarely say about GoT. But the dialogue felt really stilted. You can read a new interview with Keisha Castle-Hughes here.

The Sons of the Harpy. I find this guerrilla movement, this insurgency of “The Sons of the Harpy” to be terrifyingly realistic. And it really bugs me that Dany is still so f—king Pollyanna about all of it, especially after the crowd turned on her so powerfully two episodes ago. Well, she won’t be able to stay Pollyanna after the coordinated assault on the Unsullied which left at least two dozen of Dany’s soldiers dead. The fate of Grey Worm is unknown (I think he’s probably alive?) but we now that Ser Barristan the Bold is dead. The actor, Ian McElhinney, gave his exit interview to EW – go here to read. What I love about so many of these exit interviews is that you can just feel how much fun it is on the GoT set, and how so many of these actors just love their jobs.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Here is the June cover of Vanity Fair. Thankfully, it’s not a dead celebrity! HUZZAH. No, VF got a major exclusive with JJ Abrams on the set of Star Wars. The cover is pretty great – just seeing Harrison Ford in his Han Solo costume is enough to make me weak at the knees. I still maintain that Chewy has been buffed, polished and tweaked into oblivion, and I’m so disappointed in that. Chewy, you were naturally beautiful! You didn’t NEED the eye work. Also featured on the cover: the two leads, John Boyega and Daisy Ridley. I feel like Daisy might be playing a Skywalker/Solo? You can see all of the newly released photos here.

Annie Leibovitz came to the set to take photos, and we’re also getting our first real look at Adam Driver’s black-clad character, plus a sad confirmation on Lupita Nyong’o’s character. Here’s the spoiler: we won’t be seeing Lupita’s lovely face in Star Wars. She wore “CGI tracking dots” and she’s playing a “purely animated character” in the film. That sucks!! Why wouldn’t Lupita’s face “fit” into the Star Wars world? I’m including the video below.

Also: JJ Abrams reveals to VF that he killed off JarJar Binks, the terrible patois-speaking idiot character from Star Wars Episode I. Abrams tells VF: “I have a thought about putting Jar Jar Binks’s bones in the desert there. I’m serious! Only three people will notice, but they’ll love it.” Abrams also says that people “literally cried” when they walked onto the Millennium Falcon for the first time. Yeah… I might do that. I might cry. You can read more here are VF.

Cover courtesy of Vanity Fair, still courtesy of @StarWars Twitter.