Omid Scobie’s Yahoo UK column this week is all about The Crown and the royal establishment’s collective freakout over The Crown. Just yesterday, I was thinking that there had been a strange lull in the freakout, almost as if Buckingham Palace had suddenly realized that maybe their campaign against Netflix was looking downright unhinged. I’m sure King Charles will rally and there will be another blitz of “Charles is so sad about The Crown” stories coming out just days and hours before the new season drops in less than two weeks. Which leads me to Scobie’s column and his very effective counterargument: that while The Crown is a fictional dramatization, Peter Morgan has based the show completely on extensive written records from the time.

Scobie on all of those royal “documentaries”: Without sounding dramatic, many of these supposedly authoritative specials have become superspreaders of misinformation on the royal beat. But you’ll be unlikely to hear many complaints about them. Right now, the energy for that is all aimed at The Crown, which is less than two weeks away from its season five premiere.

The Crown tackles the ‘90s, with receipts: This chaotic decade – which ended with public support for the monarchy at its lowest – became the House of Windsor’s worst in history. And thanks to how publicly many of its scandals played out, they’re also some of the most documented. But despite the abundance of material banked in historical archives, the push to label The Crown as a total work of fiction has become fiercer than ever. Just like many things (and people) initially embraced by The Firm, the show has now become the enemy.

On Judi Dench’s letter: Even legendary actress Dame Judi Dench spoke out, writing an open letter to The Times about the series’ “crude sensationalism” of history. Now, I’m a big fan of Dench’s work, but the decision to go out of her way to label the series as “cruelly unjust” has been… interesting. The letter, which asked for a disclaimer to appear at the start of the show, was written with no reference to her own award-winning depictions of the Queen’s great-great-grandmother in Victoria & Abdul and Her Majesty, Mrs Brown – true royal stories that received rave reviews but also criticism from certain historians about accuracy. Perhaps the letter reflects some regret on Dench’s behalf… or perhaps there’s more to the theory that her close friendship with Camilla, now the Queen Consort, is what led her to defend the Royal Family.

The British media is criticizing The Crown for using storylines they reported on at the time: As easy as it is to throw blame at producers and writers working on Peter Morgan’s creation, is it actually warranted? A closer look at some of the most breathlessly criticised plot lines in the forthcoming episodes reveal that a lot of what is currently being called into question by the media actually originated in the same media outlets currently leading the onslaught.

John Major’s tantrum: Former UK prime minister John Major was absolutely right to point out that stories suggesting Prince Charles came to him to discuss the Queen’s abdication are inaccurate, but mainstream media coverage of his comments have been missing the fact that this very rumour ran rife amongst royal correspondents at the time, making its way into gossip columns, biographies and even as far as the pages of the New York Times.

The Penny Knatchbull storyline: Outrage over a storyline involving rumours of an inappropriate friendship between the late Prince Philip and Penny Knatchbull has also been loud in the press. Some newspapers have done nothing to prevent such rumours spreading by writing suggestive stories about the countess’s ‘regular’ visits to his Sandringham home, how his “flirty bond” with the aristocrat “kept him young”, and details of their “highly personal” friendship.

The Crown is actually well-sourced & well researched: I’ve spent much of the past week watching the new season and while, due to a pesky embargo, I’m not allowed to share anything about it yet, I can say that a lot of this series takes its lead from information readily available in the public domain, be it on-the-record television interviews, Diana’s audio tapes to Andrew Morton, numerous biographies (including Jonathan Dimbleby’s 1994 book, which Charles co-operated with) and archival reporting from British newspapers.

The Windsors can’t blame anyone but themselves: It’s easy to sling mud at episodes few have actually seen yet, but in my opinion much of the scandal this season is sourced from one place: reality. I’d imagine that this is what scares the royal institution the most. Because while The Crown’s scripted dialogue comes straight from the writer’s room, and you’d be a fool to treat this show as a historical documentary, the majority of jaw-droppers in the plot come courtesy of the Royal Family and the press. And for those, they have no one to blame other than themselves.

[From Yahoo UK]

I actually didn’t know that the stories about Charles pressuring his mother to abdicate were widely reported at the time. I know he sat there, on camera, with Jonathan Dimbleby, and whined about how his mom needed to die (and in the same interview, he dithered when it came to talking about what he would do as king and why he wanted to be king). Charles believes he’s a lot slicker than he actually is, and this was back in the ‘90s, when Diana could effortlessly make him look like an a–hole all the time. Anyway, you get the point – the problem isn’t that Peter Morgan is making things up out of thin air to vilify Charles and the Windsors. The problem is that Morgan has a wealth of receipts and he’s choosing to soft-pedal the actual history, and even that soft-pedaling makes Charles look terrible. Because he was and is terrible.

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Posters & photos courtesy of Netflix, IG courtesy of EW.

This week was when it all fell apart for Kanye West professionally. The dominoes were already falling for weeks, with Anna Wintour cutting off Kanye, with the fashion industry types revolting against him. But then the hits just kept coming one after the other: Balenciaga dropped him, then Adidas, then the Gap. Adidas was the big one – Kanye’s Yeezy-Adidas line made him a billionaire on paper. Now that Adidas has dumped him, Kanye is only worth, what? Something like $400 million. That’s “poor” in Kanye’s world. Besides, Kanye craves one thing ahead of money: fashion industry legitimacy. The fashion world turning their backs on him is one of his biggest nightmares. So Kanye is desperate to recreate his Yeezy success at another brand. Which is why he turned up, without an appointment, at the Skechers headquarters.

Kanye West reportedly showed up uninvited to Skechers headquarters in Manhattan Beach, Calif., after Adidas gave him the ax for his recent barrage of anti-Semitic remarks. The disgraced fashion designer — who also goes by Ye — arrived Wednesday morning wanting to chat with executives at the sneaker company about potential business opportunities.

However, as Skechers explained in a statement, West was immediately turned away.

“[West] arrived unannounced and without invitation at one of Skechers’ corporate offices in Los Angeles,” the spokesperson said. “Considering Ye was engaged in unauthorized filming, two Skechers executives escorted him and his party from the building after a brief conversation.”

Skechers — which has partnered with such celebrities as Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Camila Cabello and even West’s ex-wife, Kim Kardashian — is notably owned and operated by a Jewish family. Robert Greenberg founded it in 1992, while his son Michael Greenberg is the sitting president of the brand.

“Skechers is not considering and has no intention of working with West. We condemn his recent divisive remarks and do not tolerate antisemitism or any other form of hate speech,” Skechers’ statement continued. “Again, West showed up unannounced and uninvited to Skechers corporate offices.”

[From Page Six]

Shoe companies are really going to have Kanye out on the street with a sign reading “will design ugly shoes for a billion dollars.” Seriously, it would be funny if it wasn’t so pathetic and sad. Literally all Kanye had to do was not being an antisemitic, misogynistic bigot and he couldn’t do it. Adidas, Gap, Balenciaga – they were all fine with Kanye when he said slavery was a choice. They were fine with it when he was stalking and harassing his ex-wife and threatening to murder Pete Davidson. Kanye literally could have kept doing all of that and they would have let him keep his Adidas-Yeezy line and everything else. Again, I ask: is this finally Kanye’s rock bottom? Being escorted out of Skechers, a business operated by a Jewish family?

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

From CB: The Amazon trash bags we featured last month are quite good, I would recommend them! They’re strong and the price is reasonable. I like unscented trash bags in the house, but I use these small kitchen-sized scented Glad trash bags outside in a little covered can for the dog poo bags. (These are the best dog waste bags!) I received some of those Glad bags as part of a housewarming package from the realtor and after using them for the dog waste I didn’t want to go back to unscented ones. Here are some more things Hecate and I are looking at on Amazon.

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Here are some photos from last night’s big premiere event for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. If I can have a moment to rant, I hate that so few photo agencies have pictures from the premiere. This started happening a lot during the pandemic, specifically with Disney films: mostly closed red carpets, with only a handful of carefully selected photographers on the carpet. That way, Disney is able to exert control over the red carpet photos too, which just… sucks. It sucks for people (like us) who want to see all of the looks and all of the angles and give away all of this free movie promotion. But I guess Disney and Marvel know what they’re doing.

I’m including photos of some of the biggest names at the premiere, including Lupita Nyong’o, Rihanna, Michaela Coel, Letitia Wright, Danai Gurira and Angela Bassett. Some fashion notes… Lupita wore Balmain, Rihanna wore Rick Owens, Letitia in a suit (perhaps telegraphing that she “suits up” as Black Panther??!?) and Michaela in a custom Ferragamo look.

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Photos courtesy of Getty.

Matthew Perry has written a memoir called Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing. Perry details his addiction issues and how much he spent fighting for his sobriety. He also talks a lot about Friends and all of the celebrities he’s known/dated over the years. I had no memory of Perry knowing the late River Phoenix, but they worked together in A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon and became friends. Perry wrote about finding out that River died, and Perry chose that moment in his memoir to tastelessly note “Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?” Perry also makes another reference to wishing Keanu would die later in the book. It’s bizarre – it reads like he’s trying to make an awkward joke, but it comes across as deeply unkind and rather macabre. Well, now Perry is apologizing.

Matthew Perry is clearing the air. Earlier this week — and ahead of the release of his new upcoming memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing — several excerpts of the book were released by Variety and The New York Post, with both outlets sharing sections where he talks about Keanu Reeves.

In one section, Perry, 53, is talking about his friendship with the late actor River Phoenix and writes, “River was a beautiful man, inside and out — too beautiful for this world, it turned out. It always seems to be the really talented guys who go down. Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?”

But the Friends actor now says he misspoke. In a statement to PEOPLE, Perry says: “I’m actually a big fan of Keanu. I just chose a random name, my mistake. I apologize. I should have used my own name instead.”

Reeves is cited again in the upcoming book when Perry writes about the death of comedian Chris Farley. “His disease had progressed faster than mine had. (Plus, I had a healthy fear of the word ‘heroin,’ a fear we did not share),” Perry writes. “I punched a hole through Jennifer Aniston’s dressing room wall when I found out. Keanu Reeves walks among us.”

[From People]

Yeah, I think he was trying to “joke” and it didn’t land. Perry thought it would be supercool to start some kind of random beef with Keanu Reeves and he was surprised the general public found it disgusting. Keanu is one of the most low-key and well-liked people in Hollywood, so of course people have his back. Beyond that, Keanu has had so much f–king heartbreak and grief in his life, and he carries those sorrows around every day. Why would you even put that out into the universe, the idea that Keanu is the one who should have died? That’s completely horrible.

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The leak about Prince Harry’s memoir came in the summer of 2021. I always believed that Harry and Penguin Random House didn’t intend for the news to come out at that moment, but they hastily arranged a confirmation, with Harry issuing a statement about his intent for writing the memoir. In the roughly fifteen months that followed the leak and confirmation, the British media has been beside themselves, hand-wringing and whining, threatening and lying. Personally, I had my fingers crossed for a November release just to be able to move on from this neverending “what’s in the book?!” melodrama at long last. It looks like Harry’s memoir has been pushed back about a month though – the NY Times reports that it will come out on January 10, 2023.

It seemed like a sure thing, or as close to a sure thing as is possible in book publishing: Prince Harry, who was living in self-imposed exile after his stormy exit from the British royal family, was writing a tell-all. After months of frenzied speculation, the book has a publication date: Jan. 10, 2023, according to industry executives.

The memoir, the first in a competitive multi-book deal with Penguin Random House, was initially scheduled for late 2022 and expected to be a blockbuster. It was part of a broader push by Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, to build their brands as media moguls: Beyond the book contract, with a rumored price tag of at least $20 million, the couple signed lucrative deals with Netflix and Spotify.

After the death of Queen Elizabeth II last month, any attacks the memoir might make on members of the royal family, or the monarchy, could strike many readers as unseemly. Prince Harry has gotten cold feet about the memoir’s contents at various points, book industry executives with knowledge of the process told The Times, and the project has been shrouded in rumors, delays and secrecy.

The memoir will be published at a delicate moment for the British monarchy and public, which is still adjusting to King Charles III and reeling from economic and political instability. Its release also thrusts Prince Harry into an impossible situation. Damaging revelations could hurt the monarchy and his relationship with his family. But holding back could dampen sales, making it more difficult for his publisher to recoup its considerable costs — and could erode Harry’s self-made image as the rebellious, truth-telling prince.

“Is his goal to enhance his celebrity with a certain sector of the public, or is it to repair the rift with his family?” said the literary agent Matt Latimer, co-founder of the Javelin agency, which represents politicians and public figures like James Comey, the former director of the F.B.I., and John Bolton, the former national security adviser. “Those are competing goals to some extent, and it’s hard to do both.”

Penguin Random House declined to comment. A representative for Harry and Meghan also declined to comment.

“Don’t forget, the British royal family is there by consent, they need to earn and keep the respect of the British public,” said Valentine Low, a journalist and the author of “Courtiers: Intrigue, Ambition and the Power Players Behind the House of Windsor.” “If that is ever damaged in a fundamental and permanent way, that could be very serious.”

[From The NY Times]

What is the NY Times doing here? “Any attacks the memoir might make on members of the royal family, or the monarchy, could strike many readers as unseemly”…? Unseemly like the new Princess of Wales looting the dead queen’s jewelry before the body was even cold? Unseemly like Queen Elizabeth’s son selling off her prized racehorses? Unseemly like Charles, Camilla, William and Kate yukking it up and prancing around, taking Drab Four portraits the night before the Queen’s funeral? That kind of unseemly?

“Is his goal to enhance his celebrity with a certain sector of the public, or is it to repair the rift with his family?” I didn’t know literary agents needed grown men to supplicate themselves before their dysfunctional and racist families? What business is it of Rando Literary Agent if Harry repairs the rift with his family?

Anyway, since it’s the New York Times, I suspect that the release date is true. I hate that the British media now has a two-month-plus lead time to wage a smear campaign on Harry ahead of the release.

Update: Holy crap, apparently Harry’s memoir is titled Spare. AMAZING. Penguin Random House just confirmed the release date too, so it looks like the NYT got it right. Look at this cover!!!

We are excited to announce the remarkably personal and emotionally powerful story of Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex.

SPARE, the highly anticipated #PrinceHarryMemoir, will be published on January 10, 2023. Learn more at https://t.co/L0I4CT4flH pic.twitter.com/iqdBjBwkWE

— Random House Group (@randomhouse) October 27, 2022

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid.

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While I recognize that Marvel Fatigue is a real thing and completely understand those who’ve succumbed to it, I haven’t. I’m not a sycophant, I’ll pass on the projects that don’t interest me or wait on sequels for the franchises I like if the trailer looks meh. But when the hype around a Marvel project I love looks hot, I jump as high as Marvel asks. And I’m going to watch the ever-living HECK out of Wakanda Forever. I have a lot of confidence in Ryan Coogler. If he says he can tell this story properly, after almost quitting due to his grief over Chadwick Boseman, I trust him.

But I’m easy to convince. You know who else he convinced? Rihanna. And you know what he convinced her to do? Write a new song for the film! On Tuesday, Marvel tweeted a 15 second teaser clip that was just the Wakanda Forever name against a black backdrop. Then the letters fade away except the letter R and 10.28.22 runs up under it. Everyone asked, “does that ‘R’ mean Rihanna?” and held their breath. Well, Rihanna didn’t want us to pass out, so she just tweeted this:

lift me up
10.28.22 pic.twitter.com/hIvhUQP8Bj

— Rihanna (@rihanna) October 26, 2022

And if that doesn’t excite you, wait to you hear what got her to do the song.

It’s official: Rihanna is making her long-awaited return to music with “Lift Me Up,” the lead single on Marvel’s blockbuster sequel “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”

The song, a tribute to the life and legacy of Chadwick Boseman, was written by Tems, Ludwig Göransson, Rihanna and director Ryan Coogler. It will be released on Friday, Oct. 28 in advance of the movie, which premieres in theaters on Nov. 11. Rihanna briefly teased the song’s melodic hum on social media, but little else is known about the style and sound of “Lift Me Up.”

“After speaking with Ryan and hearing his direction for the film and the song, I wanted to write something that portrays a warm embrace from all the people that I’ve lost in my life. I tried to imagine what it would feel like if I could sing to them now and express how much I miss them,” Tems said in a statement. “Rihanna has been an inspiration to me so hearing her convey this song is a great honor.”

[From Variety]

So this film is so good and so emotional, it brought the right excellent Rihanna back into the recording studio. *grabs tissues and popcorn* Just take my money now. I love this flex from Rihanna, too. We pestered her so much about making new music she told us to hush up. When we finally do, she drops a new track in one of the most anticipated films of the year.

Taika Waititi got so much credit for securing the the rights to The Immigrant Song, but he’s going to need to pass that crown to Ryan for this one. See you Friday, folks.

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Jesse Williams is certainly staying “booked and busy” with some buzzy projects. Despite significant personal drama involving custody and child support, he has a lot going on professionally. He left Grey’s Anatomy, but keeps returning for guest and directing spots; he had a small role in Little Fires Everywhere, which might have led to a role in another Reese Witherspoon movie; he was nominated for a Tony and images of his dong were stolen and splashed across the Internet to much ado; and now he’s been cast in third season of the best show ever: Only Murders in the Building.

Jesse Williams has been cast in Season 3 of “Only Murders in the Building.”

Williams will recur as a documentarian with a particular interest in the case that Mabel (Selena Gomez), Charles (Steve Martin) and Oliver (Martin Short) are working on.

The series follows three unlikely friends who live in the same building in New York City and bond over their love of true crime when they find themselves in the middle of a real-life murder mystery and begin recording a podcast of their own. In Season 1, they investigate the death of their neighbor Tim Kono, while Season 2 saw them investigate after finding their building’s board president Bunny Folger (Jayne Houdyshell) murdered. Along with Williams, Gomez, Martin and Short, Season 3 also stars Paul Rudd.

Williams is best known for starring in 12 seasons of ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” as Dr. Jackson Avery, with other prominent credits including “The Cabin in the Woods,” “Little Fires Everywwhere,” “Brooklyn’s Finest” and “Secret Headquarters.” On stage, he had his Broadway debut in the 2022 revival of “Take Me Out.” Behind the camera, he’s produced projects including Blitz Bazawule’s “The Burial of Kojo” and the Oscar-winning short film “Two Distant Strangers.” Alongside Norman Lear, Williams served as senior producer and correspondent on the Epix docuseries “America Divided.” Up next, he’ll star with Reese Witherspoon in “Your Place or Mine.”

[From Variety]

Despite my disappointment with and dislike of Jesse personally, I can admit this is a great career move and really good casting. Jesse could definitely do justice to a documentarian sniffing around the trio and their latest case. I do like him in his acting roles and rewatching Grey’s lately has reminded me that he is really great at playing that sort of privileged, slightly pretentious character. I know a lot of journalists and they can be a little pretentious, particularly documentarians and podcasters. Anyway, Jesse will be great at portraying that type and he has pretty good comedic delivery/timing from his role on Grey’s. He has a few funny lines from it that come to mind. Also, being on a cast with the three main characters, Paul Rudd, and whoever else they pull in for season 3 will look great on Jesse’s IMDB. I wonder if he’ll strike up friendships with the rest of the much-beloved cast. He could definitely stand to take a few pointers from Selena Gomez with her pristine reputation and world-class PR team. Only Murders obviously films in New York — I guess he’ll be away from his kids for even longer…

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If you ask me, Martha Stewart has had her eye on Pete Davidson for months. She wanted him when Pete was with Kim Kardashian! [Just Jared]
The Princess of Wales is probably adding Bella Hadid’s Schiaparelli ensemble to her Button Mood Board as we speak. [RCFA]
AmEx is suing Armie Hammer over an unpaid credit card balance. [Dlisted]
Greenpeace: plastic recycling remains a “myth.” [OMG Blog]
A reminder that Will Smith still has friends in the industry. [LaineyGossip]
Emmanuel the Emu and his mother got milkshake duck’d. [Jezebel]
Chloe Sevigny is on Team Palazzo Pants, yes!! [Go Fug Yourself]
Review of The Banshees of Inisherin. Sounds good! [Gawker]
Ariel Elias made her TV debut on Jimmy Kimmel’s show. [Pajiba]
Taylor Swift’s new music video. [Egotastic]
Kids and their weird food habits. [Buzzfeed]
So happy for Sam Smith & Kim Petras! “Unholy” is such a great song! [Towleroad]

Last week, there was a surge in gossip about Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly. While Megan and MGK have always been over-the-top, confessional and extremely demonstrative with their love, it seemed like things had been getting quieter in recent months/weeks, and then last week, Megan posted photos of herself without her diamond-and-emerald engagement ring. Perhaps there was a slight cooldown? They’ve been together since March 2020, and engaged since January of this year. Megan calls him her “twin flame” and her soulmate. So it would be difficult to walk back all of that crap, right?

Well, Megan and MGK were out and about last night and it appears that all is well. They went to the Time 100 gala in NYC, then they went out to dinner at Carbone. They held hands and looked okay. Maybe not as “loved up” as they were a year ago, but they’re definitely still together. For now.

Us Weekly actually has a story this week about how Megan and MGK are “secretly planning their wedding” even though they haven’t set a date yet. A source tells the magazine, “They’ve worked on their problems and worked really hard to get to the place where they are today. It’s still a struggle at times and they tend to have a lot of ups and downs. He is making a lot of effort to be more mature. He’s not always easy to deal with. He still has this teenage side to him.” Apparently, MGK still likes to stay out all night and party, while Megan (a mother of three) prefers going home early. The insider also confesses that at one point, several months ago, Meghan “was beyond done with him. She was fed up with his BS. It got really bad between them.” But apparently things have turned around now. We’ll see.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.