The news about Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare, came out on Thursday. Well, the NY Times leaked some of the news on Wednesday night, then Harry and Penguin Random House dropped the release date, cover and title on Thursday. The reaction from the British media was what everyone expected: abject panic. Royal sources and royal reporters (perhaps one and the same) were furious and scandalized that Harry wouldn’t cancel his memoir, and there were threats of legal actions and royal retribution. But, you know, nothing on the record with a named source. No official statement from King Charles or the Palace.

Then on Friday, we probably got Charles’s official reaction: he will take over the role of Captain General of the Royal Marines, a ceremonial position which was previously filled by Prince Harry, and before that, Prince Philip. It was one of the honorary military roles which QEII took away from Harry in 2021. Reportedly, William and Anne both wanted the role, but Charles kept it for himself. Then the palace leaked that Charles told Harry about it in advance, which makes all of this look like a heavy-handed moment of royal retribution from Charles.

King Charles was today announced as the new ceremonial head of the Royal Marines, a role previously held by his son, Prince Harry. In a sign of the sensitivity of the situation, the Mail can reveal that Harry was informed of his father’s decision to take on the role himself before it was made public.

Although some had speculated that Princess Anne would subsequently become the first woman to hold the role, no new appointment was made until today. Until Philip was given the role by his wife in 1953, the position was held by a succession of sovereigns: King George V, King Edward VIII and King George VI, Charles’ great-grandfather, great uncle and grandfather.

The Queen had, however, been keen to pay tribute to her husband’s own proud military career – which he was forced to give up when they married – and he proved to be a much loved and popular ceremonial head. He remained in the post for 64 years and 201 days.

[From The Daily Mail]

In Charles’s formal statement about taking over the role, he failed to mention both his son and his father, and instead noted that the position had previously been filled by King George V, George VI and Edward VIII. That fact, plus the leak about Harry being told beforehand was absolutely, 100% about Charles reacting to the news about Spare. There’s still a calculation being made in King Charles’s court, which is that they still have the power to “hurt” Harry. They know they can’t control him anymore, but they can go out of their way to snub him and try to humiliate him. That’s what this is – it’s Charles reminding his veteran son that he (Harry) no longer gets to serve any honorary military positions. Charles’s actions during the mourning period and funeral have repeatedly emphasized that effort, that calculation, that Charles still has the power to wound. Charles is such a petty, small man.

Quite a feat to airbrush out your father and your son.

Prince Philip and Prince Harry were the previous incumbents and merit no mention. pic.twitter.com/EZ62yFhFlz

— Peter Hunt (@_PeterHunt) October 28, 2022

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

There are Republicans currently in public office and running for office who have publicly called for violence towards Nancy Pelosi, the current Speaker of the House. Speaker Pelosi is second in the line of succession, and you better believe that she has very good protection around her, especially when she’s in DC. Apparently, that protection doesn’t extend to her husband Paul Pelosi though. Paul Pelosi was at the Pelosi family home in San Francisco on Friday morning when a man named David DePape broke into the home and called out for “Nancy” and repeatedly asked “Where’s Nancy?” The Speaker was in DC, but her husband was home. Paul Pelosi was able to talk his way out of the room and get into the bathroom, where he called 911. When the police arrived, they found DePape beating Paul Pelosi with a hammer.

Calling out for “Nancy,” an intruder who forced his way into the San Francisco home of the U.S. House speaker early Friday had a target in mind, authorities said, before he attacked her husband and fractured his skull with a hammer.

Paul Pelosi, 82, is recovering from surgery at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital “to repair a skull fracture and serious injuries to his right arm and hands,” said Drew Hammill, a spokesperson for Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. He is expected to recover fully.

Although the attacker’s motive remains undetermined, the violence — 11 days ahead of the midterm election — has sparked alarm in part because of heightened concern about the safety of public officials at their homes and offices. Those worries have compounded in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, where Nancy Pelosi was one of the targets.

A source who was briefed on the Friday attack said the assailant shouted, “Where is Nancy? Where is Nancy?” before confronting Paul Pelosi.

“Based on our investigation at this point … this was not a random act,” San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said during a news conference Friday evening. “This was intentional.”

At the start of the break-in, Paul Pelosi told the intruder that he had to use the bathroom, then made a surreptitious 911 call on his cellphone and left the line open, sources familiar with the attack told The Times. Dispatcher Heather Grimes could hear Pelosi talking to his attacker and alerted officers to the scene.

“It is really thanks to Mr. Pelosi having the ability to be able to make that call and truly the attention and instincts of that dispatcher to realize that something was wrong and to make the police call a priority,” San Francisco Dist. Atty. Brooke Jenkins told CNN, adding that officers got to the scene in two minutes.

[From The LA Times]

When DePape was handcuffed, he apparently sat down and said he was “waiting for Nancy.” The police took him in and booked him on an assortment of felony charges including breaking-and-entering, assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse (Paul Pelosi is 82). Within hours of the violent assault, people were already researching DePape’s social media footprint and big surprise, he has a history of being an antisemite, a bigot and a subscriber to far-right-wing conspiracies. He’s a QAnoner and a neo-Nazi type. The GOP absolutely has Paul Pelosi’s blood on their hands. I’d also like to see President Biden order heightened security for both Speaker Pelosi and her husband.

Photos courtesy of Image Press Agency/Image Press Agency/Avalon, jpistudios.com / JPI Studios / Avalon and Ron Sachs / Avalon.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kim Kardashian (@kimkardashian)

Kim Kardashian loves Halloween. All of the Kardashian-Jenner women seem to love to decorate for the holidays, they all get that from Kris Jenner. It seems like each woman has their favorite holiday and for Kim, it’s Halloween. She went all out to decorate her minimalist home for the holiday, including one of the most unsettling hallways I think I’ve ever seen (I’m including the IG below).

Kim also loves to dress her dolls up for Halloween, and by “dolls” I mean her children. This year, she convinced (?) her kids to dress up as musical icons – North is Aaliyah, Saint is Snoop, Chicago is Sade and Psalm is Eazy-E. Honestly, Chicago and North are killing it in their costumes, although many people believe that the kids look “sad.” Sad because most kids probably want to be Elsa, Spiderman, a Minion or a Fortnite character. My take: the kids will likely have multiple Halloween costumes, don’t you think? This version was “mom said we had to dress up this way.” If she allows them to go trick-or-treating or to some kids’ Halloween party, I bet they have different costumes of their choosing. Come on – this is Kim’s favorite holiday, of course the kids have different costumes. Those kids are so beautiful too.

Here’s the IG post about her decorations. I’m sorry, this is f–king terrifying. That hallway looks like something Melania Trump would have designed for Christmas. Kim honestly put those f–king mannequins in her hallway! Her kids are probably terrified to get a drink of water at night. Jesus H.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kim Kardashian (@kimkardashian)

Photos courtesy of Kim’s Instagram.

The fact that Cate Blanchett agreed to go on Hot Ones is amazing. [OMG Blog]
What’s going on with Harry Hamlin? [Dlisted]
Fleishman is in Trouble looks good? [LaineyGossip]
Please look at Michael B. Jordan’s yellow suit. [RCFA]
Buh-bye 12-foot-tall skeletons and hello to 9-foot-tall werewolves. [Jezebel]
Lindsey Vonn sort of makes this dress work. [Go Fug Yourself]
Dane Cook’s fiancee just turned 24 years old. [Gawker]
Justin Bieber & Shawn Mendes went to church together. [Just Jared]
TikTok’s corpse-pretender has landed a job! [Pajiba]
Remember when Brad Pitt dated Nico Poturalski? Well, she’s got a new boyfriend, apparently. Is she still married?? [Egotastic]
These home-improvement fails are hilarious. [Buzzfeed]
Democrats warn that Donald Trump is still trying to f–k up the midterms. [Towleroad]

Hilarious and conceivable that Cate Blanchett may have done Hot Ones and The Criterion Closet in the very same day/outfit pic.twitter.com/niavKXivAV

— Sophy Romvari (@SophyRomvari) October 27, 2022

It’s hilarious to watch the British media’s insular storylines blow up one by one. On Thursday, Prince Harry and Penguin Random House confirmed lots of information about Harry’s memoir, Spare. Spare will be released on January 10th, and it’s already skyrocketing up the pre-order charts. Just the title of the book and the book cover reveal a man who is telling his story, no holds barred. Forget about all of the royal commentary about Harry “won’t release his book” or “Charles has convinced Harry to take it easy” or whatever nonsense the royal commentators were trying to sell. The Windsors are panicked, and they have good reason to be panicked. Some highlights from the Mail’s coverage:

The Windsors weren’t informed of the title: Billed as a work of ‘raw, unflinching honesty’, the controversial book will be called Spare – a ‘loaded’ reference to his position as the younger brother of the heir to the throne. Family members were not informed of the title before the announcement yesterday, while the Spanish language version is even more pointed, having been given the subtitle En La Sombra, or ‘in the shadow’.

The release date: The book will not be on the shelves until January 10 – said to be as a mark of respect following the death of the Queen, and, it is rumoured, due to last-minute alterations requested by the Duke of Sussex. But reports Harry asked for significant amendments after getting ‘cold feet’ are understood to be ‘overblown’, The Daily Telegraph reported.

The Windsors still haven’t seen Spare: The contents of Harry’s book are likely to be kept top secret and palace aides have revealed that no members of the Royal Family have been offered the chance to see any of it before it becomes public. When the publishing deal was announced in July last year, only the Queen was given advance warning. The book will contain a short note that detailing that the book was written before the monarch’s death at Balmoral on September 8.

Dread in the House of Windsor: A spokesman for the King declined to comment last night. But it is understood that the Royal Household has already been warned that the 416-page, £28 book is ‘critical of everyone and everything’ and they are ‘dreading’ it. Harry’s relatives could be faced with damaging newspaper headlines if the prince chooses to delve into the most controversial elements of royal life from the past decades.

They’re still complaining about the title: The Daily Mail has been told that the duke – who has personally recorded the audio book version – did not tell his family about the title of in advance and that it will be seen as both ‘controversial’ and ‘provocative’ in royal circles. ‘That title is loaded and it does not bode well,’ a source said.

Lawyers on standby!!! Another source told The Daily Mirror: ‘The very title demonstrates yet another confrontational attack on the family after claiming a desire for privacy. Palace lawyers will undoubtedly be on standby in the new year waiting to see what is in it. If Harry’s previous allegations across numerous TV interviews are anything to go by, this will be nuclear. Regardless of the content, which will no doubt be explosive, there will be little chance of this acting as a vehicle to reconciliation for Harry and Meghan.’

Ingrid Seward speaks: ‘Being the “spare” is still at the forefront of his mind all these years later and he clearly feels belittled by it. It is really a bit pathetic that he hasn’t managed to move on. Diana used to call him the spare. Harry would say “I’m the spare, I don’t have to behave, I can do what I like”.’

Oh, the Sussexes’ gripes are valid?? Royal insiders believe that, regardless of the validity of the Sussexes’ gripes, the family has been put through enough by the couple in recent years following their exit from royal life, with one saying: ‘At least her late Majesty the Queen has been spared this.’

[From The Daily Mail]

Can’t believe that the Mail actually admitted that Harry’s gripes are valid!! Seriously though, I love all of the agita about the title. That’s how you know Harry naming his memoir Spare has cut them like a knife. It’s such a multifaceted title too, so evocative of the work Harry has done over his life, how he’s been perceived and how his perceptions have changed. It’s incredible. The whole “lawyers on standby” thing is amazing too – come on, Charles isn’t going to sue Harry, William isn’t going to sue Harry. William and Charles will absolutely coordinate a huge smear campaign against Harry though, trust that.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, cover courtesy of Penguin Random House.

Rhiannon Mills at Sky News has an interesting piece about the new Prince and Princess of Wales and how they view their new roles and titles. So far, we’ve seen more of William and Kate than we usually would have this time of year, but there honestly hasn’t been a dramatic difference in the substance, tone, style or operations. Literally the only thing they’ve done differently is “do more public appearances for a month.” And it didn’t last!! Anyway, it’s abundantly clear that Kensington Palace sent Mills a list of all of the ways in which William (and only William) will be great in this role.

No hard relaunch: Those who’ve worked with them tell me you don’t get a sense of a hard relaunch for brand Prince and Princess of Wales, they have a well laid out thematic agenda for their work and they are sticking to it.

William won’t be “too political” like his father: It is a label that William and his team are likely to wary of, but there are suggestions we may now actually hear more from him rather than less.

Lord William Hague (chair of the Royal Foundation) on the Keens: “Certainly in the royal foundation, we’re not changing tone, you know, if anything, we’re going up another gear with a tone that’s well established of how to help with certain issues of some of society’s deepest problems where we need to bring people together to work on… There will be other issues to come in the future. So I think you will find for the Prince and Princess of Wales that work very much goes on and if anything, goes up another gear.”

The foundation’s work won’t be political, says Hague: “We’re always careful, the royal foundation is non-political of course and it’s global. So of course we have to take great care with the issues that we work on. But there is no shortage of those issues. It’s absolutely right for a royal family that’s engaged with the world and wants to help people and serve people to get involved with.”

They’ve been looking at polling: The royals don’t do their own opinion rating polls but members of some households have been reading other polling since the Queen died to see how their messaging has been playing out. A source observed that “their strength has come in continuity. The household hierarchy means Buckingham Palace leads, so there are guard rails in place to stick to”.

William & Kate care about the optics: I am told that both William and Kate pay a very active interest in how their events are covered, a lot of prep work goes into how it’s going to be perceived, how it looks. As they step up it does feel like a missed opportunity that more context and background on the work going on behind the scenes hasn’t always been briefed, and often that’s been put down to it being a small and young team. There is a sense that approach may be changing, not just to counter potentially negative headlines, or because their roles have changed, but ultimately because what they can deliver is incredibly powerful; a global platform to get messages out to a huge audience, and an unrivalled ability to convene on issues like the illegal wildlife trade.

Lord Hague on how Americans are jealous of William & Kate: “The US government said to me, no government in the world could do what you’re doing in the royal foundation, what Prince William is doing on this issue. Because you see we have Chinese airlines, departments of the Chinese government working in the same grouping as the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and companies from across the Western world, with no political mistrust or suspicion about a government organising it. So what Prince William has shown with this, with the royal foundation, on wildlife is really that there’s this tremendous convening power.”

[From Sky News]

The most interesting part, to me, was the stuff about their Communications department: “I am told that both William and Kate pay a very active interest in how their events are covered, a lot of prep work goes into how it’s going to be perceived, how it looks.” They literally do not. Their Caribbean Flop Tour was a perfect example of that, with their colonialist cosplay, scuba diving mid-tour, the sh-t with the Bob Marley statue and of course all of the tone-deaf and flat-out racist sh-t with Black people. The truth is that William and Kate are too lazy to care about the prep work, so they outsource it to their “small and young team” full of incompetents.

As for Americans being jealous of the Royal Foundation… lol. Their foundation is a massive scam and I would love to see it audited.

Photos courtesy of Instar.

After months of broke-ass clownery, Elon Musk has officially “bought” Twitter. He did so to A) avoid a background check and B) avoid a trial at the Court of Chancery. Musk arrived at Twitter HQ yesterday and began firing executives. I imagine in the coming days, there will be more firings and a mass exodus of staffers. The Nazis, propagandists and bigots are already celebrating and rejoining the platform. I really hoped that this wouldn’t go through in the end, that Musk would be too broke and too clownish to go through with it. But it looks like Twitter’s board was ready to take the money and run.

After months of waffling, lawsuits, verbal mudslinging and the near miss of a full blown trial, Elon Musk now owns Twitter.

On Thursday night, Mr. Musk closed his $44 billion deal to buy the social media service, said three people with knowledge of the situation. He also began cleaning house, with at least four top Twitter executives — including the chief executive and chief financial officer — getting fired on Thursday. Mr. Musk had arrived at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters on Wednesday and met with engineers and ad executives.

The closing of the deal, which followed months of drama and legal challenges as Mr. Musk changed his mind about buying the company, sets Twitter on an uncertain course. Mr. Musk, a self-described “free speech absolutist,” has said that he wants to make the social media platform a more freewheeling place for all types of commentary and that he would “reverse the permanent ban” of former President Donald J. Trump from the service.

Mr. Musk’s open approach to speech on Twitter could exacerbate long simmering issues of toxic content and misinformation, affecting political debates around the world. Early tests will come within days, when Brazil elects its president and American voters go to the polls on Nov. 8 for the midterm elections. Twitter said it would prohibit misleading claims about voting and the outcome of elections, but that was before Mr. Musk owned it.

The Twitter executives who were fired on Thursday include Parag Agrawal, the chief executive; Ned Segal, the chief financial officer; Vijaya Gadde, the top legal and policy executive; and Sean Edgett, the general counsel, said two people with knowledge of the matter. At least one of the executives who was fired was escorted out of Twitter’s office, they said.

[From The New York Times]

Yeah, our dark timeline has gotten a hell of a lot darker. Where are you guys meeting up when the Nazis take over Twitter? Please don’t say TikTok. The only hope I have is that Musk f–ks up the platform so badly that he’ll be forced to sell the dried out Nazi husk to someone reasonable, and they’ll rebuild it. I don’t know. It’s super-depressing.

Apparently, the “let that sink in” thing is something to do with QAnon. Just FYI, that’s where we are now. All of this because Elon Musk wanted to buy clout and friends.

the bird is freed

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022

Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in! pic.twitter.com/D68z4K2wq7

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2022

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare, is already the transatlantic talk of the town, and it’s already available for preorder. I would imagine that it will end up being the biggest pre-order of the year on Amazon. Even people who aren’t regular royal gossip followers are like “cool title, I’d like to read that book.” We have to wait two and a half months, sob! But we’ll get there, one step at a time, battling back another palace-orchestrated smear campaign on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. You know how King Charles has masterminded an unhinged campaign against The Crown? The campaign against Harry in the next ten weeks will be like that, only much, much worse.

The Mail actually had a rare complimentary piece on the title, Spare. They talked to a branding expert who was impressed with the humor, simplicity and evocative nature of the single-word title, combined with the close-up cover photo taken by Ramona Rosales. True story: Ramona Rosales also did Meghan’s recent Variety cover shoot. Rosales does a lot of work for Variety, judging from her Instagram.

In most language translations, Spare will be translated plainly, but in Spanish, the memoir will be called Spare: En La Sombra, or In The Shadow. Hilaria Baldwin said “si, yo se!” While Harry is reportedly getting $20 million upfront for this memoir, he’s also pledged to donate the money to charity. I assume that the check went straight into the Archewell Foundation, where it will be allocated over time. Harry has already started – within the press release for Spare, he announced that he will be donating $1.5 million to Sentebale (his Lesotho AIDS charity) and £300,000 to WellChild. This follows donations to Save the Children and UNICEF made by Harry and Meghan earlier this week, targeted to Nigerian flood relief.

Lastly, in the wake of the Spare news, Dan Wootton punched out a screed against Harry, against books, against memoirs, against gingers and against American wives. Wootton must have been shrieking into the abyss for hours, hollering about “Prince Harry appears to want to bring down the Royal Family” and Harry’s “ghoulish decision to press ahead with the publication of his expected monarchy and family-bashing autobiography just four months after the death of Queen Elizabeth the Great and four months before the historic coronation of his father King Charles.” Wootton claimed with a straight face that senior royals and courtiers believed that Harry would make a U-turn on his memoir after “Harry and Meghan were welcomed back into the Windsor bosom in the days before the Queen’s funeral.” You mean when Charles went out of his way to repeatedly and publicly snub Harry and try to humiliate a man who was grieving for a beloved grandmother? Yeah, as we said at the time – the Queen’s funeral was when Harry and Meghan understood that they would never come back, under any circumstances.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, book cover courtesy of Penguin Random House.

In 2014, Danica Patrick got breast implants. She decided to do it because “it would…
make me feel more feminine and sexy,” which is why a lot of women get implants. And I assume Danica had the cash for a pretty good plastic surgeon, too. But even with access to high end cosmetic surgery, something went wrong, and it led to a health crisis that took years to solve. In 2017, Danica’s general health declined. She was fatigued, gaining weight and her hair started falling out. A year later, one of her implants solidified, followed by the other. She continued to decline until 2022 when she realized it was the implants causing the problem. That’s when she was diagnosed with Breast Implant Illness (BII).

Danica Patrick is giving an inside look at the five-year health ordeal she experienced due to her breast implants.

Although the first three years with implants went well for Patrick, in 2017 she started noticing changes in her body and energy level, including fatigue, weight gain, dryness and hair loss.

“I thought maybe my hormones were off, so I just said, ‘Dig deeper, Danica, try harder,’” she says of her persistent health problems.

A year later, Patrick says one of her breasts turned rock-hard, and the other followed. “For so many years I didn’t hug people tight because I didn’t feel like pushing these little balloons into them. Whenever I was with a guy, I could not stop thinking that they knew they were fake,” Patrick explains.

“I went down a pretty deep rabbit hole,” she says of trying to get answers. “I had every test that could be done.”

It wasn’t until early 2022 that she realized her implants may be the problem after seeing a series of videos on social media about Breast Implant Illness, or BII.

BII symptoms have been reported with all types of breast implants and can occur immediately after implantation or years later. The top five most common symptoms associated with BII are fatigue, brain fog, joint pain, anxiety and hair loss, according to the FDA.

Along with BII, the FDA has identified a possible association between breast implants and the development of breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma (BIA-ALCL), a type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“When there’s an inflammatory response, it wears your body out. So for women experiencing BII, their system is just not working as it should,” says board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Shaun Parson, who treated Patrick. “It’s important for women to put their health first and their aesthetic goals second.”

In March, Patrick decided to get her implants removed and she says the results were instant. She hopes other women experiencing similar symptoms won’t feel so alone.

“Trust your intuition,” she urges. “Get them removed, and see how you feel.”

[From People]

When I first read that Danica’s implant turned “rock hard,” I thought of course it’s the implants! But it’s always easy to diagnose something when you know the answer already. Those symptoms are synonymous with perimenopause, I’m sure plenty of people wrote it off as that. Even Danica said she thought it was her hormones. But if BII can lead to two different forms of lymphomas, make sure you see a doctor ASAP if you have any of those symptoms listed.

The good news is, Danica said as soon as she removed her implants she started feeling better. I’m sure it would suck to take out something you put in to feel better about yourself. But if it’s literally poisoning you, listen to your body, like Danica said.

And look, I know Danica is not the most popular person. But the message here is about BII and recognizing symptoms, not any of her other BS.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Danica Patrick (@danicapatrick)

Photo credit: Jordan Hinton/Avalon Red and Instagram

Matthew Macfadyen has an excellent profile in Vanity Fair. I think he probably agreed to the interview to promote Operation Mincemeat (on Netflix), but there’s certainly a lot of talk of Succession in this piece. For American audiences, I’m sure his Succession character, Tom Wambsgans, is his iconic role and the role people will associate with Macfadyen for the rest of his life. He’s very, very good in Succession, but all of this brings up the fundamental issue of his career: he’s clearly a leading man, he’s tall, handsome, talented. So why has he spent his career doing character roles in ensembles for the most part? That’s what this VF piece tries to answer. Some highlights:

He prefers being a working actor: “When I was 14, Kenneth Branagh was making Henry V and directing and had his own company and was a sort of whirlwind. And I remember thinking, That’ll be me!” Macfadyen followed Branagh’s path to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, only to realize “I’m not Kenneth Branagh. I don’t have that Laurence Olivier/Kenneth Branagh energy to create my own stuff. I’m very happy being purely an actor. Also, if you’re a director, you need to know the answer to everybody’s questions. You can’t go and lay down in between takes.”

Falling for Keeley Hawes, who was married at the time: Romance developed between Macfadyen and Hawes while shooting MI-5. She had very recently married the father of her young baby son. “Matthew just came straight out with it and said ‘I love you’ in the rain one day. I thought, Oh dear, here we go,” Hawes later told a reporter. The British tabloids and paparazzi swarmed the couple, closely following Hawes’s divorce and 2004 wedding to Macfadyen.

Playing Mr. Darcy: “I wish I had enjoyed it more. But I did feel pressure—maybe it was a self-imposed pressure of, you know: This is a big film, don’t get it wrong.” He says Pride & Prejudice was the first time he’d been fed through the publicity machine. “Which I didn’t like and I didn’t understand.” During the Pride & Prejudice shoot, the studio put him on a special diet and had a personal trainer whittle him into svelte Darcy mode. “I didn’t feel very Mr. Darcy–ish. I felt like a bit of a middle-aged dad.” But Colin Firth, the Gen X Darcy to Macfadyen’s millennial Darcy, instantly grasped his successor’s appeal. “I finally understood the character!” he tells me via email. “I had to write a fan letter. Definitely my favourite Darcy.”

On Tom Wambsgans: “He’s not without ambition and vanity,… Tom would open the gates to the death camps.” Spending so much time in his character’s head during the past five years has made Macfadyen look at politicians differently. “That’s the really depressing thing about the Republican Party. You think: I don’t believe you, you’re just a Wambsgans! You’re just doing this to toe the line. Wambsganning! If you just are dumb and bigoted, that’s [one thing]. But if you’re just spinning it, then it’s really contemptible.”

On dealing with Method actors like Jeremy Strong: “I find it slightly aggravating because—it makes [the show] about one thing, and it’s an ensemble piece… You think of J. Smith-Cameron and Alan Ruck, who are f–king extraordinary actors. [Strong] is not the main event.” Macfadyen is annoyed by the implication that actors who don’t stay in character “aren’t as invested, or as involved, as someone who’s weeping in a corner… I look at Jeremy—that’s Kendall Roy, and so my heart starts banging a bit faster. Because I’ve made the imaginative leap. Because that’s my job. It’s not about what I’m feeling or what state I’ve got myself in before, or any of that. That’s not to say that’s wrong. That’s just not useful.”

He didn’t enjoy his 30s: “It was like, Am I old? Am I young? Why have I put on all this weight? What am I supposed to be? It was a relief to hit 40. And I feel quite excited about my 50s as well. It’s a sneaky sense of relief.”

He’s not interested in doing superhero movies: “I’ve done one big film like that, and it was a green-screen thing. It’s ass-paralyzingly boring, just acting to tennis balls and dots on the screen. You’re doing it for the money.”

[From Vanity Fair]

“Ass-paralyzingly boring” is such an excellent turn of phrase. No, I don’t think all of the superhero actors are doing it for the money, but some of them are. And I appreciate the fact that Matthew just noped out of it. His personality does seem more suited to character work, supporting roles in ensembles and that kind of thing. I imagine it’s more fulfilling for him creatively, and he gets to spend more time with his kids. As for the stuff about Method actors… whew, it sounds like he doesn’t really respect Strong’s method, huh?

PS… I honestly didn’t know that his wife Keeley was married when they fell for each other. Imagine Matthew telling you he loves you in the rain and you’re married to someone else. That must have been like a bomb going off in her life. They have two kids together, and Keeley has a son from her first marriage.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.