Iconic actor Leslie Jordan has passed away at the young and sassy age of 67. He died yesterday following a car accident in which he was the driver and only person injured. It’s thought that he had a medical emergency which caused the crash. He was a prolific Emmy-winning character actor, theater performer, playwright and beloved personality. He gained millions of fans with his hilarious and heartwarming social media posts early in lockdown. Leslie was incomparable, joyful, lovely and raucously funny and he will be so missed. Here’s some of People’s writeup on Leslie.

Leslie Jordan has died, PEOPLE has confirmed. He was 67.

“The world is definitely a much darker place today without the love and light of Leslie Jordan,” his agent David Shaul shared in a statement to PEOPLE. “Not only was he a mega talent and joy to work with, but he provided an emotional sanctuary to the nation at one of its most difficult times. What he lacked in height he made up for in generosity and greatness as a son, brother, artist, comedian, partner and human being. Knowing that he has left the world at the height of both his professional and personal life is the only solace one can have today.”

Jordan died in a car crash in Hollywood, California, after an apparent medical emergency, TMZ first reported. The LAPD confirmed to PEOPLE that the accident occurred at around 9:30 a.m. local time on Monday morning.

Jordan’s death was also confirmed via his official Instagram on Monday afternoon, with a brief statement teasing that Jordan was still working in final days.

“The love and light that Leslie shared will never go out and we invite you to share their memories and comfort each other during this time,” the post read. “In the coming days we will be giving a glimpse of a project Leslie was really proud of and was looking forward to sharing with the world.”

[From People]

Leslie was starring in the Fox sitcom Call Me Kat, the third season of which is airing now. He filmed 9 episodes for this season and production has halted following his death. People points out that Leslie was sober for over 20 years. He faced so much adversity as a gay man growing up in the south and yet he came out at 12 and was unapologetically himself. This is an incredibly hard story to write and we’re all gutted that we lost Leslie. I know him best from Will and Grace and he won me over on Instagram with his humor, light and laughter. The world will never have another Leslie Jordan and we are all greater for having known him.

My faves from him. pic.twitter.com/HtrR0jnemk

— Is That T-Mobile? (@HEYMICHSI) October 24, 2022

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This is making me both laugh and cry at the same time. We love you Leslie and we’ll miss you.

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Leslie had just bought his first property.

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One of the first “gigs” that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex signed up for was a paid speaking service, where they would obviously be paid keynote speakers for hire at various conferences, summits and conferences. The pandemic kind of ruined that, but before the pandemic, the British media was beside itself with glee/drama – just the idea of Harry being paid to, like, travel to Kansas and talk to a convention of dentists, I guess. Anyway, if Harry and Meghan have been making paid speeches constantly, we haven’t heard of it (and I think we would have). I assume that Meghan got this new gig from the paid-speaking service though: she’ll travel to Indiana after Thanksgiving to make a speech a women’s group:

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and wife of Prince Harry, will be the featured guest at a Women’s Fund of Central Indiana event Nov. 29 at the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown.

“The Power of Women: An Evening with Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex” will include an interview conducted by Rabbi Sandy Sasso, the first woman rabbi ordained by the Reconstructionist Judiasm movement. She previously led Congregation Beth-El Zedeck in Indianapolis.

Tables of 10 are available through womensfund.org for $5,000, half of which is tax deductible. A Women’s Fund news release notes proceeds from the event, running from 5-8:30 p.m., will support its mission “to create equitable and sustainable change for all women and girls no matter of their race, place or identity.”

Women’s Fund of Central Indiana is a special interest fund of Central Indiana Community Foundation. Previous guests at Women’s Fund events include Michelle Obama and Soledad O’Brien.

“Women’s Fund is proud to welcome Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex, to Indianapolis – a mother, feminist, and champion of human rights,” a Women’s Fund spokesperson said. “She is a lifelong advocate for women and girls, a constant thread she weaves through humanitarian and business ventures.”

[From Yahoo]

As you can imagine, the usual suspects are trying to make Meghan sound like an out-of-touch elitists bilking the Indiana billionaires for the pleasure of her company. When really, Meghan likely agreed to do a speaking engagement because this aligns perfectly with the issues she cares about. The $5000 per table is part of the fundraising scheme for this non-profit, the Women’s Fund of Central Indiana. And I suspect that Meghan probably isn’t even getting paid that much.

A new speaking engagement for Duchess Meghan, who will be in Indiana on Nov 29 for @womensfundindy‘s #PowerOfWomen. Ticket sales will help their continued efforts in creating “equitable and sustainable change for all women and girls no matter of their race, place or identity.” pic.twitter.com/aG3P1sHGjG

— Omid Scobie (@scobie) October 24, 2022

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Misan Harriman/the Sussexes.

Ever since Queen Elizabeth II passed away, the vibe has been off/different with the new queen consort, Camilla. The first weeks were obviously all about King Charles – and bizarrely also about Prince Harry – and I thought Camilla was making an effort to tread lightly on purpose, to slink into the background, to not draw attention to herself. After all, she “won,” but at what cost? She’s still very unpopular and people are not jazzed about calling her “Queen Camilla.” But as the weeks went on, it does feel notable that Camilla isn’t doing much of anything. She’s not part of the coronation committee, she’s not taking on any of QEII’s old patronages (yet, I suppose), she’s not pushing some big “love me, I’m your queen” agenda. And then this: as it turns out, Camilla traveled to India by herself to go to a wellness center for what I can only assume is some holistic cosmetic work.

Queen Camilla has traveled across the world for some rejuvenation. The wife of King Charles is staying at a holistic health center near Bangalore, India, where she and some friends are reportedly taking in a bit of wellness therapy.

The Queen Consort, 75, headed to the Soukya center after landing in Bangalore on Friday with some friends and protection officers, the Times of India reported.

Meditation, homeopathy, yoga, therapy and an ancient traditional system of medicine known as Ayurveda are available at Soukya, headed by Dr. Isaac Mathai. The residential medical institute bills itself as the world’s first integrative health destination and focuses on “healing, prevention or rejuvenation,” according to its website.

Camilla has been a regular attendee over the years, sometimes heading there en route to an overseas tour with King Charles. That is not the case this time, but she likely factored in the vacation a long time ago. Buckingham Palace had no comment when contacted about the break.

Camilla is staying at the retreat for ten days, according to the Times of India. Meanwhile, Charles was staying at the royal family’s Sandringham estate over the weekend. He will likely head back to London early this week to appoint the new prime minister after Liz Truss announced her resignation after being appointed on Sept. 6 by the late Queen Elizabeth.

[From People]

It’s more than possible that Camilla genuinely felt like a two-week rejuvenation holiday and nothing shady is going on. She did have a broken toe in September, and she has a family history of osteoporosis (and osteoarthritis, I would imagine). Maybe she truly needed some rest and relaxation. But it definitely feels weird that she just disappeared from England, flew all the way to India and checked into a wellness center just to…get some holistic treatment?

The idea that Camilla would get some pre-Christmas cosmetic surgery is kind of weird too – clearly, she’s fine with her age and she’s fine with looking her age. I guess we’ll know in a few weeks if and when Camilla returns and she suddenly looks as tucked and sucked as Brad Pitt. Another possibility is that the old winebag needed to be dried out??

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images and TOBY MELVILLE/Avalon..

For years now, there have been all kinds of royal “insiders,” Tory elders and completely random royal friends, all coming out to bash The Crown. While there was some criticism of the first three seasons, starting with Season 4 – the introduction of Princess Diana – and continuing to the current flurry of bullsh-t around Season 5, I have assumed that Charles is behind everything. Charles is the one who is furious about a prestige drama, he’s the one organizing this unhinged campaign, and it’s all about his history, his behavior, his actions. But what if other people have their own separate agendas? Here we have Judi Dench, who wrote a hilarious screed against The Crown last week. The crux of her argument was that Americans are too dumb to know that The Crown is a dramatization and that there should be a disclaimer on the show for dumb Americans. Considering Dench’s friendship with Charles and Camilla, I thought they put her up to writing that asinine letter. Turns out, she had her own reasons for whining about The Crown.

Dame Judi Dench reportedly seriously considered joining the cast of Netflix’s The Crown for its fifth season. The esteemed actress, 87, is said to have been sent a script while talking to the royal drama’s producers about taking the role of the Queen Mother – a character which was eventually taken on by actress Marcia Warren. And the revelation comes after Dame Judi branded the series’ plotlines ‘cruelly unjust’ as she slammed the show, blaming it for crude sensationalism.

According to The Times, sources alleged that both The Crown and Dame Judi were ‘taking it seriously’ when in talks for her to join season five.

But the publication noted that there was conflict between the actress and producers over the Queen Mother being a relatively small role for the star, alongside disputes on the size of fee she would get for the role.

The Crown ensures that whichever actress is playing Queen Elizabeth II in the show, currently Imelda Staunton, receives the highest level of pay.

Dame Judi, who has played Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria in past roles, also has a close relationship with the royal family and often fronts events – such as this year’s Jubilee celebrations – leading to worries she could damage their friendship.

[From The Daily Mail]

I’m a bit surprised that the Mail and the Times reported on this and did some digging. Perhaps it was Netflix leaking it too, but whoever put this information out there did it to make Dench look like a petty, unprofessional a–hole. Dench clearly wanted a part on The Crown but she wanted the Queen Mum to have a bigger role and she wanted to get paid more. Netflix turned her down. So Dench’s letter last week looks like sour grapes. Yeah… it was most likely Netflix leaking this, right? LMAO, Netflix is not playing with these fools. Charles and his people better sleep with one eye open, the Netflix boogeymen are coming.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Queen Elizabeth II was a horse girl. Her mother was a horse girl too. Both mother and daughter were obsessed with everything about horses and horse racing and horse breeding. QEII spent decades building her stable of champion racehorses. Her horses were one of her biggest passions and greatest loves. Her children and many of her grandchildren are keen on horses too, from polo ponies to show-jumping horses to race horses. Charles played polo for years, as did his sons. Anne is an accomplished equestrian, as is her daughter Zara. So it definitely seems weird that in recent weeks, there’s been so much conversation about “what will Charles do with his mother’s horses?” The horse operation belongs to him entirely, but he could easily pass everything off to his wife, or to Anne, or William or even the Wessexes. Instead, Charles has decided to sell off some his mother’s collection: he’s selling fourteen broodmares.

BBC News reports that the King is selling 14 of the late monarch’s ‘brood mares’ through Tattersalls auction house in Newmarket, including celebrated runners Just Fine (trained by Sir Michael Stoute, the man behind over 100 royal winners) and Love Affairs. As well as being a keen rider and an eager racegoer – often spotted cheering on her runners from Ascot’s Royal Enclosure – the Queen took an active interest in breeding racehorses at Sandringham’s Royal Stud, which she inherited from her own father, King George VI.

Tattersall spokesman Jimmy George stressed that the Royal Family would be continuing their close ties to the sport, stating: ‘It’s nothing out of the ordinary. Every year they would sell horses. The Queen had brood mares of her own, she would breed them and sell them. You can’t keep them all… Every year owners sell stock. His Majesty is just doing what owners do.’

The monarch’s former racing manager John Warren once described horses as a ‘tremendous getaway’ for the monarch, reflecting: ‘I’m sure if the Queen had not been bred into being a monarch she would have found a vocation with horses. It was just simply in her DNA.’ He credited her role in championing the sport with helping to raise the profile of British racing.

[From Tatler]

They’re trying to put a bow on it, but the most likely scenario here is that King Charles isn’t going to “pass off” any part of the operation to a family member, and he’ll simply sell off his late mother’s horses in smaller groups. And for what purpose? Even if horses aren’t your bag, if your mother spent decades breeding horses and it was one of her great passions and investments, wouldn’t you try to maintain her stable? Especially since Charles has the money and personnel to do just that – it’s not like he’s the one feeding them and mucking about in the stables, for goodness sake. This is pointed – he’s actively destroying the one thing his mother truly loved.

I tweeted about this yesterday, but for all of the talk of how the Sussexes “upset” QEII for this or that and how Liz would be “turning in her grave” over something to do with Harry and Meghan, THIS is actually what would bother her: her son selling off all of her precious horses. And Charles is doing it specifically because his mother loved her horses so much.

Photos courtesy of Instar, Avalon Red, Cover Images and Andrew Milligan / Avalon.

The Duchess of Sussex’s new Archetypes podcast is out!! This week’s episode is “Upending the ‘Angry Black Woman’ Myth with Issa Rae and Ziwe.” Considering all of the sh-t that’s still thrown at Meghan to this very day, you would think that she could have just sat there and talked solo and told all of her stories about how an entire national media smeared her as an angry “bully” who makes white women cry. Meghan doesn’t start out with personal stories though – she discusses the same book she and Harry have referenced many time, Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism by Safiya Umoja Noble. She talks about the trope of “angry Black women” and how that’s not only reinforced by society, but by online algorithms. Here’s the episode:

Meghan starts the conversation with Ziwe, and Meghan reveals that she took one of those genetic tests and it turns out that she’s 43% Nigerian. Ziwe is so excited to hear that and she says that Meghan being part Nigerian is huge for the Nigerian community. Ziwe talks about how she tries to emulate her favorite (white, male) talk show interviewers, but the reaction to her is so different.

I find the normal-conversation part of Archetypes to be so cool – like, I could listen to Meghan and Issa Rae talk about coffee for a while (I don’t drink coffee either, and it’s fascinating to me that Meghan didn’t drink coffee for years in her 30s). Meghan gives Issa her flowers for creating Insecure, for creating a show about how real Black women look, sound, love and live. Issa talks about wanting to create a more nuanced image of Black women on television, and that it’s not just all positive or all negative. Issa talked about the first notes she got from HBO, which is that the name “Insecure” should be changed because the characters were “fierce” and “strong.” Issa was like, no, we need to show people really living.

There’s tons more in this pod – the conversation about Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearings and how utterly infuriating they were to watch as white senators tried to bait Brown Jackson into “looking angry.”

Photos courtesy of Spotify, Avalon Red, JPI Studios/Avalon, Robin Platzer/Twin Images/Avalon.

I was talking to my brother the other day about how much healthier we stayed wearing masks that we will probably keep them on in crowded environments like planes/airports and public transportation from now on. And it looks like we made the right decision because maybe they’ll help with this latest health crisis. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases are surging and since it poses such a threat to young children, many children’s hospitals are at capacity. One of the issues is RSV is a late fall/winter virus but it’s been surging in summer months since last year. That’s a problem in and of itself but especially because it means kids brought it into the school year. With schools and daycare programs back to full attendance and no mask mandates, there’s more and more cases every day.

An unseasonably early spike in respiratory syncytial virus cases among young children is pushing some hospitals to capacity.

RSV, as it’s called, is a respiratory virus that mostly manifests as a mild illness with cold-like symptoms in adults but can cause pneumonia and bronchiolitis in very young children. It can be life-threatening in infants and young adults.

Most years, infections typically occur in the late fall and winter, often overlapping with flu season. But at least since last year, physicians have begun seeing surges starting during summer months.

“Last year, more people were wearing face masks and children were more likely to stay home while sick,” Dr. Laura Romano said in Cook Children’s in-house publication.

“This year, parents are sending their children to daycare and school for the first time following two years of the pandemic. … Children who haven’t been previously exposed to respiratory viruses are getting sick,” Romano said.

Health officials in King County, Wash., are also alarmed as they brace for more cases once winter hits. Dr. Russell Migita with Seattle Children’s Hospital told King 5 News they are seeing about 20 to 30 positive cases every day, adding that those are “unprecedented” figures.

RSV symptoms are similar to a cold and can be harmless in adults, but the CDC says children under the age of 5 are the most affected group. According to the agency’s data, each year approximately 58,000 children in that age range are hospitalized for RSV. The next most vulnerable group are adults over 65, in whom the infection causes 14,000 deaths a year.

RSV can lead to bronchiolitis, an infection that causes airways to become inflamed and clogged with mucus, making it difficult to breathe. If the infection travels to the lung sacs, it can result in pneumonia.

Dr. Sara Goza, physician and former president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, talked to NPR last year about how the infection presents in infants.

“A lot of the babies under a year of age will have trouble breathing. They stop eating because they can’t breathe and eat at the same time. And they’re wheezing, so they’re in respiratory distress,” Goza said.

Other symptoms include coughing, excessive sleeping and lethargy.

[From NPR]

There is a lot of information there so let me reiterate a few key points. Kids under five are the most vulnerable and run the risk of being hospitalized with extended health issues. Next to them are adults over 65 with the risk of death. RSV is life threatening to everyone, though, so do not leave it untreated. The bad news, not that any of this news is good, is that there is no vaccine for RSV. However, the medical community says make sure to get the flu vaccine, so flu symptoms don’t aggravate RSV symptoms. In addition, wash hands, wear masks and encourage everyone around you to do the same.

Most parents have to send their kids to either daycare or school, which may mean exposure to RSV is unavoidable. As the article said, younger kids haven’t been exposed to RSV, so they are more susceptible. Look for the symptoms mentioned above, especially if there’s lethargy and lack of appetite associated with cold-like symptoms, and check with your doctor if you suspect anything.

Remember when we were all just sacred of the Bogey Man this time of year?

Photo credit: Tima Miroshnichenko and Gustavo Fring of Pexels

As I covered recently, Anna (Delvey) Sorokin is out of jail/detention. She is on house arrest, accessorized with an ankle monitor. And in a far cry from the luxurious accommodations from her scam days, she is ensconced in an East Village walkup. Oh how the mighty have fallen. Anna’s first interview upon her release was with The New York Times and now she’s sat down with CNN’s Jake Tapper to talk about her crimes, her state of mind, and what’s next for her. Jake definitely presses her on tough questions and Anna is ridiculous with most of her non-answers.

Fake German heiress Anna ‘Delvey’ Sorokin said she wants a ‘second chance’ to stay in the US so she can ‘change the narrative’ of her elaborate cons after spending 18 months in prison.

Sorokin, 31, was put under house arrest on Friday after 18 months in ICE custody. The judge ruled she was not a danger to the public as she posted $10,000 bond.

‘I feel like I deserve a second chance, it was my mistake that I made and I served my time and I feel like I should deserve a second opportunity,’ she said in a CNN interview on Tuesday from her East Village apartment in New York City.

The interview also gave a look inside Sorokin’s apartment, which featured a piece of art depicting a mock newspaper called ‘The Delvey Crimes.’

Sorokin faces deportation to Germany after completing her criminal sentence in February 2021 – for convictions of grand larceny and thefts totaling $275,000, including stealing at least one flight on a private jet.

‘I feel like if I were to leave and say “oh whatever I’m just going to move on and like move to Europe” I would be like accepting the labels that they are trying to slap on me,’ she said of her potential deportation.

Sorokin was seen sporting an ankle monitor, as she is not officially out of ICE custody.

The Russian-born fraudster is also prohibited from using social media, but says she still feels she is ‘getting a second chance to fix my mistakes.’

She claimed that the media have portrayed her in an unfair way, and that portrayal led to her prosecution in 2019.

‘They kind of created this idea of me and I’m just being left to deal with it,’ she said. ‘I’m trying to not glamorize my crimes and not lead anybody to believe that’s the way to get famous.’

Sorokin said she ‘suffered a lot’ as a result of the bad media, but also said ‘I’m not going to go on TV and cry.’

When pressed about her regrets over her scams, Sorokin admitted she ‘definitely did’ take advantage of people.

‘I was younger and I learned from my mistakes,’ she said.

But she also said her crimes would not be so famous if they were done in a different country, implying Americans have a liking for famous fraudsters.

‘I was thinking if I were to be prosecuted in Germany, I don’t think people would really care,’ she said.

Sorokin was spotted on the way to her first parole hearing on Tuesday, as she continues to face deportation proceedings.

[From The Daily Mail]

First of all, that’s a hideous blouse. Second of all, her accent. It’s not as pronounced as what Julia Garner was doing in the series, and Jake mentions that and Anna explains it away as fading due to her time stateside, but it’s still unmistakable. This was my first time ever seeing the real Anna speak on video at length. And is it me, or have her scam skills atrophied while she was in prison? It seemed like Anna was going for a coquettish thing that didn’t really work at some points. But it was also very apparent when she was lying — she couldn’t look Jake in the eye and she kept looking down or to the side. Maybe it was part of a ploy, but probably not because the questions where her answers were clearly lies were the ones about whether or not she felt sorry about what she’d done. Anna said she was sorry, but she’s clearly not, and I can’t see why she would want the perception that she’s not sorry out there so I’m just left with the impression that she’s not as good of a liar as I’d expect a scammer to be.

I did find it hilariously sniffy and entitled that she was so adamant about the distinction between stealing from friends and financial institutions. And keeps saying she was young, as if that were an excuse. And I continue to find it infuriating that she was able to just nope out of deportation. But I will admit she does make a good point about the too similar detention and deportation treatment between those who simply overstay their visas and those who commit violent crimes. If only she’d taken it a step further and noted the disparate treatment of those who just don’t want to go back to Europe so they can continue to be notorious in the US.

Embed from Getty Images

photos are screenshots from YouTube/CNN and credit Getty and Nicole Rivelli/Netflix

Ana de Armas covers AnOther Magazine to promote Blonde, for which she wants an Oscar nomination. No, scratch that – I think Ana is being told to promote the hell out of Blonde because an Oscar nom might be on the table, but that doesn’t mean that she’s actually trying to get nominated. I think she’s fine with whatever happens – it’s clear that she fell deeply in love with Marilyn Monroe and MM’s iconography, beauty, tragedy and trauma. She’s promoting this so hard because she’s actually proud of her performance and the film, however exploitative, stupid, offensive and ridiculous. You can read the full piece here (it’s super-long). Some highlights:

The cast & crew signed a card and left it at Marilyn’s crypt: “We got this big card and everyone in the crew wrote a message to her. Then we went to the cemetery and put it on her grave. We were asking for permission in a way. Everyone felt a huge responsibility, and we were very aware of the side of the story we were going to tell – the story of Norma Jeane, the person behind this character, Marilyn Monroe. Who was she really?”

Norma Jeane vs. Marilyn: “The more famous Marilyn became, the more invisible Norma Jeane became – Norma was this person no one ever actually met. And Marilyn was someone even she herself talked about in the third person. In some ways Marilyn saved her, gave her a life, but at the same time she became her prison.”

Cuban dreams: “I grew up watching everything from Titanic to The Terminator, but I always knew that reality was so far from my reality. Kids in the US, they believe they can be princesses because you can buy a princess dress and a princess crown and become one. I never had that. I didn’t even know what an apple tasted like.”

Trying to do Marilyn’s voice: “It just wasn’t working when I tried to imitate the sound or the pitch. Marilyn’s voice, her expressions, were a consequence of the speech classes she took herself, of her insecurities, of her not having any boundaries and letting people in, of playing this part of having to be rescued all the time. So I had to know what she was thinking and feeling every time. Because the way she rounded her lips for the ‘O’s, or how much of her lower teeth she would show, what her eyebrows were doing, all these expressions were a consequence of Marilyn in survival mode. They were tricks that she was pulling in desperate circumstances.”

Marilyn couldn’t afford to be angry: “In some early scenes I played it way too strong. I got defensive and angry and Andrew said, ‘You’re not allowed to get angry. Ever. Anger is not something Norma can afford.’ Well, can you imagine what that does to a person? At its heart the movie is about her looking for an absent father. Part of the reason I think she became Marilyn Monroe was to be so visible there’s no way he could not find her. You see how a childhood of feeling unloved and unwanted led her to need love, attention, need someone with her always. So I thought, OK, if I can’t get angry, what are my options? How else can I survive? And I started to explore all these other feelings.”

The violence against Marilyn: “We tried to show the fight she had to put up, not just to be successful, but to survive. What she went through was dark. So dark. When you know that, f–k, I love her more. So the whole point is not bringing down the myth, the point is humanising this icon and making her real, a real woman going through all these different kinds of abuses and situations. And as a woman today I can easily understand how you could find yourself in that situation. So, yes, there are scenes that are hard to watch. But I don’t think this movie has anything sensational or exploitative or gratuitous in it. In many of the scenes people are talking about, you don’t actually see anything. You just know what is happening and that it’s coming from a place of zero love. I do think the audience will feel uncomfortable – because she is uncomfortable. When she feels dirty, you feel that the scene is dirty. It’s all in the way it makes you feel.”

Filming in the home in which Marilyn died: “Those final scenes at her house – I know she was there with us. We all felt it. And I think you can feel that in the movie.”

[From AnOther Magazine]

One of the interesting things I learned from this profile is that Ana not only reread Joyce Carol Oates’ Blonde several times, but Ana also sought out other Monroe material, including Truman Capote’s excellent essay, “A Beautiful Child.” Capote gave Marilyn more depth, agency, humor and sweetness in one essay than Oates did in an entire book, doubly so for the movie. “I don’t think this movie has anything sensational or exploitative or gratuitous in it…” That’s a damn lie. The book is exploitative as hell, and there’s a reason why the film got an NC-17 rating, even with months of edits. It IS a very specific kind of torture-p0rn and I hate that Oates’ book was the only real source material.

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Khloe Kardashian addresses Kanye West’s anti-Semitic hate speech. [Just Jared]
It sounds like Lana del Rey lost years of work. [OMG Blog]
I think the “Karen” Halloween decoration is clever. It’s hilarious that Karens complained about it and had it removed. [Dlisted]
Lainey’s take on Taylor Swift’s Midnights. [LaineyGossip]
Marion Cotillard & others attend a party for Chanel’s jewelry line. [RCFA]
I remember when Lara Logan was a respected journalist and to see her turn into a fascist lunatic is shocking and disturbing. [Jezebel]
I’m in love with Boris Kodjoe & his hoodie. [Go Fug Yourself]
Has Taylor Swift outgrown Easter eggs? [Gawker]
Recap of Andor, Episode 7 (spoilers). [Pajiba]
Every day is Halloween when you dress up in Balenciaga. [Egotastic]
Liz Cheney talks about whether Donald Trump will testify before the January 6th Committee and whether it will be a circus. [Buzzfeed]
Nancy Pelosi says Donald Trump isn’t man enough to testify. [Towleroad]