Not exactly a surprise. Sam Taylor-Johnson didn’t bother trying to pretend during interviews leading up to the release of Fifty Shades Of Grey that there wasn’t creative conflict between her and author EL James. So the speculation that she would not return to direct the sequels was mo…      

Duchess Kate is all about kids these days. Or should I say that Kate’s PR guy has told her that she needs to be all about kids these days? Something like that. I actually believe that Kate does care (to a degree) and that she’s probably in her comfort zone when she can spend time with families and children and she doesn’t have to pretend to be super-knowledgeable about any one subject. So, Kate has made a public statement today to The Times. She’s encouraging a renewed focus on childhood mental health:

The Duchess of Cambridge is urging parents, teachers and health professionals to give child mental health the attention and focus it deserves.

“I have been heartened to see that so much progress has been made in ending the taboo of adults openly treating mental well-being as the health issue it is,” she said in a message to The Times. “I believe that our generation of parents, carers, teachers, and health workers now have the chance to give the mental health of our children the focus it requires.”

“I feel strongly that young people and parents need to know that they can ask for help. Just as with physical health, we need to act early to provide support when a child is faced with emotional difficulties,” she said.

She suggested in her message that she would be devoting more time and effort to the cause of child mental health when she returns to her public duties later in the year. “This is a discussion that William and I hope to play a part in during the months and years to come. We welcome all work to highlight this important issue for the benefit of all our young people,” she said.

The duchess has told colleagues that she has been struck that the need for early intervention comes up repeatedly when she visits projects and charities, including those for the homeless and drug addicts. However, she believes that her energies will have most impact in the area of early intervention in child mental health. She is patron of the charity Place2Be, one of the first roles she took up after her marriage. The charity provides counselling and psychological help for children in 235 schools to help them cope with issues including bullying, bereavement, domestic violence, family breakdown, neglect and trauma.

[From The Times]

I think this is a great discussion to have, and it’s a great cause for Kate in particular. It’s about kids, it’s about families, it’s a “big issue” but it’s not really controversial and she has a personal history that dovetails with this cause. She’s said in the past that she was bullied by classmates when she was a girl. And childhood bullying is getting a lot of press these days, but I like that Kate is making it about the larger issue of childhood mental health.

Meanwhile, if you want to check out the latest odds-on favorites for Kate’s baby name choices, go here. Apparently, there are a lot of people in Britain who think Kate is totally expecting a girl, and that she’ll name the baby girl Elizabeth, Charlotte, Alexandra or James (OMG, Blake Lively’s baby name!). If it’s a boy, the favorite is now… Albert. God, I hope not.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.

Claire! Happy 30th Birthday from Katya who wants to remind you that Julia Child never knew what she really wanted until she was in her 30s. Because that’s when so much sh-t gets figured out. You’re good. I don’t worry about you. If you know about Julia Child, you’re good.
…      

Dear Gossips,

Crucio, now!

Two things blew up my life yesterday. The first:

ZAYYYYYNNNNN!!!

Maybe you don’t understand the drama, but there were a lot of parents trying to coax their teenagers out of the bathroom last night, OK? This is real pain.

And then…

Th…      

Julia Louis-Dreyfus covers the spring issue of New Beauty magazine to promote the fourth season of Veep, which starts in April. I’m struggling to realize that she’s 54 years old (just like Antonio Banderas). Julia looks fresh, but she doesn’t look like she’s been “refreshed.” If she’s using Botox, her doctor knows how to use it sparingly. There’s probably a sweet combination of good genes and healthy habits at work too. Julia looks fantastic. In this interview, she discusses how to cope with her 17-hour workdays during filming, which make staying on track difficult:

On makeup: “As I’ve gotten older, I realize that less really is more–especially when it comes to makeup. I’ve found that a huge mistake you can easily make that ages you instantly is putting on too heavy foundation. All it does is define the lines you have. One thing I absolutely hate doing is taking my makeup off. I’m not someone who can fall asleep with my makeup on, that’s disgusting to me, so I have to take it off. But I really hate it!”

On aging before an audience: “You’ve seen me age! I’ve been in showbiz for so long. From the first time people saw me on Saturday Night Live until now … it’s no secret that I’ve gotten older. I’ve gotten older in front of you and that is odd – it is still so strange to me that everyone has seen me age on a public stage. It’s totally changing and difficult.”

Making healthy choices: “It can get really hard on-set and the biggest challenge is getting enough sleep. And, when I don’t have enough sleep, my metabolism goes crazy and my decision-making when it comes to good food choices is not the best–it’s very easy for me to go off the wagon as the hours of the day get longer. I am lucky that we have a really great craft services that does give us healthy choices and high-protein options, which helps me not make the bad food mistakes. I try to have some healthy choices on hand. I like Kind Bars and I recently found Santa Barbara Bars. I also always have almonds with me.”

On fitness: “Besides hiking, I like spin classes and I like doing cardio. But I have to admit, I am not so great on a bike. But I do try to do cardio–or anything aerobic–one day a week if I can because I think it’s so important and anyone feels better after they do it. I’m admittedly a lot better in smaller classes and groups though; when there are gobs of people, I start to get self-conscious.”

[From New Beauty]

Julia gives some good tips here, and I think she’s correct about how a little foundation goes a long way. There are also some types of foundation that don’t settle into fine lines and wrinkles as much. Not that I would know, seeing as makeup is not my specialty. Lip stains and mascara are my jam.

Her recommendation about Kind bars is a good one. They’re a little pricey but can be found on sale (usually in bulk form). All of their sea-salt flavors are so good. Do you buy Julia’s claim to only do cardio once per week? Maybe she’s talking about structured cardio, and she hikes a lot too. Whatever Julia’s doing, it’s working for her.

Photos courtesy of New Beauty & WENN

On tour but also training for next Armani shoot! Staying in a gym routine while on the road is tricky, but as long as you don’t drink, eat well, sleep enough and take one of those mad little ab rollers with u everywhere you’ll be good

A photo posted by Calvin Harris (@calvinharris) on Mar 23, 2015 at 4:27pm PDT

Lord help me, but I find Calvin Harris attractive. I remember when he was just a skinny kid from Scotland, the wunderkind writer/producer who seemed shy and not into the limelight. And then he grew comfortable with the attention. And he started working out a lot. And now he posts lots of photos of his hot body on Instagram. Calvin Harris is the face/body of Emporio Armani these days, which means he poses in his underwear a lot. Would you hit it? I would. It’s the body AND the Scottish accent. I can’t help it.

But that’s actually not the point of this story. The point of the story is… would Taylor Swift hit it? For weeks – possibly months? – there have been rumors about a possible situation involving Swifty and Harris. He had a girlfriend until recently, and Swifty was doing her “NO BOYS” thing. But now that Harris is single and ready to mingle, could it be that Swifty swooped in? Behold, a photo of Calvin and Swifty together in Nashville this week! LOOK AT HOW THEY MATCH.

#PHOTO: EU NAO TO NADA BEM! ???? pic.twitter.com/ViFJQjsEEG

— Calvin Harris Brasil (@HarrisBrasil) March 26, 2015

Could this just be a music collaboration of some kind? Sure. But just know… Calvin does have a history of romancing the singers he works with. And if it’s not a musical collaboration, then does this mean that they’re totally hitting it? If I was Swifty… yes, I would be into it. Perhaps not for a long-term situation (I mean, she’s about to go on tour, so she’s pretty busy), but as a friends-with-benefits thing? Yes. Totally.

Photos courtesy of Twitter, Calvin’s IG, WENN.

Jaime King has been especially active on social media and print media lately, or maybe we’re just paying attention to her now. It does feel like Jaime is suddenly everywhere though, right? I’m not complaining – I thought her recent interview about her struggles to conceive her first child was heartbreaking and informative. She’s also been trying to get people to be nicer in general on social media, which has led to some interesting disasters (but she means well). Anyway, Jaime spoke to Elle in a wide-ranging interview about body image, pregnancy and how Taylor Swift is going to be her new baby’s godmother. You can read the full piece here. The most interesting part (I thought) was Jaime talking about how we judge pregnant women and her defense of Kim Kardashian.

Why she invited people to comment on her pregnant body last week: “Because that’s all people do all day is comment. They just say whatever the f–k they want to say, and they don’t actually think that it’s going hurt me.”

When she started to notice the body-commenting on pregnant women: “At the Met’s Costume Institute Gala with Kim Kardashian when she was pregnant [in 2013]. She was with Kanye, but she wasn’t fully accepted by the fashion industry. Riccardo Tisci was very brave in dressing her. Anna Wintour had invited her to the Met ball, which is a big deal and a big step up for her. But when she was pregnant [there], I remember going back in my hotel room and crying for like five hours because I kept seeing all these things come up online, all of these horrible pictures and GIFs. I couldn’t stop crying because here was this beautiful glowing pregnant woman who is probably so excited to be attending the Met ball for the first time with the man that she loved, and she had this beautiful dress made for her that was very daring and very gorgeous, and she has a beautiful growing child inside of her, and yet everybody bashed her and called her a whale or said she looked like a couch or drapes.

Online bullying affects mental health: “It was so stunning to me that people thought that that was okay—not only okay but they condoned it. They would retweet it, they would talk about it, they would put it on the Internet, they would call her a whale on the cover of a magazine. They would not even think about the way it would affect her mental health and the child’s health. It emotionally tapped into a place for me because I was newly pregnant [with my first child]. What kind of world are we living in now where this is okay, where our bodies are being essentially sold to the highest bidder regarding their comments and that we are just put up on a cross to be persecuted?

[From Elle]

I agree with her to a certain extent, and I always try to give pregnant women (in particular) the benefit of the doubt when it comes to styling, etc. I try to balance that with what I think are completely okay and legitimate conversations about fashion. I mean, she’s talking about Kim Kardashian at the Met Gala. A reality star who thrives on every kind of attention, good or bad, at arguably the biggest fashion event of the year. Obviously, we were going to talk about Kim’s dress, pregnant or not. And you know what? I still think it was a bad dress and Kim styled it poorly. I think it was particularly bad because she was pregnant, and Ricardo Tisci should have understood that the particular floral would not look great on a pregnant woman.

But… Jaime is talking around another legitimate point, which is the increasing phenomenon of a pregnant woman not being allowed to “own” her own body, culturally or legally. The legislation around pregnancy, reproductive rights and abortion grows more disturbing by the day, and this is a symptom: that pregnant women are seen as public property.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Here are some photos of beautiful Idris Elba being beautiful last week in London. He was filming Luther and damn, he looked good. Idris is in demand these days. I’m not really surprised by that, although I am surprised sometimes by which projects Big Driss chooses to do. I guess some stuff will come into focus for him in a few years, when he’s hopefully tapped (unf) to play James Bond. In the meantime, he’s probably going to appear in yet another franchise: the Star Trek franchise!! Variety says that Idris is going to follow in Benedict Cumberbatch’s KHAN shoes and become the villain in the third film of the rebooted franchise.

Idris Elba is in early talks to play the villain in “Star Trek 3,” sources tell Variety. Justin Lin is directing the pic, with Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana and Anton Yelchin all on board to return.

J.J. Abrams will produce along with his producing partner Bryan Burke and Skydance’s David Ellison. Production is set to start in June.

Details of Elba’s role are being kept under wraps. Early rumors suggest that Klingons would be the main villains in this movie, as they have not had a full presence in previous installments, but sources would not confirm if that was the case. Paramount and Skydance had no comment.

[From Variety]

If Idris is playing a Klingon, wouldn’t that mean that his beautiful face would be partially covered in terrible prosthetics and makeup? NOOOOOOooo. If Idris is coming into the Star Trek world, why can’t he be some smooth-talking Earthling who seduces all the ladies? And perhaps some of the gentlemen too. I wouldn’t mind a Star Trek same-sex love story involving Idris and Chris Pine. Sh-t, that’s my new happy place. Anyway, this is just an FYI: Idris Elba’s thunder is going intergalactic.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Jeremy Renner’s split from his wife of ten months, Sonni Pacheco, is still an utter mess. When we last checked in on them, Sonni had told the court that Renner shouldn’t have any kind of custody with their daughter Ava Berlin because Renner keeps loose guns in his home. In addition to requesting sole custody of Ava, Sonni has asked for a lot of child support, plus she wants him to pay her legal fees. His response to her: get a job. Oh, and she signed a pre-nup and he wants it honored. No spousal support, although I bet he is paying some kind of child support. In any case, Team Renner has filed more paperwork with the court, claiming that Sonni threatened to release “intimate videos” of him unless he helped her get a green card.

Jeremy Renner’s estranged wife threatened to release intimate videos of him if he ever went back on his promise to help her get a green card … this according to legal docs Jeremy just filed. Renner is in the middle of a bitter child custody fight over their nearly 2-year-old daughter Ava. Sonni Pacheco’s gunning for primary custody of their child and wants more than $13K a month in child support. Jeremy has been sharing 50/50 custody since they split up in December.

In Jeremy’s new legal docs — obtained by TMZ — Jeremy says Sonni repeatedly admitted she married him to get a green card and financial stability. He claims she repeatedly told their roommate Jeremy should be nice to her and not fight her on the green card or money issues or she’d release the embarrassing videos to TMZ … By the way, TMZ never spoke with her and we wouldn’t post such videos.

Jeremy says there are multiple issues of bad parenting on Sonni’s part, the worst of which was back in September when he was on location and she left their kid alone in the house for 15 minutes. She went in an Uber to party and never checked to see if someone was at home to care for Ava. Their roommate filed a declaration saying Sonni smokes and drinks and in fact stopped breast feeding because she felt guilty she was drinking alcohol. The roommate also claims Sonni did coke during a vacation right after Ava was born. We’ve reached out to Sonni’s reps, so far no word back.

[From TMZ]

First of all, is this “roommate” the same guy that Renner has seemingly lived with for years? Isn’t that Renner’s “business partner”? And now that guy is slamming Sonni as a druggie, a party girl and an unfit mother? SHADY. I have no doubt that Sonni married Renner for some semblance of stability, and to protect herself legally if everything fell apart (which is happening). I also don’t doubt that she probably has some videos of Renner doing some sketchy stuff that he probably wouldn’t want put out there publicly. But all of this, all together… they both seem like total sketchballs.

Oh, and I love TMZ’s editorial note “TMZ never spoke with her and we wouldn’t post such videos.” Bullcrap. If Sonni showed Harvey Levin a video of Renner doing blow or something of that nature, TMZ would totally publish it.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

View image | gettyimages.com

I had the chance to watch Celine Dion’s full interview with Good Morning America, in which she revealed that she’s returning to Vegas after months at home caring for her husband. As we covered yesterday, Celine’s husband of over 20 years, René Angélil, 73, is unable to speak or eat following surgery for throat cancer. Celine revealed that he requires a feeding tube. I was so moved by Celine’s story, and the full interview just confirmed that. She’s always been such a sincere, classy person.

During the interview, they showed Celine and René walking out on the stage in Vegas where she’s set to perform again in August. René moved gingerly and you could tell was having problems. In a new interview with People Magazine, Celine reveals that it was René’s idea for her to return to Vegas. People also says that René has lost much of his hearing due to radiation treatments for his cancer. It’s hard to read all she’s been through. Here’s some of what she told People:

Her outlook for the future
I always remember that saying when you get married: ‘In sickness and in health.’ I am scared of losing him, because it’s bad… but I have to show myself, my husband and my kids that I’m strong and we’re ok.

When I stopped performing, I wanted to be just a wife and mother. He wants me to sing again, and I want to do this with him.

On everything they’ve been through
It’s made us strong. We’ve been through a lot and we’re not questioning, ‘What happened and why? And how come again?’ We just have to get through it the best possible way… sickness is tough, it’s not something you choose.

You just have to live every day to the fullest… we don’t know what the future will bring, so we decided to just go for it.

How her children are doing
The twins are fine because they’re young, but I’m worried about RC. [Her oldest son, 13]. He understands what’s going on, and I feel a lot of empathy for him and I want him to feel like he can talk…

They [her children] help me to keep busy and stay positive. I just can’t sit around and worry.

On Rene encouraging her to get back to work
He was ready before me. He amazes me. I feel very fortunate I still have him… Rene has a little written destiny, but what exactly and when, nobody knows, and we’re not waiting for it.

[From People Magazine, print edition, April 6, 2015]

I like what she said about how she’s doing what she has to do and is trying to live every day to the fullest. As I mentioned yesterday, I do wonder if Celine is going back to Vegas because she’s contractually obligated to do so. You get the impression that she’d rather stay home with her family at this difficult time. She’s not complaining though, and she’s doing what she has to do. She’s also showing how vulnerable she is. Celine is honest, genuine and real and that makes her a rarity. So many people care about her and her husband.

View image | gettyimages.com

Love you #20

A photo posted by @celinedion on Dec 17, 2014 at 12:13pm PST

A photo posted by @celinedion on Dec 9, 2014 at 11:44am PST