These are photos from last night’s Unite:4humanity gala in Beverly Hills, which honors celebrities for their commitment to charity. Halle Berry, a longtime supporter of domestic violence causes and in particular The Jenesse Center, was presented with the Creative Conscience Award by Queen Latifah. Halle was in a black v-neck David Koma gown with a fitted zippered bodice and a slightly asymmetrical bell skirt. This is a great dress for the occasion and it’s sexy without showing too much skin. I am not liking Halle’s new hair, which is surely extensions anyway. (She had a chin length bob a couple of weeks ago.) The whole vibe is very Jennifer Garner, but it’s not fug. I just wish she was still rocking short hair, it really suits her.

Emily Blunt was in a bizarre Peter Pilotto dress featuring metal florescent flower-like appliques. I don’t get this dress at all. Maybe if the rivet things were limited to just the top, it wouldn’t seems as busy. Kaiser mentioned to me that Emily looks very thin. She does look smaller than she did a couple of months ago.

Here’s Pink trying to work a Little House on The Prairie Michael Kors dress with a dust ruffle, puffy sleeves and a high neck. Why was this dress even made and what possessed Pink to wear it?

Two women wore oversize pantsuits to the event, a newly blonde Camilla Belle and Beth Behrs. Camilla’s hair makes her look like a different person, but she gets points for wearing a shell under her jacket. (Just because Jennifer Aniston does it, doesn’t make it ok.) Both of these suits need tailoring.

Also in the gallery we have pics of Amy Poehler, Sarah Hyland, Christina Applegate, Aaron Paul and Lauren Parsekian, Busy Philipps and Ewan McGregor looking grumpy hot. He’s bringing back bowling shoes!

photo credit: WENN.com

How To Get Away With Murder Season 1 Episode 13 recap

Once again, good things come to those who wait. Now we understand what we need to know about Frank, about Bonnie, and blissfully, everything we already wanted to be true about Asher. We learned a lot – a lot about Annalise. A little …      

Towards the end of 2014, there was a major kerfuffle in Prince Charles’ press office. Various former press officers, who used to work for Charles, had told their stories to the BBC and Radio Times. There was a documentary called Reinventing the Royals, all about how Charles had remade his image following Princess Diana’s death, and how he had gotten the British public to accept Camilla as his wife (and eventual Queen). The documentary was supposed to air months ago, but it was pulled after Charles’ people raised a stink. But the documentary ended up airing last night on the BBC. So what did we learn? The Daily Beast has a lengthy article about it – go here to read. Some highlights:

*Charles’ office always painted Diana in a negative light, before and after her death: Charles’ consigliere Mark Bolland is accused of helping to write a book that described Princess Diana as a serial adulterer with mental health issues, as well as sanctioning a story that would run in the News of the World claiming Prince Harry had taken drugs, in exchange for an editorial praising Charles’ fabricated reaction to the revelation.

*Charles sold out William: Charles and his press office gave vivid details about William’s first meeting (he was 16) with Camilla to The Sun. The reporter who wrote the story told the BBC: “We got all the details, her [Camilla] drinking the gin and tonic, her having a sneaky [cigarette] beforehand because she was nervous and everything else… So all the detail came to us and was, if you like, absolutely kosher. Apart from Camilla and William telling us, you couldn’t have got it from a better source…It was Mark Bolland.”

*Prince William hated his dad’s press officers: “He [William] didn’t like being used by anybody and he felt, from what I remember, that he was being used by his father’s staff,” said Richard Kay, royal correspondent for the Daily Mail, from 1986 to 2007. “I’m sure he was. I think it explained a lot about what happened in subsequent years when he decided to break away from his father’s people.”

*Charles’ press officer sold out Harry: Bolland had “done a deal” with the News of the World over the drug revelations despite Harry’s outright rejection of a raft of claims made by Rupert Murdoch’s former newspaper. The one thing he couldn’t deny was that he had ever smoked marijuana… Harry had felt trapped by Bolland’s alleged arrangement in which the palace agreed not to contest the drug allegations if the editorial flagged up the way Prince Charles had supposedly responded by taking his youngest son to a drug treatment center as a warning. In fact, the coincidental royal rehab visit had taken place months earlier. “Harry knew he’d done the wrong thing, he felt very bad about it, he felt he’d let people down, but I think he was quite angry that stuff had not happened in the way it had been said.”

*Mark Bolland must go: Whatever the truth about Charles’ direct involvement in the apparently nefarious briefings going on in his name, the rest of the royal family knew perfectly well that it was his staff planting all these stories in the press. And yet Bolland retained his lofty position. By 2002, the growing sense of frustration had come to the boil, the rest of the family was sick of being collateral damage in Prince Charles’ black ops…. it was the Queen’s intervention that heralded the end of Charles’ right-hand man. “The Queen is quite marvelous in all kinds of ways, but she’s quite ruthless when she needs to be. It seems to me she decided ‘Enough’s enough.’”

[From The Daily Beast]

I think this goes a ways towards explaining why William is so squirrelly with the press, and perhaps why he prefers the Middletons to his own family… although I would argue that the Middletons leak as much information about William as Charles’ office. Charles sounds ruthless, and like he hires ruthless people. But I also think that at the heart of all of this is one simple fact. William and Charles are a lot alike in general, and in one particular way: they are terrible at public relations and media management on their own. Their instincts are always terrible. They surround themselves with smarter media-savvy people to do their dirty work, to mixed results. And both William and Charles will throw anyone under the bus to make themselves look good. Like father, like son.

These are pics of Charles and Camilla celebrating the Chinese New Year in London yesterday.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Sonja! Happy Birthday from Olja, Eva, and Ana who hope that you continue to live the most “trendy mctrend” life ever. By request, here are fresh pics of John Legend at the ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood event yesterday.

Happy Birthday Melanie with love from your sister Tracey wh…      

I couldn’t resist squeezing in one more Michael Keaton post before Oscar weekend. All the votes are in, so there’s nothing more the nominees can do but sit on their hands and try to relax. This year’s Best Actor race has been highly entertaining and a bigger bitchfest than I can remember seeing from any recent awards season. These dudes shamelessly worked it. They’ve made Oscar season into a spectator sport, and I thank them for it.

Everyone assumes Eddie Redmayne will win at this point, although Keaton is still regarded as a solid contender. Steve Carell’s been quietly navigating behind the scenes. Benedict Cumberbatch may have realized by now that it’s not happening for him, but Bradley Cooper isn’t giving up. The fake baby and beige booty shorts just don’t stop, y’all. Some critics think BCoop has a shot at taking home this prize, but that would be an unprecedented upset.

Keaton did a few last minute interviews earlier this week. My favorite is a tiny autoplay video from People where Keaton kicks back with his horse in Montana. I’m combining that excerpt with a few others. Keaton’s stance all along has been to admit how much he wants to win and look down upon “false humility.” These new excerpts reflect Keaton’s desire show how hardworking and humble he is, which is interesting. Has he slipped into false humilitiy himself? It’s a fine line, but I think he’s genuine here:

His career in a nutshell: “Ever since I was a little kid, I was very kind of spoiled by the advantage of being able to walk out my door, up over the hill, and down into the woods, and play in the creek all day. I showed up in Los Angeles with about $263 dollars in my pocket. Someone asked me that the other day – ‘when was the time when you really had to pull yourself up by the proverbial bootstraps?’ And the truth is, I pulled myself up from the beginning and I pull myself up just about every job. I’m not sure I’ll ever get the opportunity to do anything like this again. I’m unbelievably grateful for the shot. I wake up in the morning, I’ve got two arms, two legs, two eyes, [breathes deep] got lungs. I’m pretty much good to go.”

He’s excited & grateful for the nomination: “The response from everyone’s been so great, to go through everything and work hard, work as hard as I did on this movie, all the years I’ve put into being recognized. It means a lot to me. It’s really fun, it’s ridiculously flattering … I’ve been doing this for a long time, but I’m grateful, that’s the word I keep using and I’m going to keep using it.”

He nearly “failed miserably” in the role: “It didn’t hit me until we had already started shooting, thank God, that I actually play four characters in this movie. I play the actor and the actor who’s actually directing and then two characters inside a play, then we perform the play inside of it and then there’s the Birdman character … you forget it’s a comedy … finally comedy is getting its due, I think.”

Advice to his younger self: “Mostly I’ve done what I would tell somebody, keep your eye on the ball, don’t be a baby, don’t whine, stay focused and just keep working, and don’t take your eye off the ball.”

[From People, Extra & GMA]

That last excerpt refers to his Golden Globe speech, where he said, “Never whine, ever. Never complain. And always, for crying out loud, keep a sense of humor.” Those are wise words for any occupation, not just acting. Keaton has more perspective (and a longer career) than the other Best Actor nominees. He led the Best Actor category for months, but the SAG and BAFTAs both point to Eddie Redmayne taking the top prize. I’ll be legit sad to see Keaton lose, but I believe him when he says he’s simply grateful to be recognized. He sounds genuinely humble, which is all the more reason for him to win. Oh well. We shall see what happens on Sunday!

Photos courtesy of WENN

Dear Gossips,

It’s Oscar weekend!

Have you submitted your ballot yet? The prize is $500 to spend at Homesense and an Alexander McQueen bag and a beauty products gift bag. All told, the winner’s getting almost $3000 in gifts. Click here to enter.

Am in LA this weekend cover…      

When is Benedict Cumberbatch going to begin filming Doctor Strange? He already pulled out of The Lost City of Z (Charlie Hunnam took his role) and Marvel has a November 2016 release date set aside for Doctor Strange. Considering the CGI and post-production needed for all of Marvel’s films these days, I assumed that Strange would be The Batch’s next project, that he would start filming sooner rather than later. But Benedict spoke to The Daily Mail’s gossip guy and Bendy says he’s going to spend the next few months “nesting” with his new wife. O RLY?

Benedict Cumberbatch can’t wait to prepare for the arrival of his first child – and the best role he’ll ever have, as a dad. The Oscar-nominated star told me that he’s counting the days until the awards season is over so that he and his new wife Sophie Hunter can ‘do some nesting’.

‘I’ve been on muddy fields and on horseback playing Richard III for the BBC and I’ve been on more flights to Los Angeles and back than I can count. All of that has been special, but I’m ready to have a couple of months to ourselves to prepare for the baby and do some nesting. It’s a real-life role, not a part,’ Cumberbatch told me.

Cumberbatch told me that he’s going to jealously guard his ‘nesting period’ with his wife because by late May he will be preparing to rehearse a production of Hamlet that begins previewing at the Barbican Theatre in London on August 5. The play, directed by award-winning Lyndsey Turner, boasts Cumberbatch as the Danish prince.

Although existing tickets have already sold out, producer Sonia Friedman has determined that 100 seats per performance will be made available at £10 each. Details on how to obtain these tickets will be revealed later in the spring. The Cumberbatch Hamlet will be filmed and shown at more than 550 cinemas in the UK and beamed around the world, I can reveal, on October 15, two weeks before the run ends on October 31.

‘It’s just a great way of making the play accessible,’ Cumberbatch said.

Friedman added that the NT Live initiative gives the ‘opportunity to thousands of people who are not able to see our limited run at the Barbican’. She hopes that the October 15 broadcast will be ‘an electrifying evening’ for UK audiences watching the show ‘in real time’.

[From The Daily Mail]

There’s more about the live event, but you get the idea. You will be able to see Benedict on stage, as Hamlet, on October 15th in various theaters. As for Benedict wanted to nest with Sophie… well, I guess. Sure. I thought he would be filming Doctor Strange in that time frame, but I guess he’s more focused on getting to know his wife and changing nappies.

It will be interesting to see how many pre-Oscar events Benedict and Sophie do this weekend. And I am legitimately curious to see what Sophie wears to the Oscars. Benedict is a presenter too! So we’ll definitely be seeing a lot of him on Sunday night. I’m assuming he’ll probably attend the BAFTA LA event this weekend too – most of the British actors attend that event during Oscar weekend.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

Eddie Cibrian got a job! Finally, an explanation for why LeAnn Rimes was so desperate to convince people that she was terribly ill – she needed Eddie to NOT work and stay home with her. EDDDDDIIIIEEEEE!!!! Bring me the thermometer! Make me some soup! PAY ATTENTION!! According to the trade papers, Eddie was cast in a TV sitcom vehicle for Monica Potter, who is just coming off of NBC’s Parenthood. Potter is producing the sitcom, and will star as an animal-loving woman with three ex-husbands and three children by each husband. It’s called The Kate Winslet Story. No!! Just jokes. It’s untitled for now. Eddie plays one of the ex-husbands.

Monica Potter has found the quartet of men in her sitcom life. Eddie Cibrian, Donald Faison, Josh Hopkins and Rory Scovel have joined the cast of NBC’s untitled sitcom loosely based on the “Parenthood” actress’s life with three ex-husbands, a child by each of them and a new boyfriend.

Cibrian, Faison and Scovel will play her three exes. Hopkins plays a veterinarian who is attracted to Potter’s character, Bridget, an animal lover who brings her rescues to kindly Dr. Tom.

The untitled project was written by Sherry Bilsing-Graham and Ellen Kreamer for Ellen DeGeneres’ A Very Good Production and Warner Bros. TV. Bilsing-Graham and Kreamer exec produce with DeGeneres and Very Good’s Jeff Kleeman. Potter is a producer on the pilot.

[From Variety]

According to THR, Eddie will play the first ex-husband, “a slick professional gambler. He remains slightly territorial when it comes to Bridget, even after their divorce. They share a daughter, Jessica.” (Art imitating life?) Do you think this show will get picked up? I think it might, but not because of Eddie. People really like Monica Potter and I think there are lots of people looking forward to Donald Faison’s return to sitcom glory (he is such a talented TV actor). Who knows? This could be really good for Eddie’s career.

BUT LEANN IS STILL SO SICK, you guys. She’s so sick she had to cancel her Las Vegas show this weekend. Why won’t Eddie stay home and look after her properly, you guys? SHE’S DYING.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.

The Hollywood Reporter released two more of their “brutally honest ballot” pieces yesterday. I have to admit, these two are sort of letdowns after the deliciously offensive bitchery of the first ballot, which we covered yesterday. To recap, every year THR sits down with various Oscar voters in various branches and the voters fill out their ballots in front of THR. The voters get to speak their mind under the condition of anonymity, which historically has revealed some amazing WTF-ery of petty grudges, racism and gossip. The two ballots released by THR yesterday were not all that gossipy though. There were some interesting insights, for sure. You can read Ballot #2 (a voter from short films and animation branch) here. You can read Ballot #3 (a voter from the screenwriters’ branch) here. Some highlights:

Ballot #2: the voter is an Oscar-nominated member of the animation/short film branch. Thoughts on Best Picture:

Whiplash is offensive — it’s a film about abuse and I don’t find that entertaining at all. My kid would have told me if he had an abusive teacher. I would have sat in on the class, talked to other kids in the class and then said, “This a–hole has to go.” [The Grand] Budapest [Hotel] is beautifully made, but its story just isn’t special. I didn’t think Selma was a particularly good film, apart from the main actor [David Oyelowo], and I think the outcry about the Academy being racists for not nominating it for more awards is offensive — we have a two-term president who is a black woman [Cheryl Boone Isaacs] and we give out awards to black people when they deserve them, just like any other group.

Birdman, I didn’t get it at all — I look around and it’s doing so well and I just don’t get it. American Sniper glosses over feelings — how do you feel when you kill 170 people? You just see him hesitating in the one scene with the boy who briefly picks up the rocket and then you see him sitting at a bar looking depressed; that’s not enough. As far as The Imitation Game, Alan Turing was very much defined by his repressed homosexuality, and I just don’t think the film deals with that very well. I admired Boyhood and it didn’t bore me, but it doesn’t totally work. But Theory [of Everything] I loved. It was the only one of the nominees that fully worked as a whole film — it was beautifully performed, nicely directed and it was about something — although Boyhood is pretty special for its own reasons. Just because the Academy gives you a preferential ballot with a bunch of lines doesn’t mean you have to fill them all out. Those are only two that I find worthy of the award. MY VOTE: (1) The Theory of Everything, (2) Boyhood

*This person voted for Richard Linklater for Best Director because “It’s not even close for me because I didn’t especially like the other nominees’ pictures.” The voter went with Eddie Redmayne for Best Actor because “it’s an amazing performance” and they also went for Felicity Jones for Best Actress (interesting). This voter thought Meryl Streep was “unbelievable” (in a good way) in Into the Woods and ended up voting for Meryl instead of Patricia Arquette.

[From THR]

And here are some highlights from Ballot #3, from a voter in the screenwriters’ branch.

*The voter had nothing but compliments for all of the Best Picture nominees, except they weren’t all that jazzed about Boyhood. This was their final vote: (1) The Imitation Game, (2) Birdman, (3) Whiplash, (4) The Theory of Everything, (5) American Sniper

*Best Director was between Richard Linklater and Alejandro G. Inarritu and the voter went with the crazy-ambition of Inarritu.

*Vote for Eddie Redmayne because his role was the most “transformative.” Same with Julianne Moore – this person voted for Moore because her role was the most transformative.

*Another vote for JK Simmons and Patricia Arquette even though “None of the [supporting actress nominees] blew my mind.”

[From THR]

As I said, these weren’t as gossipy as the first one. For Ballot #3, the closest we get to gossip is when this guy (??) talks about how he like American Sniper and he didn’t think the “attacks” on the film were “legitimate” because at the end of the day, it’s not a documentary. Blah. I thought Ballot #2 shows (yet again) how Selma really irritated Oscar voters and the Academy really doesn’t like to be called out on their racist BS. Too bad.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

I’ve got a hodge-podge of Kimye news for you guys. Aren’t you the lucky ones? Let’s start with Kanye West. Kanye has been attending lots of NYFW shows this week, obviously. He was 15 minutes late arriving to the Jeremy Scott show, and according to Us Weekly, “He was immediately flanked by photographers and while he posed for cameras, the rapper refused to smile. His demeanor changed, however, during the runway show, when the observer tells Us he flashed a big grin at the designs.” Also attending the Jeremy Scott show? New York Fashion Week creator Fern Mallis. You might recognize her from her appearances on Project Runway. The NY Post asked Mallis what she thought of Kanye entering the New York Fashion Week world as a designer and her reply is… in line with Kelly Cutrone.

The one-and-only creator of Fashion Week, Fern Mallis, was at Wednesday’s Jeremy Scott show, along with the ubiquitous Kanye West, who sported a maroon hoodie and two bodyguards who blocked the hoi polloi from his greatness. While fans swarmed the singer/wannabe fashion designer, Mallis remained unimpressed.

“I’m kind of over Kanye,” she said. “I mean, I’m not a fan of his music, and the attitude and the agenda is not my style.”

[From the NY Post]

I find it interesting that some big-name people in the New York fashion world are publicly sniffing about Kanye. I tend to think the reaction to Kanye in the Paris fashion world is a bit different. Kanye might be seen as more of a circus act, and God knows, the Paris designers probably love shilling their product to oblivious Americans. Speaking of, Kanye’s BFF Riccardo Tisci (the designer for Givenchy) has a new interview with Details – you can read the full piece here. He name-checks Kim and Kanye, but the whole piece is a really good read. Here’s the big Kimye part:

DETAILS: You often post #family along with your Instagram photos of famous friends. How do you forge authentic friendships with them?
Tisci: They feel that I’m not there to dress a celebrity. I dress people even when they don’t have an Oscar nomination or they don’t have an album out. If they’re my friends, I respect them to the end. And you need to feel people stay with you because they love you, not only as an artist, but also as a human being. Look at Kanye and Kim—at the beginning, I was the only one.

DETAILS: Kim wasn’t always accepted in the fashion community.
Tisci: By nobody. And she’s a sweet girl. And Kanye and me, we did it together. Every designer is dying to dress her now. I didn’t care what people thought about Kim. In the beginning, I met her because of my respect for Kanye, and then I liked her a lot and we became friends. I got killed because of this. But I didn’t care. That is a friend, you see. And this is why, when they got married, they asked me to dress them. They say, “You’ve always been with us. You’ve been a real friend.” If I like somebody, I like somebody. If I don’t like somebody, I don’t like somebody.

[From Details]

Ha, “nobody” respected Kim. “I got killed because of this” – because he dared to dress Kim and befriend her. Yeah. It’s not really a ringing endorsement, and the subtext is that Kanye and Riccardo worked as Henry Higgins and Col. Pickering to “Eliza Doolittle” Kim into something that would somewhat presentable. Poor Kim. She’s just their Barbie doll.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.