Keep in mind, I’m not denying that there have been significant crowds out for everything involving Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, procession and lying in state. Thousands of people have come out in London and Edinburgh and flowers have been left at various royal properties. I mentioned on Twitter the other day that I thought the BBC newscasters were overestimating the number of people in various crowds, and various people started yelling at me, like I was trying to say no one has come out for QEII. I still say that certain broadcasters were – and perhaps still are – overestimating the number of people out. There seems to be a very specific need to “hype” this eleven/twelve day mourning period as so much bigger and more significant than… um, the wall-to-wall crowds when Princess Diana died.

I bring this up because I think other people are overestimating the level of the public’s grief too, to the point where too many needed services are being canceled. The NHS is literally canceling cancer treatments and maternity checks because of the Queen’s funeral.

Thousands of hospital patients across the United Kingdom are having their appointments canceled on Monday due to Queen Elizabeth’s funeral. The late monarch, who died Sept. 8 at the age of 96, will have a state funeral and many National Health Service (NHS) trusts are canceling “non-urgent” appointments and procedures due to the holiday.

Doctors at one London hospital were reportedly told, “The day of the State Funeral will be treated as a bank holiday so please go ahead and start rescheduling patients,” according to OpenDemocracy.

Canceled appointments include hip and knee replacements, cataract surgery, maternity checks and some cancer treatments, the outlet reports. A pregnant woman told OpenDemocracy that her fetal scan at a different London hospital trust has been canceled due to the Queen’s funeral.

“I’m really disappointed,” she shared. “Yes, it’s a routine scan, but that’s another week or two until I’m seen and wondering whether my baby is healthy — which means quite a lot of anxiety, sitting and waiting.”

However, COVID-19 vaccination appointments and emergency services will continue as planned.

Prior to the cancellations, hospital waiting lists reached an all-time high with 6.8 million patients waiting for medical appointments at the end of July and more than 377,000 people not receiving care for more than a year.

[From People]

This is… wrong. Completely wrong. On a technical level, shouldn’t it be up to hospitals and doctors as to whether they want to take the day off or see patients as usual? It’s insane – yes, while some of this stuff is not life-or-death, neither is publicly mourning the death of a 96-year-old woman.

In addition to the maternity screenings and CANCER TREATMENTS, various much-needed non-profit services are shutting down for the funeral too. There are several food banks in the UK closing down on Monday, many in the greater London area. Oh, and bloody Stonehenge is shutting down too! So are all of the museums.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

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Mild spoilers for already aired episodes of The Bear
The Bear really surprised me. I started watching it literally because I saw Jeremy Allen White in the title card and I loved him from Shameless, but ended up watching the whole show in one sitting because I really enjoyed its slice-of-life intensity. All the actors were perfectly cast in their roles and I loved the dynamic between Jeremy and Ayo Edebiri’s characters, Carmy and Sydney.

The show has been lauded and everyone is (late to the boat) in thirsting over Jeremy, but what gets a bit lost is how the actors actually trained for their roles. Jeremy and Ayo trained at the Institute of Culinary Education and several restaurant kitchens to prepare and look more realistic in their roles. Ayo says she essentially went undercover in the kitchens and no one knew who she was, which helped her research, but had an unexpected downside.

She said she was leaving and didn’t want to take any more of it on season one of FX’s hit summer Hulu streaming series The Bear.

We’re talking about Ayo Edebiri’s riveting character Sydney Adamu on the show. She’s a CIA-trained chef who returns to her Chicago home town to work for James Beard Award-winning chef Carmen Berzatto (played by Jeremy Allen White) who’s trying to improve the rundown eatery The Original Beef of Chicagoland, owned by his late brother. She makes a bold decision at the end of the season in the restaurant. The season winds down with The Beef crew, now the Bear, heading into another business venture rather than fix their problems and pay off their debt.

The Upright Citizens Brigade alum tells us that she not only worked in restaurants before she started writing and acting (“that first-hand research trauma started there”), but she and White trained in a kitchen for a few months prior to filming The Bear.

“People recognized Jeremy, but nobody knew who I was at all, which was good for research,” she told us on the Primetime Emmy red carpet tonight.

“It was kind of annoying when I was like ‘Yeah, I stayed up late to clean until 12, and Jeremy was like ‘I got to go home!’”

The Bear was re-upped for a second season back in July with FX Entertainment President Eric Schrier exclaiming that the series “exceeded our wildest creative, critical and commercial expectations.”

[From Deadline]

The chefs in at least one NYC restaurant knew who she was — like Ayo’s character, my friend is a sous chef, and one of Ayo’s training spots was at the restaurant next door. Ayo going undercover was like inadvertently going method, getting stuck with clean up and all. But it paid off because her kitchen skills did look pretty realistic. As depicted in the show, real restaurant kitchens are super intense and fast-paced. It must have been crazy to be thrown in there to observe/train inconspicuously, but also realistically.

Thankfully the show has been renewed for a second season, for which details are scant. When ET asked, all Jeremy said was that they’d be building the new restaurant, which is hardly a spoiler considering the end of the first season. Keeping it coy, I see. Ayo and Jeremy presented together (and looked very attractive) at the Emmys, keeping the momentum going for their hit show and adding to the overall thirst. Some people seem to want their characters to get together, but Ayo doesn’t think it would be a good idea and neither do I. Their connection is very different than that and I think they’re both too serious and professional. Carmy is Sydney’s boss and that would be a very mid-series Lip Gallagher move.

#Emmys Ayo Edebiri on the research she did to prepare for her role in #TheBearFX pic.twitter.com/9xCv8Oi4HZ

— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) September 12, 2022

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This post is bumming me out for a number of reasons. I’m having a Grade A crap week and my girlfriend and I were supposed to go see Honk for Jesus on Tuesday after having to postpone from last week. But we had work and kid obligations until 4 and there were no evening showings. It was the weirdest thing. And then I saw this was a story about Regina Hall talking about her English bulldog Zeus and I though Yay! dog stories. Then I realized Zeus is no longer with us. But Zeus is immortal! It’s still a lovely story, though. Regina told the Apple Fitness+ podcast that ol’ mighty Zeus was her soulmate. Something that took her by surprise. She didn’t know she was a dog person until she got her dog and all that changed. Once he wagged his tail her way, she joined the ”crazy dog owner” club and never looked back.

During a recent episode of the Apple Fitness+podcast Time to Walk, Regina (Hall) opened up about finding her soulmate in her English bulldog Zeus, who unfortunately died.

“Anyone who knows me, or knows anything about me, knows that I had a soulmate that had four legs,” Regina said. “And his name, his name is Zeus.”

The Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. star admitted that she used to think “dog owners were crazy. ” Like seeing them — “most of them white people” — out in dog parks or carrying their dogs around in strollers, or even crying over them if they lost them…Regina never understood the attachment.

“And then you get a dog, and you’re like, ‘Oh, it has nothing to do with that. It’s…this is human. This is love.’”

Regina said that kind of love helps to connect you with God and “connects you with a purpose.” She revealed that she views her dog as a gift from God.

“Like, there was something higher than me that knew I needed a dog. You know, it’s like I voiced something that I didn’t even know I meant. And then, you know, he came. Dogs, rescuing one human at a time.”

“I think when Zeus passed, it was really hard to talk about…it was really hard to let him go. It’s over a decade of your life. It’s deep connection. It’s deep love. You’re crying over loss.”

“I think the unexpected has beautiful things to offer — you might be praying for love somewhere, and you might get a dog. Sometimes we think that it has to be romantic, but, you know, love has many ways of showing up in our lives.”

[From Buzzfeed]

The friend I mentioned above just lost her dog and it was the first time I’d been to her house since he’d died. We cried over the phone together the day he died but it was hard being there without him. Everything Regina said is true. I always knew I would be a nutty pet owner, though. But I was confused by how deeply I fell in love with my pets. I guess because I had family pets growing up and I figured it would be the same. But when I got my own it was like Regina said, it connected me to something I couldn’t explain. My husband had the same experience with our current cat. He wasn’t a fan of cats until I introduced him to mine. Then he liked them, but he could take or leave them. This one, though, she’s got his number.

I know it’s become cliché to say that a pet rescues us as much as we rescue it but cliché doesn’t mean it’s not true. As Regina alludes to here, sometimes we don’t know what form of love we need most in our lives. I don’t know when Zeus left us. The last photo I found of him on her Instagram was in 2017. Who knows if she’ll be able to open her heart up to another soulmate but at least she knows she’s a dog person now so when she’s ready, she can look for love again.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to finish planning my pets’ Elvis-themed birthday party for this Friday.

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Photo credit: Cover Images, Getty Images, Avalon Red

We knew that Love is Blind was renewed for three more seasons and the third, which filmed in Dallas, would be premiering later this year. And now we have a date — October 19. Netflix released a short teaser, complete with some shots of the infamous pods, some cheesy quotes, and emotional singles. There was also an image of a group cheers-ing with golden shot glasses in lieu of the golden wine goblets. My interest is definitely piqued.

Love Is Blind’s third season is coming much sooner than you think!

PEOPLE can exclusively reveal the first teaser season 3 of the Netflix dating series, which will premiere on Oct. 19 with weekly drops through Nov. 9.

As another set of singles heads into the pods with the goal of finding true love, one of them calls out, “Where are you at, wifey? Come at me.”

Elsewhere, a woman declares, “Boyfriend season is over.”

Nick and Vanessa Lachey are back to help the singles — who all live in Dallas this season — navigate their connections, including committing to a formal engagement if they want to meet their partner in person.

Two seasons of Love Is Blind have already aired on Netflix. The most recent, which premiered at the start of 2022, featured singles from Chicago who tried their chance at finding love. While two couples were married on the series, both recently announce they have gone their separate ways

Iyanna McNeely and Jarrette Jones announced their divorce in August via Instagram statement. They confirmed they’ll “begin the process of divorcing,” adding, “While we have love for each other, our lives are going in different directions, and that’s okay.”

The statement also included that “coming to this decision was far from easy,” and the exes will “always wish each other the absolute best.”

The remaining, married couple from season 2, Nick Thompson and Danielle Ruhl, are headed for divorce, too. Though neither has publicly commented on the split yet, PEOPLE confirmed Danielle filed for divorce from Nick in August via records from the Cook County Circuit Court in Illinois.

Before the group of new singles make their debut on Oct. 19, Netflix is releasing Love Is Blind: After the Altar, which revisits the season 2 pairings, this Friday.

[From People]

I didn’t think the second season could top the first one, but it kind of did. It wasn’t a better story, but it was more dramatic and the post-show divorce drama made it all the more wild. Not a single couple from the second season lasted! If not for the first season it would be considered a failed experiment, so the third season has a lot to live up to, both in terms of entertainment and also success rate. At the moment, I’m more excited for the second season’s “After the Altar” special and what it may reveal than I am about the third season. I assume they’re holding a better trailer for after the special airs. Deepti Vempati has also written a book about her experience that will publish just days after the special airs. I like that each season is in a different city where all the contestants already live. Dallas will be cool and hopefully production has made an effort to correct some of the mistakes of the previous seasons in terms of diversity among the contestants. I’m not holding my breath about that for season three, but there’s still four and five.

Photos credit: Patrick Wymore and Adam Rose/Netflix press

NSFW: The first trailer for Babylon was released and… whew, boy. There’s nudity, drug use and cursing and this is only the first trailer. [Dlisted]
The New York Times offering free lunchboxes as a way to coax employees to come back to the office feels patronizing as hell. [Gawker]
Luke Evans: Queen Elizabeth II’s death is like the UK has lost its grandmother. [Towleroad]
Trailer for Netflix’s The Real Bling Ring. [OMG Blog]
TIFF review of The Whale. [LaineyGossip]
I liked Selena Gomez’s Celine dress at the Emmys. [RCFA]
Mike Pence will attend an Eyes Wide Shut-type gala, only instead of a sex party, they’ll just talk about how America needs to turn into Gilead. [Jezebel]
Sarah Snook looked amazing at the Emmys. [Go Fug Yourself]
Sydney Sweeney wore socks with open-toe heels. [Just Jared]
Will Abbott Elementary be the next great sitcom to hit 100 episodes? [Pajiba]
The San Francisco police violated a sexual assault victim’s rights. [Buzzfeed]
MTV’s Are You the One is coming back. [Starcasm]
Kid Rock is still a pig. [Egotastic]

One of the biggest pieces of news from Queen Elizabeth II’s London procession to Westminster Hall is that Prince William and Prince Harry were able to walk side-by-side without a buffer. At Philip’s funeral, Peter Phillips had to stand in between William and Harry because neither brother wanted to stand next to the other. This time, Harry stood in the middle, in the second row, with William on one side and Peter on the other.

The other headline was, no surprise, Prince Harry and Prince Andrew were both in suits while the rest of the royal men wore military dress uniforms. As we discussed yesterday, Harry released a statement yesterday about it, saying: “[Prince Harry] will wear a morning suit throughout events honouring his grandmother. His decade of military service is not determined by the uniform he wears and we respectfully ask that focus remain on the life and legacy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.” It was perfect – he didn’t fight about it, he’s not begging anyone for anything. He’s just allowing the new king, his father, to look petty and punitive. It looked absolutely bonkers and wrong to see a combat veteran in civilian clothing among uniformed royals.

I think I recognize Meghan’s black coat – she must have left it at Frogmore Cottage. Isn’t that the coat she wore to Remembrance Day when she was pregnant? Kate’s coat looks new.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, screencaps.

Sorry it didn’t occur to me to do this earlier – here’s an open post for today’s funeral procession in London. Prince Harry, Prince William, Princess Anne and King Charles III will walk behind Queen Elizabeth II’s casket, all the way to Westminster Hall. QEII will lie in state there before her funeral on Monday. All of the royals are attending this except for the children. Here’s a Sky News live stream.

I imagine this will be haunting for both William and Harry, walking behind another beloved figure’s casket, in view of the world, both grieving. The difference now is that they’re both men and they’ve both taken very different things from their mother’s life and legacy, just as they’re taking different things from their grandmother’s life and legacy.

Anyway, the Brits do pomp so well.

The lingering closeups of Prince Harry though…

pic.twitter.com/rtXrNN8XM3

— robybette (@robybette) September 14, 2022

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Has anyone else had the Scottish-accented “Andrew, you’re a sick old man” as an earworm this week? That happened on Monday, during the outdoor procession for Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin, with QEII’s four children walking behind the coffin. A young man named Rory heckled Prince Andrew and Rory was arrested for disturbing the peace. Andrew has never been arrested for raping teenagers trafficked to him by a convicted pedophile and a convicted human trafficker. Anyway, Rory’s arrest made national and international headlines. Rory not only spoke the truth, his heckling and arrest reminded everyone that Andrew is front and center during this very public memorial and funeral. Now sources tell the Daily Beast that make no mistake, after QEII’s funeral is over, Andrew will disappear into the ether.

Ethered: One royal source told The Daily Beast that Andrew’s presence at events this week should not be interpreted as King Charles endorsing his return to public life and that he would largely “disappear” from view after the funeral rites for the queen are complete.

Andrew was still trying to rehabilitate his image this week before he was heckled: The omens for the rehabilitation of Andrew had, until that moment, been looking good. His brother King Charles, whose contempt for Andrew and his lifestyle goes back decades, had been surprisingly indulgent; firstly, he had allowed Andrew to travel up to Scotland in an official RAF jet with his heir, Prince William and Prince Edward and his wife, Sophie. There was little doubt that Andrew, never one to waste a good crisis, appeared to be seeking using the death of his mother to apply a coat of whitewash to his image, whether that be affectionately comforting his daughter under the glare of the cameras at Balmoral or adopting the queen’s corgis.

The corgis: Make no this mistake, this was not a quiet gesture to help out the family. Andrew’s team have shouted it from the rooftops, with friends briefing journalists, including the Daily Beast: “The corgis will return to live at Royal Lodge with the Duke and the Duchess (Andrew and Sarah). It was the Duchess who found the puppies which were gifted to Her Majesty by the Duke. The Duchess bonded with HM over dog walking and riding horses and even after her divorce, she would continue her great friendship with HM, by walking the dogs and chatting.” By taking the dogs, Andrew may be hoping he can convince one or two percent of the population to “move on” from the sex abuse and rape allegations he paid millions of dollars to settle earlier this year, without admitting liability.

Everyone was surprised that Andrew will be included on everything: To everyone’s great surprise it was announced on Monday that Prince Andrew would play a central role in all the major events of the next week: he would be in attendance at no fewer than five key ceremonial events including today’s procession and service of thanksgiving, a Procession to Westminster Hall on Wednesday followed by a service of prayer and reflection; the “Vigil of the Princes” at Westminster Hall, the State Funeral in London and subsequent Committal Service at St George’s Chapel Windsor.

Andrew’s military uniform: Most astonishing of all, however, was a briefing given to journalists Monday at which it was revealed that Andrew would be permitted to wear his coveted military uniform for the “Vigil of the Princes—while Prince Harry would not.

King Charles is bad at making decisions: There are some who would say that parading Andrew down the streets of Scotland was perhaps not the smartest opening move in governing the Scots by King Charles. The country has a strong nationalist movement, and while millions of citizens respect the queen, only 45% support the monarchy compared to 62% across the whole of the UK (including Scotland). Andrew is a walking (if not talking) piece of reputational damage—which Rory will have reminded the royals all too loudly about.

Palace staff want to see Andrew ethered: “The way that kid reacted should remind the royals that the public would be quite happy to never see Prince Andrew again,” one former royal household member told The Daily Beast. “He is an unpleasant, arrogant man with no support in the institution. Including him in the events of this week is a mistake. This is not a family funeral. It is a state affair. She may be his mother—but she’s everyone’s queen.”

[From The Daily Beast]

Well… I don’t know what to say here, honestly. I think Charles was probably thinking that this would be Andrew’s last hurrah, his last moment of pseudo-public life. I assume that, behind-the-scenes, Charles and Andrew are already negotiating Andrew’s price for disappearing forever, so this was all part of the exit package, at least that’s how it seems to me. Now, does that mean that King Charles has also massively miscalculated? Yes. Andrew has too – Andrew seems to still believe that he can somehow rehab his image and it’s not happening. He can’t just skulk around one of the largest royal funerals ever and no one is going to say sh-t. Of course people are going to say sh-t. And of course Charles completely bungled it too, by assuring Andrew that he would get to play dress up one time in his military dress uniform but Prince Harry wouldn’t.

Somebody yells out, “Andrew, you’re a sick old man” to Prince Andrew, who is walking behind Queen Elizabeth’s coffin pic.twitter.com/M6DsyuPLXR

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) September 12, 2022

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red.

During the Jubbly this year, various Daily Mail columnists and deranged royal biographers were spreading the insane conspiracy that the Duchess of Sussex “wore a microphone” underneath her Dior coat. Their theory was very specific – they claimed that when she got out of the car, she adjusted her collar in a particular way as to indicate she was making an adjustment to the mic. These people are completely bonkers. Well, the nutters are at it again. They’re currently commenting from their padded cell, “but Netflix, but Netflix” as they suggest that Meghan wore a mic pack during her last-minute outing with William and Kate on Saturday. The deranged “evidence” is a shadowy “square” in the fabric of her ensemble. A “source close to Meghan” actually bothered to say something:

Just call her Meghan Mic-le. Critics speculated that Meghan Markle had a secret microphone under her dress while greeting mourners at Windsor Castle on Saturday in the wake of Queen Elizabeth II’s death, but an insider exclusively tells Page Six the accusation is baseless.

“This is insane and actually damaging to her. Of course she was not wearing a mic,” a source close to Markle told Page Six Tuesday.

The questions came after Twitter users spotted a mysterious square-shaped crease in the former “Suits” actress’s dress as she walked beside Prince Harry, Prince William and Kate Middleton to view tributes left for the late Queen. Several people posted theories as to why Markle, 41, might be wearing a mic pack, with some suggesting she could be gathering material for her Netflix docuseries.

[From Page Six]

Do these people actually know what a mic pack looks like and how mic packs are usually worn? Even the smallest, most expensive and most elite mic packs would be more noticeable than a shadowy ripple in her dress, and most people would wear their mic packs in the small of their back anyway. Playing devil’s advocate: say Meghan did want to secretly “record” conversations with William and Kate “for Netflix.” Wouldn’t she find it a lot easier to hide a camera and microphone in a purse? Or she would wear a coat or jacket which would hide a mic pack and wiring?

I also think this is a massive case of projection – not only is the media doing too much to “surveil” the Sussexes, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Windsors and royal protection officers are surveilling them too, including monitoring them in Frogmore Cottage.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

King Charles III has been showing off his intemperate side. During his Proclamation Ceremony on Saturday, the set dressing was awkward and someone had placed an inkwell at the bottom of the table instead of the top. An aide had also placed a tray of pens at the bottom of the table, and the new king motioned to an aide to remove them. It did look like Charles “growled” a little, although I have to admit: that was really awful staff work, from the set up with the table to where the pens and the inkwell were placed, it was just poorly thought out. Speaking of bad staff work, King Charles III had to sign something else in Northern Ireland on Tuesday and the whole thing turned into a big, fussy, inky mess:

What’s going on with your British pens? Was the pen provided by the IRA? And here’s another question: surely Charles carries a pen, right? That’s Charles’s generation, a generation of men who always have a pen tucked away in their breast pocket or suit coat pocket. Why is King Charles III out in the world, without a handy pen, dependent on the aides to provide him a shoddy, leaky peasant pen? I know people are like “see, Charles is the worst” about this. While Charles is absolutely a bad person, I keep coming back to the shoddy staff work. Why are you giving any official a leaky pen? Why aren’t staffers prepared to dress their sets for convenience, so the new king won’t look like an ink-stained a–hole? Speaking of, the new king is going to fire a bunch of people.

Employees from King Charles III’s Clarence House staff have been alerted of potential termination as his and Queen Camilla’s office operations move to Buckingham Palace following Queen Elizabeth’s death, The Guardian reports.

On Monday, dozens of employees including the private secretaries, the communications team, household staff and the finance office from Clarence House were given redundancy notice during a service for the late monarch at St. Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland, according to the report. Staff was informed that they could possibly lose their jobs by way of a letter from the King’s top aide, Sir Clive Alderton.

“The change in role for our principals will also mean change for our household … The portfolio of work previously undertaken in this household supporting the former Prince of Wales’s personal interests, former activities and household operations will no longer be carried out, and the household … at Clarence House will be closed down. It is therefore expected that the need for the posts principally based at Clarence House, whose work supports these areas will no longer be needed,” read Alderton’s letter, seen by The Guardian. Alderton added, “I appreciate that this is unsettling news and I wanted to let you know of the support that is available at this point.”

The letter also stated that employees who gave “direct, close, personal support and advice” would remain in their roles. Those who are being let go are expected to be given an increased redundancy payment as well as assistance in finding new jobs.

“Following last week’s accession, the operations of the household of the former Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall have ceased and, as required by law, a consultation process has begun,” a Clarence House spokesman told The Guardian. “Our staff have given long and loyal service and, while some redundancies will be unavoidable, we are working urgently to identify alternative roles for the greatest number of staff.”

[From People]

If King Charles’s old Clarence House people were in charge of his first travels and Proclamation Day events, then yes, they’re terrible at their jobs and should be fired. If QEII’s people were in charge, then Charles should fire them and bring in his Clarence House staff to take over. I feel like that’s probably why Charles’s first week has been a bit shambolic, honestly – it’s QEII’s staff in an internal power struggle with the Clarence House staff. I’ve already seen people complaining about the layoffs, but honestly… Charles was already overstaffed, and so was QEII. There *should* be a culling of staff from both BP and CH. What I find hard to believe is that Charles hasn’t already announced widespread layoffs to his mother’s staff, many of whom he dislikes intensely (and many of whom are incompetent).

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.