I know full well that Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, was and likely still is a racist with a long history of doing and saying all kinds of contemptible things. But for decades, Philip was also the “family enforcer.” Queen Elizabeth has little interest in the inner-workings of her dysfunctional family and for much of her reign, she just left all of that up to Philip. Philip was the one person in the Windsor clan who acted as counselor and therapist to Princess Diana when the Wales’ marriage had fallen apart. Philip was the one to say “enough is enough” on Andrew and Fergie’s marriage. And on and on. I think over the past decade, Philip’s involvement as family enforcer has obviously decreased a great deal, and we can see the results when Liz and Chuck are left to their own devices. So… apparently, the Windsor klan doesn’t want Philip to know the extent of the Sussex crisis? I mean… that’s why he was in the hospital in the first place?? LMAO.

Prince Philip is ‘not aware of full extent’ of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Oprah Winfrey fallout, a royal expert has claimed. The Duke of Edninburgh, 99, left hospital yesterday following a month under the care of medical staff after being admitted with an infection and later undergoing heart surgery.

Katie Nicholl noted how the Royal Family are trying their best to shield him from the explosive claims made during the tell-all interview, which aired while he was in hospital.

‘The family are very keen that he’s not aware of the full extent of the interview,’ the royal commentator said, speaking to 9Honey. She went on to say that while the widespread coverage may make it ‘impossible for him to completely avoid it’, she claims ‘efforts were made to protect him from the full force of the fallout’.

Prince Philip spent 28 nights as a patient in London at King Edward VII’s Hospital and St Bartholomew’s Hospital – his longest ever stay. He was initially admitted on a precautionary basis for an infection, before having a heart operation midway through his four-week period in hospital.

‘It was a great relief to see him leave in a car, not an ambulance, but he did look very, very frail in the backseat and I know the family are relieved he’s home but also deeply concerned about his health,’ Katie Nicholl said.

[From The Daily Mail]

If the Sussex drama had gone down in Philip’s 50s or 60s, I honestly think it would have played out differently. Out of all of them, Philip would have seen Meghan as the asset she was. Would he still be a racist? For sure. But as Philip’s influence in the family waned, the family f–king fell apart. But I get it. Don’t pester the 99-year-old man with all of this stuff. I suspect that in Chuck’s case especially, he knows that his father wouldn’t approve of how HE has handled Harry and Meghan. But they’re trying to make it sound like Philip is super-mad at only H&M, or he would be if he was fully briefed.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

You could tell that the royal reporters thought that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were looking increasingly desperate and exploitative. You could tell because of the relative silence from the official royal press pack in real time regarding Kate’s maskless appearance at Sarah Everard’s makeshift memorial this weekend, which was then followed up by the weirdly fake-looking “Mother’s Day cards” from their children to “Granny Diana.” Now even the old-guard royal reporters have to admit (in their own special way) that William and Kate look like desperados furiously trying to keenly copy Harry and Meghan while simultaneously sliming Harry and Meghan. From Camila Tominey’s piece in the Telegraph:

The Granny Diana cards: Combined with the Duchess of Cambridge’s unexpected attendance at Saturday’s vigil for Sarah Everard, the 33-year-old marketing manager found dead after going missing on her way home in London, the messages added to the impression that the Cambridges are taking back control of their own narrative in the face of the Sussexes’ “truth”. As respected royal biographer Penny Junor puts it: “I think it was very much William trying to say: ‘I am Diana’s son, too.’”

William disagrees that Diana would approve of Harry: Yet that recollection of events is unlikely to be shared by William, 38, who has always taken issue with his mother’s reputation as a “royal rebel” when she was the epitome of public service, spending 16 years stalwartly representing Queen and country despite her inner turmoil. “At the moment, Harry seems to have taken ownership of the whole story,” adds Junor. “He is calling the shots on what this family is all about and invoking Diana. But what he’s actually done is effectively put a bomb under William’s future. He’s done such damage to his family.”

CopyKate & CopyBald: Intriguingly, though, the Cambridges’ recent candour when it comes to publishing images of their children – along with their heart-rending artwork – does appear to borrow from the Sussex playbook of drawing back the curtain on the window to their souls….Kate’s unexpected presence at Saturday’s “banned” vigil on Clapham Common, when she let it be known that she “remembers what it was like to walk around London at night before she was married”, marked a real watershed for the once-passive Kate, asserting her credentials as one of the monarchy’s most influential members.

Yes, Kate & William are trying to “emulate” the Sussexes: Junor believes that the couple “are acutely aware of the following the Sussexes have got” and are “rightly trying to emulate it. People my age are bemused and appalled by what Harry and Meghan said on Oprah, but younger people, who don’t give two hoots about monarchy, sided with the Sussexes and they are the future. Maybe the Cambridges are learning, just as the Royal family did when Diana came and started doing things in a different way, that there is traction to be had in being a little more open with the public.”

This stupid Diana-statue unveiling: Despite all that has been said and done, and with William admitting he had not even spoken to his brother on Thursday, three days after the interview aired in the UK, royal aides insist it would be “unthinkable” for either to pull out. Yet royal watchers remain perplexed as to how the Palace are going to orchestrate what could prove to be a very awkward engagement with the world’s press looking on.

Whether William & Harry will reconcile: “Part of me thinks that the relationship is possibly irreparable,” Junor says. “We know how determined William can be, and Harry and Meghan have not only trashed his wife but accused the Royal family of racism. It’s the most damaging thing that anyone could say [about] anyone else. It is hard to see how they come back from this.”

Will & Kate aren’t keen to keep competing: Behind palace gates, however, insiders insist the Cambridges remain “hopeful of a reconciliation”, saying: “What they really want is peace.”

[From The Telegraph via the Calgary Herald]

I’m enjoying the fact that even veteran royal reporter bootlickers like Camila Tominey and Penny Junor can’t spin William’s “Granny Diana” fiasco and Kate’s “look at me, I’m exploiting a dead woman” memorial appearance as anything other than a series of stunts aimed at reclaiming their narratives from the Sussexes. Like, that’s all it was, I agree. It *was* William stomping his feet and throwing a tantrum and saying “I’m Diana’s son too, you guys!!” As for all of the CopyKeen stuff… we know. We knew. Will and Kate have been copying Harry & Meghan for years now, from the clothes to Zoom staging to their social media. It’s really pathetic that the Future King and Future Queen are so dull and unimaginative that they have to copy Harry & Meghan.

This is so idiotic: “We know how determined William can be, and Harry and Meghan have not only trashed his wife but accused the Royal family of racism. It’s the most damaging thing that anyone could say [about] anyone else.” Why are they (white people) like this? A group of white people act racist and when someone calls them out, they’re like “how dare you, that’s the worst thing that’s EVER HAPPENED TO ME.” That’s literally what’s happening now.

Photos courtesy of WENN, KensingtonRoyal social and Avalon Red.

Dear Gossips, In his first interview since disclosing that he is transgender, Elliot Page tells TIME that while he was expecting that the reaction would be a mix of “support and love and a massive amount of hatred and transphobia”, he did not think his news would be as big as it was, that it would b…

Donald Trump has a well-documented issue with all women of color: he just flatly hates them and he thinks they’re “nasty.” When he was in the White House, Trump used his literal bully pulpit to insult the Duchess of Sussex, calling her “nasty” for not voting for him in 2016. In 2020, as the Sussexes moved to California during the start of lockdown, Trump actually tweeted out that he would not authorize the government to pay for their security. That tweet put a particularly awful target on their back, especially since (as we now know) Prince Charles had also pulled their security around the same time. Then Trump insulted Meghan again later in 2020, saying “I’m not a fan of hers” and that he wished “a lot of luck” to Prince Harry for marrying such a “nasty” woman. Just another part of the larger white supremacist targetting of Meghan, and it made me really fearful for the Sussexes’ security situation.

Well, now that Trump is out of office and (I assume) spending his days as a Mar-a-Lago/Walmart greeter, he still has sh-tty thoughts about Meghan especially. He authorized one of his Nazis to speak about the Oprah interview:

Former President Donald Trump thought Meghan Markle was “no good” following her bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey — but didn’t want to say so publicly for fear of being “canceled” like Piers Morgan, an ex-adviser has claimed. Trump’s former adviser Jason Miller shared what he said the ex-commander-in-chief thought of Markle and Prince Harry’s tell-all during an appearance on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast Wednesday.

“She’s no good … I said it and now everybody is seeing it,” Miller said Trump told him. The former president apparently told Miller he could “make a little news” on the podcast by sharing his reaction to the sit-down — while also noting it might not be the best idea.

“You realize if you say anything negative about Meghan Markle, you get canceled, look at Piers (Morgan),” Trump said, according to Miller. Trump also reportedly said “I’m on Team Piers” after the former “Good Morning Britain” host left the show Tuesday following an on-air clash with a co-star who criticized him for “trashing” the Duchess of Sussex.

Morgan — who had charged that Markle exaggerated claims about suicidal thoughts and racism in the royal family — said he lost his job because he refused to apologize for his comments. UK regulator Ofcom said it received more than 41,000 complaints about Morgan’s comments, including from Markle herself.

“Piers Morgan is the best, he’s the greatest, and they went and tried to cancel him simply because he criticized Meghan Markle,” Miller said Trump told him.

[From Page Six]

I mean… like Meghan gives a damn at this point. It would be one thing if that douchebag was still in office, but at the moment, Trump and Jason Miller are just talking to their insular Nazi crowd of insurrectionists and terrorists. Are these people still putting a target on Harry and Meghan’s backs? Yes, they are. And it’s awful. But it could be a lot worse. As for the Piers Morgan thing… I guess Trump doesn’t remember (curious) that Piers officially broke with Trump when Trump went full baby-tantrum and refused to accept the election results and incited an insurrection. Perhaps all is forgiven now – if there’s one issue on which old white bigoted misogynists can come together, it’s that women of color are terrible.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

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Trigger warning: sexual assault
Demi Lovato’s documentary, Dancing With The Devil, premiered at SXSW and will be released in four parts on YouTube starting March 23. People Magazine has advance details and they’re harrowing. Demi was raped by someone she considered a friend when she was just 15 and struggled to come to terms with what happened to her. She was sexually assaulted by her heroin dealer on the night of her July, 2018 overdose, after he gave her heroin mixed with fentanyl. Demi’s medical condition was touch and go. She suffered three strokes and a heart attack and was temporarily blind when she woke up. She now has permanent blind spots.

The trailer for Dancing With The Devil is out, and it’s hard to watch. It made me get weepy for Demi and all that she’s been through. I have to say that the song she recorded for it is incredible. (Her new full album, Dancing With the Devil… The Art of Starting Over, is coming April 2.) Watching the trailer, I kept thinking how lucky Demi is that she had people around her that night and was able to get medical help quickly. I’m not going to excerpt People’s recap, you can read it there.

I wanted to talk about the NY Times’s profile of Demi, in which she opens up about some of the things revealed in the documentary. It’s well worth reading, and here are some key parts:

Details on the documentary
“Dancing With the Devil” is filled with fresh admissions that betray previous obfuscations. Her overdose came after six years of sobriety, during which Lovato felt increasingly hemmed in by the measures her longtime managers took to help her stay on track. It caused three strokes, a heart attack and organ failure. She had pneumonia from asphyxiating on her vomit; she suffered brain damage from the strokes, and has lasting vision problems. (She can no longer drive and described the lingering effects as resembling sunspots.) The drug dealer who brought her heroin that night sexually assaulted her, then left her close to death.

On being honest about what she’s going through
“I did definitely look up to [Amy Winehouse] and I valued her vulnerability and transparency with her audience because it bred that connection that I felt to her. And that’s ultimately what my fans feel with me.”

“I could be honest with the world at 18. I could tell the world my dirty, dark secrets. I didn’t care. Because if I told you my secrets, you had nothing on me.”

On her reputation for being difficult
“In hindsight, I don’t blame my 17-year-old self for being so miserable. When I’m angry, it means that I’m actually hurting. Young women in the industry who get labeled with ‘difficult to work with’ — it’s like, hey, maybe just for a second, consider that it’s not that I’m a bad person. It’s just that nobody’s listening to me and I’m hungry, and I’m tired and overworked and doing the best I can for an unmedicated 17-year-old.”

On her breakup with Max Ehrich
“I feel like I dodged a bullet because I wouldn’t have been living my truth for the rest of my life had I confined myself into that box of heteronormativity and monogamy. And it took getting that close to shake me up and be like, wow, you really got to live your life for who you really are.”

She allows herself weed and alcohol in moderation
“I haven’t been by-the-book sober since the summer of 2019. I realized if I don’t allow myself some wiggle room, I go to the hard [expletive]. And that will be the death of me.”

“Allowing myself to eat a Mexican pizza from Taco Bell, I found freedom in my eating disorder,” she said. “But it was so all-or-nothing and dogmatic with sobriety that I was just like, I don’t know how to live in total balance of my life.”

[From The NY Times]

There’s a lot in the piece about how she tried to fit into the pop star mold and it just wasn’t what she was comfortable with. She found Billie Eilish refreshing in that she wears baggy clothes and is herself. That helped Demi realize that she didn’t need to try to be someone she wasn’t. I like how she framed her breakup with Max Ehrich. The guy was a creep and a stalker who targeted her and she’s not giving him any air. She’s just saying she didn’t fit into that box as a queer woman, essentially.

We talked about Demi partaking in moderation after she told Glamour magazine about it. As an alcoholic, I cannot drink at all but I understand this approach. She’s smoking and drinking a little because those are the substances she can control. It makes sense to me. The all or nothing approach can be self-defeating for people.

There’s also a bit about her spirituality and how it’s helped her get through everything. She reveals that she has a spiritual advisor, which isn’t surprising to me.

Demi has been through so much and my heart goes out to her. I like her and find her genuine. Plus she can really sing and perform. Her songs are true bops. I look forward to this documentary and to her new album.

Here’s the trailer.

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The more the British press talks about this dramatic moment between then-Meghan Markle and the Duchess of Cambridge before the 2018 wedding, the more I’m convinced that there is something deeply psychologically wrong with Kate. For more than two bloody years, Kate and her people have actively pushed the “Meghan made Kate cry at a bridesmaid’s fitting” story. The story first appeared in the fall of 2018 as part of the larger smear campaign against Meghan, and it was repeatedly cited in all of the negative press against the Sussexes in 2019 and 2020. Various royal reporters would tweak the story every now and then, one version with Kate weeping over kids’ tights, another version with Kate weeping over the fit or style of Charlotte’s dress. The details were never nailed down because, again, the point was always to weaponize Kate’s white tears against Meghan specifically. Kate and her people were even talking about the same f–king story in the “Catherine the Great” Tatler story and in new exclusives just days before the Oprah interview. Well, you’ll never believe this, but Kate’s hagiographer Katie Nicholl has an update about how Kate currently feels about Meghan blowing up a two-and-a-half-year-old lie.

Kate Middleton found it ‘mortifying’ that allegations she made Meghan Markle cry during a row over bridesmaids’ dresses re-emerged during the Oprah Winfrey interview – two years ago after first being reported in 2018, a royal expert claimed. Katie Nicholl noted how you ‘never hear’ about the Duchess of Cambridge, 38, falling out with anyone because she is ‘very careful with how she treats others.’

Previously, it was believed it was Meghan who had made Kate cry during a row over bridesmaids’ dresses. But during the bombshell broadcast, Meghan said: ‘She (Kate) was upset about something, but she owned it, and she apologised. And she brought me flowers’.

Speaking to OK! magazine, Katie Nicholl explained: ‘Kate has never wanted any suggestion of a rift with Meghan to come out in the press, so for this story to be circulating is very hard.’

Katie added there are ‘different versions’ of the story and claimed that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle know Kate is ‘not in a position to respond’.

‘From what I hear, there are different versions of the bridesmaid story, not just the one Meghan discussed,’ the royal expert told the publication. ‘Kate felt it was all sorted, so to have it brought up again was mortifying. Kate is not in a position to respond and Meghan and Harry know that.

The royal expert went on to claim that Kate Middleton has been left ‘saddened, disappointed and hurt’ in the wake of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey. She added it has been a ‘very hard’ few days for the Duchess of Cambridge, 39, who stepped out with husband Prince William, 38, on Thursday during a visit to School2 in east London – their first engagement since the royal was accused by Meghan of making her cry.

‘This has been a very hard few days for Kate, but she turned up and committed to her work and duty last week. People did notice that she appeared downcast and subdued. Behind closed doors she has been saddened, disappointed and hurt.’

She continued that Prince William and Kate ‘feel let down’ after they were ‘hugely welcoming’ to Meghan and Harry – and added: ‘Obviously, they still love Harry and Meghan, but this interview has ruffled feathers.’

[From The Daily Mail]

This is what I’m saying about how there’s something deeply unsettling about Kate and her actions simply with regard to this narrow issue. If Meghan’s version is correct – and I believe it is, especially considering The Receipts – then Kate said or did something vile and bitchy to Meghan, Meghan cried and Kate apologized in a day or two. And then that incident was twisted and used against Meghan for some-odd 28 months as an example of Meghan being hateful, aggressive, selfish and a “bully.” Even with Meghan’s side out there now, Karen Middleton is STILL going to the media to frame herself as Meghan’s victim, and that Meghan has now done something horrible by revealing the truth. Just the fact that Kate was perfectly fine with assuming Meghan’s experience and perpetuating an air of aggrieved victimhood all this time is f–king bonkers. The fact that Karen can’t let it go or admit (in even the slightest way) that she f–ked up is completely unhinged.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, WENN.

As we discussed, Michelle Obama made some public comments about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. MO did so in an interview with Jenna Bush Hager for the Today Show, and Michelle was there to promote all of her projects. I tend to think that people were waiting to see what the Obamas would say about Harry and Meghan, because there have been a lot of comparisons drawn between the two couples. Personally, I don’t think the comparisons work in either couple’s favor. Barry and Michelle were literally the President and First Lady. Meghan and Harry are different, with a different energy and a different set of goals. Half the time I think comparisons are drawn between the two couples because of the British media’s insistence that Meghan is friends with every Black person (which is, you guessed it, pretty f–king racist). This is the part of Michelle’s interview which Today first aired on Tuesday:

She said: “Public service, it’s a bright, sharp, hot spotlight, and most people don’t understand it, and nor should they. The thing that I always keep in mind is that none of this is about us in public service. It’s about the people that we serve. I always try to push the light back out and focus it on the folks that we are actually here to serve.” This is being read as shady by the British media, as in shady towards the Sussexes. And I… agree? I feel like she’s being purposefully vague here, hoping that her words could be construed different ways depending on your agenda. But even though I definitely see the Sussexes positively, I absolutely think she was saying that Harry and Meghan are making this too much about themselves. Which sucks.

Then Today put up the full video of Jenna Bush’s conversation with MO. Around the 11:40 mark is when Jenna starts asking MO about the Sussexes. Jenna frames the question around Michelle’s own comments about her loneliness as First Lady and it just goes from there. Michelle filibusters Jenna like a politician and MO starts going in about how *she* is focused on vaccines and the economy. Jenna is like “um so to get back to Harry and Meghan…” Michelle clearly did NOT want to talk about the Oprah interview or Harry and Meghan at all.

Here’s the most complicated part:

“As I said before, race isn’t a new construct in this world for people of color, and so it wasn’t a complete surprise to hear her feelings and to have them articulated. I think the thing that I hope for, and the thing I think about, is that this, first and foremost, is a family. I pray for forgiveness and healing for them so that they can use this as a teachable moment for us all. All you know, living in a world where there are there’s a lot of interracial families and we’ve got to learn to live together and support each other and value each other. I think we still have work to do to understand where we all are coming from and that’s gonna take time, uh but it… requires effort and honesty to make that happen.”

“Living in a world where there are there’s a lot of interracial families and we’ve got to learn to live together and support each other and value each other…” Yeah, in a perfect world, everyone would learn how to live together and support and value each other, which is why Harry and Meghan spent two damn hours talking about how they gave the Windsors every opportunity to value and support them and the Windsors smeared them to kingdom come. As I said in the previous post, you don’t have to hang around endlessly with cruel, vicious racists just because you share DNA with them. Not everything has to be a teachable moment where families come together selflessly and sing hymns together. Sometimes the teachable moment is “walk away, you can’t fix everybody.”

But there are larger questions I have about Michelle’s complete reticence to say anything, however vague, in support of Harry and Meghan. It’s very strange? Some claim that MO is just trying to avoid becoming the story herself, but… IDK, it’s just weird.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red, Backgrid.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all who celebrate. After a year in lockdown, we could all use a Guinness or ten. To celebrate this year’s St. Patrick’s Day, the Irish Foreign Ministry has hosted virtual events online and posting greetings and well-wishes from foreign leaders and dignitaries. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge decided to wear to some keen green and join in:

It’s cute? Whatever. The less said about the Cambridges’ tour of Ireland last year, the better. That was a mess! They completed the tour just days before the pandemic was declared, and Kate spent the entire tour in expensive clown gear and/or cosplaying the Irish flag. It was also during that trip last year that William “joked” about the coronavirus.

What usually happens – in non-pandemic times – for William and Kate on St. Patrick’s Day is that they visit the Irish Guards. Kate passes out shamrocks and gets to pet a beautiful Irish Wolfhound. Kate wears green and they sip Guinness with the Irish Guards. They’ll probably go back to that next year. Unless Kate decides to skip it for no reason other than she wants to make a point that she’s lazy and she doesn’t want to do it every year. #NeverForget

Photos courtesy of WENN, Backgrid, Avalon Red.

What has been made abundantly clear throughout February and March is that Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and Kensington Palace are all being run by amateurs. Every palace’s communications team is full of clowns. Lazy clowns. They can’t even agree on one nasty narrative to use against the Duke and Duchess of Sussex – first it was Prince Philip Is So Sick You Guys, then it was But Wait Meghan Is A Bully, then it was We’re Very Much Not Racist But We Are Engorged With Rage. The current palace clownshow cycle is The Palace Is Terribly Mad About All These Sussex Leaks. As you can imagine, when Gayle King delivered the piping hot tea on Tuesday’s episode of CBS This Morning, palace a–holes puckered in unison. What’s funny is that both William AND Charles had already leaked to friendly media outlets that they had been in touch with Harry. So Gayle just confirmed that straight from Harry and Meghan, and added some additional flavor: Harry is mad that his family continues to pretend that Meghan doesn’t exist, and that his conversations with his father and brother were “not productive.” Well, as you might imagine, someone is incandescent with mistrust!!

Though Prince Harry and Prince William are indeed back in touch, it doesn’t seem like they’re any closer to a truce. Confirming reports that the brothers have now spoken since the Oprah interview, Gayle King said on CBS This Morning that the conversations between the brothers were “not productive.” She added that Meghan and Harry are eager for the “royals to intervene and tell the press to stop with the unfair, inaccurate, false stories that definitely have a racial slant,” as the fall-out from their Oprah interview enters its second week. Sources close to the Sussexes say they are frustrated by unnamed sources briefing against them in the press, and that Meghan continues to be criticized in the British media. According to King, Meghan has documents to back up everything she said in the interview.

While the couple’s interview has been positively received for the most part in the U.S., there has been a more mixed response in the U.K., where media outlets have been eager to fact-check their claims. Over the weekend sources told the Sunday Times that, contrary to Harry’s claim that Prince Charles had cut them off financially last year, “It was a surprise to hear he’d been cut off, given the bank statements. The prince continued to provide Harry and Meghan with financial support after their move to America while they found their feet.”

Sources also told the Times that they were “dismayed” at the couple’s allegations that they received no help from the institution when Meghan was struggling with her mental health because the couple had the full support of a hand-picked team of aides.

The continued coverage of the interview has led to further tensions between the Sussexes and the royals. One source close to William told Vanity Fair, “There’s a lack of trust on both sides which makes moving forward very hard. William is now worried that anything he says to his brother will be plastered over American TV.”

Buckingham Palace has no plans to comment beyond the statement issued last week by the Queen, but there is concern within the family that the story is becoming a soap opera, even as Prince Philip heads home from the hospital after a monthlong stay. “The family is focused on the Duke of Edinburgh and as far as they are concerned his health is paramount,” a family friend told Vanity Fair. “It seems the Sussexes seem to want to keep fueling this story at a time when the royals are trying to protect Prince Philip from the headlines. It’s a very strange way to go about trying to heal a family rift.”

Vanity Fair understands that Harry has been in touch with the Queen since the interview aired and that they are continuing to speak regularly about Prince Philip’s health.

[From Vanity Fair]

I’m starting to understand more and more that the Queen says one thing to Harry and Meghan, then her courtiers refuse to follow her wishes, and then Clarence House is pushing Chuck’s agenda and now Kensington Palace is trying to run their own competing operation. As I said, an utter clownshow with sweaty, incompetant clowns, drenched in sweat, their makeup running down their faces, their clown wigs askew, the clown pants down around their ankles. KP, CH and BP can’t even agree on one singular way to bash Harry & Meghan!! Is it all about Poor Philip, is it about William’s Mistrust or is it about Chuck’s Receipts? PICK A TALKING POINT.

As for William’s trust issues… I can’t. It’s too stupid. William went around for weeks with his pathetic little “Meghan is a bully!” campaign (which blew up in his face), then he continued to brief the press against the Sussexes post-interview, and now HE is briefing an American outlet (Vanity Fair) in reaction to the Gayle King tea. He is so bad at this. You guys, Poor Willileaks has trust issues!

Photos courtesy of WENN.

We all wondered what the awards season would look like during the pandemic. We’ve relied on each show to shape our idea of what the next one would look like. The Oscars were pushed so far back from its usual air date because nobody knew how to host a virtual Oscars. They must have thought that, by April, not only would the virus be well under control, but somebody would have figured out a brilliant way to keep the majesty of the The Academy Awards. Guess what, they didn’t. We’re talking about the film industry, too. *They* couldn’t figure out a way to broadcast a production that congratulates itself. It’s a bummer, but ironic enough that it’s funny too.

What we will have is a very scaled back version of the Oscars ceremony. According to a letter that went out to Academy members from Academy president David Rubin, the show’s attendance will be limited to those presenting, the nominees and their guest. Plus, all the events surrounding the main event are cancelled, like the Oscar luncheon and the famed Governors Ball.

It has long been clear that the 93rd Academy Awards on April 25 is going to look unlike any other. Now we have some specifics.

Hours after revealing, ahead of Monday morning’s Oscar nominations announcement, that the ceremony will be spread between the Dolby Theatre and Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, Academy president David Rubin emailed the Academy’s nearly 10,000 members to share some news that most of them will find disappointing.

“This year, those attending the awards in person will be nominees, their guest, and presenters,” Rubin wrote. In other words, only the nominees, their guest and presenters. “[W]e will not be able to conduct our annual member ticket lottery.”

Additionally, out of an abundance of caution due to the ongoing pandemic, Rubin announced that the Academy is canceling all other in-person events that usually take place around the Oscars, including decades-old traditions like the Oscar Nominees Luncheon that normally precedes the show by a few weeks and the Governors Ball that long has followed it.

Also canceled: nominations screenings; the International Feature Film nominee cocktail reception; public programming for the Short Film, Documentary, Animated Feature, International Feature Film, and Makeup and Hairstyling categories; and Oscar Night watch parties in London and New York.

[From The Hollywood Reporter via Seriously? OMG!]

The full text of the letter is available in the link on the THR site. They are dropping the annual member lottery to attend the show. The other events getting axed are the receptions honoring the minor categories like Makeup and Hairstyling and Documentaries and International Films. That stinks because those don’t get enough recognition as it is. I agree with all these decisions, by the way. Rubin and the Academy are not being blasé about the severity of where we are in the pandemic. Big name stars may be vaccinated due to work but many other people involved in the set up and production of these events aren’t. This will protect them and their communities so I commend the choice to scale everything down. We will miss the cutaways to that academy member who is not up for anything and doesn’t have to present, so they’re just drunk in their seat having a great time. It also means the silly bits will be limited (hopefully), which I think we can all agree will be a good thing. The energy will definitely be different because everyone in the auditorium will be on edge, no Jack Nicholson in the front row, with no f*cks to give. And by the end of the night, one fifth of the audience will be in a great mood while everyone else is destroyed. This’ll be interesting. I haven’t heard any word on the red carpet yet. I assume it will happen, like it has for the other shows. I hope so because that will be our only shot at fashion with no Governors Ball. I’ll bet we get a lot of home fashion shots from celebrities. I have to admit, I’m loving those home-grown fashion shoots.

A scaled back Oscars could be rough. I’m not overwhelmed by the nominees this year either. But I don’t think this is all bad. I think the Oscars have been stale for quite a while. If they get torn down and rebuilt, it could be best thing that could happen to them. So if they call this year a wash and use the pandemic as an excuse, only to come back next year with a fresh, bold new show that reignites interest in the production, then it will all have been worthwhile, right?

Also, the Film Independent Spirit Awards will take place April 22 this year. They usually happen on the beach in LA. Since it’s so much later this year, they could have an open sided tent and still host it with a decent attendance. The weather would cooperate, they’d just need a network of tents. I know the area were they hold it, it could handle that. Maybe that will be the show to watch this season.

Photo credit, Avalon, Backgrid, Wenn Photos