Lori Loughlin is getting her passport back now that she’s completed the terms of her plea deal. LOL, where’s she going? [Just Jared]
These old, handmade costumes are pretty awesome? [OMG Blog]
How did Your Honor end? (spoilers) [Pajiba]
Beto O’Rourke says Texas is a failed state. [Towleroad]
Larsa Pippen isn’t friends with the Kardashians anymore. [Dlisted]
My nemesis Laura Dern at the Jurassic Park premiere. [Go Fug Yourself]
The Bachelor franchise is a mess and in huge trouble. [LaineyGossip]
The whole Claudia Conway-on-American-Idol thing is a mess too. [Jezebel]
Alexis Ohanian is, as always, an Unstoppable Queen. [Buzzfeed]
Kacey Musgraves looks really cool in this photo. [RCFA]
Unexpected star is pregnant… again. [Starcasm]

The undisputed breakout of Bridgerton season one is Regé-Jean Page, the duke himself. With all the momentum of being the breakout star of Netflix’s biggest original show to date, Page is wasting no time. He has booked his first major role post-Bridgerton and will co-star with Chris Pine in the Dunge…

The first trailer for Cruella, Disney’s villain origin story for Cruella De Vil, has arrived and it is fine. I mean, it LOOKS great. Can’t argue with Emma Stone and Emma Thompson vamping it up in fabulous Jenny Beavan costumes in 1970s London. I like that the basic concept for this take on Cruella s…

Maluma is a big deal. He’s 27 years old, Colombian, one of the most popular Latin American artists in the world, and his career is en fuego, as Hilaria Baldwin would say. Maluma is also muy caliente, meaning that he’s f–king gorgeous and sexy and men and women want him. He’s sort of like if Ricky Martin and George Michael had a baby. Elle Magazine made Maluma one of their February covers, and he talks about his latest album, Papi Juancho, and his big Hollywood film debut in Marry Me, where he plays Jennifer Lopez’s character’s fiance. You can read the full piece here (plus, the photos are hot). Some highlights:

On spending the pandemic year at home with his parents: “Of course 2020 has been a very difficult year for all of us, but I feel like this was my best year so far, musically, artistically, and personally. I feel like I was reborn… I was talking the other day with my parents, and they were very happy because I’ve stayed a long time in Colombia, but they were also a little bit worried because they didn’t know what was going to happen with my work. My job is being on tour, but for me this has been very positive, being here in Colombia. I feel very connected again with myself.”

Working with Jennifer Lopez on Marry Me: “Jennifer, she’s not only a work partner—I would say she is my friend. She is someone I admire, and she is someone I’ve followed since I was a little kid. So for me, being part of this movie was almost surreal. It was a big surprise when they called me, but I was ready for it.”

Working with Madonna: “Madonna loves doing things in an organic way—she is very spiritual. When we were doing the ‘Medelli?n’ video, it was almost 48 hours working nonstop, and I was surprised, because Madonna, she was 60 years old, but she looks like she is younger than me.”

He’s not a bad-boy Lothario, he’s a man of faith: “I feel like the artists right now, the modern artists, are losing their spirituality, and that’s kind of sad. I don’t feel like they pray or meditate, and that’s why I feel connected with artists like Madonna, Shakira, and Jennifer. Sometimes people tell me that I’m an old soul because of that, but at the end of the day, you can be the biggest star in the world, but if you are not spiritual, you are empty inside.”

Growing up in Medelli?n, Colombia: “My family, we were not rich. We had what we needed, but then my dad lost everything, and my parents got divorced….It’s what made me realize I had to work super hard so my family could have food and a house to live in. But between everything, I was a very happy child.”

He spends a lot of time with his parents & his two Siberian Huskies, Bonnie & Clyde: “Medelli?n is chill. Of course, people know Medelli?n around the world as a very violent city, but it’s not anymore. We are more than that. [Drug kingpin] Pablo Escobar is not Medelli?n. There are so many beautiful things to tell about it. In the States, I was surprised to discover that when you are 16 years old, it is almost like you forget that you have parents—you go out and work for your things, you move out, live alone. My sister, she is grown, but she is still living with my mom. It’s not because she doesn’t have money to go and live alone. It’s because she loves being with my mom.”

[From Elle]

At certain points in the interview, he suggests that he doesn’t have much in common with many artists of his generation because of their superficiality, their materialism and their lack of spirituality. Which makes sense, because he really does come across as an “old soul” type of guy, happier to hang out with people twice his age. Some people are just built that way. But yeah… I’d love to travel to Medellin to spend some time banging him on a Colombian farm.

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Photos and cover courtesy of Elle.

Last year, Amy Cooper became “Central Park Karen,” and thus, a national/international story. Her unleashed dog was causing issues in Central Park, and a birdwatcher named Christian Cooper told her to leash her dog. Amy Cooper freaked out on him, menaced him, called 911 and (as he filmed her) performed her white-woman hysteria for the 911 operator, claiming that an “African-American man is threatening my life.” It’s worth noting – as we found out several months later – that after the initial incident filmed by Christian Cooper, Amy Cooper left that area and CALLED 911 AGAIN. She was that insistent that the cops come to Central Park to murder a Black man on her orders. This racist bitch is beyond deranged. Soon after the video went viral, Amy Cooper was charged with a misdemeanor of falsely reporting an incident. Now the charge has been dropped:

The criminal case against Amy Cooper, a white woman who called the police on a Black bird-watcher in Central Park and falsely reported that he had threatened her, was dismissed on Tuesday after Ms. Cooper completed a therapeutic program that included instruction about racial biases.

At a hearing in Manhattan Criminal Court, a senior prosecutor asked a judge to dismiss the single misdemeanor charge against Ms. Cooper — falsely reporting an incident — and the judge agreed. Ms. Cooper had faced up to a year in jail if convicted.

The resolution of the case without a trial or a guilty plea was for some an anticlimactic ending to an incident that had provoked intense discussions across the country about how Black people are harmed by false reports to the police.

The prosecutor, Joan Illuzzi-Orbon, said Ms. Cooper had participated in five therapy sessions that focused in part on how racial identities shape people’s lives. Her therapist had reported that the sessions were “a moving experience” and that Ms. Cooper “learned a lot,” Ms. Illuzzi-Orbon said.

She said that Ms. Cooper had been offered the deal to attend an educational program in return for having the charge dismissed in part because it was her first arrest. The deal, the prosecutor said, was “designed not just to punish but to educate and promote community healing.”

Ms. Illuzzi-Orbon said the resolution fell under the rubric of restorative justice, an alternative to traditional prosecution that looks at the harm done and seeks reconciliation among the parties, including the offender, the victim and the community.

[From The NY Times]

Restorative justice for white women who lie to cops in an attempt to get them to murder Black men. Yeah, I’ll pass. I mean, I get this from a legal perspective, it was her first charge, it was just a misdemeanor, plenty of people strike these kinds of deals. But… the problem was that she was charged the wrong way. What she did was a felony. She literally weaponized her whiteness and tried to murder someone by proxy. F–k her.

Also: Amy Cooper’s lawyer seems to be saying that she was falsely accused (she was not) and that she will “tell her story this week.” Good. I hope this woman keeps talking and ruins her own life completely.

Photos courtesy of social media.

Since Monday, when CBS announced that it will air the 90 minute Oprah Winfrey in conversation with Meghan Markle special on March 7, there’s been a lot of angst about it over in the UK. The tabloids, as usual, are accusing Prince Harry and Meghan of hypocrisy; they’re reporting on the British royal …

Prince Philip has gone back into the hospital. It doesn’t seem to be Covid-related, nor does there seem to be some big incident which caused people to be concerned. It’s all very vague at the moment, which makes me wonder what exactly *did* happen. Philip had to move out of Wood Farm last fall, which was his happy little retirement home on the Sandringham property. The “HMS Bubble” created around the Queen was wearing thin, with not enough protection officers to guard both the Queen and Philip full time if they continued to live apart. So Philip was ordered to live at Windsor Castle during the pandemic. Philip and Liz also received their Covid vaccines, so… yeah, I don’t think this is Covid-related.

Prince Philip, the 99-year-old husband of Queen Elizabeth, has been taken to a London hospital after feeling unwell, according to a Buckingham Palace press release.

“His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh was admitted to the King Edward VII Hospital in London, on Tuesday evening,” the Wednesday release stated.

A Royal source told CNN that the Duke traveled to the hospital by car and it was not an emergency admission. The source added that he walked into the hospital unaided and his illness is not Covid-19 related.

The Queen remains at Windsor Castle, to the west of London, the source said.

The Buckingham Palace press release added: “The Duke’s admission is a precautionary measure, on the advice of His Royal Highness’s Doctor, after feeling unwell. The Duke is expected to remain in hospital for a few days of observation and rest.”

[From CNN]

It’s very mysterious and while he has a history of being awful and problematic, I do feel sorry for him and I hope this is nothing serious. This is giving me flashbacks to that time a few years ago when Philip seemed to be in poor health, and he was hospitalized and we had a source who insisted that Philip died and that the Palace wasn’t releasing the information for some reason. So… yeah, what I’m saying is that I have no idea. I assume a man just shy of 100th birthday probably has a number of age-related ailments. I doubt the Queen will visit him – she rarely visits him when he’s in the hospital, first of all, and second of all, I assume that most hospitals are still refusing guests during the pandemic.

Anyway, right now is saying the thing about the Sussexes. But you know it’s coming. Prince Harry and Meghan will be blamed for putting Philip in the hospital. Then the British papers will demand that Harry abandon his pregnant wife and small child so he can immediately fly home and see his grandfather. Philip’s dying wish will be that Harry files for divorce. God, they’re really going to write those stories, aren’t they?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

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There’s been a renewed interest in Britney Spears’ neverending conservatorship with the release of Framing Britney Spears, a New York Times documentary which came out earlier this month on Hulu. The film showed the media’s sexist treatment of Britney and how she’s stuck being controlled by her father indefinitely due to the nature of conservatorships. Now there’s another Britney documentary coming on Netflix. There’s so much interest in her case now that I bet Netflix jumped at the chance to work with the filmmaker, Erin Lee Carr. There’s no word on the timeline of the Netflix deal, but Bloomberg reports that Lee Carr was working on the film before Framing Britney came out.

In the latest case of dueling documentaries, Netflix Inc. is planning its own movie about Britney Spears, on the heels of one just released by Hulu.

Filmmaker Erin Lee Carr, who’s specialized in true crime documentaries, is directing the project about the troubled pop star, a cause celebre among fans who believe she is being held against her will.

The earlier project, “Framing Britney Spears,” was produced by the New York Times and released on Hulu this month, quickly becoming one of the most talked-about documentaries of the year. The Hulu film chronicles the media’s misogynistic approach toward Spears throughout her career, and explores a conservatorship that places much of her life under her father’s control. The documentary also prompted Spears’ former boyfriend, Justin Timberlake, to apologize for his treatment of women.

This will be at least the second time in recent years where Netflix and Hulu made competing documentaries on the same story. Both services released films about the Fyre Festival, which was marketed as a luxury music festival in the Bahamas but ended up a disaster.

It’s not unusual for movie studios to be working on the same projects at the same time, but competing documentaries have become far more common in the streaming era.

[From Bloomberg]

In the latest Gossip with Celebitchy podcast I have an interview with my friend Lisa of the Eat, Pray, Britney podcast. Lisa explained so clearly why a conservatorship was the wrong choice for Britney and how it takes away her civil rights. I’m hoping that this documentary will delve more into Britney’s backstory, like her relationships with Adnan Ghalib and Jason Trawick. I would also like to see more about how Sam Lutfi was drugging and controlling her prior to her breakdown. With so much awareness of her case, hopefully Britney can finally break free of her conservatorship. Maybe Britney’s case will bring more attention to conservatorship abuse as well, which is something Lisa brought up during our talk.

Britney’s cousin Alli, who worked as her assistant right before Britney’s involuntary 5150 holds and conservatorship, had her first interview in 13 years with NBC news. Alli feels awful about what happened to Britney and said that she thinks about her all the time. She told NBC News that Britney’s dad, Jamie, threatened her before the conservatorship went into effect and that she still feels guilty that she couldn’t respond when Britney tried reaching out to her. She said “I really do believe (Jamie) would have done something if I didn’t remove myself from the situation. I can’t imagine how alone she felt. When I think about how long she has had to endure this and it being 13 years, it just makes me so sad for her. I really do hope one day she’s able to tell her story if that’s what she wants to do.” Alli now lives a life she calls “nice and normal” in Louisiana, with her husband and nine-year-old daughter.

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I genuinely don’t pay attention to the Disney live-action remakes. I don’t care because I don’t think they’re for me, and that’s fine. I consume other things. I’ve also been really wrong about the hunger for these live-action remakes – I thought Beauty and the Beast (starring Emma Watson) looked terrible and would bomb. It was a huge success. I thought Mulan looked really good but people HATED it. So here we are. Disney did a live-action “origin story” for Cruella de Vil, the villain of 101 Dalmatians. This is supposed to be in the vein of Angelina Jolie’s portrayal of Maleficent, or at least that’s what I thought. What I didn’t expect was to see Disney thoroughly Joker-ify the Cruella character. I was half-expecting to see Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker appear at some point, and it’s that kind of heavy, nihilistic edge which makes the first Cruella trailer kind of… off-putting?

Doesn’t this have the feel of a spoof in some moments? Like, I think Emma is doing her best, and sure, I’m not completely opposed to an entire film about Cruella. But… this is a lot. And it’s very weird! Emma Thompson though… whew.

Much like the Maleficent movies, I do halfway appreciate the fact that Disney is actively seeking to include proto-goth girls and avante-garde fashion geeks into their audiences. Not every girl wants to be Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella! Some girls want to be dark, cruel fashionistas with maniacal laughs.

Photo and poster courtesy of Disney.

I’ve actually gotten into the rhythm of these royal newscycles, which is sort of scary. They’re predictable and recyclable storylines every time, and they generally follow the same path. 1) Harry and Meghan have a big announcement, 2) the British media goes into full-throttle hysterics, 3) the official spox from the Palace say shady sh-t on or off the record, usually involving a claim of being “blindsided,” 4) the entirely media-made scandal gets drawn out and blown up into separate reaction pieces about how William/Kate/Charles/Liz really feel about this thing Harry and Meghan have announced, and 5) punitive action, the gleeful threats of punishment. There are tons of added steps, but those are the big five.

As we heard, the Queen is now hellbent on punishing Harry and Meghan by forcing them to resign from their “royal” patronages. For Harry, that means stepping down from his military positions AND stepping down from his presidency of the Rugby Football League. For Meghan, that means stepping down from the National Theatre. But what happens if… those patronages don’t want to lose their popular and charismatic patrons?

The Telegraph adds that none of the organisations with which the couple will have to abandon their ties have yet received any information from the Palace, left ‘blindsided’ and uncertain about the future. Many have reportedly expressed a desire to keep up their links to the Duke and Duchess and are privately frustrated and not being kept in the loop about developments.

Consequently it’s thought the decision will be announced ahead of the end of the official review period at the close of March, to allow for necessary preparations to be made. The Rugby Football League, which was anticipating having Harry ‘front and centre’ of its World Cup coverage later this year, commented that it was ‘very proud’ to have had him as patron since 2016, noting: ‘The RFL has not received official correspondence relating to any changes at this time.’ The National Theatre, meanwhile, a patronage handed on to the Duchess by the Queen, has publicly described her as ‘very engaged’ and happy to utilise her ‘star reach.’ The Telegraph alleges, however, that one source implied there was no love lost between the organisation and Meghan.

A source reportedly told the Telegraph this week that Harry and Meghan were reluctantly resigned to giving up such roles, but that they themselves were also yet to receive confirmation from the Palace. An individual said to be close to the Sussexes said they knew they wouldn’t be unable to retain such titles, but that it was saddening nonetheless, stating: ‘All they have done is express their commitment to them. There is no question that if it was up to them, they would keep them.’

[From Tatler]

I mean, I’m not even going to try to fact-check or keep all of the different stories straight. Either Buckingham Palace was always going to “take away” the Sussexes’ patronages or they weren’t. Either the one-year review was cancelled or it wasn’t. Either the Queen wants to punish the Sussexes for existing or she doesn’t. All the rest of this is just noise and mess. It always surprises me, though, to see the utter Amateur Hour over there. The Queen and her sycophants didn’t bother to tell those patronages that they were about to lose their royal patrons because Liz is that f–king petty. And I love that H&M’s people continue to make the point that this really isn’t their call, that it’s just an out-of-touch Queen being an a–hole.

I’m not going to devote a whole post to this excellent Guardian op-ed, but it’s absolutely worth a read. Guardian columnist Marina Hyde did a hilarious piece about how the British media is sh-tting the bed because they simply got outmaneuvered by the Sussexes. There are so many great lines, like “Naturally you can see why some small-pond UK pundits simply can’t handle the Sussexes’ move to America. It’s a horrendous moment when you realise your competition for royal stories and interviews is no longer some necrotic dipsomaniac on a rival tabloid, but Oprah.” Hyde says that the media men leading the charge against Meghan are “so emotionally warped that the only way they can begin to release their feelings of social, racial and sexual resentment is by using a 94-year-old woman’s feelings as a proxy.” My favorite is the way she ended it, with this comment directed at the British media: “you need to face the unavoidable takeout: you’ve been outmanoeuvred by an emotional wellness podcaster. It’s like being out-strategised by kale.”

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.