Late Wednesday, New York City’s Mayor Eric Adams was indicted on federal criminal charges. At the time, the indictment was sealed, but it has since been unsealed. More on that in a moment. On Thursday, federal agents executed a search warrant on Gracie Mansion!! That’s the official home of the NYC mayor. The search warrant was for all of Mayor Adams’ tablets and phones and anything pertaining to Turkey. The country. Because apparently, Mayor Adams was taking bribes from Turkish officials. He faces five federal charges of bribery, fraud and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations. Here’s the thing: I totally believe he did it and I totally believe the feds have enough evidence on him, but OMG, Donald Trump and Clarence Thomas are RIGHT THERE. Some highlights from the NY Times:

Mayor Eric Adams was defiant on Thursday in the face of five federal charges of bribery, fraud and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations, insisting he would stay in office and imploring New Yorkers to hear his defense. The indictment, which was unsealed on Thursday morning after a search of the mayor’s official residence, Gracie Mansion, followed an investigation that started in 2021. Prosecutors said the scheme began when he was a top elected official in Brooklyn and continued after he became mayor.

The investigation focused on whether Mr. Adams, 64, had conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal foreign campaign contributions in exchange for acting on its behalf. Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said that Mr. Adams had been “showered” with gifts that he knew were illegal.

“This was a multiyear scheme to buy favor with a single New York City politician on the rise: Eric Adams,” Mr. Williams said at a news conference. “Year after year, he kept the public in the dark.”

If convicted of all five counts in the indictment, the maximum penalty under law would be 45 years in prison. But under the federal sentencing guidelines, he would likely receive far less.

According to the indictment, Mr. Adams had “sought and accepted improper valuable benefits” since at least 2014, when he was Brooklyn borough president. The benefits included luxury travel — free and discounted Turkish Airlines tickets and free meals and hotel rooms — from wealthy foreigners and at least one Turkish government official, prosecutors said. He traveled on the airline even when it was inconvenient, they said, including a 2017 flight to France from New York that first stopped in Istanbul. Mr. Adams tried to hide the gifts or make it appear as if he had paid for them, according to the indictment. Their value exceeded $100,000, prosecutors said.

In exchange, prosecutors said, Mr. Adams pressured officials at the New York Fire Department to permit a new Turkish consulate building in Manhattan despite safety problems. A Fire Department official overseeing the safety assessment said he was told he would lose his job if he did not follow the order.

[From The NY Times]

You can read the indictment here, the NYT put the full document online and annotated it. I’m not a lawyer, obviously, but from I read, they really do have an abundance of evidence, not just from Adams, but his staffers who acted as go-betweens with Turkish officials. There are extensive electronic receipts. It shows the equal-parts horrifying and hilarious banality of fraud, the bargaining, the sleaze, the fact that they were so stupid to leave all of this documentation of their crimes.

The ultimate Eric Adams thing is that the feds have this message pic.twitter.com/kFumQJF54t

— David Dayen (@ddayen) September 26, 2024

“You are a disgrace for all Black people in this city!”– Eric Adams’s news conference is not going well pic.twitter.com/Gq0Ui8Yeyh

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 26, 2024

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Pablo Larrain’s Maria was just days away from its world premiere in Venice when Netflix purchased the movie and quickly began to promote the hell out of it. During the film festival season, I kept waiting for a teaser trailer to be released, but they only gave us a small clip, a scene where Maria Callas is talking to her butler about doctors and medication. The film shows Maria Callas at different stages of her adult journey – her early fame, her love affair with Aristotle Onassis, her declining later years. Well, Netflix has just released the teaser trailer and I’m completely sold.

Just the shot of Angelina Jolie-as-Maria walking out into the street in Paris in the 1970s was enough for me. In case you’re wondering why this looks so pretty/beautiful, it’s because Pablo Larrain is an amazing director, but he’s also working with cinematographer Edward Lachman. They know how to f–king light a scene properly. This will “complete” Larrain’s triptych of famous-woman bio-pics – he started with Jackie Kennedy, then went to Princess Diana and now he’s ending it with Maria Callas. I hope that Angelina, like Natalie Portman and Kristen Stewart, gets an Oscar nomination under Larrain’s direction.

I also hope that Netflix supports the hell out of this movie. They just announced the timeline too – Maria will have a limited theatrical release starting November 27, then it will be available for streaming on Netflix on December 11. The right time for an Oscar campaign, although they easily could have moved it up a few weeks. I wonder if Angelina will do some major magazine profiles, or maybe even a 60 Minutes interview.

Photos courtesy of Pablo Larrain/Netflix, Backgrid, Avalon Red, Cover Images.

The photos of Prince Harry and Boris Johnson in this post are from January 20, 2020 in London. Both men attended the UK-Africa Investment Summit at the Intercontinental Hotel London. Note the date – that was Harry’s final day in the UK before he flew to Canada to reunite with his wife and baby boy Archie. Just one week prior to this, Harry met his family in what was dubbed the “Sandringham Summit,” where he negotiated the terms of his exit from the UK. So, after the Sussexes announced their exit and after the Sandringham Summit, the Windsors made a last-ditch effort to try to convince Harry to abandon his wife and child and stay in the UK. The Windsors asked Boris Johnson to intervene and do just that. From the Daily Mail’s exclusive excerpts of Boris Johnson’s memoir:

Boris Johnson made an extraordinary last-ditch bid to persuade Prince Harry not to quit the UK. The former Prime Minister reveals in his sensational new memoir that he was asked to give the Duke of Sussex a ‘manly pep talk’ to convince him it would be a mistake to leave Britain for a fresh start abroad with his wife Meghan.

Mr Johnson’s new book, Unleashed, will be serialised in the Daily Mail from Saturday, and is already tipped to become the political memoir of the century. He reveals that in January 2020, just weeks after his landslide election win, officials in Downing Street and Buckingham Palace believed he might be able to talk Harry out of his seismic decision to quit the UK and walk away from his royal duties.

The ex-PM writes that there was ‘a ridiculous business… when they made me try to persuade Harry to stay. Kind of manly pep talk. Totally hopeless.’

The secret meeting, which underlines the close links between No 10 and the Palace, took place in the margins of a UK-Africa investment summit in London’s Docklands. It came just hours after the duke gave an emotional speech in which he said he and Meghan were leaving with ‘great sadness’ but felt they had ‘no other option’ but to step away from royal life. The two men met for 20 minutes without aides as Mr Johnson tried to persuade the prince to reconsider.

A friend said Mr Johnson paid tribute to Harry’s efforts on the Invictus Games and praised Meghan’s work on their shared passion for promoting the education of women and girls in developing countries.

‘He thought they were a great asset to UK plc and it was a real shame they were leaving when they were doing such great work,’ the friend said. ‘It was a man-to-man conversation, they were totally alone. But Harry wasn’t for turning – he was unpersuadable by that point. Boris succeeded in delivering Brexit but even he couldn’t stop Megxit.’

The following day, Harry flew to Canada to be reunited with Meghan and their son, Archie. The family later moved to Montecito, California, where they remain today, having given up their lives as working Royals.

[From The Daily Mail]

I was going to say “it’s crazy to get a whole-ass prime minister involved in the royal family’s bullsh-t,” but then I remembered that there is a ton of precedent. John Major got involved in then-Prince Charles and Diana’s divorce. David Cameron issued a statement of defense about Hilary Mantel’s critique of Kate. And on and on. But yeah… even after the Windsors rooked Harry at the Sandringham Summit, hoping to force him into capitulation, they still asked BoJo to intervene and try to convince Harry to stay. Judging from the photos, Boris was also acting out the “Freedom Flight.”

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Travis Kelce has his hand in several different pots right now. He’s still playing football for the Kansas City Chiefs, he and his brother Jason Kelce just reportedly inked a $100 million deal with Wondery for their podcast, “New Heights,” he’s starring as the host of the upcoming first season of the rebooted Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity?, and he’s about to make his scripted acting debut on Ryan Murphy’s new series, Grotesquerie, starring Niecy Nash and Micaela Morgan. I respect that Travis works hard, hustles, and keeps busy. Some people just work best when they’re going non-stop, but that doesn’t mean it’s always going to be their best work.

All of that said, Travis and Jason’s mom, Donna Kelce, recently did an interview with Variety. During the interview, she noted that her younger son has the power to “manifest things” (100% agree). She also then had some pretty harsh words about her son’s acting career.

Donna Kelce, mother of Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce, spilled on the advice she gave her son ahead of his scripted TV debut on FX’s “Grotesquerie.” The football star, who has previously hosted “Saturday Night Live” and once appeared in the comedy series “Moonbase 8,” is set to make his major acting debut beginning in the third episode of the new Ryan Murphy horror series.

Donna Kelce, in an interview with Variety, said she knows her son wanted to do the show and that he can “manifest things.”

“He has no fear of trying things, and he has no fear of failure,” she said of her son, who is dating pop superstar Taylor Swift. “You know, sometimes parents want to fix things for their kids. But sometimes it’s better to just let them fail. You learn the most from things you don’t do well. Hopefully, if this is something he wants to do, he’ll get better at it.”

Donna Kelce showed support for her son as she dropped by the New York premiere of “Grotesquerie” on Monday.

The series sees Detective Lois Tryon (Niecy Nash) working with Sister Megan (Micaela Diamond) as the two look into “heinous crimes” where they “find themselves ensnared in a sinister web that only seems to raise more questions than answers,” according to an FX description of the show.

Travis Kelce plays a bed nurse in the series, according to Variety, in a casting decision that “Grotesquerie” co-star and executive producer Courtney B. Vance admits “just helps” the show.

“I mean it would be one thing if he wasn’t a nice guy,” Vance told Variety. “But really, he’s a nice guy. It helps everybody. Ryan [Murphy] is all about publicity, and he does it better than anyone.”

[From Huffington Post]

LMAO. Poor Travis! It’s so funny that not only does his mom recognizes that acting isn’t his thang, but also that Courtney B. Vance basically acknowledged that Travis was only cast because he’d bring some ratings. My motto is always to never be afraid to try new things, so, good for Travis for putting himself out there (even though that role could have gone to a day player who actually needed the money that they’d have made from that gig). That said, there’s also always value in knowing your limits. Like I noted earlier, Travis and Jason just got a $100 million podcast deal, which is absolutely nuts. This all feels like the Universe is telling Travis, hey, maybe just stick to making money off of being yourself.

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Photos credit: Jennifer Graylock-Graylock.com / Avalon, IMAGO/Eibner-Pressefoto/Florian, Robert Bell/INSTARimages, Jesse Bauer/startraksphoto.com, Backgrid and Getty

Brad Pitt impostors scammed women out of $350K. [Socialite Life]
Mariska Hargitay said that Law & Order: SVU has given her secondary trauma. I believe it, some of those storylines are deeply upsetting. [Pajiba]
People are hyped for Joshua Jackson’s new show, Doctor Odyssey. [LaineyGossip]
Florida voters better turn out for the abortion ballot. [Jezebel]
Samuel L. Jackson talks about his nine-picture Marvel deal. [JustJared]
Hurricane Helene is a doozy, stay safe! [Hollywood Life]
Rihanna sang in her high school talent show! [Seriously OMG]
Saoirse Ronan looks amazing here. [RCFA]
Horoscopes for Libra Season! [OMG Blog]

The Olivia Nuzzi-Robert Kennedy Jr. story is still buzzing around, even if DC media is doing way too much to minimize Nuzzi’s actions. To recap, Nuzzi profiled Kennedy late last year, then she apparently began a digital affair with him around New Year’s. According to Kennedy-sources, Nuzzi barraged him with nude photos and at various points during the year, he blocked her. Other sources say that their affair was partially in person, and that it was much more mutual than Kennedy is making it out to be. Semafor’s editor recently wrote an astounding piece about how everyone in DC sleeps with their sources and it’s no biggie. Interestingly, there seems to be a flat admission that Kennedy was Nuzzi’s “source” as she wrote anti-Biden hit pieces and repeatedly claimed that Kennedy’s candidacy was legitimate. Anyway, apparently Nuzzi still hasn’t been fired and her bosses are telling staffers to keep quiet.

Staff at the New York Magazine have been warned by Vox Media bosses not to speak about Olivia Nuzzi’s secret relationship with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Business Insider reports. A letter sent Tuesday from the parent group Vox Media told them not to engage in the discourse surrounding Nuzzi, while the New York magazine’s editor David Haskell is believed to be against public criticism from colleagues.

Some employees are also said to be confused over why Nuzzi had not been fired. The magazine’s editors put her on leave last week over reports, which were broken by the Status newsletter writer Oliver Darcy, that a relationship between the two had started after she wrote a profile piece of the then-presidential candidate.

A statement from the magazine said: “Had the magazine been aware of this relationship, she would not have continued to cover the presidential campaign.” It also said that the secret was a “violation of our readers’ trust.” Other employees are said to have some sympathy for the magazine’s star reporter while still condemning her behavior.

[From The Daily Beast]

I find it notable that Nuzzi hasn’t been fired and that Vox Media seems to be circling the wagons. It’s also notable that so many men in media are minimizing or shrugging off Nuzzi’s actions, including lying to her editor about the affair. Some women in media are also minimizing it, to be fair, but most female journalists are appalled by what she’s done. As much as I hoped that Nuzzi would be fired and blacklisted, I really don’t think that’s going to happen. She’ll probably be suspended throughout the rest of the election cycle, and then New York Magazine will bring her back. Either that or they will fire her but she’ll land on her feet immediately and become a right-wing media darling.

Photos courtesy of Instagram, screencaps courtesy of HBO and NY Magazine.

James Middleton is still promoting his memoir, Meet Ella: The Dog Who Saved My Life. He has received absolutely zero negativity for the book or its promotion. No one in the British or American media has called him a grifter or a scammer peddling a tawdry tell-all. No one has questioned the tackiness of the Princess of Wales’s brother writing about his time at Sandringham with Queen Elizabeth, or his time at Highgrove with King Charles. It’s absolutely bizarre. And now James is even talking about his sister’s health in American interviews:

James Middleton is sharing an update on sister Catherine, the Princess of Wales, following news that she completed her cancer treatment.

James Middleton, the younger brother of the former Kate Middleton who is releasing a new book, “Meet Ella,” briefly spoke about his oldest sister’s health during an exclusive interview with NBC News’ Kelly Cobiella.

“She’s doing OK,” he says during the interview, which aired on TODAY Sept. 26.

He continued, “It’s not for me to share on her behalf, you know, how everything’s going. But she’s getting all the right support and focus that she needs. And like anything, it takes time to process.”

James Middleton’s chat with TODAY took place in the English countryside, where he grew up with his two sisters.

“We’re very lucky to spend time here. It was always my dream to move back,” he shares.

“Catherine and William had both been involved in mental health charities and works of which I got help from. They were a fantastic bridge for the family, for me to be able to translate how I was feeling,” James Middleton shared. He added, “The whole process has brought us closer, in many ways.”

[From Today]

I keep thinking back to how James and Pippa were moving earlier this year – Pippa was lounging around St. Bart’s with her husband and kids, meanwhile James took several ski holidays, all while Kate was “recovering from abdominal surgery” and learning that she has cancer. In fact, James and Pippa’s vacation schedule convinced me, back then, that Kate was fine. I also wonder how close-hold the information was overall – it’s possible that only Carole and Michael knew what was really going on with Kate back then. Oh well. James is staying on Middleton-message, that’s for sure. My guess is that Carole scripted most of this.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Prince Harry conducted a lot of important business in New York this week, highlighting the work of The HALO Trust, Archewell, The Parents Network, Sentebale, African Parks, Travalyst and more. Trying to keep up with his schedule, I understood why he went solo for the New York trip. It was mostly about his side of things, his patronages, his charities, his issue profile. That hasn’t stopped the British media from amplifying their own “theories” about why Harry’s solo trip is indicative of the Sussexes’ “separate lives.” But it’s even more insidious than that, with the Mail’s Richard Eden devoting a new column to how Meghan and Harry see each other as dead weight and that’s why they’re separating their business and charity profiles. I’ll spare you the bulk of Eden’s hysteria, but here are the sections I wanted to discuss:

Different directions: When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex moved to California to seek their fortune, their cheerleaders claimed they would be a new power couple…This week, we have seen evidence of how that dream lies in tatters, with Prince Harry and Meghan travelling in different directions when it comes to their careers.

The Oprah interview was the beginning of the end! [In 2021], they sat down for their explosive television interview with their Santa Barbara neighbour Oprah Winfrey. Following Meghan’s claims in the interview that the future Princess of Wales had made her cry, and her allegations of racism among unnamed senior Windsors, the sofa chat caused a devastating rift with the Royal Family. It also alienated millions of people who had previously been sympathetic to Harry and Meghan. The negative reaction to the interview may have been the turning point, when the first seeds of doubt crept in about the wisdom of their ‘power couple’ strategy. They had, however, signed a deal with Netflix for a rumoured $100million, so still went ahead with their tawdry ‘docuseries’ or reality show, Harry & Meghan, which was broadcast the following year.

Spotify & Spare: Meghan’s solo [podcast] series set the pattern for their future careers. She left Harry to promote his memoirs alone, as the book further antagonised the royals and their admirers around the world. Their forthcoming projects for Netflix are separate: Meghan has filmed a cookery and lifestyle show, expected to be broadcast next year, while Harry’s made a programme about polo, his favourite sport.

Harry’s solo trip: This week, Harry has been in New York on his own, carrying out charitable engagements connected to his late mother, Princess Diana, that would once have held much appeal for Meghan. What’s been most noticeable is that the duke has appeared far more relaxed than on his previous appearance in the city with his wife. That visit turned into a fiasco, with claims of a ‘high-speed car chase’ with paparazzi that were denied by the police. Harry’s smiles have also been in contrast to the frowns he often seemed to be wearing when he visited Colombia with Meghan last month.

More solo ventures in the future: A source in California claims that Meghan has decided that their interests are best served by pursuing separate careers. ‘They will still carry out some charitable engagements together and embark on foreign visits, but their work projects will be separate,’ the source tells me. Perhaps Meghan has decided that she is the bigger attraction when it comes to showbusiness. That would leave Harry free to continue trying to mend fences with his family on visits back home that are likely to become more frequent and longer.

[From The Daily Mail]

Eden’s practically in tears as he fantasizes about Harry spending more time “back home.” The thing is, there’s a small morsel of truth to the idea that Harry and Meghan are going to do more separate projects in the future. I absolutely believe that they are, and I also believe that Harry and Meghan completely support each other as they work on those separate projects. They do not have to be joined at the hip 24-7 to have a happy marriage or a thriving business and charity. Harry was clearly in NYC on behalf of some of their joint interests (Archewell, The Parents Network). Meghan is a co-producer (through Archewell) on Harry’s polo series. Their Colombian tour went brilliantly, which is why Eden is still trying to say that Harry looked grumpy (he did not). Also note that these people never want to admit that Spare was one of the biggest publishing successes of the year, and Harry made eight-figures from it. They’re still so mad that Meghan didn’t give interviews to support Harry’s memoir, jeez.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Last year, there was a strange story about how the Princess of Wales possibly demanded that the National Portrait Gallery put a royal portrait in storage. Kate is the royal patron of the gallery, and the gallery quietly removed an old portrait of Prince Harry and Prince William from display. The gallery didn’t say anything other than: we cycle portraits in and out all the time, no biggie. Well, back in May, the same gallery acquired a copy of Misan Harriman’s portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Harriman released three photos of Harry and Meghan in October 2022, photos which were taken in Manchester one month prior. NPG chose the black-and-white image of Harry and Meghan in profile. Harriman was so pleased – it was his first photo added to NPG’s collection. Well, now the Mail claims that Kate possibly got NPG to bury Misan’s portrait?

The National Portrait Gallery has said it won’t put up a picture of Prince Harry and Meghan that it acquired earlier this year. The black and white image by photographer Misan Harriman – a friend of the Sussexes – was taken when the couple attended the opening of the One Young World summit in Manchester two years ago, after they dramatically quit royal life and moved to California.

But last night a spokesman for the gallery, whose patron is the Princess of Wales, said: ‘The portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex was acquired for the Gallery’s photographs collection in May 2024. Following cataloguing and its digitisation, the portrait was added to our website at the beginning of this month. There are no current plans to display the portrait in the gallery.’

It comes after The Mail on Sunday revealed that the Royal Collection has no photographs of Meghan in its vast archives of more than a million objects.

Mr Harriman is a globally celebrated celebrity and social photographer who became the first black man to shoot a cover of British Vogue in the magazine’s 104-year history. The National Portrait Gallery holds one of the world’s greatest collection of portraits, but its patron Kate has no say over which are added to the collection.

There were rumours last year that the Princess was secretly pleased when a controversial portrait of her, painted by artist Paul Emsley, was removed from public view.

[From The Daily Mail]

LOL, I’m including the Emsley painting below – it was iconic because he really captured how she looks and not in a Disney-princess way. As for all of this fuss about Harriman’s photo, did NPG ever say that they were going to put it on display? No, they just made a point of adding it to their collection. They should put it on display though, it’s a lovely photo. As for the Royal Collection not having any photos or paintings of Meghan… lol, she wasn’t there long enough and they were too racist to celebrate her when she was there. She really should have gotten some palace-commissioned artwork, but oh well. Thankfully, Meghan can and does organize her own photoshoots whenever she wants.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images, and Misan Harriman for the Sussexes.

In the wake of Sean Combs’ arrest, people on social media have been doing way too much to spread conspiracies about all of the celebrities involved in Combs’ “parties.” The eagerness with which people are trying to drag celebrities into Combs’ crimes is insulting to the victims and it minimizes the actual crimes Sean Combs has been charged with. Combs, like Harvey Weinstein, was a predator for decades and he hid in plain sight by associating with famous people and inviting those people to his legitimate parties (parties which didn’t involve rape). Posting an old photo of Weinstein/Combs with [insert celebrity] isn’t proof of anything other than they posed together in 2004. Well, Ashton Kutcher is the “insert celebrity” of the moment. Ashton went to some of those parties. But Ashton wants people to know that he had nothing to do with it and that his marriage is fine.

Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis are not breaking up, despite online rumors, a source tells PEOPLE.

“This is absolutely ridiculous and false,” the source says in response to online chatter claiming the couple are separating amid renewed speculation over Kutcher’s past friendship with Sean “Diddy” Combs.

Earlier this week, old photos of Kutcher and Combs — who was arrested on Sept. 16 and charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and a transportation to engage in prostitution — partying together also resurfaced on social media. (Diddy, 54, has pleaded not guilty, but has been denied bail twice.)

Adds another source: “Ashton has no involvement in any of this. He doesn’t belong in this conversation about Diddy. Ashton has only seen Diddy in a handful of social and business events, all of which have been documented by the media.”

[From People]

I’m loath to defend Ashton Kutcher whatsoever, but again, I hope people stop saying that every single person who took a photo with Sean Combs somehow knew about the extent of his depravity. There is already plenty of evidence that Ashton Kutcher is a despicable person – his vocal support of a serial rapist like Danny Masterson is evidence enough – so I do understand why people are more likely to believe that Ashton is involved. But IDK, let’s wait until Combs starts naming names?

Ashton Kutcher warned there’s a lot he can’t tell about Diddy’s parties

“Diddy party stories… man, that was like some weird memory lane.” pic.twitter.com/lELJtG0NV0

— BAY AREA STATE OF MIND (@YayAreaNews) September 19, 2024

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.