Queen Elizabeth II’s personal finances are largely a mystery, and there is much we don’t know about the Crown’s assets. Those are two different things – the Queen has her own wealth, her own private property, her own portfolio of cash, investments, art and real estate (Sandringham, Balmoral). Then she has what amounts to the “guardian” of Crown assets, like Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Kensington Palace, the Crown’s extensive art collection, all of Crown jewelry, and of course, all of the Crown real estate across the UK. The Guardian has an interesting – and very complicated – story about why people don’t know much about the Queen’s private wealth. It’s because the Queen used her position as head of state to personally lobby the government to keep her “embarrassing” wealth and assets hidden.

The Queen successfully lobbied the government to change a draft law in order to conceal her “embarrassing” private wealth from the public, according to documents discovered by the Guardian. A series of government memos unearthed in the National Archives reveal that Elizabeth Windsor’s private lawyer put pressure on ministers to alter proposed legislation to prevent her shareholdings from being disclosed to the public.

Following the Queen’s intervention, the government inserted a clause into the law granting itself the power to exempt companies used by “heads of state” from new transparency measures. The arrangement, which was concocted in the 1970s, was used in effect to create a state-backed shell corporation which is understood to have placed a veil of secrecy over the Queen’s private shareholdings and investments until at least 2011. The true scale of her wealth has never been disclosed, though it has been estimated to run into the hundreds of millions of pounds.

Evidence of the monarch’s lobbying of ministers was uncovered by a Guardian investigation into the royal family’s use of an arcane parliamentary procedure, known as Queen’s consent, to secretly influence the formation of British laws. Unlike the better-known procedure of royal assent, a formality that marks the moment when a bill becomes law, Queen’s consent must be sought before legislation can be approved by parliament. It requires ministers to alert the Queen when legislation might affect either the royal prerogative or the private interests of the crown.

The website of the royal family describes it as “a long established convention” and constitutional scholars have tended to regard consent as an opaque but harmless example of the pageantry that surrounds the monarchy. But documents unearthed in the National Archives, which the Guardian is publishing this week, suggest that the consent process, which gives the Queen and her lawyers advance sight of bills coming into parliament, has enabled her to secretly lobby for legislative changes.

Thomas Adams, a specialist in constitutional law at Oxford University who reviewed the new documents, said they revealed “the kind of influence over legislation that lobbyists would only dream of”. The mere existence of the consent procedure, he said, appeared to have given the monarch “substantial influence” over draft laws that could affect her.

[From The Guardian]

The rest of the Guardian’s piece details just what kind of lobbying was made behind-the-scenes, especially when the Queen’s private lawyers got involved. The “embarrassing” quote is basically about how the Queen would be totally embarrassed if people… knew how much money she had and where she invested her private wealth. I’ll admit that it’s sort of confusing, but that’s the point. These are archaic mechanisms being exploited by a head of state to keep her double-dealing and enormous wealth a secret. It’s an abuse of power and “meddling” in parliamentary procedures. Omid Scobie updated his post with a statement from Buckingham Palace where they were basically like “nothing to see here, everything is above board, don’t worry!” Yeah we’re not taking your word for it, Petty Betty.

Buckingham Palace have denied the @guardian’s report which claims that the Queen blocked government legislation in the 1970s to hide her wealth, calling it a “purely formal” process.

The newspaper’s investigation was based on memos found in the British National Archives. pic.twitter.com/1ltnNd0Fnr

— Omid Scobie (@scobie) February 8, 2021

Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red.

Last week, Evan Rachel Wood named her abuser. She named Marilyn Manson, the man who groomed her when she was just a teenager and apparently abused her for many years while they were intimate partners. ERW had discussed being a survivor of abuse, rape and trauma in interviews for years, but it wasn’t until now that she named Manson as the abuser. What’s followed Evan telling her story is that nearly a dozen other women have come forward to describe their awful, violent, abusive and/or terrifying ordeals with Manson as well. And because Manson was already a has-been, he’s lost what little he had in the wake of all of this. He lost his recording contract, his guest appearances on TV shows and more. Perhaps in an effort to encourage more survivors to tell their stories, Evan continues to detail the ways in which Manson abused her and terrorized her:

Evan Rachel Wood is sharing more details about the abuse she says she suffered while dating Marilyn Manson. Wood, 33, claimed on her Instagram Story Friday that in addition to emotional and sexual abuse, Manson, 52, was prejudiced against her because of her Jewish heritage. The Westworld actress shared a photo of two of Manson’s tattoos which she suggests are swastikas and a Nazi-inspired symbol of a skull-and-crossbones.

“I was called a ‘jew’ in a derogatory manner,” Wood wrote in one Instagram Story slide. “He would draw swastikas over my bedside table when he was mad at me.”

“I heard the ‘n’ word over and over,” she continued. “Everyone around him was expected to laugh and join in. If you did not or (god forbid) called him out, you were singled out and abused more.”

Wood said of that time, “I have never been more scared in my life.”

“My mother is Jewish and I was raised with the religion,” Wood continued in another slide. “Because she converted and wasn’t of Jewish descent he would say things like, ‘that’s better’ because I wasn’t ‘blood Jewish.’”

The actress added that Manson “did not have these tattoos when we started dating.”

Wood continued to say that the abuse was not part of “‘kinky’ sex.”

“Brian and I never had a ‘BDSM’ relationship,” she said in another Instagram Story slide. “We didn’t even have ‘kinky’ sex. We weren’t having sexual intercourse when I was being tortured, before or after. I thought I was going to die the entire time.”

On her Instagram Story Friday, Wood also shared screen grabs of people voicing their support for her and other survivors, as well as clips from her 2019 testimony advocating for the Phoenix Act, which lengthened the statute of limitations on domestic violence cases.

[From People]

If you go to Evan’s Instagram, she’s sharing resources and information about how to report intimate partner crimes, plus she’s giving more details about the f–king terrifying ordeal she went through, including Manson holding on to what amounts to blackmail photos of Evan which he used to threaten her, saying he would release the photos and her career would be over. As for the Nazi sh-t… I mean… where to even start. What a pathetic douche. It’s no f–king secret that psycho abusers are drawn to Nazi sh-t.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red.

A week ago, we were knee-deep in the story about Archie Mountbatten-Windsor’s birth certificate and why changes were made to it. Nearly a month after Archie’s birth, *someone* changed his birth certificate to remove Meghan’s name (“Rachel Meghan”) and only leave her title. Meghan issued a rare statement where she said that the Palace “dictated” the change and she has the receipts. Then Buckingham Palace freaked out and tried to push like four different versions of why they didn’t, but they did, but they had a good reason, and it wasn’t really them and Meghan shouldn’t have said “dictated.” At some point, the Palace seemed to drop it and they stopped trying to explain it. Which is weird, because we literally have no f–king idea what happened and why. You would think that if the Palace did have a good excuse, they would have hit back at Meghan swiftly. Instead, we got a flurry of vague, contradictory denials. Well, allow Tom Sykes at the Daily Beast to try to shed more light on what exactly happened:

The changes to Archie’s birth certificate were made without Meghan’s approval: While U.K. law specifies that changes to a birth certificate can only be made by a parent of the child, it does appear that in this case the changes were made by members of Meghan’s staff without Meghan’s literal sign-off. Meghan is said by sources to have been completely shocked and blindsided when presented with images of the amended birth certificate over the weekend.

Who changed the birth certificate? One source told The Daily Beast they believed that one of Meghan’s senior staffers at the time, an individual who was close to Buckingham Palace, was told by high-ups there that a “clerical error” had been made on the birth certificate by including Meghan’s names and that it needed to be amended so it matched her new passport. The palace hasn’t however been willing to explain why the given names needed to be removed—especially puzzling as Kate Middleton has her names on her kids’ birth certificates.

Why Meghan issued a statement: Waking on Sunday morning, it appears that Meghan became hugely angered by this story. Within a couple of hours, a furious statement had been issued (the statement came to the attention of much of the world via Omid Scobie’s Twitter account because the Sussexes are off social media right now).

Meghan still chafes at Palace “control”: As the royal author Christopher Andersen, whose study of the dynamic between Harry, William and his mother, Diana’s Boys, has been a perennial best seller since its publication 20 years ago, told The Daily Beast: “By firing back that any changes were ‘dictated by the Palace,’ Meghan made it painfully clear that she still chafes at any reminder that the Palace still exerts some control over her life—right down to what’s listed on her child’s birth certificate. The mere fact that this minor clerical change could ignite such a firestorm of controversy is further proof that tensions, distrust, and resentments still exist between the Sussexes and the powers-that-be at Buckingham Palace.”

Sykes blames the Sussexes for refusing to comment for The Sun: It is perhaps instructive to consider what shape a PR response to the Sun’s initial inquiry a smoothly functioning family business would have taken. Maybe, rather than ignoring the inquiry over a matter of principle and then desperately trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube the next day, someone in California could have had a chat with the Sun’s reporter, then had a chat with their counterpart at the palace, then both sides could have signed off on a joint anodyne statement along the lines of, “Clerical error. Nothing to see here.”…Aggrieved as Meghan and Harry may be with the palace, picking every fight with them is counterproductive. And aggrieved as they may be with Britain’s tabloid media, simply wishing them into non-existence by ignoring them is the original sin of this cautionary tale. The fault was then compounded by ignoring the first rule of external communications, which is that your internal communications need to be smooth, so that everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet.

[From The Daily Beast]

Sykes is full of it when it comes to blaming Harry and Meghan for not giving a comment to the Sun, the outlet which broke the story. The Sun has been one of the main outlets, along with the Mail, to play a major role in the years-long smear campaign against them. Plus, Sykes presupposes that the goal of both Buckingham Palace and House Sussex was to AVOID controversy, when that was not the case. Someone sent Lady Colin Campbell on the hunt for Archie’s birth certificate and it clearly wasn’t the Sussexes. And the point of Meghan’s statement was to draw attention to yet another factor for why she got the hell out: they erased her name from her son’s birth certificate, and she wanted to raise a fuss about it. She earned that f–king right.

Besides, blaming Meghan for refusing to tow the line with BP is particularly asinine when Sykes’ own sources are telling him that the whole thing is fishy as hell, that Meghan never signed off on the birth certificate changes, that there was no real reason to erase Meghan’s name anyway.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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The Super Bowl and the Australian Open Day 1 were running concurrently so I only saw bits and pieces of the football game. I saw Tampa Bay’s second touchdown, where Tom Brady passed to Rob “Gronk” Gronkowski and I briefly enjoyed the collective tears of Patriots fans. While Brady is MAGA and I’ll never accept him or even like him because of that alone, I was… surprised that Brady managed to bounce back with Tampa Bay so thoroughly, make it to the Super Bowl and f–king win the thing for his seventh Super Bowl ring. Brady has broken all kinds of records and I don’t know anything about football, so I won’t even try to parse it. I do think there’s probably a case to be made that Brady is the GOAT in football. But… it’s not really comparable to other sports. At least not while Simone Biles and Serena Williams exist.

So, yeah, the Tampa Bay (“Tompa Bay”) Buccaneers absolutely routed the Kansas City Chiefs. On my TL, it seemed like people kind of hated the game and found it really dull because it was so lopsided? And because the Chiefs couldn’t get their acts together. And because the refs were apparently making every call to benefit Brady and the Bucs.

Tom’s wife Gisele Bundchen walked onto the field (with her mask pulled down, ugh) and gave her husband a kiss and all of that. I do think Gisele is probably much happier in Florida, don’t you think? And Tom has always been a Florida Man at heart. Some funny tweets:

If you have to have the ref on your team is that really winning!!! @giseleofficial lol ??????????

— Randi Mahomes (@tootgail) February 8, 2021

Funny how we’re all supposed to forget Tom Brady’s politics but not Kap’s. ?

— Margaret Thornton (@MaggieEThornton) February 7, 2021

Tom Brady doesn’t even know they put End Racism on the back of his helmet

— ¯_(?)_/¯ (@ijustbIuemyself) February 8, 2021

Tom Brady when he saw his family ??

(via @NFLUpOfficial)pic.twitter.com/6b9xgTgOKP

— ESPN (@espn) February 8, 2021

Patriots fans watching Gronk and Brady do work pic.twitter.com/4n4BwzQnwV

— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) February 8, 2021

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Photos courtesy of Getty.

Intro: Minutes 0 to 5:45
During our week off I cooked and baked a lot. We got a lot of snow. Here’s the recipe for the bread I love making. The SAG nominations had just come out when we were recording. I threw out my back working out on Zoom. Chandra said nothing makes her feel so old as throwing out her back. Chandra said nothing makes her feel so old as throwing out her back. Chandra’s mom got the vaccine in her assisted living facility. A bunch of people there chose not to take it and many got sick with coronavirus after visiting family for Christmas. You can listen below!

Royals: Minutes 5:45 to 21:00
The Sun discovered that Meghan’s name was changed on Archie’s birth certificate about 19 days after he was born. It was changed from “Rachel Meghan, Duchess of Sussex” to just “Duchess of Sussex.” The Sun twisted this into some kind of snub from Meghan to Duchess Kate, because Kate’s full name is on her babies’ birth certificates. In response to that, Meghan’s people issued a very rare pointed statement saying that the change was dictated by the palace and that she has receipts, essentially. This led the palace to issue so many explanations which were often inconsistent. The first response was that it was a clerical error, but they soon issued a denial. They blamed Kensington Palace, which was William and Kate’s staff. Harry and Meghan were using that same staff but soon moved to Buckingham Palace.

Rebecca English at the Daily Mail did this long piece trying to blame Harry and Meghan for this and claiming they made someone cry. This is the same narrative we’ve heard from the palace for years. The piece said that “Much of what we have seen unfold this week has its origins in Archie’s birth, which Harry became almost morbidly obsessed with keeping as secret as possible, even including where and when his son was born.” We’ve heard for so long that William is mad at Harry for wanting to keep Archie’s birth private however William hid his coronavirus diagnosis for months. The palace is trying to deflect from the fact that they tried to erase Meghan’s name from her baby’s birth certificate. We remember Harry saying in the African Journey documentary “if you knew what I knew.” I play a segment from Zoom where Karen, Zakia and I talk about birth certificate gate.

Minute 16:00 When we were away we heard that Kate was working on a secret new project, which may or may not be the same secret project she promised last year. Then Kate released a minute long video for children’s mental health week. She was outside in the video and looked sporty, but her message had nothing to do with that. She also talked to parents over Zoom where she it was “challenging” and she was “exhausted” homeschooling. There was an article in Vanity Fair claiming that she does so much work despite a full time nanny and “skeleton” staff. They wrote that Kate “chooses her own outfits and even does her own hair and make-up.” Cee on Twitter said Kate dresses herself and I pointed out that the article didn’t specify that, just that she picks her clothes. Kate is infantilized by the press. Chandra remembers the Vanity Fair article about how Kate threw herself a party before her Early Years launch. Here’s the twitter thread I mentioned.

Golden Globes: Minutes 21:00 to 28:45
The Golden Globe nominations were very white this year. Black-led shows and movies like I May Destroy You, Insecure and Da 5 Bloods were snubbed. Emily in Paris got nominated for best television series musical or comedy, which is ridiculous. Chandra hate watched The Undoing. Nicole Kidman’s acting was inconsistent and the show was too drawn out. She agrees with Hugh Grant’s nomination. I loved Lovecraft Country and am glad it got nominated for best drama but am disappointed there weren’t any acting nominations from the show. Chandra watched a couple of episodes and got too scared to watch the whole series. Here’s a link to the horror showcase I mentioned from the Austin School of Film. Chandra saw the documentary Room 237 about the making of The Shining, and she found it terrifying. I play a segment from Zoom where we talk about The Undoing.

Politics: Minutes 28:45 to 35:15
When we recorded this on Thursday, Marjorie Taylor Greene had yet to be removed from her House committees because Kevin McCarthy, the GOP leader, refused to do it. She has of course since been removed. Greene had a closed door meeting with Republicans where they gave her a standing ovation. The Republican party is now the QAnon party. As Chandra says, one side is advocating for working people and the other side is full of conspiracy theorists. It’s not like Biden is particularly radical or leftist, he’s trying to get policies passed that have widespread approval by the American people. I play a segment from Zoom where Ashley, Ameerah and Zakia talk about this. Jen Psaki got grief for making a mild inside joke about Space Force.

Comments of the Week: Minutes 35:15 to end
My comments of the week are from Xantha and L84Tea on the post about Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston hanging out again. We remember Aniston’s many interviews in which she dished about Brad. I hope they get back together because it would be great for gossip. Chandra thinks Aniston would get a lot of well-deserved flack if she took Pitt back.

Chandra’s comment of the week is from SmCollins on the post about Morgan Wallen saying the n word. He does look like Jeremy Renner and Shia LaBeouf put together! I don’t find them attractive but Chandra does!

Thanks for listening bitches! Call us or leave a voicemail at 434-218-3219.

photos credit: Avalon.red, Backgrid and via Instagram. Music credit: A.A. Alto, Meydan and via Premium Beat and Sound of Picture

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At the end of the day, the Weeknd – aka Abel Tesfaye – didn’t bring out any guest stars for his Super Bowl Halftime show. I didn’t believe Abel would be enough, but honestly… it was fine. It wasn’t the best ever – not while Beyonce lives and breathes – but it was far from the worst. I appreciated the fact that Abel took it seriously, wanted to create some really big visuals and that he choreographed the sh-t out of it. Things I didn’t appreciate: the Tethered Zombie Dance Army. It was ghoulish! But maybe it was supposed to be – Abel was so clearly going for a Nu Thriller vibe, a new Michael Jackson energy. Here’s the Halftime Show:

You know what was funny to me? All of the cocaine jokes people were making on Twitter? Once you hear all of Abel’s hits jammed together in 14 minutes, you realize how many of his songs are about cocaine. Except my favorite song of his, “The Hills,” which is about cocaine and a woman who is most likely A*iana G*ande. There were also some volume issues in the first few minutes? But the sound improved. Anyway, I would say… yeah, a pretty good Halftime show. He didn’t need guest stars because he made his good songs sound like major bangers (even when they weren’t). Confession: I enjoyed J.Lo and Shakira a lot more than this.

tampa having the most cocaine songs ever in one SB halftime show really is an in-state upset

— BUM CHILLUPS AKA SPENCER HALL (@edsbs) February 8, 2021

the Pepsi halftime show but every song is about coke ?

— sasha (@sashakalra) February 8, 2021

backstage at the super bowl pic.twitter.com/QMAAmwZw4e

— josh lewis (@thejoshl) February 8, 2021

singing songs about cocaine in florida is like eating popeyes in new orleans it’s just part of the culture

— ?netw3rk (@netw3rk) February 8, 2021

When the half time show went into the fun house #PepsiHalftime #PepsiHalftimeShow pic.twitter.com/DfziGJGZnc

— Jon (@jonbon757) February 8, 2021

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Photos courtesy of Getty.

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Maybe I was paying attention to tennis, but was there any advanced buzz about the Super Bowl performers before the game? It came as a complete surprise to me that H.E.R. was there to sing “America the Beautiful.” I was also surprised by the Aerosmith-like rock arrangement! It was a good performance though, her voice is beautiful and I was pleasantly surprised by how well the song worked with that arrangement.

For the National Anthem, country star Eric Church performed with Jazmine Sullivan. Jazmine killed it. Eric Church… uh, did not kill it. Jazmine was tasked with saving that white dude. Jazmine’s beautiful white suit was by New York fashion house Area, and supposedly her look was a tribute to Whitney Houston.

And here’s the pre-recorded segment about racism and BLM where Alicia Keys sings the Black National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

Also, what did everyone think of Hologram Vince Lombardi? I didn’t mind the “voiceover” aspect of it, but the actual CGI/Hologram Lombardi was kind of freaky. The technology hasn’t been perfected, you guys, we’re still dealing with the creepy Uncanny Valley situation.

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Photos courtesy of Getty.

We don’t talk about Salma Hayek much and I haven’t thought about her in a while. The last time we covered her was when she was half defending Hilaria Baldwin. It makes sense that Salma would do that, celebrities cover for each other and try not to talk smack about each other or their spouses. Salma has been posting bikini selfies and she seems self absorbed, but that’s typical of celebrities. They’re surely missing the spotlight like the rest of us miss basic activities. Salma was on The Late Show promoting her new sci-fi movie with Owen Wilson, Bliss, now on Amazon. (It’s not getting good reviews at all.) Salma told Steven Colbert that she has a pet owl after thinking they were cute and wanting one or something. It’s unclear how she obtained said owl, but she made it sound like she looked it up online and applied to rescue one. She said it tries to drink a certain wine she likes and that it stays in her room at night. Since owls are nocturnal, she’ll feel the air move when it flies around. That sounds creepy as hell to me! If you follow Salma on Instagram you probably know about this owl. I follow her but barely pay attention to her posts so it was news to me.

“How many pets do you have?”
In London I have three, two dogs and one owl. [The owl is named] Kerring.

“Why do you have an owl?”
I became obsessed with the owls and dreaming about it. I said ‘can people have owls?’ It turns out in London you can, it’s legal. I said ‘are there any owls that need some rescue?’ I started doing some research and sure enough [you can].

The showed a photo of the owl with a dead mouse on Salma’s head
Sometimes they bring you gifts that you don’t necessarily know what to do with. She landed on my head [with a dead mouse]. I got her off [my head]. That’s where I draw the line. She does sleep in my room sometimes. I don’t sleep much, but sometimes when I sleep she flies around. I just feel the wind as she passes. Sometimes she lands on my leg, on my head. At the beginning it was scary, but now I’m used to it. She stays with me for a little bit and flies again so she’s free in the room.

On feeding the owl
You order [mice] and freeze them. They don’t drink any water. They don’t drink liquids, but there’s one kind of wine when we take it out, we have to cover the cups and she’ll dig in it. It’s not like she thinks it’s blood because the other red wine she doesn’t go for.

Her 13-year-old daughter is scared of the owl
She doesn’t like the owl. There’s a lot of people in the house who don’t like the owl. And also she’s very quiet and you don’t know she’s there and she just flies and everybody screams. I love it when they scream. Isn’t it fantastic to see the reaction of people, when they are afraid of something that isn’t going to harm them?

[From The Late Show on YouTube]

I googled “can you adopt an owl” and the answer is “no,” in the US, unless you’re specially trained and licensed to work with owls and are rehabilitating them. There are other exemptions like breeding and falconry, but the way that Salma explained it she decided owls were awesome and so she got one. Here’s a link to a video explaining why owls make bad pets. They’re destructive, they have a killing instinct, they keep you up at night, they can scratch and hurt you, they’re high maintenance and they’re messy. There’s so much you have to go through to feed them and their feathers and poop get all over everything. Salma is in London now. It is legal to have a wild owl as a pet in the UK so she’s not violating any laws. She probably has other people cleaning up after the owl and doing the grunt work. Yes owls are adorable in photos, but I wouldn’t let a damn predatory bird in my house and I especially wouldn’t let it in my bedroom at night! It’s completely reasonable to be afraid of owls.

Here’s that interview:

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Last week, we heard that Aaron Rodgers and Shailene Woodley are apparently dating, and have been for possibly a few months. Aaron split from Danica Patrick last July, and there seemed to be some angst and hard feelings about it, on her side especially. After that, we didn’t hear much about Rodgers’ dating life, which is weird because he does have a habit of dating famous women. He managed to keep the Shailene romance under wraps until Deuxmoi got a tip a few weeks back, and then E! News and People confirmed it. Now it looks like Aaron and Shailene are ENGAGED???

Aaron Rodgers didn’t end the 2020 NFL season with a ring, but it appears his “fiancée” did. While accepting this year’s Most Valuable Player award during Saturday night’s NFL Honors, the Green Bay Packers quarterback, 37, revealed he’s engaged, days after reports surfaced that he and actress Shailene Woodley, 29, are dating.

“It’s an honor to win this award for the third time. 2020 was definitely a crazy year, filled with lots of change, growth, some amazing memorable moments. 180 straight days of having my nose hairs scraped. Playing for very little fans or no stands the entire season, I got engaged, and I played some of the best football of my career,” Rodgers said during the broadcast.

Rodgers also thanked his fiancée during his acceptance speech without naming names.

Earlier this week, E! News reported that Rodgers and Woodley had been keeping their romance “private and low key.”

“They have seen each other and been in touch,” a source said. “They continue to talk and see each other when they can. They are both focused on their careers but they also make time for each other.”

[From Page Six]

So everyone is just assuming that he’s talking about Shailene, but he never says the name of his fiancee and this whole thing is so weird! Even if you believe that he and Shailene are engaged, when did it happen? When did they even meet? Did they get engaged after a few dates? And that makes me sad for Danica Patrick, who so clearly wanted to marry him and was dropping “hints” about wanting to get engaged for months before the breakup. I hate when guys do that! They break up with the woman who wants to marry them and then the dude gets engaged two seconds into his next relationship. Ugh. Anyway, if it’s Shailene, good for them, I guess. Congrats.

MVP #3 for @AaronRodgers12 ??? #NFLHonors @Packers pic.twitter.com/RU48Yh16Bc

— NFL (@NFL) February 7, 2021

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, WENN.

Jamie Dornan hasn’t been on my radar much. I didn’t watch The Fall as I’m not into crime shows (they’re so depressing to me) and I’ve only seen clips of the ridiculous 50 Shades movies. I’ve been noticing him more lately as he’s been posting wholesome dad content on Instagram. I also remember when he said that he lobbied to be in Trolls World Tour just so he could impress his daughters. Jamie and his wife of seven years, composer Amelia Warner, have three daughters: Amelia, 7, Elva, 5, and a third daughter whose name I can’t find who is about two. Jamie and his wife post photos of their girls but they don’t show their faces at all. In a new interview on Jimmy Kimmel’s show Jamie was so funny and charming that I’m now a fan. His accent is as gorgeous as he is and he told a story I could relate to very much. He said that he hyped Trolls World Tour so much to his daughters that they wanted to watch it over and over again when it first came out. You could only pay a premium for the movie at that point as it was one of the first VOD releases post lockdown. He ended up paying about 25 dollars each to rent it four or five times. He also said that things are stressful with three kids under eight at home and that he’s trying to learn patience. Jamie is from Ireland and is living in England with his family.

On how lockdown is going
There’s times when it’s incredible and you’re so thankful for the time and there’s times when it’s just the opposite of that you know and you just want to run away from them. We are in the true thick of it, three under eight. We’re doing the homeschooling. The word I’m always trying to instill to the kids is patience. I’ve never had to tell myself more [to be patient].

On buying Trolls for his daughters a bunch of times
I did it for [my daughters] I basically pleaded with Universal Pictures to put me in that picture. I was like ‘it’s coming out in two weeks guys, daddy’s going to be in this movie.’ So excited, pandemonium excitement in the house. It comes out, it’s the day, I’m like ‘I’ll buy it on iTunes,’ it’s like 17 pounds, it’s like 25 dollars, so I… buy it. You can only get it for 24 hours. The next day ‘can we watch trolls again?’

‘Sure, we’ll have to buy it again.’ I think I bought it four or five times. After like a week I got a thing from my agent going ‘oh by the way Universal were in touch saying that there’s a code that you use whenever you want to watch Trolls.’ Oh great I’ve already spent like three hundred dollars. In my defense at this point you couldn’t buy it you could only rent it for 24 hours.

[From Jimmy Kimmel Live on YouTube]

I’m so glad that they didn’t have expensive movies on demand when my kid was little or I would have ended up in this trap too! I never considered this about the movies on demand and surely so many more kids movies will be following this formula. My son’s favorite movies when he was little were Robots with Ewan McGregor and Shark Tale with Will Smith. Both were a few years old at that point and they were decent stories that I didn’t mind watching over and over again. I miss so many parts of his childhood, but not having to watch shows on repeat. That was a pain.

Jamie is promoting Barb and Star go to Vista Del Mar, which is his first comedy and costars Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo. It’s out next week on demand. The trailer makes it look kind of strange like I thought it was set in the 80s at first but that’s just the lead characters’ style. Jamie posted a clip that made me laugh, but I’ll wait until the reviews are in before I rent it. Like Jamie I have a hard time spending $25 for a movie at home. I know I should support the arts and sometimes I do, but I also want theaters to come back!

Here’s that interview:

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photos credit: Avalon.red and via Instagram