The Hollywood Reporter recently published a bizarre “hit piece” on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. While THR has been extremely snide about the Sussexes several times now, the Rambling Reporter’s “Why Hollywood Keeps Quitting on Harry and Meghan” came across as six-year-old stale tea from British reporting, with “sources” claiming that Meghan marches around the office, barking orders and making grown men weep. One of the big tells was that THR repeated the “Duchess Difficult” moniker which was started in 2018 by the racists working for Prince William and Kate. It really did feel like THR’s whole piece was sourced out of Kensington Palace… circa 2018-19. Meanwhile, the Sussexes have lived and worked in Montecito for more than four years. Well, there’s some pushback. And now I have a hard time believing that the Sussexes’ team would decide to push back on THR’s story… by talking off the record to GB News? Really? Not Variety? Not Deadline? Anyway, this is seemingly rare pushback from Team Sussex, so enjoy:

Allegations about Meghan Markle’s attitude to her staff have been labelled “fabrications” by Archewell insiders, GB News can exclusively reveal. A damning report published by The Hollywood Reporter had labelled Meghan “Duchess Difficult” and alleged “everyone’s terrified” of her as scathing claims about working conditions under the Sussexes came to light.

The outlet had included source quotes saying the duchess “marches around like a dictator in high heels, fuming and barking orders” – while in the past, Meghan herself has called comments on her so-called “bullying behaviour” a “calculated smear campaign”.

But now, GBNews.com has unearthed fresh details which look to have put the claims to bed in a new twist in the staffing saga. GB News has been handed an absolute denial of the allegations – as well as Meghan’s message to her employees – and has confirmed with several current staffers that the “Duchess Difficult” moniker has never been used.

One Archewell source, who asked not to be named, said: “These quotes were fabricated by someone lacking knowledge of our company. The duke and duchess work from Montecito, and we’re based in Hollywood. They likely think we’re all in the same office and that this quote would fly, but the circumstances don’t even allow for it. If she’s ‘marching around’ and ‘barking orders’, no Archewell employee could factually claim that… It’s total nonsense.”

The Duchess of Sussex had also been targeted by claims that she had filed “angry” 5am emails to employees. In response, another source said: “Who hasn’t sent an email when they can’t sleep or are awake early? I’ve never once ever gotten an email from either of them at that hour – and even if I did, the duchess specifically notes in her email signature that everyone has a different working day, and to not feel obligated to respond outside of normal business hours. These source quotes don’t make any sense!”

In another condemnation of the claims, GB News understands that Meghan’s email signature contains the phrase: “My working day may not be your working day. Please do not feel obliged to reply to this email outside your normal working hours.”

[From GB News]

This is a solid rebuttal and I genuinely hope it’s from someone connected to Archewell. I just wish it was in Variety or Deadline, you know? Why are Sussex sources going to GB News of all places? This whole storyline has been bizarre, another asinine piece of the larger narrative the British media has been trying to force for years: that the Sussexes have not been welcomed in “Hollywood,” that they could be “kicked out” and “sent back to Britain.” It is not happening. As for Meghan’s alleged sign-off… I believe that too, and she probably started using it when she moved back to California. Those British people acted like they had never received an off-hours text or email from their boss or coworker ever. They’re still crying about it.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

Sometimes, it really does feel like we all collectively entered some wormhole in 2016 and time makes no sense anymore. For the better part of a DECADE, we’ve been dealing with Donald Trump and his MAGA cult. Think about that. Nine years of dealing with the violent cult of personality around Trump, a cult of ignorance and hate, a cult of racism and misogyny, a cult of fraud and lies. We talk a lot about what a “second Trump presidency” would look like as a very real scare tactic, but what will it look like if Trump loses in November? What happens to his cult after their orange god loses the popular vote for the third time and the presidency for the second time? The con man turned 78 years old this summer. He will be 82 years old in 2028. Would he run again, or pass the torch to some deranged heir? Well, Trump is telling people that he will not run again if he loses.

Republican Donald Trump said that he will not make a fourth consecutive run for the U.S. presidency if he loses the Nov. 5 election, saying “that will be it” in an interview released on Sunday.

Asked if he saw himself running again in four years if he is not successful in his third consecutive bid for the White House, the 78-year-old former president told Sharyl Attkisson’s “Full Measure” program: “No I don’t. I think that will be — that will be it. I don’t see that at all. Hopefully, we will be successful.”

Trump faces a tight race against Democratic U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, with polls showing the two neck-and-neck in key battleground states that are likely to be decisive in determining the winner, even as Harris has begun to edge up in nationwide polls.

Trump launched his first reelection bid for the 2020 election the same day he was inaugurated in 2017 and announced his latest White House bid two years ago in November 2022.

Asked whether the four year break helped him regroup and figure out who he could trust as allies, Trump said: “It would have been easier if I did it … contiguous.”

“But the benefit is more than anything else, it shows how bad they were,” he added.

[From Reuters]

Do you believe him? The thing is, if he loses this year, that’s pretty much game over for him – chickens will come home to roost, finally. He’s got indictments and court cases up the wazoo. He’s hemorrhaging money on legal bills and civil and federal penalties. Some say that Trump isn’t just running this year to make his court cases go away, that it’s also a money-making venture for him, that he’s using campaign money to pay his legal expenses and debts. Hopefully, by 2028, he’ll be in prison.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red, mug shot.

Prince Harry is already in New York! He was in California on Friday evening, attending and speaking at Kevin Costner’s fundraiser-concert in Carpinteria. Then on Saturday, Harry arrived in New York. We do not have access to any of the photos, but on Saturday evening, he attended the WHO dinner in New York, ahead of the start of the UN General Assembly High-Level Week He met with Queen Mathilde of Belgium and other dignitaries and advocates for ending violence against children. You can read more about the event and the cause here. Additionally, the Telegraph had a preview of two of Harry’s events in NYC this week. He plans to highlight his work with The Diana Award and the HALO Trust.

When he was 18, the Duke of Sussex vowed to finish the work started by his mother, Princess Diana. More than two decades on, he remains true to his word. On Monday, he will take to the stage before a global audience to champion two causes intrinsically linked to her legacy: landmines and young people.

Prince Harry, 40, will be the star guest at five high-profile events held over two days in New York during UN General Assembly High-Level Week and Climate Week, which will also see him focus on conservation, sustainable travel and the many crises facing the tiny African country of Lesotho. But it will be his first two appearances that honour that birthday pledge; when he steps out on behalf of the Diana Award, which works to create positive change for young people, and the Halo Trust, the charity for which the late Princess famously issued a clarion call for action by walking through an Angolan minefield in 1997.

Tessy Ojo, the chief executive of the Diana Award, hailed the Duke’s continuing support as “truly priceless”, while the Halo Trust said that in a time of “unprecedented conflict” the Duke’s voice was needed “more than ever”.

The appearances will come amid a flurry of activity for the Duke, marking something of a shift in his public profile as he takes centre stage, solo, to further his own charitable causes. Travelling without the Duchess of Sussex, he will undertake a busy schedule somewhat evocative of his days as a working royal, with back-to-back charity engagements in place of glitzy award ceremonies and television interviews.

When he steps out at the Sheraton Hotel in Times Square on Monday morning, he may well cast his mind back to that pledge [to make his mother proud]. The Duke’s first engagement of the week will be on behalf of the Diana Award, a charity set up to reflect the late Princess’s belief that young people can change the world – and the only one to bear her name. He will take part in a panel discussion with Christina Williams and Chiara Riyanti Hutapea Zhang, two young recipients of the Diana Award, and Dr Ojo on the current mental health crisis engulfing young people.

The event coincides with the award’s 25th anniversary celebrations, and Dr Ojo said that the continuing support of both the Duke and the Prince of Wales was critical.

“It’s incredibly helpful to have people in positions of power, especially a non-political position, and especially in a system when young people are feeling more and more unheard and unseen, speak up for us,” she said. “To have people who have that platform, who have that power, not only to listen to young people but help amplify their voices, is truly priceless and we are deeply honoured and grateful to have both of them involved in our work, lending their voices to the challenges that young people face.”

[From The Telegraph]

There were equally supportive quotes from The HALO Trust people, basically that Harry is the real deal and he’s absolutely continuing his mother’s important work on landmines. This week is a very big deal for Harry – going solo to all of these significant events, highlighting his causes and speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative too. I hope we get a lot of photos!

Prince Harry at the WHO Dinner at the start of UN Week. pic.twitter.com/TIg3dL7JBT

— Dr. Zanye Omobolanle (@bookedbusy) September 23, 2024

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red.

On September 12, the Hollywood Reporter’s Rambling Reporter did a completely bizarre story called “Why Hollywood Keeps Quitting on Harry and Meghan.” The evidence of “Hollywood quitting” the Sussexes is that Harry fired a chief of staff after three months (the guy has been leaking about it ever since) and… something something Netflix! Honestly, the bulk of THR’s story was recycled gossip from 2018-19, when Harry and Meghan lived in the UK and they were under siege on a daily basis from an unhinged national media and a monarchy set on destroying them. That’s when Kensington Palace gave birth to the “Duchess Difficult” narrative, a narrative about Meghan “bullying” staffers and “making grown men cry.” Remember the 5 am emails? THR dusted that off too. One source claimed, “She’s absolutely relentless. She marches around like a dictator in high heels, fuming and barking orders. I’ve watched her reduce grown men to tears.” Goals, truly. A vibe, as the kids would say. Well, it took a week, but now the Daily Mail is trying to piggyback on THR’s story. The Mail’s Alison Boshoff screeches the same question the Mail has been desperately obsessed with for years: “Has Hollywood turned on the Sussexes?” Some highlights:

The Sussexes were missing from WME’s Emmys afterparty: Missing, though, was one of Emanuel’s most famous ­clients, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. She signed with him in April 2023 in what seemed to be a certain harbinger of some big-ticket commercial tie-ups and maybe more deals in entertainment to go alongside her ­existing Netflix gig. But – just three days after a ­brutal take-down in the usually placid industry bible The Hollywood Reporter, which labelled her as ‘Duchess Difficult’, neither she nor husband Prince Harry were showing their faces. They weren’t nominated for any Emmys either – obviously.

Were they invited? Whether they didn’t get an invite or declined to go, their attendance at the event would have made the couple appear at least sanguine in the wake of the article which talked about her working practices, saying she was ‘just terrible’, ‘a dictator in high heels’ and had ‘made grown men cry’. However, for whatever reason, the pair stayed home. It matters if you work in TV and don’t go to the Emmys. People notice and judge which rung of the ladder you are on accordingly.

Schadenfreude & venom: One senior figure, who has watched Harry and Meghan’s progress in Hollywood with interest, said this week that they seem to be reaping the kind of ‘schadenfreude with extra venom’ at which the entertainment business excels. He adds: ‘It was only a matter of time before the industry Press started taking shots. It’s hard to find anyone with a good word to say for their film and television credibility.’

The Hollywood Reporter hit-piece: In all, the Hollywood Reporter article was just the kind of ­unflattering ‘hit piece’ which you might expect the talent agency WME to have strangled at birth for their client, Meghan. One senior Hollywood publicist tells me: ‘First of all, everyone industry-wide, EVERYONE reads The Hollywood Reporter. It’s really striking that WME did not stop this running.’ She adds: ‘WME normally – you would think – would have been threatening and denying access to other stars. Was this done here? The only thing the Sussexes could rally with was ‘no comment at this time’ from a spokesman.’

The Sussexes were never taken seriously: A senior producer says: ‘I don’t think mainstream Hollywood ever took them seriously. From day one Archewell felt to most industry onlookers more like a brand ­building exercise than a genuine production operation. Netflix were handing out vanity deals like candy at the time and so everybody just shrugged their shoulders and assumed their company wouldn’t get much done despite the generous backing. But even Harry and Meghan ­naysayers would have been shocked at how little they’ve ­actually achieved. And in the more austere climate of the industry in 2024 when thousands of people have lost jobs and the entertainment industry economy is struggling, there’s now a genuine dislike and distrust towards them by some.’

Meghan’s Netflix cooking show: Netflix is understood to have offered to run the ARO brand for Meghan, which makes sense as it has huge experience of global marketing and merchandising. And Netflix boss Ted Sarandos, in London this week for the Royal Television Society conference, is a voice on her side. He said of Meghan: ‘I’ve been out with a lot of famous people before – the way that people react to Meghan is otherworldly.’

[From The Daily Mail]

The second half of the piece is just Boshoff trying to mock Meghan’s ARO venture (it hasn’t launched yet) and the cooking show (it hasn’t aired yet) and it all has the whiff of bullsh-t. ALL of this does, from the Hollywood Reporter piece (which mimicked years-old smears on Meghan) to the NY Post picking up THR’s story, to this. The only legitimate point I think Boshoff makes here is that WME should have done more to push back on THR’s story, or Archewell should have pushed back with their own operation. Y’all have yelled at me for this for years, but it’s incredibly stupid for Harry and Meghan to let these nasty “industry stories” sit and fester unchallenged. I get why the Sussexes mostly give the silent treatment to the lunacy from Salt Island. But when these sh-tty, out-of-nowhere attacks come from the Hollywood Reporter or Bill Simmons, you can’t just no-comment the situation. Fight back, it’s about your business! It’s about your professional reputation!

Also: no, Hollywood hasn’t turned on them. They are still famous and well-connected and they have many industry allies and friends. Harry just won an ESPY Award and he’s about to speak at the Clinton Global Initiative. Meghan is one of the most talked-about women in the world and her most recent interview was to the NY Times, where she described her investments in women-led fashion labels. Even if Harry and Meghan were not hilariously successful by every metric, they still wouldn’t come crawling back to Salt Island. Which, let’s be real, is the narrative the Mail is trying to sell.

Photos courtesy of Netflix.

Prince Harry turned up solo at Friday night’s One805LIVE! concert/event, held at Kevin Costner’s Carpinteria estate. Harry and Meghan joined the event last year, and both were on stage to honor various Santa Barbara-area first responders. The event is a huge local fundraiser for firefighters, local police departments and sheriff’s departments. There’s music and tons of local celebrities come out. Meghan missed this year’s concert, and it seems like Harry told people that she was sick. I believe it! Covid is going around, as is a seasonal cold. They have two kids who go to school, and schools are germ incubators. Lots of people are sick this time of year, I’m just saying. As for the event, Harry was once again invited on stage, and he presented an award to an air support pilot.

Prince Harry spent his Friday night in Carpinteria, Calif., helping raise funds for Santa Barbara County First Responders. The prince took the stage at the star-filled One805LIVE! concert, hosted by Kevin Costner. The concert helps raise funds for the local fire, police, and sheriff departments, with proceeds going towards equipment and mental health resources.

The Duke of Sussex took the stage in front of hundreds of concertgoers with the night’s honoree, Santa Barbara County air support pilot Loren Courtney.

“As you’ve probably heard already, 22 years [of] military service over 10,000 hours and rarely sees his family because he’s always here flying helicopters,” Prince Harry said of Courtney. After he quipped that Courtney was 65 years old but looked 40, he asked him, “Why do you still do what you do?”

“I do this because I love doing it and I love doing it for the county of Santa Barbara. It’s a rewarding experience whenever we go out, either putting out fires or rescuing somebody in the back country or medical evacuations from vehicle accidents or doing the law patrol, keeping citizens safe,” Courtney replied.

When Prince Harry asked if there was “an experience or a story that stands out” from his years of service, Courtney recalled an experience when he was doing search and rescue in Colorado and helped rescue a group of skiers who had gone off a 30-foot embankment. One of them, he said, suffered a severe head injury and took five attempts to get out.

“I learned in the military, you never leave anybody behind. We got him out. He spent almost a year in intensive care and then rehab, and now he’s walking, he got married. He actually went to the top of the Grand Tetons and, and proposed to his girlfriend after the accident,” the pilot added.

“You didn’t have to rescue him again, did you,” Prince Harry joked. “You are one of the many heroes here tonight. There are people here tonight who are alive because of you and who are back to their families because of you… from everybody here, thank you so much.”

[From People]

Nice. Harry and Meghan handed out some of the awards last year, and I’m sure they’ll both be invited next year too. I kind of think Kevin Costner has a great deal of affection for the local royals. There were so many other celebrities there too: Cameron Diaz, Zoe Saldana, Pink, Rob Lowe, Richard Marx and more.

I’m also looking closely at Harry’s clothes here – very soft-looking dark-wash jeans, a subtle-striped button-down, a slim-cut sport coat and a necklace. Did Meghan dress him before he left the house or did he put this together himself? It’s really good – casual, but dressed up enough for a fundraiser/concert.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Last Thursday, New York Magazine suddenly announced that journalist Olivia Nuzzi was put on leave after they discovered/learned that she had been engaging in an affair with Robert Kennedy Jr. There are several funny/awful/unethical elements to all of this. Status broke the larger story on Thursday, with some interesting details like Nuzzi did not “proactively disclose” her relationship with Kennedy to New York Mag and the magazine “only recently learned of it.” Which explains why the magazine acknowledged that if they had known, they never would have let Nuzzi cover any part of the election. Status also gave a timeline – Nuzzi met Kennedy late last year, probably October or early November 2023, when she interviewed him for a New York cover story. Then the “romantic” relationship “started around the new year” and continued through this year. The entire time, Nuzzi was engaged to Politico’s Ryan Lizza, and they were seen by some as beltway media’s It Couple. Lizza announced their split on Friday, and then Puck dropped some exclusive news hours later:

In a subsequent statement that contained quite a morsel of a twist, Olivia Nuzzi clarified that the relationship was “never physical”—an insinuation that it was some sort of prurient emotional and sexting dynamic. For its part, R.F.K.’s camp claimed that the two had met only once, for the interview that “yielded a hit piece” in the magazine. (At the time, R.F.K. tweeted out the article and called it “provocative.”)

As it turns out, Nuzzi sent Kennedy nude photos of herself—“demure,” per a source familiar—and the relationship likely was indeed strictly remotus (of course, only two people know for sure). Meanwhile, the relationship probably started just a bit earlier than the existing timeline suggests, and the claim by R.F.K.’s spokesperson that they only met once is not entirely accurate. (It was more than once, but whatever.)

Nuzzi and Ryan Lizza had been engaged for two years, up until a month or so ago, when they broke up. In the immediate aftermath, some of Nuzzi’s associates advanced the idea that Lizza had leaked news of his ex-fiancée’s SMS dalliance to Haskell and New York, perhaps through anonymous channels, in order to exact some measure of retribution. Again, there are certain things only certain people know for sure, but my reporting thus far leads me to believe that this hypothesis is not true. (Interpret this how you will, but Darcy’s original report notes that the 70-year-old R.F.K. was “alleged to have boasted privately about the alleged relationship” with the 31-year-old journalist.)

Outside the rampant speculation about disgruntled lovers and ulterior motives, the most pertinent question is whether Nuzzi will keep her job. After a chaotic first 24 hours in which Nuzzi appeared to have been getting conflicting advice from multiple friends, frenemies, and representatives, she is now quietly awaiting the results of her employer’s investigation. The salient question for Haskell and Vox Media chief executive Jim Bankoff, of course, is whether her relationship with R.F.K. influenced any of her coverage—including, most notably, her memorable July feature about “the conspiracy of silence” to protect Joe Biden from scrutiny over his mental decline. (At the time of publication, Kennedy was still running on a third-party ticket.) In an interview with The New York Times in March, Nuzzi asserted that the 2024 campaign was “a three-man race,” and she knocked “the establishment press” for refusing to take Kennedy’s candidacy seriously. Anyway, it’s a lot for Haskell to think about on the flight home from Milan.

[From Puck]

Like everyone else, I’ve been looking through some of Nuzzi’s political and election reporting throughout this year and I have to say, she absolutely deserves to be fired and blacklisted. She was sexting Robert Kennedy and sending him “demure” (and likely mindful) nudes privately and then going on CNN and MSNBC to mock President Biden’s age and capability AND telling people that Kennedy is a viable candidate? It’s a whole other level of unethical. As for the scandalous/gossip side of this – it would be next-level if Ryan Lizza found out about his fiancee’s affair and found a way to inform her bosses. I would also buy that Kennedy has been indiscreet, and really, it could be all of the above. Plus, I doubt Nuzzi was all that discreet.

Imagine being 31 years old and sending your nudes to a 70 year old dude with a brain worm? That’s something else… like, Nuzzi was still having this extremely inappropriate online relationship with Kennedy even after the brain worm story came out. F–king spare me the “she’s just a 31-year-old girl, HE had all of the power!” No he didn’t. He’s an absolutely batsh-t 70-year-old missing part of his brain because a worm ate it, and she was the one sending him photos and pursuing him.

This was Lizza’s statement in Politico’s Playbook:

Statement from Ryan Lizza on RFK Jr.-Olivia Nuzzi story, via Playbook: “Because of my connection to this story through my ex-fiancée, my editors and I have agreed that I won’t be involved in any coverage of Kennedy in Playbook or elsewhere at POLITICO.”

— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) September 20, 2024

Photos courtesy of Instagram, Avalon Red.

Beyonce covers the October issue of GQ. She’s blonde these days! The editorial is really sexy and va-va-voom. While Beyonce’s haircare line (Cécred) gets a shoutout, Beyonce is mostly promoting her new whiskey line, SirDavis. For many years now, Beyonce flatly refuses to do traditional interviews, but she will now email with magazine journalists, which is how GQ got an interview with her. She’s very funny, and I suspect she just prefers time to gather her thoughts and edit herself, thus the email Q&A. You can see the full piece here. Some highlights:

Her life & her diet these days: “Our home is alive with cousins and friends, spontaneous talent shows, and the clatter of dominoes. I’ve been trying to focus on my health, taking my supplements, and eating very clean. I’ve given up meat, except for turkey, this summer.

Why she launched her own whiskey line: “I’ll never forget the first day I had whiskey. It spoke to me nice. I remember thinking, Why have I never had this before? It was strong and warm, just the right amount of challenge. I loved the process, the ritual of it. Whiskey isn’t something you just shoot down. It’s a commitment. You gotta have patience. I like that. Then I got into vintage Japanese whiskey and started doing tastings. It opened up a whole new world. I love everything about whiskey. The color, the smell, the way it dances in the glass.… And I love the stories that come with it. Every bottle has a history. I also like introducing whiskey to people who don’t know they love it yet. I think a lot more women would love it if they tasted it, and if they were really spoken to by the whiskey world. Whiskey isn’t just for old men in smoky bars; it’s for anyone who appreciates depth, complexity, and a bit of mystery.

Why she named her album ‘Cowboy Carter’: “I wanted everyone to take a minute to research on the word cowboy. History is often told by the victors. And American history? It’s been rewritten endlessly. Up to a quarter of all cowboys were Black. These men faced a world that refused to see them as equal, yet they were the backbone of the cattle industry. The cowboy is a symbol of strength and aspiration in America. The cowboy was named after slaves who handled the cows. The word cowboy comes from those who were called boys, never given the respect they deserved. No one would dare call a Black man handling cows “Mister” or “Sir.”

She doesn’t want people to have access to her kids: “ One thing I’ve worked extremely hard on is making sure my kids can have as much normalcy and privacy as possible, ensuring my personal life isn’t turned into a brand. It’s very easy for celebrities to turn our lives into performance art. I have made an extreme effort to stay true to my boundaries and protect myself and my family. No amount of money is worth my peace.”

Raising three kids: “I build my work schedule around my family. I try to only tour when my kids are out of school. I always dreamt of a life where I could see the world with my family and expose them to different languages, architecture, and lifestyles. Raising three kids isn’t easy. The older they get, the more they become their own individuals with unique needs, hobbies, and social lives. My twins are God-sent. Parenting constantly teaches you about yourself. It takes a lot of prayer and patience. I love it. It’s grounding and fulfilling.

On not releasing visuals for her last two albums: “I thought it was important that during a time where all we see is visuals, that the world can focus on the voice. The music is so rich in history and instrumentation. It takes months to digest, research, and understand. The music needed space to breathe on its own. Sometimes a visual can be a distraction from the quality of the voice and the music. The years of hard work and detail put into an album that takes over four years! The music is enough. The fans from all over the world became the visual. We all got the visual on tour. We then got more visuals from my film.

What music she’s listening to these days: “I love and respect all of the female singers-songwriters who are out right now.… Raye, Victoria Monét, Sasha Keable, Chloe x Halle, and Reneé Rapp. I love Doechii and GloRilla, and I just heard That Mexican OT, he’s from Houston…. He goes hard! I really like “Please Please Please” by Sabrina Carpenter, and I think that Thee Sacred Souls and Chappell Roan are talented and interesting..But the truth is, I spend most of my time listening to the classics, like Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and music from artists on the Stax label. I just watched that documentary. It’s so good! I highly recommend it. The best movie I’ve seen this year is Inside Out 2. I think it’s brilliant, and I’m currently watching House of the Dragon and The Chi.

[From GQ]

I just read a theory online, from a member of the Beyhive, about Beyonce’s answer on the no-visuals thing. It really is bizarre, because as she began to promote Act i: Renaissance, it felt like she was teasing a larger visual project. Maybe not on the scale of Lemonade, but definitely more visuals than what we got (bupkis). Anyway, the theory was that Beyonce fully intended to release videos or some kind of visual project to accompany Renaissance, but something happened and she didn’t like whatever got produced. Beyonce is famously a detail-oriented perfectionist, so it makes perfect sense to me that she tried to produce something, didn’t like it and then just pretended that she was never going to do any visuals. Maybe Cowboy Carter was different – she was like, hey, after what happened with Renaissance, why bother? What’s weird is that I would have much preferred visuals for Cowboy Carter. There are so many songs which are crying out for amazing music videos.

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Cover & IG courtesy of GQ.

Wait, Chris Pine has had a girlfriend for the past year? And she’s a restaurant hostess who isn’t shouting it from the rooftops?? [Just Jared]
Honestly, Sophie Turner could pull off Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. [RCFA]
Ellen DeGeneres needs a new shtick. [Socialite Life]
Abortion bans are killing women. [Hollywood Life]
Jennifer Lopez wore a monochromatic beige ensemble. [LaineyGossip]
Is Kaitlin Olson’s new show any good? [Pajiba]
Renee Zellweger really disappears for years at a time. [Go Fug Yourself]
Wait, British people like mayonnaise? [OMG Blog]
They’re making PB&J M&Ms now. [Seriously OMG]
This is a very 90 Day Fiance insidery story. [Starcasm]
Black Mirror’s Season 7 cast. [Buzzfeed]

I totally forgot that this was announced three years ago, but LaineyGossip pointed out that there’s a big update. In 2021, Ryan Murphy announced a new project which would go alongside his “American Story” anthologies – American Crime Story, American Horror Story, etc – and the new one would be American Love Story. Murphy wanted the first American Love Story to be John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. We hadn’t heard much of anything about it, and then Variety had this update:

The “American Story” franchise at FX is still expanding. Executive producers Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson, who have been working with Ryan Murphy since “American Crime Story” premiered in 2016 (and served as executive producers on “Pose”), confirmed that “American Love Story,” which recounts the story of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, will be moving forward at FX.

“We’re very much intending to [tell that story],” Jacobson told Variety during a recent interview.

“We have great scripts on that. We’re trying to figure out when it’ll land,” Simpson added. “It is a story that really resonates right now. It’s amazing. A lot of younger women are looking to her as sort of a representational icon of a certain period of time that’s really fascinating, and hopefully, we’ll be able to bring that to the screen soon.”

The new series was initially announced in 2021, along with “Studio 54: American Crime Story,” a potential fourth installment of “ACS” following “People vs. OJ Simpson,” “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” and “Impeachment.” However, there’s no update on “Studio 54” — and it doesn’t sound likely.

[From Variety]

Sidenote: it’s funny to me that Ryan waited long enough that his good friend Gwyneth Paltrow has aged out of playing Carolyn. God knows, Gwyneth did the most to imitate Carolyn Bessette back in the day. To be fair, a lot of women did and a lot of women still do. Carolyn was a style icon and the closest thing Americans have to a “princess.” But Gwyneth’s copykeening was next-level, truly.

So, let’s dreamcast! LaineyGossip’s suggestions were Callum Turner for John-John and Vanessa Kirby or Anya Taylor-Joy for Carolyn. I’ll admit, I see the vision with Anya-as-Carolyn and I absolutely think Anya could pull off Carolyn’s je ne sais quoi. The internet is dreamcasting Elizabeth Debicki and Jacob Elordi… and I hate that. Debicki has Carolyn’s lithe, blonde physicality, but it’s too much after Debicki played Princess Diana. Elordi would also be awful as John. Weirdly, I feel like John is probably going to be easy to cast, even though no modern actor will be able to do it. They’ll probably just get some handsome dark-haired guy. I would be happy with Morgan Spector, actually? But the Carolyn casting will lead to some MAJOR fights.

I’d just like to throw a few more names out there for Carolyn: Saoirse Ronan, Elle Fanning and Haley Bennett. I think Elle and Saoirse would both nail it, and while Haley doesn’t strictly look like Carolyn, I just think she’s a good enough actress to pull it off. And if acting doesn’t matter, I actually think Hailey Bieber could do it. My other controversial opinion is that I do think the casting should be limited to American actors as well. I don’t want to see John portrayed by a guy trying to hide his posh British accent.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, John Harrington / Avalon, Look Press Agency/Look Press / Avalon..

Wednesday night was the big Wolfs premiere in LA. If actors are capable of “phoning it in” in person, that’s what Brad Pitt and George Clooney did. They didn’t bring their significant others, they posed with their costars and they tried to not look too grumpy about the way everything went down. I found it most remarkable that Amal Clooney didn’t turn up, by the way – Amal loves to attend all of George’s red carpets. It feels especially notable that even she didn’t bother.

After the premiere, George and Brad left separately and Brad met up with Ines de Ramon, his girlfriend of about two years. They’ve only recently begun to do public outings with each other, and this was part of Brad’s “promotional work” too. Letting the paparazzi get photos of Ines when they went out to dinner at… Mother Wolf. Get it, because the movie is called Wolfs? Some Apple PR person thinks they’re a genius. Anyway, it’s definitely interesting to watch Pitt push this romance to promote his dumb movie. Speaking of:

Brad Pitt and Ines de Ramon’s connection is stronger than ever after making their red carpet debut earlier this month.

“They’re super in love,” a source exclusively shares in the newest issue of Us Weekly, adding that the duo’s decision to go public as a couple was a “big deal.”

Pitt, 60, and de Ramon, 31, went red carpet official after nearly two years of dating at the Venice International Film Festival premiere of Pitt’s new film Wolfs on September 1. The couple posed for red carpet pics alongside Pitt’s costar George Clooney and his wife, Amal Clooney. In contrast to Pitt’s all-black attire, de Ramon sported a white one-shoulder gown and silver jewelry.

The premiere made for a perfect date night for the couple, as a second source tells Us they are both “hippies at heart” and have bonded over their love of art and music. “Brad loves introducing Ines to his friends because she’s such a joy to be around,” the insider adds. “She brings out the best in Brad.”

The second source went on to note that things are “serious between Brad and Ines,” adding, “He’s very committed to her and their future.”

“Her support has shown Brad who she really is as a partner,” the first source tells Us of de Ramon. The second source adds: “It’s meant so much to him and brought them close together. Brad has a lot of up and down days, and [Ines] has been his rock through it all. She has a really good heart.”

[From Us Weekly]

“He’s very committed to her and their future.” Another tabloid (Closer) claims that Brad wants a “seventh child” now that he’s so loved up with Ines. If that happens… well… it will be chaotic. Especially given all of the conversations about why his first six kids hate him and why he doesn’t even acknowledge that he has six kids? Like, he’s indicated for years now that he doesn’t give a f–k about his adopted kids. As for Ines… I don’t have a read on her but the vibe I’m getting is that she is in it to “win” it. Win what, though?

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.