Did you guys know that Justine Bateman was and is awful? I had no idea. Justine is Jason Bateman’s older sister, and Justine was once the more famous Bateman sibling, back in the 1980s and 1990s. She worked pretty consistently in TV through 2000-2013, then it’s like she dropped off a cliff professionally. Zero credits for eight years, up until 2021, when she premiered a film called Violet, which she wrote, directed and produced. Violet was supposed to come out one year earlier, but everything was on pause because of the pandemic. I bring this up because the pandemic seemingly broke her brain and turned her into one of the biggest Karens I’ve ever seen. Justine threw a hissy fit on Twitter after the election, I’m not embedding it, but here’s the text:

Decompressing from walking on eggshells for the past four years.

I have found the last four years to be an almost intolerable period. A very un-American period in that any questioning, any opinions, any likes or dislikes were held up to a very limited list of “permitted positions” in order to assess acceptability.

I’ve never in my life known that to be an American environment. It’s an environment I have encountered in smaller groupings (a church, a private club,a clique), but never before as a national blanket. It has been suffocating. Common sense was discarded, intellectual discussion was demonized. Only “permitted position” behavior and speech was “allowed.”

Complete intolerance became almost a religion and one’s professional and social life was threatened almost constantly. Those that spoke otherwise were ruined as a warning to others. Their destruction was displayed in the “town square” of social media for all to see. This was the #MeMeMeMeToo moment, where every effort was made to divert attention to oneself, instead of recognizing how one contributes to the whole.This was the era of trying to exercise control over those who did not want to follow the crowd and has their own ideas about what they needed to do. This dampened our culture and innovation, bringing people to even think that generative #AI, a regurgitation of the past, was actually our cultural future.

When you starve a society of those called to be independent thinkers and cultural and intellectual innovators, you rob that society of any forward movement. Those that tried to impose that control maintained a kind of “hall monitor” position by threatening others with damning labels like “Sexist,” “racist,” “homophobic,” etc, when the free-thinking and questioning was nothing of the sort. However, the mob mentality that followed caused these social convictions when there was often no evidence to support them. (See Charles McKay’s 1841 book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds).

I am neither one extreme or the other, but am one of the millions of people who believe in common sense, and that everyone should be free to live their lives however they want, unless that freedom interferes with someone else’s freedom to live their own life.
That’s it.

[From Justine Bateman’s Twitter]

Sure, I have some time to get into this. This is all part of a larger movement among MAGA cultists and Trump supporters to position themselves as the only true advocates for “free speech” and “independent thought.” Those are coded terms for “I want to be racist/bigoted/hateful/nasty in public but people will call me out!” They think they’re being “censored” when people respond to the awful sh-t they say or write online. They think it’s a First Amendment issue and an issue of “intolerance” that their words and actions have consequences. You know how I said that the pandemic seemingly broke her brain? Check out the receipt, below. Ten bucks says that Justine Bateman is an anti-vaxxer who thought the pandemic was a “hoax.”

Behold this unhinged tantrum from the former star of Family Ties, Justine Bateman.

For perspective, Bateman was super-duper upset that people preferring not to die of COVID got in the way of… a festival she had already picked out outfits for. https://t.co/lgjkzkUzrq pic.twitter.com/C8j317wSXo

— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) November 8, 2024

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Hugh Grant is permanently grumpy, but you can always tell when he likes the project he’s promoting. When he recently promoted Wonka, he looked and acted like he was about to curl up and die, he was so miserable. Currently, he’s promoting his role in Heretic, an A24 horror film where he plays the bad guy. He’s really proud of it, you can tell. He was exceptionally chatty with Vanity Fair, as he spoke about Heretic and what happened over the course of his multi-decade career. Some highlights:

He had to play his Heretic villain as charming: He’s playing a “brilliant f–ked-up character.” But he decided to resurrect just a dash of his rom-com leading man persona. “You don’t want the audience to be sitting there saying, ‘These girls are morons, the guy is clearly a weirdo and a dick.’ I was under some pressure to use my powers of warmth and charm.”

The Wachowskis’ ‘Cloud Atlas’ changed his career after the 2009 bomb ‘Did You Hear About the Morgans?’: “I was completely marooned. The Wachowskis offered me just a few small little parts in Cloud Atlas, and to be honest, I was probably only offered that because some of their international distributors had said, ‘We need some more recognizable names. Cram someone recognizable in here.’…” He came out of ‘Cloud Atlas’ renewed. “I thought, Oh yeah, I used to really enjoy doing characters—in fact, I almost used to enjoy acting. I started out doing silly voices, odd people, making people laugh at university, and then doing this comedy show in London. It was doing characters. Then through sheer chance, maybe because of the way I looked, I got drawn into the leading romantic hero. It went fine, but it’s not what I think I’m best at—partly because it’s less fun.”

Playing swoony heartthrobs in the ‘90s: “The irony of the Richard Curtis parts I played is that they were actually character roles for me—I’m not that stutter-y, blink-ey guy. The catastrophic mistake I made was that because Four Weddings was such a gigantic success, I thought, Oh, well, this is the way of infinite wealth and success. People are eating up that person.’ So I did him in real life: I started doing interviews like him. In my Golden Globe acceptance speech from 1995, I said, ‘I love you, gosh, blah blah. Thank you so much’—what a dick. I’m playing the character because I thought everyone was eating him up. It was never me at all.” Everyone, it turns out, was not eating it up: “People quite rightly were repelled by it in the end.”

Playing Daniel Cleaver in Bridget Jones’s Diary: “There are people in my life who have always said, ‘Oh, that’s much more like the real Hugh,’” Grant says. He was asked to reprise the prickly role in the 2004 sequel, The Edge of Reason, which he did, and again in the next sequel, 2016’s Bridget Jones’s Baby, which he declined. “I really couldn’t fit my character in—he just didn’t belong, so I stepped aside,” Grant says. Cleaver is back, however, for the fourth film in the series, Mad About the Boy. “I loved the script—it made me cry, and I wanted to help with this one. But really there’s no part for Daniel Cleaver in it at all. They wanted him in it, and in the end, they’d done something I wasn’t crazy about. [So] I wrote some scenes… It’s absolutely the best [Bridget Jones book], and I think the movie is very funny and very, very moving. I’m not in a lot, I did a week’s work, that’s it…. But when you see the film, you’ll be very moved.”

He’s skeptical of big-budget studio fare. “I’ve turned down a few that I thought were insufficient in quality or independence allowed to the filmmakers—you felt like a big corporation breathing down the neck of these filmmakers, and I don’t want to make that decision,” he says. How could he tell? “I asked them bluntly. I quizzed the directors. You can tell quite early on, since you might have a few ideas about the part before you’ve signed up—you suggest things, and you can tell if there’s a lot of pushback from non-creative executives.”

[From Vanity Fair]

It’s cool that he points to Cloud Atlas as the film which renewed his interest in character-acting. He’s had such a strange career, and the “leading man” part of his career probably should have ended a lot sooner than it did. He is a great character actor, and I would even call him an underrated talent. It’s also kind of sweet that he still has so much affection for the Bridget Jones franchise and he really gives a sh-t about those characters. I would love to know what he turns down too.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

It’s true, Carrie Coon looks like she’s both 35 and 55. [Pajiba]
Paul Mescal’s brown suit is not one of the best looks of the week. [Socialite Life]
Halle Berry in a great leopard-print. [LaineyGossip]
Sarah Jessica Parker will bring back denim prairie skirts? [Go Fug Yourself]
Demi Moore did a career retrospective with VF. [OMG Blog]
Olivia Wilde & Jason Sudeikis had a friendly meet-up. [Just Jared]
Interesting Versace look on Saoirse Ronan. [RCFA]
Krispy Kreme is doing special Thanksgiving donuts. [Seriously OMG]
Happy birthday to SZA. [Hollywood Life]
Jimmy Kimmel choked up after the election. [Buzzfeed]

And I’m not trolling you! I really do agree! Feeling “fine as hell” and loving my forties; some days I’m feeling 35 and some I lean 55, but they are all me.

— Carrie Coon (@carriecoon) November 5, 2024

To prepare for this story, I watched about half Chynna Phillips’ latest YouTube vlog. She opens by walking and talking to the camera, very rapidly, about what’s happening in her life and family. At about 3:40 in she does a baby impression before recounting one of her experiences giving birth. While her baby impression is quite good it kind of sums up her entire personality. I would have a hard time tolerating her socially and find her annoying af, but I’m sure she has fans. (I find many YouTubers annoying, so take that as you will.) She’s also a born again Christian and references Jesus and The Bible frequently.

Chynna, 56, is best known as part of the all female music group Wilson Phillips. She’s been married to Billy Baldwin, 61, since 1995 and they have three adult children, the youngest of whom is 20. Chynna’s latest video diary is making news because she revealed that she’s living separately from Billy, at her suggestion, but that they’re still together. Chynna’s personality aside, I’m sure a lot of women would like to have that arrangement. Here’s part of People’s writeup about this.

“Billy and I are sort of in this new kind of arrangement that is actually really working for me. I don’t know if it’s working for Billster, but I’m really happy with what we’re doing,” she begins, before adding, “Basically, it’s totally unstructured . . . let me explain.”

She continues, “I said to Billy, ‘Look, why don’t we just do a little test run to see what it feels like to have me in Santa Barbara, you in Beverly Hills, and then we flip-flop. Then in between, we have date nights together, we have therapy, we have dinner with the children and we go to the beach or the museum.”

The pair, who married in 1995, share three adult children together: daughters Jameson, 24, and Brooke, 19, and son Vance, 22.

The couple will spend a few days together when she says “we have sleepovers and stuff,” but they’re not “forcing ourselves to be subjected to each other’s energy 24/7.”

While her actor husband “is a bit more reticent about the whole thing,” Chynna notes that he was still willing to try out the new setup.

She later goes into more detail about the arrangement while on a FaceTime call with Billy, 61.

“I think that we’re onto something,” she tells her husband. “I really do, because we enjoy each other’s company. It’s so hard to articulate to people that we’re madly in love, we really enjoy being around one another, we cherish our marriage, we don’t ever want to separate. We just need a little time apart because we are sort of an allergy to one another. And it’s OK. I’m sure lots of different couples are allergies to each other.”

The actor cuts in, “The reality is you have the allergy, I have a certain energy that makes you have a— see, your back just tweaked just now.” He adds, “You do things that, you know, sort of alter my energy sometimes.”

[From People]

She also tried to reconcile her fundie beliefs with living apart from her husband. She said “where in the Bible does it say that I have to live under the same roof, 24/7 with my husband? Can you please find me that scripture?” She then said she knows The Bible teaches that she has to submit to him, but that “I’ll submit when I’m around.” I mean, this is one way to gain your independence while technically adhering to antiquated Christian teachings that subjugate women. Billy is not religious like Chynna but explained that he goes to church and prays with her. He told her later in the video, on a video chat, that he adores her and wants to spend the rest of his life with her.

Sometimes I think about the 2012 movie, Hope Springs, where Meryl Street and Tommy Lee Jones play a married couple who get their spark back. It’s kind of an older married woman’s fantasy and I remember thinking how unrealistic it was. People don’t change, but you can shift things by mixing it up. It must be nice to have the resources to live in an entirely different house than your spouse. So many rich and famous people do that and talk about how awesome it is. Barring that, I’ve heard that separate bathrooms and an extra bedroom help.

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Heterosexual Millennial and Gen Z women are trying to date and they’re finding a pretty tragic dating pool. I’ve seen so many tweets and TikToks where women are trying to give advice about first-date red flags and what kinds of questions to ask to get to women’s dealbreaker issues. In recent weeks, I’ve been seeing a lot about women asking their dates or boyfriends really specific hypotheticals about “what would you do if a doctor told you I would die if I didn’t have an abortion.” It seems like an obvious enough prompt for the guy to explain how he would do anything to save a woman’s life, but apparently guys are showing their MAGA asses over it. All of which to say, I don’t blame women for trying to find some simple questions to filter out the losers. I’m not sure about Olivia Rodrigo’s dealbreaker question though?

Olivia Rodrigo has an out-of-this-world first-date question. The “Vampire” singer, 21, revealed one of her dating “red flags” during an interview with Netflix posted on Instagram on Nov. 1.

Discussing the meaning behind the many signature tees she wore on stage during her Guts World Tour, including one that read “Dump Him” — which Rodrigo said is a “classic homage to Miss Britney Spears” — the star went on to reveal the question she asks guys on first dates to gauge their compatibility.

“The biggest red flag, okay, this is a very oddly specific question that I ask guys on first dates,” she began. “I always ask them if they would want to go to space. And if they say yes, I don’t date them,” Rodrigo continued with a grin. “I just think if you want to go to space, you’re a little too full of yourself.”

Elsewhere during her chat with Netflix, the songwriter also detailed that Sex and the City is one of her favorite shows and said that she is firmly Team Aidan, referring to John Corbett’s character on the series.

“Mr. Big sucks,” she said, a nod to Chris Noth’s character, who served as the other love interest for Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw. “But we’ve all dated guys like that. You can’t let them go. But yeah, Aidan for the win.”

[From People]

The space question… it’s a generational thing, because older people probably want to go to space because they had childhood dreams of being astronauts and working at NASA (Space Camp was a seminal movie for my generation). These days, “going to space” means space tourism, being wealthy enough to hitch a ride on Blue Origin or Space X or whatever. It’s an okay filter question for Gen Z but I hope she’s got other dealbreakers. I don’t envy Olivia trying to weed out the douchebags though.

As for what she says about Sex and the City… it’s so funny to see younger girls watch that show and experience it in completely different ways. I’ve been doing a rewatch of some of the later seasons, and what’s driving me crazy is everything about Carrie’s arrested development and how she’s a complete f–king phony with men. She’s only “real” with her girlfriends, never with men. Whenever anything gets close to real with men, she sabotages it. Anyway, I’ve always agreed that Aidan was better than Big, but that’s just in general – Carrie and Big belonged together because they both sucked.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

This week, Prince Harry was “seen” twice. Once in a video address, alongside his wife, to a conference about children in Colombia. The second appearance is a new photo of Harry, given to his UK patronage, Scotty’s Little Soldiers. Harry became patron and global ambassador of SLS years and years ago. SLS gives support to military families, specifically gold-star families (what we call them here in America), families who have lost a military parent. When Harry was in London back in May, he even hosted a special event for all of the SLS kids. Well, Harry gave them a new photo and a letter of support – you can read the letter here, and here’s People’s coverage:

Prince Harry has reached out with a heartfelt letter to young members of Scotty’s Little Soldiers, a charity close to his heart that supports bereaved military children and young adults.

The letter reflects the Duke of Sussex’s deeply personal understanding of loss, rooted in the death of his mother, Princess Diana, when he was only 12. In his message, he shares with the children that he understands, “perhaps more than most, the weight of losing a parent at a young age.”

“It can be overwhelming and isolating. Yet, in the midst of that heartache, we find strength in the love and memories left behind, and I have seen how communities like yours can offer deep comfort and healing,” he wrote.

The Duke acknowledged that Remembrance Day, a solemn day in the U.K. honoring those who lost their lives in war or conflict, is not only a time to honor the sacrifices of service members but also to recognize the enduring impact on families left behind.

“I encourage you to take a moment to reflect on the values that your loved ones instilled in you — courage, compassion, and a sense of purpose. These will serve as your guiding light, helping you navigate the challenges ahead,” he wrote.

In a new photo, Prince Harry wears the Scotty’s scarf in solidarity, along with a poppy pin — a symbol of remembrance used since 1921 to honor fallen service members.

“In coming together to support one another, you not only honor the memories of your loved ones but also forge bonds that can and will carry you through the toughest times,” he wrote. “The tears and laughter, the shared experiences, and the moments of joy you create together are powerful reminders that love endures. Your resilience is a testament to the legacy of your loved ones, and I have every confidence in your ability to make them proud and to shine bright in the world. All they want is for you to be happy.”

[From People]

Harry did this specifically because this weekend, people will mark Remembrance Day officially, even though Remembrance Day is on Monday. But over the weekend, that’s when the British prime minister and various royals will gather at the Cenotaph in London and do their wreath-laying. On Monday, Scotty’s Little Soldiers will have an event in London to honor their parents, and I would assume that Harry gave them this letter of support because he can’t go to London for the event.

Prince Harry, our Global Ambassador, has written a heartfelt letter of support to our members ahead of Remembrance.

Read his letter in full: https://t.co/xGO5sa0UWt pic.twitter.com/uLerFU8eVJ

— Scotty’s L Soldiers (@CorporalScotty) November 7, 2024

Photos courtesy of Archewell and SLS.

During the Biden administration, many Trump cultists threatened to “secede” or start a “civil war.” Now that those dumbf–ks got another Trump presidency, it will be interesting to see how they react to various liberal-haven states putting up roadblocks to the Trump agenda. The state of California’s economy is larger than most countries – it is actually the largest sub-national economy in the world. California has 39 million people and a $4.080 trillion gross state product (GSP). If they secede from the Confederacy of Trumplandia, things could get very interesting. For now, Governor Gavin Newsom has called back the state legislature to ensure that California is prepared for all things Trump.

One day after Donald J. Trump declared victory in the presidential race, Gov. Gavin Newsom resurrected efforts in California to thwart the president-elect by asking state lawmakers to pre-empt potential Republican actions that could impact the Democratic-led state.

California leaders have long seen themselves as a bulwark against right-wing extremism, and Mr. Newsom has positioned himself nationally as one of Mr. Trump’s loudest critics. They could soon be joined in legislative efforts by other Democratic-led states such as Washington, especially given the federal power that Republicans could wield next year if they win the House in addition to the Senate and the White House.

Mr. Newsom called Thursday for a legislative special session to begin in Sacramento on Dec. 2, several weeks before Mr. Trump takes office, “to safeguard California values and fundamental rights in the face of an incoming Trump administration,” according to the governor’s office. It will initially focus on funding state litigation around Trump administration actions that might impact civil liberties, reproductive rights, immigrant protections and climate action in the state.

“The freedoms we hold dear in California are under attack — and we won’t sit idle,” Mr. Newsom said in a statement. “California has faced this challenge before, and we know how to respond.”

In a social media post, the governor said the state “will seek to work with the incoming president — but let there be no mistake, we intend to stand with states across our nation to defend our Constitution and uphold the rule of law.”

[From The NY Times]

The Times also notes that California’s state leaders have ongoing friendships and partnerships with their West Coast sister-states, Oregon and Washington state. Gov. Newsom will probably be in contact with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who has already told Trump that “You come for my people, you come through me,” and that Illinois’s minority communities remember the “chaos, retribution and disarray radiated from the White House the last time Donald Trump occupied.” One of the big things on the agenda for these Democratic governors with majority pro-choice populations is that they fear/know that a second Trump administration is likely to push through a draconian national abortion ban, and what will likely be a successful attempt to take abortion medication out of circulation. After that, the Trump administration – and the Supreme Court – will take away the Griswold v. Connecticut protections for birth control. Incidentally, Newsom and Pritzker are probably the two top candidates for the Democratic nominee in 2028.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Looking back on the Princess of Wales’s appearances in the fall of 2023, I completely buy that she was already in really poor health even then, and something happened over the Christmas holiday which meant surgery and a lengthy recuperation. What I’ve never understood is why Kensington Palace and Kate herself never considered disclosing more – or anything at all – about what she was going through last year, nor any information about her surgery (or surgeries) this year. I was thinking about that as I pulled the photos of Kate at last year’s Remembrance events, because Kate is making another rare public appearance this weekend for Remembrance.

Kate Middleton will join the royal family for the annual Festival of Remembrance and Remembrance Sunday after completing chemotherapy. On Nov. 9, the Princess of Wales, 42, will join her husband Prince William and other family members for the Festival of Remembrance at Royal Albert Hall, according to Buckingham Palace. She will then take part in the royals’ traditional appearance at The Cenotaph war memorial in London to remember those who died in war and conflict on Remembrance Sunday, Nov. 10.

Remembrance Sunday is observed on the second Sunday of every November in the U.K., and the royal family’s website calls The Cenotaph ceremony “the focal point of the nation’s homage.”

This weekend will mark Princess Kate’s first appearance at a major ceremonial event since she announced on Sept. 9 that she completed chemo, after sharing in March that she was undergoing treatment for cancer.

Buckingham Palace confirmed on Nov. 8 that King Charles, the Prince and Princess of Wales, Prince Edward and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, Princess Anne and her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and the Duke of Kent would attend the Festival of Remembrance and Remembrance Sunday. As she continues to recover from a chest infection, Queen Camilla’s attendance wasn’t confirmed for either event.

[From People]

Re: Queen Camilla’s non-confirmation of attendance, it’s worth noting that Camilla IS confirmed for next week’s Gladiator II premiere. So they think she’ll be well enough from her chest infection to go to a premiere, but not well enough to stand on a balcony at the Cenotaph? Interesting. As for the confirmation that Kate will attend both events, I figured she would. The only thing surprising is that the confirmation came from Buckingham Palace (and not KP) and that Kate didn’t issue another photo or video ahead of Remembrance Day, so that everything could be centered on her.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Russell Brand has been credibly accused of multiple sexual assaults, rapes and more. As the accusations have rolled in, Brand has remade his public persona into an international right-wing grifter, one of the many men selling a particularly toxic and misogynistic worldview to young men, all of it couched in a sort of nouveau Evangelicalism. He’s gone full-throttle with it this year, as various law enforcement agencies build criminal cases against him.

On Election Night, Brand posted a photo of himself holding a red hat which is designed to look like a MAGA hat, but reads “Make Jesus First Again.” Brand is obviously a Trump supporter – they’re both rapists draping themselves in Christianity to con the rubes. But what no one expected was for Nicole Scherzinger to leave a supportive comment on Brand’s post. She wrote: “Where do I get this hat!!!?” with prayer emoji and a red heart. So… Nicole Scherzinger is a Trump-supporting MAGAt who also thinks a credibly accused and soon-to-be-prosecuted sexual predator is cool for his dumbf–k fake Evangelical BS? The way people show their whole asses without even trying. Peep the other receipt of Nicole’s Trumpism too.

Nicole Scherzinger being a Trump supporting Jesus freak… thank god I haven’t seen Sunset Blvd yet pic.twitter.com/IY9EqcInjO

— Kiki Ball-Change (@kikiballchange) November 7, 2024

Too many people will write off Nicole Scherzinger’s comment about wanting that hat as a harmless accident. This is less so: pic.twitter.com/Sp5IXKX4hU

— jean’s glucose monitor • hacks spoilers (@mirrenelle) November 8, 2024

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Barely anyone noticed, but Prince William was begging people to pay attention to his Earthshot trip to South Africa. I’ve never seen William speak to the media so much and give so many on-the-record comments as he did this week. He finished his dumb, four-day trip by giving a full interview to Sky News, in which the slumlord told the outlet that 2024 has been “brutal” and “the hardest year in my life.” Some highlights from the interview:

He was asked how hard the last year has been: “Honestly? It’s been dreadful. It’s probably been the hardest year in my life. So, trying to get through everything else and keep everything on track has been really difficult.”

How his father & wife have coped with their health issues: “I’m so proud of my wife, I’m proud of my father, for handling the things that they have done. But from a personal family point of view, it’s been, yeah, it’s been brutal.” Yesterday he praised Kate for being “amazing” and today when asked how she was doing said: “She’s doing well. Doing well.”

The responsibility & freedom that comes with being Prince of Wales: “It’s a tricky one. Do I like more responsibility? No. Do I like the freedom that I can build something like Earthshot then yes.”

His future royal work with Earthshot: “That’s the future for me. It’s very important with my role and my platform, that I’m doing something for good. That I’m helping people’s lives and I’m doing something that is genuinely meaningful. So, the Earthshot is a culmination, if you like, of all that put together. But it takes a lot of work, and there’s a lot of unseen stuff that goes on, a lot of meetings, a lot of people coming in, a lot of chatting and phone calls, letters, all trying to sort of make the Earthshot get to being the best possible entity it can be.”

How his daughter reacted to his beard: “Well Charlotte didn’t like it the first time. I got floods of tears, the first one, I got a few tears, so I had to shave it off. And then I grew it back. I thought, hang on a second and I convinced her it was going to be okay.”

The Earthshot movement: Excited about the “Earthshot movement”, he said he felt “quite emotional” as he sat in the audience for the fourth annual awards ceremony, but he clearly has frustrations some aren’t responding to his call to action quickly enough. He said: “When you go and approach people and say, like business or whoever, or even government when you approach them, and say, ‘listen, we’re building this incredible thing, please come on board’. Some people are extremely fast and keen to do it. Others take a little bit longer and it’s those people who take a little bit longer, I’m like, ‘guys, we just don’t have the time’. So, yes, I get a bit frustrated that it takes a long time to convince people that this is worthy of their attention.”

On how he seemed relaxed in Cape Town: “It’s interesting you say that, cause I couldn’t be less relaxed this year. So it’s very interesting you’re all seeing that. But it’s more a case of just crack on and you’ve got to keep going… I enjoy my work and I enjoy pacing myself and keeping sure that I have got time for my family too.”

[From Sky News]

I don’t know him, I don’t know his life, but it seems like 2022 was probably a harder year for him, considering the death of QEII? Or 1997, the year he lost his mother? I’m not minimizing the difficulty in dealing with dual health crises in your immediate family, but also… William has an abundance of wealth, support, staff, and a sycophantic press eating it up. That softens the “brutality” of the year, and perhaps it wouldn’t be the worst idea to also acknowledge that and his privilege? The thing about Charlotte crying over his beard is funny, actually. She was like: oh no, my father looks like a total sleaze with this greasy-looking beard.

His statements about Earthshot are bizarre too, especially since he got bored with Earthshot years ago and he’s no longer the one doing the daily maintenance on the project, not that he ever was. “But it takes a lot of work, and there’s a lot of unseen stuff that goes on, a lot of meetings, a lot of people coming in, a lot of chatting and phone calls, letters…” Lol, all of which is done by staff?? “Others take a little bit longer and it’s those people who take a little bit longer, I’m like, ‘guys, we just don’t have the time’.” When people are reluctant to sign on to Slumlord Willy’s Keenshot busywork, he throws a tantrum and screams “I don’t have time for this!!”

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.