A few days ago, I wondered why so many British media outlets were making a big deal about Princess Eugenie’s due date. We’ve known for months that she was due in late January/early February, and that was confirmed, yet again, by Hello Mag and the Daily Mail: Eugenie is officially due in mid-February. It’s her first kid and I bet she’ll be overdue though! Anyway, I’ve come to the conclusion that the renewed interest in Eugenie’s due date was a massive deflection from this complicated story about Prince Andrew and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson. As you may remember, Andrew has tried to play the “I don’t know her” game with Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who has said that Andrew raped her when she was trafficked to him by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Andrew claims that the photo of himself, Virginia and Ghislaine is somehow a product of Photoshop. No one bought Andrew’s explanation. So it looks like Andrew and Fergie arranged to have an online troll attack the validity of Virginia’s story and the photo.

Prince Andrew has always strenuously denied all the allegations against him made by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a woman who claims she was forced to have sex with the royal while being kept as a teenage ‘sex slave’ for his former friend, the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The Duke of York maintains that he has no recollection of ever having met Giuffre, née Roberts; a claim that has become a point of contention, with Giuffre citing a photo she has of herself and the Prince at Ghislaine Maxwell’s London home in 2001. Now, reports have emerged alleging that aides to the Yorks have been in touch with a woman who’s accused Giuffre of doctoring the image.

According to the Mail on Sunday, the royal’s advisers contacted Molly Skye Brown, who they hoped may have proof that the photo in question (in which Andrew apparently has his arm around a young Giuffre) was manipulated. Experts have largely stated that there’s no clear evidence suggesting the image was manipulated.

Brown, 42, alleges that Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, sought to recruit her as a masseuse when she was 14. Maxwell is currently being held on remand in a Brooklyn jail, while awaiting trial for charges relating to her alleged complicity in Epstein’s crimes, including the sex-trafficking of underage girls. Maxwell has denied any wrongdoing.

The incident with Brown is said to have taken place at a children’s gym in Palm Beach, Florida, near where Epstein had one of his properties. Brown has made online criticisms of Giuffre in recent months, accusing her of being an ‘enabler’. Giuffre (who claims that she was made to have sex with Andrew three times in 2001 and 2002, with the first taking place when she was 17) has since blocked Brown on Twitter, calling her comments ‘widespread lies’.

Antonia Marshall, part of Business Development for the Yorks, allegedly wrote an email to Brown last month seeking a conversation. It reportedly stated: ‘Hi Molly… I wondered if you had time at some point for a quick chat re your tweet about the photo of the Duke being edited/doctored. Thank you so much for your online support!’

Marshall reportedly suggested a meeting with her boss, adding that she could pass on well wishes to the Queen, ‘as we are all one big family and see each other all the time’. Brown said that she had provided ‘some evidence the photo was doctored’ but turned down the request for further help, adding that the FBI had been informed of details of the exchanges. Marshall and Brown were in touch via WhatsApp messages and email, before reportedly talking on the phone, during a conversation in which Brown restated her allegations about the image.

Neither adviser commented on the allegations, but the Mail on Sunday cited an unnamed source close to the Prince as stating: ‘The exchange with Ms Brown was not out of the ordinary. It would be very easy to over-interpret the subsequent conversations. The plain fact of the matter is none of this went further than an initial discussion.’

[From Tatler]

Wow, that “unnamed source close to the Prince” isn’t even denying that contact was made, which means that this story is probably a lot worse than what’s even being reported. To be clear – because this is stupidly confusing – Molly Skye Brown was already attacking Virginia Roberts Giuffre and questioning the validity of Virginia’s story. Brown was also questioning the photo of Virginia and Prince Andrew before Andrew’s office got in touch. But the fact that Andrew and Fergie got in touch says a lot, and this sh-t is recent too. Most people wrote off Andrew and rejected all of his asinine “explanations” for his Epstein association. But Andrew and Fergie are still sitting around, plotting half-assed comebacks and contacting internet trolls to help them “prove” that Andrew isn’t a pervert and a rapist.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red, social media.

When the history of this political era is written, I genuinely believe that Donald Trump inciting a a white supremacist terrorist mob to murder his political enemies – including the Speaker of the House and the Vice President – will definitely be one of the biggest “headlines.” But alongside that, history will remember Trump’s absolutely criminal negligence during a raging pandemic. There are thousands of Americans dying every day and Trump ordered his people to NOT brief the incoming administration at all. Not only that, Trump completely abdicated responsibility for managing the catastrophe for months because he knew he would just dump it all on the Biden administration and walk away. So now the Biden team is getting a better look at the vaccine distribution plan and guess what? There’s no there there.

Newly sworn in President Joe Biden and his advisers are inheriting no coronavirus vaccine distribution plan to speak of from the Trump administration, sources tell CNN, posing a significant challenge for the new White House.

The Biden administration has promised to try to turn the Covid-19 pandemic around and drastically speed up the pace of vaccinating Americans against the virus. But in the immediate hours following Biden being sworn into office on Wednesday, sources with direct knowledge of the new administration’s Covid-related work told CNN one of the biggest shocks that the Biden team had to digest during the transition period was what they saw as a complete lack of a vaccine distribution strategy under former President Donald Trump, even weeks after multiple vaccines were approved for use in the United States.

“There is nothing for us to rework. We are going to have to build everything from scratch,” one source said. Another source described the moment that it became clear the Biden administration would have to essentially start from “square one” because there simply was no plan as: “Wow, just further affirmation of complete incompetence.”

[From CNN]

CNN confirms that Biden’s Covid-19 advisors were not getting any cooperation or information-sharing from the Trump administration during the transition. They were eager to see what Trump’s people had put in place, and it turns out… it’s nothing. Nothing was put in place. There’s zero structure, just lies, Diet Coke cans and cheeseburger wrappers.

So President Biden signed a huge stack of executive orders yesterday, all related to the pandemic and vaccine production and distribution. He also authorized Dr. Anthony Fauci to come out and speak at the White House podium and Dr. Fauci nerded out and was clearly feeling himself. It was glorious and scary. Fauci explained what the covid mutations mean for the spread of the virus and how the vaccines will still be enormously effective, just not *as* amazingly effective. The point is, people should still wear masks, social distance and pray to receive the vaccine in the next few months.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Kim Kardashian lives her life out in the open with Keeping Up with the Kardashians. The show has been running for 20 seasons and 14 years. But… over time, I think I can safely say that the sisters have actually pulled away from the “warts and all” coverage on KUWTK. I’m not a stan, nor am I a defender, but for years now, KUWTK is more like a “curated” reality show, with its own parallel storylines and selective editing for real-life dramas. People swore up and down that Kim, like, organized her own traumatic robbery in Paris “for the show.” She did not. The only thing about the robbery shown on KUWTK was the aftermath, with a traumatized Kim barely able to do anything but sit with her kids and try to process what happened.

Over the years, KUWTK has only shown highly selective parts of Kim’s marriage to Kanye West as well – as the marriage disintegrated, Kim just gave herself other storylines, like fights with her sisters. So… I don’t really believe the new claims that Kim is “saving her divorce drama” for the show. But that’s what a lot of people claim:

So much for “please respect our privacy.” Kim Kardashian has filmed her marriage problems with Kanye West for the final episodes of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” Page Six has exclusively learned. A source with knowledge of their show — which is ending after more than a decade-long run and 20 seasons on E! later this year — said the disintegration of Kim and Kanye’s marriage will feature heavily in the final storyline as they make their exit from the reality show.

The source said, “the Kardashians intend to go out with a bang. They’ve filmed Kim discussing her marriage problems. But everybody involved is on a nondisclosure agreement, because the finale won’t screen until later in 2021.”

What is not clear is how much participation the E! show got from Kanye amid his separation from Kim. A separate source said Kanye is fine with his upcoming divorce. “He understands Kim’s side has to spin that she is sick of him. In reality, he’s been sick of being involved with [the] Kardashians for a long while. Especially her mother, who looms large in all big decisions she makes.”

West, the source added, “seems to be enjoying the brouhaha surrounding his divorce. He is quite familiar with what the Kardashian public relations machine is capable of, and thinks it’s funny that her team is blaming his presidential run on the marriage disintegration.”

[From Page Six]

So, again, KUWTK is not going to show “fights” between Kanye or Kim, just like they never really showed the extent of Kanye’s mental illness, nor did they exploit Kanye by putting him on camera when he was manic. What it sounds like – the big reveal, per sources – is that Kim will be speaking on camera about how her marriage is over. Maybe they’ll even do a set-up where Kim is talking to her mom or Khloe about it. It’s not even clear to me that Kanye will be on-camera at all, especially since he’s been living in Wyoming for the past year?

Sources also say that Kanye is “less than thrilled” about KUWTK covering the divorce. Again, I have to wonder if A) he really cares and B) he’s even on camera at all? I’ll criticize Kim freely about lots of things, but here’s my super bold take: she has every right to talk about HOW SHE FEELS about getting a divorce, and she has every right to do that for her reality show. I’m not really seeing why any of this is evil or anything. Manipulative? Sure, maybe. But what did people expect?

Photos courtesy of WENN, social media.

The fact that Casey Affleck is still out here making movies and promoting them is proof that cancel culture has no real consequences. It’s just something that a-holes complain about because they don’t want to be called out for being awful people and having terrible opinions. Casey, who has been sued by two different women for sexual harassment and is still conducting lighthearted interviews, was asked about the fact that he was thought to be the person throwing out the lifesize cardboard cutout of Ana de Armas. If you’re not familiar with that, here’s the tweet:

UPDATE: The person throwing away the Ana de Armas cutout is allegedly Ben Affleck’s brother, Oscar-winning actor Casey Affleck. https://t.co/4va2EcyZSt

— Ana de Armas Updates (@ArmasUpdates) January 19, 2021

After that tweet came out outlets noticed that the guy was wearing a shirt from a landscaping company so it was more likely that Casey’s brother, Ben, asked a worker to get rid of it. The landscaper does look like Casey, I see it. For someone who hates being talked about Ben Affleck sure doesn’t act like it. He had to have known that the cutout stunt would make headlines. (We talk about this in our podcast coming out Sunday morning, check it out!)

Casey told ET he’s not sure if Ben and Ana will get back together but that she’s a great actress and person and he thinks she’ll win an Oscar this year. Plus he’s been single in lockdown and doesn’t recommend it.

“No, that’s not me, and I can’t even really say if they have totally broken up for good or whatever. I would leave that to them to speak to,” Casey told ET’s Rachel Smith. “A bunch of people sent that picture to me and I was gonna tweet some, like, joke, response or something. And then I couldn’t think of one and a joke didn’t seem appropriate. And I don’t have Twitter so that wasn’t going to work. But it definitely wasn’t me.”

“The reality is, I think that this year has been really hard on people in relationships. I wouldn’t know because I’ve been single, but I bet there are a lot of people that have, you know, it’s been challenging to relationships,” he continued. “And I think that Ana is just the sweetest, funniest, smartest, most charming person. I think she won’t have any problems meeting somebody else.”

Casey also raved over Ana’s acting skills, going so far as to predict that she’ll “win an Oscar next year.”

“I saw her performance as Marilyn Monroe in this movie called Blonde, which hasn’t come out, and I would bet a lot that she’s gonna pick up every single award,” he explained. “She’s gonna have a good year. I’m not too worried about her.”

“I think she’s a catch in every way. And I’ll be there to carry Ben through it, but I don’t think he’ll have any problems [either],” he added. “My advice to them would be like, ‘Yes, think long and hard about it, because quarantine is not fun if you’re single.’”

When asked if Ana and Ben could reconcile, Casey told ET that he has “no idea,” but will “be sorry if it doesn’t work out.”

“I think she’s really, really great,” he raved. “People don’t know her too well because she hasn’t, like, been out there [in the spotlight] for so long. But she’s just incredibly sweet, such a sweet person and so talented.”

[From ET Online]

He says on one hand that Ana will meet someone else and on the other that she might get back with Ben. It sounds like Casey and Ben don’t talk much. You also know that Ben is not happy that Casey is talking on his behalf. GMAFB with this lonely dude act. At least he’s not complaining about the way the press treated him after we learned he was an abuser. Maybe that’s because he barely faced any consequences, although I like to think women who might have otherwise dated him have steered clear. He should give his brother advice on how to deal with the media.

photos credit: Avalon.red and Backgrid

Last week came the rumor that No Time to Die, the Bond film that started the chain reaction of shifting release dates last year, would move once again from its April 2021 release date. Well, it’s happened, and No Time to Die has moved to October 8, 2021, which will make this movie almost two entire …

I’ve been a Democrat for as long as I can remember, but even I sometimes get mad at the Democratic Party for not holding well-earned grudges and exercising punitive measures on Republicans who will continue to screw us over every chance they get. The Trump years were traumatic especially because Congressional Republicans were in lockstep with him 99% of the time. Mitch McConnell wielded his Senate Majority Leader position to screw over President Obama’s presidency, then Mitch pushed through Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, two of the most appalling SCOTUS choices ever. Barrett was pushed through just weeks before the election. All that and a million other examples of McConnell and the Republican Senate caucus screwing over progress, all because they had a narrow grip on power.

Well, now the Democrats have a narrow hold on the Senate. We have the majority in the House. We have the presidency, and we fought hard for all of it. So of course, McConnell wants to suddenly remember Senate-minority rights and the sanctity of the filibuster. F–k that noise. And guess what? Democrats might actually be ready to tell the Turtleman to eat sh-t.

Senate Democrats are signaling they will reject an effort by Mitch McConnell to protect the legislative filibuster as part of a deal to run a 50-50 Senate, saying they have little interest in bowing to his demands just hours into their new Senate majority.

McConnell has publicly and privately pressed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to work to keep the 60-vote threshold on most legislation as part of their power-sharing agreement. Democrats have no plans to gut the filibuster further, but argue it would be a mistake to take one of their tools off the table just as they’re about to govern. Many Democrats argue that having the threat of targeting the filibuster will be key to forcing compromise with reluctant Republicans. They also believe it would show weakness to accede to McConnell’s demand as he’s relegated to minority leader.

“Chuck Schumer is the majority leader and he should be treated like majority leader. We can get sh-t done around here and we ought to be focused on getting stuff done,” said Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.). “If we don’t, the inmates are going to be running this ship.”

“It would be exactly the wrong way to begin,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). “We need to have the kind of position of strength that will enable us to get stuff done.”

Four years ago, as McConnell himself came under pressure from former President Donald Trump to gut the filibuster, 61 senators signed a letter to Senate leaders emphasizing the importance of protecting the supermajority requirement. And even now Democrats like Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia say they want to keep the filibuster, emphasizing that it drives compromise.

[From Politico]

Obviously, I’m not a Senate parliamentarian, but I do think that after years of Mitch McConnell playing his Treason Turtle games as majority leader, no one should give two sh-ts about his threats, pleas or turtle tears. F–k sh-t up, get sh-t passed with a simple majority, you know, the way things used to be done before the GOP became the Party of Sedition.

In early 2017, Republicans ‘broke the filibuster rule’ to install a Trump-appointed right-wing Supreme Court justice after stonewalling President Obama’s moderate nominee for the best part of a year, and as far as I can tell they remain absolutely thrilled about doing it. https://t.co/ZaqCPxEbUz

— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) January 22, 2021

Democrats in the Senate majority represent 41 million more people than Republicans.

Why aren’t we able to legislate like it? Because the filibuster—a Jim Crow-era relic which is nowhere in the Constitution—gives Mitch McConnell a pocket veto.

Eliminate the filibuster.

— Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) January 22, 2021

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

On Inauguration Day, I watched part of it on MSNBC and most of it online, on the NBC YouTube live stream, which worked really well as I was writing and editing at the same time. I imagine many people were doing the same – watching on a combination of TV and live streams. And yet… President Biden’s inauguration still scored better TV ratings than Donald Trump’s “American Carnage” Struggle Inaugural in 2017. Hahahahahaha.

President Biden’s inaugural address on Wednesday attracted about a million and a half more viewers than tuned in for Donald J. Trump’s inaugural speech four years ago, according to preliminary data from Nielsen. Nearly 40 million people watched Mr. Biden’s address on the major cable news stations and the three big broadcast networks. In 2017, 38.3 million viewers watched his predecessor’s first speech as president, the Nielsen data shows.

CNN was the ratings leader, drawing roughly 10 million viewers from roughly 11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., when Mr. Biden took center stage. Only 2.7 million watched Mr. Biden’s address on Fox News, the lowest of the major networks and a sharp reversal from four years ago, when nearly 12 million viewers tuned in to Mr. Trump’s preferred cable news network.

Although significantly pared down because of the coronavirus pandemic, the ceremony had more star power than in 2017. Lady Gaga sang the national anthem, and Jennifer Lopez performed “This Land Is Your Land” shortly before Mr. Biden was sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts. Jackie Evancho, a former contestant on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” sang the national anthem at Mr. Trump’s inauguration four years ago.

The numbers held steady for Mr. Biden’s festivities throughout Wednesday. From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., an average combined audience of 29.4 million viewers were watching the six networks on Wednesday, versus the 27 million who watched four years ago. In the five-hour block, CNN had the biggest audience (7.7 million viewers) among the major broadcast and cable networks, and Fox News had the smallest (2.1 million).

[From The NY Times]

Does this really matter? Of course not. We only care because Donald Trump and his fascist minions were obsessed with always being Bigly, the most-watched, the “strongest,” the biggest spectacle. And it turns out, more people wanted to see a humble, nice old guy from Delaware make a speech about how we should be decent to one another. Plus, Lady Gaga. I’m sure people tuned in to see Gaga, J.Lo and that other rock star, Kamala Harris. Anyway, I’m sure the viewership was even bigger once they take into account live streams, so there. F–k you Donald Trump.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

Dear Gossips, The Outfit of the Week and, so far, the Outfit of the Year, was worn on Inauguration Day this week, when Joe Biden became President of the United States and Kamala Harris was officially sworn in as Vice President. This outfit, and obviously the person wearing it, caused an immediate fr…

It’s been a good week. We kicked the tiny fist man out of the White House. Michelle Obama stole the show looking like a plum Avenger. Seeing all the girl power on the inauguration stage just made me giddy. And I thought my week, nay my month, was absolutely made. Until I woke up to the headline that Netflix has officially announced that Bridgerton has been renewed for a second season. The second installment will follow the story of Anthony, the eldest Bridgerton. Netflix confirmed this in their press release with a letter from Lady Whistledown. Kathryn Drysdale, who plays Genevieve Delacroix the owner of Modiste, says that Season two will definitely follow the love life of Anthony Bridgerton, played by Jonathan Bailey. She says that Jonathan will be able to hold our attention in season two as he is sexy and a very good actor. Below is more on the story via The Hollywood Reporter:

Netflix noted that the Shondaland drama was on pace to be seen by 63 million households across its first 28 days of release. While the company, like other streamers, does not release traditional viewership data, it counts two minutes — aka long enough to illustrate the choice to watch was intentional — as a view.

Bridgerton has an impressive 90 percent and 83 percent rating among critics and viewers, respectively, on RottenTomatoes.com. The drama starring Regé-Jean Page and Phoebe Dynevor serves as Rhimes’ first show for Netflix after the Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal creator departed her longtime home at ABC for a five-year, $100 million overall deal with the streamer in 2017.

Through the pact, Rhimes and producing partner Betsy Beers have big plans for Shondaland at Netflix and are prepping multiple other projects, including the Anna Delvy drama, Inventing Anna, which is due this year. Other titles in the works include Recursion, The Warmth of Other Suns, Reset, The Residence, anthology Notes on Love and a film and TV universe collaboration with Matt Reeves (The Batman).

As for Bridgerton, showrunner Chris Van Dusen (Scandal) has a long-term plan in place and hopes the drama runs eight seasons — one for each book in author Quinn’s series. Season two is expected to be based on Quinn’s The Viscount Who Loved Me.

[From The Hollywood Reporter]

OMG I get to see more of Rege-Jean and I am here for it. Hopefully, Bridgerton being renewed for a second season won’t ruin Rege’s chances for at least a cameo in the next installment of the Bond Series. Although Anthony is my least favorite Bridgerton (he is such a bore), I am hoping they cast a dark-skinned Black woman or South Asian woman for his love interest, Kate Sheffield. I think that would balance the lack of dark-skinned folks being love interests in the first season of the show. With that being said, whomever they choose for Kate will definitely need to be as charming as Rege to offset Anthony’s stale personality. That’s not to take away from actor Jonathan Bailey, whom I think is a great actor. But the writers in season 1 didn’t give Jonathan much to work with. Hopefully, Anthony will be developed more and his personality fleshed out in Season 2. I also know that the Duke doesn’t make much of an appearance in the second book but I hope the writers find a way to bring back the Duke so I can at least enjoy the show.

My week has been made. I am excited that my favorite obsession will continue. And if Production Weekly’s report is correct, season 2 of Bridgerton will begin filming in March, in England if the pandemic allows. All I can say is 2022 is looking up. I will get seasons 2 of Bridgerton AND The Witcher.

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Photos via Instagram and also credit Liam Daniel/Netflix

We’re in the midst of another royal era where, I’m sure, we’ll be told that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are Zooming their fingers to the bone. Since before Christmas, William and Kate have been in lockdown at Anmer Hall. This is after their Covid Choo Choo superspreader tour, after which (no coincidence!) many parts of the UK went into strict lockdown protocols. So Will and Kate are unable to be keen out in the open air, breathing their keenness on children and frontline workers. Poor sausages have to do two Zoom calls a week and I’m sure we’ll be hearing about it for MONTHS.

Anyway, the Duchess of Cambridge did a video this week where she thanked NHS staff from he University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, specifically the nurses. It’s a nice thing to do and I’m sure the staffers loved chatting with Kate, but most of the headlines today are about Kate’s hair and styling. Ooof.

Her hair does look nice? I prefer it without all of the bells and whistles and sausage curls. A clip of this conversation was posted on the Kensington Palace social media accounts, but I much prefer the full video which was released, Kate comes across much better. You can see that she’s consulting notes and talking points, but she does seem to be engaged in the conversation. It’s also notable to see… um, where in Anmer Hall these Zoom calls are taking place. The Cambridges really are keen to copy that other couple, you know? Kate especially liked the couch set-up that Meghan was using for her videos and Zoom calls.

Last week, the Cambridges did another Zoom call to launch a Bereavement support line. This video is poorly edited, my God. Good cause, but yeesh.

Bereavement is never easy, especially for frontline workers during these unprecedented times.

It is so important to have services like Just ‘B’, who provide a listening ear for those coping with the loss of colleagues, loved ones, and people they care for. pic.twitter.com/5pmr0IiNDw

— The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) January 15, 2021

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Kensington Palace.