Harrison Ford genuinely loves to work, but I think he’s avoided working at various points in his career simply because he hates promoting his projects. If every promotional spot was, like, the Graham Norton Show, Harrison would probably be more involved in promo. But still, he tries to play the game and when he doesn’t feel like it, he goes full curmudgeon. Harrison is currently promoting the new season of Shrinking, one of his few forays into episodic television. He enjoys the show, he enjoys his character, he loves the writing, and so he’s actually giving interviews to promote it. He recently chatted with GQ, and I was charmed by this piece:

How ‘Shrinking’ fans interact with him: “What they have to say is really unusual in my experience. What they have to say is thank you. They say, “Thank you. We love this show.” They don’t want anything. They don’t want an autograph, they don’t want a picture. They just want to share their pleasure in the experience. That’s something different to what the usual exchange is with a stranger.”

His great run of “dad thrillers” in the 1990s: “It was a very different period in our culture. It was a very different period in the movie business. There was a discernible zeitgeist, and the movies seemed to capture that. It was a street that ran both ways—there was a very close connection between movies and the culture. It was a time when many of our extraordinary filmmakers were still working, the Pollacks and Pakulas and even some guys whose names didn’t start with a P. I was lucky enough to have come up in that period of time, and so I got the chance to work with those guys. To me, that was the extraordinary thing about that time—that I had these incredible guys to work with. It was a great period of my life and I’m really grateful for it.

How those kinds of “adult movies” have basically disappeared: “Actually I feel bad for us. I feel bad that we don’t have these stories around us in the world. I mean, it seems this is a particularly bizarre period of human history, I believe. I certainly hope. I hope that we’ll get through it and begin talking to each other instead of at each other. We will begin to work our way through the international issues and the political issues and all this sh-t soup we’re living in…You can’t sit around talking about how great it was in the past. You’ve just got to make something better in the present. That’s all. I’m not that guy.

On the Red Hulk stuff for Marvel: “I mean, this is the Marvel universe and I’m just there on a weekend pass. I’m a sailor new to this town. Show me the way to go home. I understand the appeal of other kinds of films besides the kind we made in the ’80s and ’90s. I don’t have anything general to say about it. It’s the condition our condition is in, and things change and morph and go on. We’re silly if we sit around regretting the change and don’t participate. I’m participating in a new part of the business that, for me at least, I think is really producing some good experiences for an audience. I enjoy that.

How he chooses his projects at this point of his life: “It’s the quality of writing. It doesn’t matter what the genre is. It doesn’t matter whether it’s on television or in movies. It’s the writing, it’s the story, it’s the character, it’s the emotional experience for an audience or for myself. It’s people that I have some feeling that I want to work with, or it’s a quality opportunity. I suppose I should be sitting on my ass, but I actually love working.”

Getting young people involved in aviation: “It’s a great job and it’s become a field where there’s a great demand for pilots. We’ve been talking about the failure to train American pilots. America trains more foreign pilots than they do American pilots. I’m not being xenophobic here. It’s not about having to fly with American pilots. It’s just that we’ve known for a long time that we needed to train more pilots, and we have done that successfully now. Pilots are making a wonderful living when, 15 years ago, they weren’t doing so well at the beginning of their careers. But it’s a great career, and I just encourage people that are interested in it to give it a go.

On the “death of the movie star” conversation: “Oh, I think it’s rubbish. I don’t think the question is whether or not there are any movie stars. There’s wonderful actors coming up every day. Whether or not they become movie stars is really not the point. If movies need stars, they will find them. I’ve never f–king understood being a movie star. I’m an actor. I tell stories. I’m part of a group of people who work together, collaborate on telling stories. I’m an assistant storyteller. That’s what I am.

[From GQ]

I love what he says about movie stars and the great people coming up – that was incredibly generous of him, even if I think it’s true that there are not many real “movie stars” left. He never thought of himself as a movie star though – he always wanted to be an actor, a storyteller, an artistic collaborator. Harrison’s run in the ‘90s really was unmatched – he made banger after banger, films for adults and some of the greatest dad movies of all time. The thing about Marvel films is one of the better explanations I’ve heard from an actor joining the comic-book movie ranks. He’s just like… this is what was out there, so I’m giving it a shot, maybe someone will enjoy it. I also didn’t know that America trains more foreign pilots than American pilots??

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

For close to two years, the Heritage Foundation has been suing the Department of Homeland Security to get their hands on Prince Harry’s visa application. Heritage claims they need to see Harry’s visa documents to determine if Harry “lied” about drug use, and if he lied, Heritage would then lead the charge to deport Harry. Lying on a visa application is a really serious thing and it could absolutely lead to deportation. So it’s curious that Heritage doesn’t have that same energy for a South African MAGA douche who pals around with Vladimir Putin.

Elon Musk could have his United States citizenship revoked and be exposed to criminal prosecution if he lied to the government as part of the immigration process, according to legal experts.

Musk, who was born and raised in South Africa and later emigrated to Canada before eventually settling in the US and becoming a citizen, has spent more than $100 million to support Donald Trump and his nativist presidential campaign, and has personally demonized immigrants. A recent Bloomberg analysis found, for example, that Musk has posted around 1,300 times on X this year about immigration and voter fraud. Many of those posts promote the “great replacement” conspiracy theory, which falsely holds that Democrats seek to replace white voters with unauthorized immigrants whose votes they control, and depicts immigrants as dangerous lawbreakers.

Earlier this week, though, The Washington Post reported that Musk was himself an immigrant who had apparently broken the law. In the 1990s, he worked illegally in the United States, according to the Post, which cited “former business associates, court records and company documents.” In 1995, according to the Post, Musk was admitted to graduate school at Stanford but didn’t enroll in classes, instead working on an online services startup that would eventually be known as Zip2. (Stanford did not reply to requests for comment.) In 1996, the Post reported, investors made a funding agreement contingent on Musk and his brother Kimbal—who has stated that the brothers were “illegal immigrants”—obtaining authorization to work in the US within 45 days. “Their immigration status was not what it should be for them to be legally employed running a company in the US,” Zip2 board member Derek Proudian told the Post.

Musk denies that he ever worked illegally in the US. (His lawyer, Alex Spiro, and a spokesperson for X, which he owns, did not reply to requests for comment.) He claims that in 1995, as a student, he was in the US on a J-1 visa, which then “transitioned” to an H1-B visa. As the Post reported, though, in a 2005 email that was entered into evidence in a since-closed defamation lawsuit in California, he wrote that he had applied to Stanford because he otherwise had “no legal right to stay in the country.” Musk then reportedly didn’t enroll at Stanford, instead working on the project that would become Zip2.

Someone present in the US on a student visa who didn’t enroll in courses would have had no right to work at the time and would have had to leave the country, according to experts WIRED consulted. (He did ultimately receive work authorization in 1997.)

Overstaying a student visa was, and to a much lesser extent still is, relatively common. Working without authorization and lying about it during the immigration process would be, however, a black-letter violation of US law carrying significant penalties, albeit one enforced fairly rarely, say experts.

[From Wired]

Several weeks ago, Musk said that if Donald Trump doesn’t win, he (Musk) will get thrown in jail. There’s an abundance of evidence of Musk’s criminality, from the Putin collusion to his Starlink bullsh-t harming Ukraine, to his election interference on behalf of Trump. But what if his citizenship was all based on lies? LMAO. Deport him.

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Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Getty.

In 2022, Prince Harry attended the Super Bowl with his cousin Princess Eugenie. The Super Bowl was held in LA that year, and a good time was had by all. Months later, Prince William and Kate traveled to Boston for the Earthshot Awards, and Kensington Palace would not shut up about how this would be “William’s Super Bowl moment.” It was widely mocked at the time, especially since the prize ceremony that year was poorly attended and a giant nothingburger. Going from memory, William and his staffers mostly avoided the Super Bowl references last year, when Earthshot went to Singapore. But they’re back this year. Kensington Palace organized several “Earthshot previews” in friendly media outlets, and wouldn’t you know, the Super Bowl is mentioned frequently:

Prince William is preparing for his “Superbowl moment” — his annual star-studded Earthshot Prize Awards ceremony, which promises to be even bigger (and greener!) this year.

A vast, reusable Superdome arena will seat 2,000 people for the fourth iteration of the Prince of Wales’ Earthshot Prize Awards, the centerpiece of William’s visit to South Africa, which begins Monday, Nov. 4. The green carpet at this year’s event is set to be the longest ever seen, organizers predict.

It is on that carpet in Cape Town, South Africa on Wednesday, Nov. 6, that perhaps the biggest impact will be had: The Earthshot Prize hopes to highlight how fast fashion has brought damaging consequences to Africa, where millions of garments are buried in landfills every year.

Hosted by Nigerian TV presenter Ebuka Obi-Uchendu and South African rapper and host Nomuzi Mabena, the 90-minute pre-show green carpet, which is being broadcast live on YouTube for the first time, will have a focus on dressing to celebrate sustainably, says Hannah Jones, CEO of The Earthshot Prize.

[From People]

Hello Magazine, GB News and the Daily Mail also prominently featured “Super Bowl moment” in their preview coverage of William’s trip next week. It’s sad, honestly. He’s too stupid (??) and unimaginative to compare this to an actual awards show, like the “Oscars of environmental prizes” or “the Nobel Awards for green tech.” He’s so sick with jealousy for Harry’s life and so needy of American attention, he’s screaming “THIS IS LIKE THE SUPER BOWL.”

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Other than Kamala Harris’s team, I’m not sure who watched or listened to JD Vance’s interview with Joe Rogan on Thursday. Kamala HQ did more to spread clips of the interview than any other social media account. In the final days, it definitely seems like Harris’s campaign is like “no, listen to what these men are actually saying.” For the Trump campaign, Vance’s interview was probably intended as a do-over, considering Trump’s Rogan interview was such a catastrophe. The only reason Trump’s Swiss-cheese-brain utterances on Rogan’s show weren’t headline news for days is because few people cared enough to listen to the whole damn thing. I assume the same is true of this Vance interview.

Vance suggested that wealthy parents might go so far as to coerce their children to undergo gender surgeries to get into better colleges and universities.

“If you are a middle-class or upper-middle class white parent, and the only thing that you care about is whether your child goes into Harvard or Yale, obviously that pathway has become a lot harder for a lot of upper-middle class kids,” he said, adding that “the one way that those people can participate in the DEI bureaucracy in this country is to be trans.”

Vance later argued that he wouldn’t be surprised if Trump won “the normal gay guy vote because again, they just wanted to be left the hell alone.”

Vance told Rogan that he was mini golfing with his family in Ohio when he learned that Trump had been shot in the ear during his Butler, Pa. rally in June.

“I actually thought they had killed him because when you first see the video he grabs his ear and then he goes down,” Vance recalled after seeing the video of Trump’s July 13 rally. “I’m like, ‘Oh my God, they just killed him.’ At first I was so pissed, but then I go into like fight or flight mode. I grab my kids up, throw them in the car, go home and load all my guns. And basically stand like a sentry in our front door, and that was my reaction to it.”

[From USA Today]

Ah, yes, every middle-class white parent is like “my child must become trans to get into Harvard.” That’s absolutely 100% a thing which is happening all over the country, thanks, JD. The sh-t about Vance racing home from mini-golf to load his guns when Trump was “shot” is a bonkers story too. As for the “normal gay guy vote” – lmao, Vance thinks he appeals to gay men, doesn’t he?

Some clips of Vance’s interview:

Rogan: Roe was the law of the land and all of a sudden that had been taken away and you have these men trying to dictate what women can and cannot do with their bodies

Vance: Yeah, yeah… but you have women who go too far and try to celebrate it

Rogan: Very few do that pic.twitter.com/Yb7xmPMq74

— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 31, 2024

Rogan: The concern is men are making decisions on what women can do. Some states have extreme laws that put women in vulnerable positions and if they go to another state, they could then be prosecuted. It’s concerning

Vance: I haven’t heard of this as something that actually… pic.twitter.com/fzjMEMyML6

— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 31, 2024

WATCH: A CNN panel laughs hysterically at JD Vance telling Joe Rogan he and Trump will win “normal gay guys”, and parents are making their kids trans to get them into good colleges pic.twitter.com/oqkTW82WaK

— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) November 1, 2024

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.

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Yeah, I don’t even know what to say about this. I can’t even keep up with the sheer volume of “bad” stories about and for Donald Trump at this point. But let’s get into this – so, you know how Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were super-tight? You know how Epstein used Mar-a-Lago as a hunting ground to prey on girls? You know how Trump and Epstein used to party together? You know how Epstein was arrested by the feds and Trump immediately panicked and sent his Attorney General to speak to Epstein face-to-face in jail and Epstein died mysteriously not long after that? Well, according to journalist Michael Wolff, he has hours of Epstein tapes where Epstein talks about how he’s still in communication with Trump when Trump was in the White House. Epstein also told Wolff that he had photos of Trump with underage girls.

Michael Wolff, the explosive chronicler of Donald Trump’s four years in the White House, has released what he says is a recording of Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019, discussing Trump’s then-White House team in detail. Wolff released the tape on his podcast, Fire and Fury. He says it was made in a restaurant in 2017, most probably in the SoHo branch of Ladurée, a patisserie in Manhattan. Epstein can be heard speaking over the din of diners.

“His people fight each other,” Epstein tells Wolff on the recording, “and then he [Trump] poisons the well outside. He will tell ten people ‘Bannon’s a scumbag’ and ‘Priebus is not doing a good job’ and ‘Kellyanne has a big mouth’—what do you think? Jamie Dimon [CEO of JPMorgan Chase] says that you’re a problem and I shouldn’t keep you. And I spoke to [financier] Carl Icahn. And Carl thinks I need a new spokesperson. So Kelly[anne]—even though I hired Kellyanne’s husband—Kellyanne is just too much of a wildcard. And then he tells Bannon, you know I really want to keep you but Kellyanne hates you.”

The recording seems to show that Epstein and Trump were close enough for the disgraced sex offender to know how Trump ruled his White House: by dividing and conquering his staff.

Jeffrey Epstein showed off photos of Donald Trump with “topless young women” sitting in his lap, the controversial author Michael Wolff has alleged. [Epstein] had about half a dozen pictures which showed Trump by the pool with multiple young women, Wolff claimed on his podcast, Fire & Fury, Thursday. They were taken in the “late 90s” at Epstein’s Palm Beach home, where he victimized dozens of underage girls along with his procurer, Ghislaine Maxwell, Wolff said.

Wolff alleged that they were in Epstein’s safe, which the FBI seized when they raided his homes in New York and Palm Beach in July 2019. The massive haul of evidence taken by the feds has never been made public–and while prosecutors disclosed after the raid that they had “hundreds of photos of girls and young women,” they have never offered any more details of them.

[From The Daily Beast]

While I have issues with Wolff and I definitely think it’s gross/weird that he waited this long to make this reveal, I’m not really surprised by any of this information. It sounds credible, it’s believable that Trump and Epstein were still in contact as late as 2017/2018. It’s believable that Trump abused girls at Epstein’s Florida compound. It’s believable that Epstein bragged about the kompromat he used to have on Trump. News at seven – birds of a feather flock together.

Michael Wolff, the explosive chronicler of Donald Trump’s four years in the White House, has released what he says is a recording of Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019, discussing Trump’s then White House team in detail.https://t.co/Uvt8g75KQY pic.twitter.com/VyM3GGWVFF

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) October 31, 2024

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Photos courtesy of Getty, Backgrid.

King Charles is supposed to be “the Defender of the Faith” of the Anglican Church. He’s always seen religion as more of a buffet though – for years, he’s legitimately done a lot of interfaith dialogue, and he’s always been pretty respectful of Britain’s multifaith society. So imagine my surprise at this story. Apparently, back in the 1990s, Charles was concerned about political correctness run amok in many Christian sects, and he thought the Orthodox Church was the only sect not corrupted by wokeism. Oh, Charles is like THAT??

The King once praised the Orthodox Church as the only Christians who are “not corrupted by loathsome political correctness”, a newly uncovered letter has revealed. In private correspondence from 1998, the then Prince of Wales admitted he felt more drawn to the “timeless traditions” of the Orthodox Church as he grew older.

Writing to his friend Dudley Poplak, the late interior designer who worked closely with the Royal family, the King said: “Personally, the older I get, the more I am drawn to the great, timeless traditions of the Orthodox Church.” He added: “They are the only ones that have not been corrupted by loathsome political correctness.”

The King, who became Supreme Governor of the Church of England upon ascending the throne like his mother before him, has always had strong ties to the Greek Orthodox Church. His father, the late Prince Philip, was baptised a Greek Orthodox, although he later converted to Anglicanism before marrying Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen. To mark his paternal heritage, the monarch had a choir perform Psalm 71 in Greek at his Coronation last May. He has also been seeking support and spiritual advice from Archimandrite Ephraim, a Greek Orthodox monk, in the wake of his cancer diagnosis earlier this year.

In 2004, it was claimed that he was so enamoured with the Orthodox faith that he adorned a section of his Highgrove home with prized Byzantine icons, many said to originate from the Mount – the Orthodox world’s holiest site. Greek Orthodox Church worship focuses more on traditional sacrament and sacred scriptures as opposed to preaching and prayer.

The newly uncovered letter comes as the Church of England has faced accusations of being consumed by political correctness and failing to stand up for Christian values over the past 20 years. The Church has come under criticism for its diversity, equality and inclusion initiatives and, last year, faced scrutiny for the establishment of a £100 million fund to “address past wrongs of slavery” during a time of financial crisis among parishes.

[From The Telegraph]

Imagine being mad about the Anglican Church’s DEI policies. Jesus preached DEI, how woke!! As for Charles’s love of the Orthodox Church… I suspect that he gets all of that from his father. Again, it wouldn’t be a big deal – I certainly wouldn’t give a sh-t – if this was Chuck Battenberg, random German-British guy. But it looks more and more like the Windsors have no interest in the Anglican Church anymore. The king would prefer Orthodoxy and the heir isn’t religious whatsoever.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red.

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Bill and Melinda French Gates were married for 27 years before they finalized their divorce in August 2021. They had three children together, Jennifer, 27, Phoebe, 22, and Rory, 25. It was messy, and there were a lot of dramatic revelations about Bill that came out during those months in between when Melinda filed and their divorce was finalized. No one knows the exact figure, but Melinda ended up getting several billion dollars as a part of their settlement, which includes billions in stock.

Post-divorce, Melinda has continued with her philanthropy through her foundation, Pivotal Ventures. She’s also been a vocal critic of Donald Trump. In late 2022, she started dating reporter Jon Du Pre, but their relationship ended sometime earlier this year. It looks like she has a new man now, though! On Wednesday, Melinda was spotted in New York City, holding hands with her new boyfriend, an entrepreneur named Philip Vaughn, who founded a craft beer delivery service in 2011. One other fun fact about Philip: he worked for Microsoft for almost nine years in the early 2000’s.

The 60-year-old philanthropist, who divorced billionaire Bill Gates in 2021, was seen holding hands with her new boyfriend, entrepreneur Philip Vaughn, in photos exclusively obtained by Page Six.

The couple was snapped getting off a helicopter ride in New York City Wednesday morning with Vaughn exiting first and Melinda following close behind. The pair then walked hand-in-hand before getting into an awaiting SUV.

For the outing, Melinda wore dark-colored pants and a short-sleeved overcoat. She completed the look with a floral scarf around her neck and a pair of sneakers. Meanwhile, Vaughn sported an Army green T-shirt under a blue sweater and dark-colored pants.

According to Vaughn’s LinkedIn profile, he worked at Microsoft — the company Melinda’s ex-husband, Bill, co-founded, for nearly nine years. He is also the founder and chairman of Tavour, a craft beer delivery service, which was started in 2011.

Melinda’s new relationship comes three years after she and Bill, 69, announced and finalized their divorce. During a March 2022 interview with “CBS Morning,” the mom of three revealed that the tech giant’s relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as well as his affairs, played a role in their split.

“I did not like that he had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein, no. I made that clear to him,” she shared with Gayle King before adding that she met Epstein, who died by suicide in jail in August 2019, “exactly one time” because she “wanted to see who this man was.”

“I regretted it the second I walked in the door,” she explained. “He was abhorrent. He was evil personified. My heart breaks for these women.”

Bill also had a lengthy affair with one of his Microsoft staffers in 2019. However, Melinda said she and her ex had moved past his indiscretion before their divorce.

“I certainly believe in forgiveness, so I thought we had worked through some of that,” she explained to King.

“It wasn’t one moment or one specific thing that happened. There just came a point in time where there was enough there where I realized it just wasn’t healthy, and I couldn’t trust what we had.”

Following the divorce, Melinda said she and Bill remained “friendly” but certainly weren’t “friends.”

[From Page Six]

Get it, Melinda. After what Bill put her through, she seriously deserves to find someone who makes her happy and treats her like a queen. I can’t find too much info on Philip, but it looks as though, like Melinda, he’s based in the Seattle area. It’s funny that he used to work for Microsoft. I wonder if they knew each other before now, but it’s been almost 25 years since he worked for the company, so it’s probably just a coincidence. Although, it would be pretty wild if they’ve been longtime friends since his Microsoft days, and it recently turned into something more.

Anyway, I wish nothing but the best for Melinda and hope she continues to speak out in favor of reproductive rights and advocate for women and families. She and MacKenzie Scott should form their own version of the First Wives Club. It could be made up of fellow billionaire ex-wives who get revenge on their sh-tty ex-husbands by using their settlement money for good.

Melinda French Gates holds hands with new entrepreneur boyfriend Philip Vaughn as they arrive in NYC via helicopter https://t.co/bWt30Z8YnS pic.twitter.com/18KU758PWK

— Page Six (@PageSix) October 30, 2024

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Multiple things can be true about Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, all at once. She was the victim of a particularly vicious and long-running smear campaign. She was an American divorcee who was deemed unsuitable for the heir to the British throne. She had legitimate ties to Nazi officials, and she and Edward had cozy relationships with many high-ranking people in the Third Reich. Wallis probably never believed that she would cause Edward VIII’s abdication and that she and Edward would end up in exile for the rest of their lives. All of that is true, from what I’ve read over the years and from the historical record. Well, there’s a new book about Wallis called Her Lotus Year, about how a British spy planted stories about Wallis and her seductress adventures within British society:

Wallis Simpson, the American divorcee who married Edward VIII plunging the British monarchy into turmoil when he abdicated in 1936, was the victim of an extraordinary disinformation campaign. The plot was masterminded by a British spy, who characterized her as a libertine who learnt an exotic sex technique called “The Shanghai Grip” in a Chinese brothel.

A new book claims that a fabled briefing document full of salacious stories about Simpson known as the “China Dossier”—a copy of which has never been found but was allegedly passed around high society—was the work of an “incredibly powerful” intelligence officer based in Shanghai named Harry Steptoe.

Supporters of Meghan Markle, another American divorcee who married into the royal family without entirely happy consequences for the institution, are likely to see parallels with establishment efforts to discredit Wallis. Although Meghan was outwardly welcomed into the family, Meghan herself complained that she was the victim of a “smear campaign” when she was accused of bullying by palace operatives, and her and Prince Harry have both alleged that the media have long colluded with the palace to sully their reputations.

Simpson lived in China in 1924 with her first husband, Earl Winfield Spencer Jr, whom she split from while living there. She subsequently spent several months in the country as a single woman. A report in The Times of London says that the titillating tales in the dossier included claims that Wallis, when living in China, had been a p–n model and had visited brothels to learn a sex technique supposedly called “the Shanghai grip.”

The carefully planned sexist and racist slanders are described in the new book, Her Lotus Year, as “one of the most successful whispering campaigns of all time.” The secret of the dossier’s success, author Paul French says in his book, was that the stories of sexual excess were all existing rumors and scandals in Chinese society which were transposed onto Wallis by the intelligence operative. The goal was to stop Edward plunging the nation into turmoil by marrying a divorcee: “They just wanted to scupper this relationship somehow,” French told The Times.

[From The Daily Beast]

“A fabled briefing document full of salacious stories about Simpson known as the “China Dossier”—a copy of which has never been found but was allegedly passed around high society…” This is what they did in the 1930s before the British media became so powerful. They created a dossier and spread it around the aristocracy. The modern version of this is the monarchy authorizing the public smear campaign on Meghan, with courtiers and royals providing off-the-record accounts of how Meghan “bullied staffers” and “made Kate cry” and “sent 5 am emails.” As for Wallis… as I said, multiple things are true at once. Wallis was the victim of a really disgusting smear campaign… but she was also a problematic woman with ties to Nazis.

Also: “The goal was to stop Edward plunging the nation into turmoil by marrying a divorcee: ‘They just wanted to scupper this relationship somehow.’” That was also the goal of the smearing of Meghan, by the way. A century later, and it’s still the same fundamental play, to smear the American woman in the hope that they can somehow convince a prince not to marry someone they don’t like. In some ways, Harry’s marriage to Meghan was not as high-stakes as Edward marrying Wallis a year before England got pulled into WWII. In other ways, the Sussex marriage and Sussexit certainly feels more consequential in the modern era.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

We’ve said all along that Roevember Is Coming. We’ve said all along that the male politicos had completely underestimated women’s rage at our rights being stripped away by Republicans’ Christofascist anti-woman agenda. Now that Roevember Is Here, MAGA bros are shocked. They’re shocked by the gender gap in early voting, shocked by the sheer number of women who are agitated and engaged in this election and going all-in on Kamala Harris. A few days ago, I saw a right-wing commentator snorting in disgust that so many young women were single-issue voters on abortion. The data reflects that, and it’s gotten to the point where even the biggest MAGA douches are panicking:

Two of former president Donald Trump’s most prominent backers in the right wing influencer sphere fretted Wednesday after early voting numbers showed massive early turnout among women that could imperil their candidate’s path to victory.

“Male turnout in Pennsylvania for Trump has been a disaster,” tweeted Mike Cernovich on Wednesday. “Unless this changes, Kamala Harris takes PA and it’s over.”

Cernovich is a longtime far right gadfly and commentator with a massive online following. He’s been around long enough to have played a role in the anti-feminist Gamergate harassment campaign and to have helped spread the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, though has disavowed the alt-right and drifted closer to the mainstream conservative movement in recent years. (Trump’s eldest child, Donald Jr., once said he deserved a Pulitzer Prize).

When a follower questioned his assessment, Cernovich pointed out that conservative organizer Charlie Kirk, who he called “one of the most significant [get out the vote] activists in the country,” had also raised the alarm.

“Early vote has been disproportionately female,” tweeted Kirk earlier Wednesday. “If men stay at home, Kamala is president. It’s that simple.”

Preliminary data supports their concerns. A Politico analysis of early vote data in battleground states published on Tuesday showed a 10 point gender gap in early voting, with women comprising 55 percent of those who had cast ballots. Nation-wide early voting data compiled by NBC showed Thursday that, of roughly 58 million mail-in and early in-person votes cast across the country, 54 percent came from women.

National and swing state polls show Trump’s Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, with a commanding double digit lead among women voters.

“In some states women are actually exceeding their vote share from 2020, which is at this point shocking to me,” Democratic strategist Tom Bonier told Politico. “I never would have bet on that.”

In a follow up post, Cernovich praised Trump’s strategy of appearing on a string of podcasts with overwhelmingly male audiences—including the Joe Rogan Experience mocked—as a way of getting his message out without going through traditional and legacy media. But he also mocked the demographics of the podcast listenership, noting the Republican campaign should do more to reach women voters—presumably more than Trump’s babbling about how he’ll “protect” women if he gets back into the White House.

[From The Daily Beast]

We’ll have to wait until all of the election data is compiled, but my vibe is that while Trump did a “good job” in radicalizing young white men (the toxic podbro demo), the Harris-Walz campaign has actually done a good job in speaking to normcore dudes of all races about how reproductive issues will radically change their lives too. But yeah… women are mad. Women are voting in HUGE numbers. Women are not telling the men in their lives who they’re voting for either. Speaking of, this Harris-Walz ad has enraged the right. Julia Roberts did the voiceover. It’s so effective, which is why the bros are mad.

This is the excellent Julia Roberts ad that so provoked Snowflake Charlie Kirk.pic.twitter.com/KVZK6RV6So

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) October 31, 2024

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.

It has begun! It’s an annual tradition at this point, the months-long game of Is Prince Harry Coming To England For Christmas? Followed quickly with The Windsors Snubbed Harry For Christmas, which is always bizarrely followed by Harry Probably Thinks He’s Too Good To See His Father For Christmas Anyway. This will be the sixth Christmas in a row where the Sussexes have not been anywhere near Sandringham for Christmas. One holiday in Canada, and then the past five Christmases in California. I’m pretty sure Harry and Meghan have created all new Christmas traditions for themselves and their kids. And yet, the royalist commentators love nothing more than dusting off this annual tradition:

Prince Harry has reportedly not been invited to spend Christmas at Sandringham with the rest of the royal family, according to a royal expert. The Duke of Sussex last spent the festive period with his family six years ago, and has only done two with wife Meghan Markle.

Former royal correspondent Emily Andrews wrote in Woman: “Prince Harry is keen to spend the Christmas holidays in the UK with his wife and children — but Meghan wants to stay in the US. It’s a tricky time for Harry — he hasn’t spent Christmas here for six years and he could be forgiven for feeling rather lonely and estranged from his Windsor relatives.”

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have reportedly been extended an invite to spend Christmas with Harry’s uncle Charles Spencer at Althorp House in Northamptonshire. However, they would be missing out on seeing their extended family.

Emily added: “All the royals will gather at Sandringham in December, and I’m told that all the cousins, such as Eugenie, Beatrice, Zara and Peter Phillips, all look forward to the fun.”

Editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine Ingrid Seward told Fabulous: “I think the Duchess of Sussex’s views on coming back to the UK are probably pretty negative. I don’t imagine you would want to come back to a country where you are so universally disliked. And also there’s the problem of the security which is still not solved, and Harry says he won’t bring his wife and children back here until he feels that he is in a secure position. I do think that Harry and Meghan have a dilemma with their family life, because the children are getting older, and the children are probably absolutely intrigued to know what their cousins are like. They wouldn’t remember them. And I think that maybe an invitation from Charles Spencer might be attractive, and they would meet other cousins.”

Ingrid claimed that “hunkering down in California” with their kids Archie, four, and Lilibet, two, is “more their style” than coming over to England for Christmas, but added “it is possible.” She continued: “But then it’s going to raise a lot of questions. Is Harry going to see his father? Is he going to see any other members of his family? So I would think at the moment they’re undecided. They seem to make a lot of fairly last minute decisions in their lives.”

[From The Sun]

Something that just occurred to me is that the “Archie and Lili are curious about their cousins” bullsh-t is projection too. That’s all about the royal kids (maybe even the Wales kids) wondering about Uncle Harry’s children. It’s also frankly about the adult Windsors’ desire to exploit Archie and Lili by any means necessary. Please, two cute little redheads, one of whom is Diana’s only blue-eyed grandchild? They would be center-stage at any family event. Which is another reason why Harry keeps his kids far away. And all of this breast-beating about “Meghan refuses to come but Harry is keen but Charles won’t invite him!” Jesus H. I hope Harry takes his kids surfing on Christmas and there are photos and the royalists cry all day.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Archewell.