Here are more photos of King Charles and Queen Camilla in Samoa. The only thing keeping this tour from being widely criticized is the fact that most people aren’t even paying attention to Charles and Camilla. There’s been plenty of controversy, some of it even highlighted by the British media and royal rota, but it’s like they can’t even pay people to care either way. Well, let’s see if this gets picked up outside of the royalist press – King Charles made his big speech at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, his first address as the Head of Commonwealth. He did not apologize for the monarchy’s role in slavery, nor did he directly address the calls for reparations. Instead, he told people to watch their language.

King Charles backed Sir Keir Starmer in effectively ruling out reparations over slavery today, saying: ‘None of us can change the past. But we can commit, with all our hearts to learning its lessons and to finding creative ways to right inequalities that endure.’

The monarch – and new head of the Commonwealth – told its meeting of leaders in Samoa that it was important to understand and acknowledge ‘the most painful aspects of our past’.

In his first speech to the biannual congregation of leaders as the new leader of the ‘family of nations’ following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth, Charles said: ‘Since this is the first occasion on which I find myself attending this gathering of our ‘Family of Nations,’ as Head of the Commonwealth, it gives my wife and myself enormous pleasure and pride to be with you for this twenty seventh Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Together, we represent a third of humanity, with all the splendidly diverse complexity that this entails. And yet we know and understand each other, such that we can discuss the most challenging issues with openness and respect.

‘That said, our cohesion requires that we acknowledge where we have come from. I understand, from listening to people across the Commonwealth, how the most painful aspects of our past continue to resonate.’

He continued: It is vital, therefore, that we understand our history –to guide us to make the right choices in the future. Where inequalities exist, for example, in access to opportunity; to education; to skills training; to employment; to health; and to a planet in whose climate our human race can both survive and thrive, we must find the right ways, and the right language, to address them. As we look around the world and consider its many deeply concerning challenges, let us choose within our Commonwealth family the language of community and respect, and reject the language of division. None of us can change the past. But we can commit, with all our hearts to learning its lessons and to finding creative ways to right inequalities that endure.’

[From The Daily Mail]

The calls for reparations and the requests for a formal apology for slavery have been happening for years, and I always find it rather audacious for the British government and the British monarch to so consistently try to side-step both. Like, they genuinely think people will be placated with the rhetorical shrug of “None of us can change the past.” In essence, slavery happened and yes, the monarchy amassed a vast and still undisclosed fortune from chattel slavery, violent colonization and the subjugation of millions of people of color for centuries, but let’s turn the page and please don’t say mean words to me.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

I’m trying to be as peaceful and calm as possible in the final stretch of the election cycle. The media is really trying to make the “Donald Trump is finding a late surge of support” narrative happen, and I want to believe that it’s all about ratings and the tabloidization of politics. There is a larger conversation happening concurrently alongside the election/politics storyline: the conversation about how the American media is fundamentally broken and incapable of adequately informing and educating the public at this point. The past nine years, we’ve seen the American media’s inability to deal with Donald Trump. They placate him, they fetishize his cult, they soft-pedal Trump’s words and promises and they seem happy to both-sides this country into a literal fascist dictatorship. Then they wonder why Joe Biden and Kamala Harris don’t give a f–k about playing by their dipsh-t rules. Anyway, this situation came to a head on CNN last night, when Charlamagne Tha God appeared on Anderson Cooper’s show and called out CNN and the media writ large:

Charlamagne: I feel like I heard more on this network about “is Kamala Harris Black” than I do about Trump being a fascist

Cooper: That’s bullshit

Charlamagne: That’s bullshit to say you don’t have those conversations pic.twitter.com/145q2vRMMJ

— Acyn (@Acyn) October 25, 2024

“We talk about him being a threat to democracy but we don’t treat him like one” is profound. Like, Charlamagne has said some problematic sh-t in the past, but props to him for all of this, everything he says here is completely on point. Anderson Cooper doesn’t even watch his own network if he’s claiming that it’s “bullsh-t” that CNN doesn’t platform some of the stupidest MAGA talking-points out there. CNN absolutely did segments on “is Kamala Harris Black?” When Harris did an interview with CNN, she was even asked about Trump’s racist questioning of her race. Charlamagne is like: what is wrong with you people, can you focus on Trump’s literal fascism? I’d also like to add: journalism is more than just saying “Trump said this, what do you think about it?”

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

The Department of Justice sent Elon Musk a notice about his “campaign” activities in support of Donald Trump. At first, Musk was paying people hundreds of dollars to sign a pro-Trump petition, then Musk started giving away million-dollar checks to random Trump supporters in Pennsylvania. The DOJ and FEC were notified about all of Musk’s many messes and Musk has not been handing out million-dollar checks in recent days. There’s still an open question of why Musk decided, over the course of several months, to go all-in on Trump. Previously, I said that Musk is a loser and the Trump campaign is the mothership for losers. But obviously, there are other reasons. For instance, this new Wall Street Journal report that Elon Musk is in regular contact with Vladimir Putin.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a linchpin of U.S. space efforts, has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since late 2022. The discussions, confirmed by several current and former U.S., European and Russian officials, touch on personal topics, business and geopolitical tensions.

At one point, Putin asked the billionaire to avoid activating his Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, said two people briefed on the request.

Musk has emerged this year as a crucial supporter of Donald Trump’s election campaign, and could find a role in a Trump administration should he win. While the U.S. and its allies have isolated Putin in recent years, Musk’s dialogue could signal re-engagement with the Russian leader, and reinforce Trump’s expressed desire to cut a deal over major fault lines such as the war in Ukraine. At the same time, the contacts also raise potential national-security concerns among some in the current administration, given Putin’s role as one of America’s chief adversaries.

Musk has forged deep business ties with U.S. military and intelligence agencies, giving him unique visibility into some of America’s most sensitive space programs. SpaceX, which operates the Starlink service, won a $1.8 billion classified contract in 2021 and is the primary rocket launcher for the Pentagon and NASA. Musk has a security clearance that allows him access to certain classified information.

Knowledge of Musk’s Kremlin contacts appears to be a closely held secret in government. Several White House officials said they weren’t aware of them. The topic is highly sensitive, given Musk’s increasing involvement in the Trump campaign and the approaching U.S. presidential election, less than two weeks away.

[From WSJ]

WSJ points out that Musk has a high-level security clearance because of SpaceX and his relationship with Putin might threaten that. What WSJ fails to mention is the fact that Musk’s relationship with Putin would explain all of the f–king bullsh-t with the Musk-owned Starlink as Ukraine defends itself from Russia’s invasion and war. Musk refused to allow Ukraine to use Starlink late last year as they attacked Russian forces. It also appears that Musk has given Russia access, however limited, to Starlink, in violation of some significant sanctions. Musk’s communications with Putin explain a lot about how Russia is able to block Ukraine’s access to Starlink. And that’s before we even touch the rampant Russian propaganda farms operating freely on Musk-owned Twitter. Y’all pointed out that Elon is technically a dual citizen of South Africa and the US. Good – that will make the treason indictment a lot easier.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

This week, Netflix finally dropped the one-sheet poster and the full-length trailer for Pablo Larrain’s Maria, starring Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas. The poster is GORGEOUS and so, so striking. Before you watch the trailer, let me just remind everyone that Angelina actually trained for months with an “opera coach” so that she could sing some of Callas’ most famous performances. Then Larrain had Jolie’s vocals mixed with the Callas recordings, so that you can hear some of Jolie’s voice in there too. Within the trailer, I hear Callas but not Jolie. But the performance, from what we can see here, is incredible. Angelina is playing her age as well – she’s no longer the ingenue and no longer the badass action star. She’s a woman who is nearly 50 years old, playing (for the most part) an opera singer in her 50s.

A few superficial things… the wig work is fantastic. When you go back and look at Callas’ hair and hairstyles, they really did a good job on Jolie’s wigs. Secondly, the period clothing is magnificent. I wonder if Angelina was allowed to keep some of it, because it looks amazing on her. Anyway, for Oscar eligibility, Maria will get a limited theatrical run starting in late November, then it will stream on Netflix starting December 11.

Photos courtesy of Netflix, Cover Images.

It’s been a rough few weeks in royal gossip. While there’s plenty to discuss with King Charles and Queen Camilla’s current flop tour, Prince William and Kate have disappeared. The Sussexes have as well, although the usual suspects can’t take Harry and Meghan’s names out of their mouths. But the Wales kids are on their school holiday, and William and Kate use their kids’ school holidays to disappear every single time. All of which to say, the royalist press is getting really desperate for any kind of content, which is why they’re running stories about Kate’s princess jeggings. This new People Mag exclusive is a next-level “we’re desperate for anything about Kate” story though. Remember Kate’s bonkers DIY Hobby Lobby headpiece at last year’s coronation? Well, People has a hilarious interview with Jess Collett, who designed the custom headpiece, at great expense – Kate reportedly spent £32,000 on the headpiece alone. Sorry, according to Collett, it is a “tiara” not a headpiece.

In the world of millinery, designing a tiara for a future Queen is a life-defining moment. That was the task at hand for Jess Collett, the British hatmaker who was chosen to create one-of-a-kind headpieces for both Kate Middleton and Princess Charlotte for King Charles’ coronation on May 6, 2023.

While there was much speculation in the weeks leading up to the big day as to whether Kate would wear something befitting her status as future Queen — guests were asked to wear hats or fascinators to the event, and PEOPLE learned several weeks before the event that Kate was unlikely to wear a traditional tiara — Collett says there was never any doubt in her head what she was creating.

“It was a tiara that I made for the princess, but it was very much based on a piece that I have called ‘The Golden Crown’ — a band of leaves made from gold leather,” she tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview. Of “The Golden Crown,” which has been on display in her Notting Hill atelier, “When people wear it, and many people have hired it, they always tell me after that they felt fabulous and radiant from inside,” Collett adds.

Constructed from silver leaves made from tulle, the tiara sparkled bright thanks to the tiny crystals scattered amongst the delicate leaves, each one hand embroidered with real silver thread. The striking design was considered a triumph, even by Collett’s children.

“We were at home watching it from the sofa, in my pajamas with my family. When Catherine arrived, I just … even my children went, ‘Oh wow, Mum, it looks really good.’ And you know children are not afraid to tell the truth!” Collett says. “It was so exciting and nerve-wracking, but everything I have ever dreamed of.”

While the coronation was the first time Collett worked with the Princess of Wales, 42, she’s certainly hoping it won’t be the last. “I remember thinking at the time, ‘Well, I won’t have to do this again, because she’ll be wearing the actual crown next time!’ ” Collett says. “But she always looks good. She’s confidant in her style and she’s so graceful — she’s really grown into the role.”

[From People]

As GB News points out, Kensington Palace explicitly said that Kate was not wearing a tiara and that the headpiece should not be considered a tiara. Personally, I think the confusion over what to call it is all because Camilla wanted to be the only woman dripping in stolen jewels. Camilla wanted to be the last horse standing and wear all of the diamonds she could get her hands on. I think Camilla ordered all of the royal women to not wear tiaras or lavish jewels because Camilla is also terrified of having her thunder stolen. As for Kate’s headpiece… I still find it so cheap-looking? It really does look like a fashion-school project, and I think it was really inappropriate for an occasion like the coronation.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red and Cover Images.

Tim Burton has had a retrospective museum exhibit touring for 10 years. It includes everything from drawings, paintings, character sketches, recreations of his studio, and some work from frequent film collaborators, like costume designer Colleen Atwood. There are about 600 items in total. The exhibit has gone to 14 cities in 11 countries (it was in Turin, Italy last year when he was forced to take a hiatus filming Beetlejuice Beetlejuice because of the actors strike), and is now making its last stop in his hometown of 20 years, London. The World of Tim Burton is now open at the Design Museum, features 90 new objects, and will run for six months. Tim took some time off from filming the second season of Wednesday to visit and promote the final show opening. He talked to BBC News about what makes him depressed (the Internet), what makes him happy (clouds and dinosaur models), and the humane emotions of monsters:

The internet makes him short circuit: “If I look at the internet, I found that I got quite depressed,” the 66-year-old said. “It scared me because I started to go down a dark hole. So I try to avoid it, because it doesn’t make me feel good.” … Reflecting on his use of the internet, Burton said: “I get depressed very quickly, maybe more quickly than other people. But it doesn’t take me much to start to click and start to short circuit.”

Head in the clouds: The film-maker said keeping busy and doing simple things such as looking at clouds helps him feel better. As does his collection of ten giant dinosaur models that he keeps in his backyard including a 20ft T-Rex. Burton pulls out his mobile phone and proudly shows us a picture of a 50-foot Brontosaurus. He buys the ones you find at amusement parks, adding that actor Nicolas Cage has “real ones”.

He likes monsters because they’re emotional: “It was very clear from King Kong to Frankenstein to Creature from the Black Lagoon that all the monsters were the most emotional. The humans were the ones that scared me,” he said. “They were the angry villagers in Frankenstein — like the internet — these nameless faces [Burton makes monster roaring noises] and the monster always had the most emotion and most feeling even though they’re looked upon as a certain way. “Every monster usually has some kind of pathos and some kind of humanity” that the humans lacked he added.

Hollywood is Alice in Wonderland: He admits to feeling invigorated with recent successes of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and the Netflix series Wednesday, of which he directed four episodes. “The Hollywood journey is an Alice in Wonderland kind of journey. You go up, you go down, you go sideways. That’s the way it is,” he said. “What I realize now, maybe because I’m older as well, is OK I’m just gonna do what I want. And if you want to do it, fine. If not, then you don’t have to go on this journey with me”.

Don’t ‘esque’ him! However when discussing his success, Burton tells us that he rejects the term “Burtonesque” even though it’s widely used in popular culture to describe his oeuvre. “I never liked that,” he says firmly. “I don’t want to become a thing. It’s taken me my whole life to try to be something like resembling human”.

[From BBC News]

Oh, Tim. He’s just an emotional monster trying to process his feelings through art! I don’t know how to convince kids to get off the Internet and stare at clouds instead, but it’s a very endearing image to picture mid-60’s Tim stepping outside to calm down by looking up. But really, I’m gonna need a lot more information about this model dinosaur business. He has 10 giant dinos in his city backyard?! Is he living in one of the vacant palaces? Bitches from London, is it typical to have enough outdoor space to house a dozen 20 to 50 foot tall structures? And look, as a childless dog lady, it’s been awhile since I’ve visited an amusement park. But I do not recall big dinosaurs being a part of the scenery.

Anyway, I wish I were in London to see the show. I’m a big fan of his 2D artwork, especially his sketches and watercolors. The show runs until April 21, and then it’s all over. I’m still holding out hope that the stolen Beetlejuice sculpture will finally be recovered, and join the exhibit for the last few months.

Photos credit: Lucy Harvey / Avalon

Embed from Getty Images
Broadway actress Sutton Foster has been married to screenwriter Ted Griffin since 2014. They have one child together, a seven-year-old daughter. If you aren’t familiar with Sutton’s work, she’s a big deal on Broadway. She got her big break in the early 2000s as the lead in the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. Most recently, Sutton has been starring as Princess Winnifred in the latest revival of Once Upon a Mattress. In 2022, Sutton co-starred in The Music Man with Hugh Jackman. As you know, Hugh and his wife, Deborra-Lee Furnace, announced their separation last September. At the time, there were rumors that Hugh had left Deborra-Lee for Sutton. Sutton filed for divorce this week.

“Younger” star Sutton Foster has filed for divorce from “Ocean’s Eleven” screenwriter Ted Griffin, Page Six has learned — amid buzz she is moving on with her former “The Music Man” co-star Hugh Jackman.

The “Once Upon a Mattress” star filed for uncontested divorce in New York County Supreme Court on Tuesday. Sutton and Griffin were wed in October 2014 in a private ceremony in Santa Barbara, Calif. She picked out her wedding dress on TLC’s “Say Yes to the Dress.” The pair share one child via adoption.

Rumors that the marriage was on the rocks began swirling in Broadway circles when Foster was starring in “The Music Man” with Jackman. Multiple sources have told Page Six that Foster, 49, and Jackman, 56, have fallen in love.

“They are 100 percent together and are in love and want to spend the rest of their lives together,” a source previously told Page Six.

Several sources recently told us that the pair are going strong, but have been keeping the relationship a secret and staying out of the public eye.

“They are still together,” says a source. “They go out of their way to hide it, but it’s common knowledge.”

Jackman filed for divorce from Deborra-Lee Furness, to whom he had been married for 27 years, in September 2023. They share two children.

Furness and Jackman released a joint statement saying, “We have been blessed to share almost three decades together as husband and wife in a wonderful, loving marriage. Our journey now is shifting, and we have decided to separate to pursue our individual growth.”

In December 2023, In Touch first reported that Jackman was “romancing” Foster.

[From Page Six]

My gut says that there was totally something to these “romancing” rumors. I wonder how long until we get official confirmation. I don’t know a lot about family law in New York, but according to the NY Courts website, to file for an uncontested divorce, your marriage has to be over for at least six months, and all of the disagreements about assets, custody, support, separation of property, etc. are agreed upon ahead of time. We don’t know a lot about either couples’ relationship, but it feels like all parties involved are trying to keep things from getting messy. It sounds like Sutton and Ted privately worked through all of the details before she filed. For their daughter’s sake, I hope they did.

photos credit: Joseph Marzullo / Wenn / Avalon, Robin Platzer / Twin Images / Avalon,

Hannah Waddingham wore a latex Atsuko Kudo Couture gown to the premiere of Venom: The Last Dance. Bombshell! [RCFA]
Of course Pedro Pascal & Paul Mescal kissed. Of course. [Socialite Life]
Blake Lively was hanging out with Chip & Joanna Gaines. [LaineyGossip]
Young men are actually turned off by Elon Musk’s sycophancy towards Donald Trump. Probably because Elon looked so servile & weak? [Jezebel]
The last season of What We Do In the Shadows has begun! [Pajiba]
Election-themed Jeopardy questions. [Buzzfeed]
Haley Lu Richardson stepped out in jeans designed to stop period-shaming. This is actually really cool – it’s a Kotex campaign. [JustJared]
What is Kamala Harris’s net worth? [Hollywood Life]
Netflix is making a documentary about The Jerry Springer Show. [Seriously OMG]
Grimes says she feels “less gay” after her pregnancy. [OMG Blog]

Prince Harry’s paperback edition of Spare came out this week. I haven’t been to a bookstore recently, but I absolutely believe that many bookstores will probably display the paperback edition prominently towards the front of the store. That’s mostly because the hardback was such a huge success, but Spare is still incredibly relevant today, 21 months after it was first published. The British media especially has not stopped whining about Spare in all of this time, and they keep trying to force this narrative that Harry “regrets” writing the book because he destroyed his relationships with his father and brother. The same father and brother who treated him like sh-t for years before he even published the book.

It’s also funny that Harry hasn’t given his critics anything new to whine about. He didn’t add any new chapters to Spare, nor did he edit out anything from the hardback edition. GB News hilariously tried to retread old news by suggesting that Harry “snubbed” King Charles and Prince William anew because he didn’t add their names to his dedication. Spare’s dedication still reads, “For Meg and Archie and Lili…and of course, my mother.” They’re so desperate to turn this paperback into a scandal, they’re positioning Spare against Mike Tindall’s new dumb book:

Mike Tindall is set to go head to head with Prince Harry tomorrow, with the former rugby player’s new book to be released on the same day as the Duke of Sussex’s paperback version of Spare hits shelves. Mike, who resides in Gloucestershire, is set to release ‘The Good, The Bad & The Rugby – Unleashed’ on Thursday.

The book – which he co-authored with Alex Payne and James Haskell – will give an insight into ‘the highs and lows their podcast, friendship and rugby.’ Mike – who is married to the Duke of Sussex’s cousin, Zara Tindall – revealed in the book he was teased by James, who once referenced Prince Andrew’s ‘car-crash’ Newsnight interview.

However, Harry is also putting out his paperback version of Spare on Thursday. The hardback version was originally released in the UK on January 10, 2023. The royal wrote that the book was ‘for Meg and Archie and Lili… And of course, my mother’. The Duke threw around many accusations about the Royal Family in Spare, along with alleging that he had a physical fight with his brother and heir to the throne, Prince William. He claimed in the book that the Prince of Wales grabbed him by the collar and threw him to the floor, while shattering a dog bowl with his back. William then allegedly declared: ‘I didn’t attack you, Harold.’

Harry also called his mother-in-law, Queen Camilla, ‘dangerous’ and a ‘villain’ in his memoir and alleged she had ‘sacrificed him’ to improve her reputation.

In Mike’s new book, he described joining the Royal Family in 2011 after marrying Zara and is thought to have made a dig at Meghan Markle. He said: ‘Believe it or not, marrying into the Royal Family was pretty easy for me. They were always nice to me, and I was always nice to them. Simple really.’

[From The Daily Mail]

I covered Mike Tindall’s interview with the Telegraph last week – he sounded like a meathead who couldn’t wrap his head around why Meghan was treated much differently than a white rugby douche who married an untitled royal-adjacent. Anyway, it’s really been a publishing blitz over there in recent months. Tom Parker Bowles, James Middleton and now Mike Tindall, all with books out around the same time as the Spare paperback release. Not to defend them, but I doubt James, Tom and Peter really planned it out, to have their books out at the same time. Has anyone heard anything about book sales numbers? I figured that if James or Tom’s book sold well or made it onto whatever piddling British bestseller list, the Mail would have a blaring headline about it. But it’s been really quiet, right? Almost like no one really gave a sh-t. I imagine it will be the same with Tindall’s book.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red.

The outrage machine has been working overtime on Australian Senator Lidia Thorpe all week, ever since her ballsy protest of King Charles in Australian Parliament. I feel like history will be very kind to Senator Thorpe, but in the short-term, she’s being targeted heavily by Australian and British media. She’s getting the “Full Meghan Markle” treatment. As I’ve mentioned previously, this is not Senator Thorpe’s first rodeo with the international media. In 2022, her swearing-in as a senator became headline news. Australian senators have to swear an oath of office and swear an allegiance to the British crown. Senator Thorpe tried unsuccessfully to modify the oath, only for the other senators tell her that she *had* to do it the real way. Now that oath is being thrown back in her face, as in “if you don’t support the crown, why did you take the oath of office, HYPOCRISY MUCH?” To which Senator Thorpe had a hilarious comeback:

Independent senator Lidia Thorpe has offered an extraordinary defence of whether she breached her parliamentary oath, claiming she pledged allegiance to Queen Elizabeth II’s “hairs” rather than her “heirs” when she was sworn into parliament.

The revelation comes after Senator Thorpe interrupted a royal reception in Parliament House on Monday, shouting “you are not our king” and “this is not your land” to King Charles III.

On Wednesday, the Indigenous senator was asked by the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing if she had renounced her sworn parliamentary affirmation to bear true allegiance to the monarch in her heckling of the king.

“I swore allegiance to the queen’s hairs,” she replied. “If you listen close enough, it wasn’t her ‘heirs’, it was her ‘hairs’ that I was giving my allegiance to, and now that, y’know, they are no longer here, I don’t know where that stands. I’m not giving up my job, I’m not resigning.”

Senator Thorpe was sworn in as a Greens senator for Victoria in 2022, during which she described the queen as a “coloniser” before being told to recite the oath as printed on the card.

A re-examination of the swearing-in appears to show that Senator Thorpe did pronounce “heirs” as “hairs”, though it is recorded as “heirs” in the Hansard.

[From ABC Australia]

In case you want to watch Senator Thorpe’s 2022 oath, I’m including the video below. She absolutely said “hairs” not “heirs.” The Australian accent is a crazy thing! Also: if they try to come for Senator Thorpe’s job – her elected position! – because she spoke truth to a tired old British king, then that will be an even bigger story, right?

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.