Donald Trump held some kind of press conference yesterday at his Bedminster golf club, which, again, is not located in a swing state. Trump has barely campaigned this summer and the Trump-Walz campaign barely has a ground operation. The campaign is taking in money, but they’re not spending it on ad buys or offices in swing states or competency around their campaign events. It’s like Donald Trump expects free media constantly, and he’s getting it… but it’s not hitting the same way it used to. He was always a delusional nutjob ranting about whatever popped into his Adderall-addled brain, but it feels like there’s been a real shift in how Trump is covered. CNN did a surprisingly in-depth analysis of how Trump’s Thursday presser felt different. They described his “ranting” as Trump feeling “bitter, disoriented, and mourning the loss of the old campaign,” which was “laid bare in a self-pitying and raging stream of consciousness.” Oh my! Some highlights from this CNN piece:

LMAO: Almost every Trump event now feels like damage control for a previous one that went off the rails. Thursday’s news conference was a do-over for Wednesday’s trip to North Carolina, when the ex-president mocked his own aides for demanding that he give an “intellectual” speech on the economy and instead went his own way, focusing on insulting his opponent.

The groceries: Trump’s team did their best for him on Thursday. Someone went to a local supermarket and stocked up on groceries, including Cheerios, tubs of coffee and ketchup, and provided Trump with charts showing the high cost of goods in the Biden era. But their boss didn’t even get to the end of his first point before veering into a furious aside while falsely accusing Democrats of acting illegally by replacing Biden with Harris. “It was a coup by people that wanted him out, and they didn’t do it the way, not the way they’re supposed to do it. $129 more on energy, and $241 more. This is all per month on rent,” Trump said, running two thoughts together in his fury.

LMAO Part II: “We have wars breaking out in the Middle East. We have the horrible war going on with Ukraine and Russia. All these things would have never happened if I was president. Would have never, ever happened, and they didn’t happen. Since Harris took office, car insurance is up 55%,” Trump said, in another dizzying shift in direction. As his remarks stretched into a second hour, a squadron of flies assembled, likely attracted by several packs of breakfast sausages sweating in the summer heat. The bizarre spectacle only heightened the incongruity of using Trump’s private golf club as the backdrop for an event meant to illustrate the pain faced by millions of Americans at grocery checkouts.

Trump on his own aides telling him to cool with it the personal attacks: “As far as the personal attacks, I’m very angry at her because of what she’s done to the country. I’m very angry at her that she weaponized the justice system against me and other people —- very angry at her. I think I’m entitled to personal attacks. I don’t have a lot of respect for her. I don’t have a lot of respect for her intelligence, and I think she’ll be a terrible president.”

Republican analysis: “Donald Trump is not the Donald Trump of 2016, he seemed slowed down, he seems meandering, he seems low energy and he really is struggling to make a point,” said former Trump White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin, who broke with the ex-president after he refused to accept his defeat in 2020. “He is somebody who is not performing at the caliber he once was and that might have worked when he was up against Joe Biden — the contrast did make him appear at times stronger and more vibrant. It’s not working against Kamala Harris who is the younger candidate and the one with more energy,” she said on CNN’s “AC360.”

A Very Calm Person and a Stable Genius: Trump told reporters “Now you’ll say he ranted and raved … I’m a very calm person, believe it or not.” But proving the opposite, Trump on Thursday dove down multiple rabbit holes — venting about Hillary Clinton’s emails as if he had been transported back to the 2016 election, relating bizarre conversations with people calling him “Sir,” musing about “bird cemeteries” he claims are caused by wind farms, lauding his own “great relationship” with China’s President Xi Jinping and fuming at prosecutors who charged him with seeking to overturn the 2020 election and of hoarding classified documents.

[From CNN]

This took me out: “relating bizarre conversations with people calling him “Sir,” musing about “bird cemeteries” he claims are caused by wind farms..” Trump and those damn wind farms, he keeps bringing them up and claiming that wind farms are killing bald eagles and that they’re affecting the fish as well. It’s just one of those things that is stuck in his (senile) brain, like “the late, great Hannibal Lector.” The stuff about the groceries rotting in the sun while Trump rants and raves at his private golf club… *chef’s kiss*.

Two more things – people are theorizing that Trump is having such a tough time finding an attack line against Kamala Harris because he finds her attractive. Honestly, that makes some kind of sense – he called her “beautiful” in his lispy conversation with Elon Musk and it’s clear that he doesn’t actually want to use the same derogatory language on Harris that he’s used on other women. Second thing – the Harris campaign sends out press releases every single time Trump or JD Vance open their mouths and the release after Trump’s presser was a classic:

Our statement on Trump’s… whatever that was pic.twitter.com/m78ZF8l87F

— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 15, 2024

Trump: Kamala Harris called me weird. She called JD weird. He’s not weird! pic.twitter.com/ZRMtlTZFJq

— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 15, 2024

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

Back in May, Prince Harry visited the UK. He was invited specifically because the Ministry of Defense organized a church service for the ten-year anniversary of the Invictus Games. Harry’s visit was well-previewed for months, Harry gave everyone enough notice of his visit and King Charles dutifully scheduled several events during the same days when Harry would be in town. When Harry approached his father’s office about scheduling a father-son meeting, Harry was rebuffed. Harry released a public statement saying that because of Charles’s “full program,” there would be no meeting. That one statement set off two full weeks of tantrums from Buckingham Palace as Charles and his aides scrambled to explain why Charles refused to see Harry and why Harry wasn’t offered a room in one of the many royal homes in the UK.

None of their explanations made much sense and there were a lot of contradictory and gaslighting palace briefings. One thing I believed was that Charles did offer Harry a room… but no security. As in, Harry would be allowed to have a room in whatever palace, but there was a security issue and so Harry just stayed in a hotel (like he did the two previous times he visited London). If Charles is going to do anything, it’s put Harry and Harry’s family in danger, you know? Well, months later, the palace decided to give a new briefing on this months-old drama, conveniently timed for the Sussexes’ Colombian tour.

The Duke of Sussex was offered the chance to stay at Buckingham Palace when he last visited Britain but turned it down to stay in a hotel, The Times can reveal. The invitation to use apartments at the palace was made when the duke came to London in May to mark the tenth anniversary of the Invictus Games, his Paralympic-style sporting competition. Although it was already known that the King, 75, had offered accommodation to his younger son, it had not been disclosed that the rooms were in Buckingham Palace, the most prestigious location. The King was staying nearby at Clarence House.

The Sussexes landed in Bogota, Colombia, on Thursday to begin another trip. They will move on to the Caribbean and Pacific regions of Cartagena and Cali. Harry has taken the UK government to the High Court in an attempt to have his right to Scotland Yard security reinstated when he visits Britain. However, he is thought to see a distinction between the security risks facing him in Britain and travelling to Colombia with the benefit of the state’s police protection.

A well-placed source said of the duke’s visit in May: “I don’t know what more the King could have done. He offered Harry to stay at Buckingham Palace but that it seems even that wasn’t good enough. It was far from clear what the duke’s plans were. When it came to it there was no space in the King’s diary in between treatment and other scheduled events.”

One of the reasons Buckingham Palace was offered was to allow greater opportunity for the King to meet his son during his stay. Harry stayed in a hotel in London, but appeared dismayed when it became clear that the King did not have time to meet him.

A source with knowledge of the offer said: “It makes Harry’s decision to stay in a hotel all the more strange when the Palace would naturally offer all the security you could wish for. It would also have made more sense from a point of view of seeing his father as it would be easier for the King to see his son if they were staying nearby.”

A month after Harry’s trip to London, the palace apartments were used to host the Emperor and Empress of Japan during their state visit.

[From The Times]

I find it odd that Charles’s aides made this generous offer of a diplomatic suite in Buckingham Palace with full security and a potential unscheduled meeting between father and son… and yet they couldn’t use this offer as a clapback or explanation at the time. I mean, if this was really what they offered Harry, surely they would have said that back in May when Harry released his statement about the king’s “full program”? Makes it seem like it took those aides three g–damn months to come up with a new lie for why the situation was not their fault. It also makes it seem like Harry takes his security very seriously and he could see ALL of the traps being laid for him and was able to nope out of all of it.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red and Cover Images.

On Thursday, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris made their first joint appearance since Biden dropped out of the presidential race. They went to Maryland to announce a major win for their administration! The Biden-Harris administration worked out a deal with drug companies to significantly lower the prices on ten top-selling prescription drugs.

The United States has negotiated down the prices of 10 top-selling prescription drugs used by Medicare by as much as 79%, hoping to save $6 billion in the first year as part of a plan hailed on Thursday by President Joe Biden with the aim to ease anger about high prices ahead of November elections.

Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law in 2022, was the first to allow Medicare to negotiate prices for some of the most costly drugs that the program covers for 66 million people. The new prices will go into effect in 2026.

“We finally beat Big Pharma,” Biden said at an event in Largo, Maryland, alongside Vice President Kamala Harris. The administration hopes the savings will ease Americans’ anger about high prices, an issue they frequently say is their top concern headed into the closely contested Nov. 5 presidential election between Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump.

“My entire career, I have worked to hold bad actors accountable and lower the cost of prescription drugs,” Harris said. “Medicare can use that (collective bargaining) power to go toe-to-toe with Big Pharma and negotiate lower drug prices.”

[From Reuters]

It’s a major win for this administration and it’s a tangible win which will affect millions of Americans. It was important for Pres. Biden and VP Harris to announce it together too – Harris and her campaign will get a chunk of the credit. Speaking of, at the event, Biden was extremely enthusiastic about his vice president’s candidacy, telling the crowd: “I have an incredible partner in the progress we made. She’s going to make one hell of a president.” VP Harris told the crowd: “There’s a lot of love in this room for our president. Few leaders in our nation have done more, on so many issues, including to expand access to affordable healthcare, than Joe Biden.”

Pres. Biden has been in a good mood since he withdrew from the race. It’s loosened him up and he made several digs at Donald Trump at this event. He said, at one point: “The guy we’re running against, what’s his name? Donald Dump? Or Donald Whatever?” He also said: “Let me tell you what our Project 2025 is: beat the hell out of them!”

So what happens now when it comes to the actual campaign and election? President Biden has said that he wants to campaign for Kamala, and I suspect he will do so after the convention. My guess is that they’ll make several stops in Pennsylvania (Biden was born in Scranton) and maybe even go to some of the Rust Belt swing states, the same states that the Biden-Harris campaign prioritized so heavily in the 2020 election.

Reporter: Trump says he wants to make America affordable again. Your response?

Biden: He ought to get a job pic.twitter.com/LSDsu7cLOg

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 15, 2024

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Last year, we got a sad update on the messy Gosselin family drama. Collin Gosselin and his sister, Hannah, who are two of the 20-year-old sextuplets, went public both on Entertainment Tonight and in the FX documentary The Dark Side of Abuse with details about their mom, Kate Gosselin’s, abuse. According to Collin and Hannah, Collin was often “separated” from the rest of his seven siblings during playtime and meals. At age 12, he was sent to an institution. Allegedly, no effort was made at home to help Collin with his supposedly disruptive behavior. Things got ugly when Kate, who is the Patron Saint of Karens, and big sister Mady (one of the 23-year-old twins), went on the offense. Mady accused Collin of racism and causing her “trauma,” while Kate went with classic DARVO behavior, accusing him of having “violent behavior” and “mental illness.”

For what it’s worth, after his dad Jon got him out of the institution, Kate did not show up at the court hearing that ended with Jon getting full custody of Collin. She, and the rest of his siblings minus Hannah, reportedly have not seen him since he was 12. Jon has gone on record saying that after all of that drama, Collin was only diagnosed with ADHD. Meanwhile, Collin has been working on fulfilling his dream of becoming a Marine. Unfortunately, for Collin, he’s hit a bit of a stumbling block in that regard. Although he still wants to join the US Marines, he was discharged due to his time spent at the institution.

“I was discharged,” he explained. “I was towards the end of training, very close to graduating. The paperwork was looked into, and they found out that I was, in fact, in an institution at one point in my life.”

“And see, they don’t need any deeper reason. Being in an institution, that’s good enough for [them] to discharge [you],” he added.

Despite this, Collin said he was working to appeal the decision as he has “very few other wishes in life that would top being a United States Marine.” For now, the television personality said he has plans to major in finance at Penn State.

Collin’s parents, Jon and Kate Gosselin, share 22-year-old twins Cara and Madelyn as well as sextuplets Collin, Alexis, Aaden, Leah, Joel and Hannah. Jon, 47, and Kate, 49, finalized their divorce in 2009. Kate eventually was awarded custody of their children and sent Collin to an institution for what she claimed to be “unpredictable and violent behavior” when he was 12 years old.

“I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t know where I was going… That was the most scared I’ve probably ever been in my life,” he told ET. “I didn’t even say goodbye [to my siblings].”

While he was there, Collin claimed that Kate only “came to visit me once” for 30 minutes. “The entire time all she did was lecture me and tell me that I destroyed our family,” he alleged. “Our family was under a spotlight 24/7 … I know strongly that the reason I was sent away was for my mother to protect her reputation.”

PEOPLE has reached out to reps for Kate and an U.S. Marine Corp spokesperson for comment.

[From People]

Oh, my heart breaks for Collin. He’s been through so much at the hands of his mother. I can’t even imagine how scared he felt and how painful it must have been to hear your own mother tell you that you’ve “destroyed” your family while gaslighting you and turning your siblings against you. She’s a horrible person and a terrible mother. Now, it appears that her decision to abdicate responsibility and send him to an institution at age 12 has likely cost him a chance to get his dream job. I’m crushed for him. I don’t know much about military protocol but maybe one of you knows – does he even have a chance at having the decision overturned with appeal? Or is it just that strict? Collin now plans to attend Penn State and major in finance. I really hope Collin finds his place and thrives. That’s the ultimate revenge against his mother.

Photos via YouTube/ET Online

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This week has been a bit quieter for Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez’s marriage drama. J.Lo arrived back in LA last week, and she’s been house-hunting and spending time with Ben’s kids. There still seems to be a general frostiness between Ben and J.Lo, and absolutely no one is saying (at this point) that reconciliation is possible. They are absolutely headed for a divorce, and the gossip consensus is that Ben is done with the marriage and he is the one driving this estrangement and eventual divorce.

In July, Jennifer celebrated her birthday in the Hamptons, surrounded by friends and family. She threw herself a Bridgerton-themed birthday party. Ben did not show up. He did not fly to New York at all. Instead, Ben made a point of closing escrow on his new bachelor pad on Jennifer’s birthday. Well, Thursday was Ben’s birthday (August 15th). Jennifer Lopez did not go to his house or take him out to dinner or see him in any way. Instead, she posted photos of herself on Instagram. LMAO.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Garner visited Ben’s house on his birthday. There were photos of her outside of his house – I assume it was something about their kids because it doesn’t look like she was bringing over a cake or anything.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Instagram.

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Here are some photos of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on their Colombian Tour Day #1. This was their second outfit of the day – Meghan switched it up with a lovely Johanna Ortiz dress in a rosy print. She wore her hair down and her makeup was flawless. Ortiz was born and raised in Colombia and then she went to fashion school in America and she launched her fashion line in America. Meghan has worn Ortiz dresses before, notably during the Nigerian tour. I love when Meghan honors the country she’s visiting by wearing a native-to-the-country designer. Other royal women would have simply asked Erdem to make a coatdress in the colors of Colombia’s flag and called it a day.

After the Sussexes met with VP Francia Marquez, Marquez then escorted Harry and Meghan to the National Center for the Arts in Bogota. They watched a performance of The Hummingbird’s Kiss, and then after the show, the Sussexes took part in a summit on internet safety and tech accountability.

I’m not going to give a ton of energy to the British media’s coverage of this tour but it does appear like some British outlets have slightly more access during this trip than the trip to Nigeria. I would imagine the Colombian government simply credentialed more international photographers than Nigeria. All of which to say, the Mail seems desperate to find some negative angle, so they’re saying that some of the kids looked “bored” during this theater performance. That’s all they’ve got??

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Photos courtesy of Getty.

What does this Blake Lively stuff remind you of? For me, it’s sort of like the Hilaria Baldwin stuff in late 2020 and early 2021 – suddenly, people were going back through all of Hilaria’s old interviews and doing deep dives on all of the Hilaria-was-never-Spanish lore. While Blake Lively never lied about being “from Spain,” there is a similar deep-dive into the gossip history around Blake. Like… what was up with Blake and Leighton Meester on Gossip Girl? They apparently didn’t get along at all towards the latter part of the series, so much so they the would barely even speak to each other. The Mail is on the case – go here to read.

Meanwhile, the current Blake situation is that we still don’t know exactly what went down between Blake, Justin Baldoni and the cast of It Ends With Us. Many people around the production maintain this idea that Baldoni and Lively’s larger falling out happened in postproduction, especially when Blake brought in her own editor to create IEWU: The Lively Cut. It was also clear (to me) that Team Blake had already started an increasingly loud whisper campaign about Baldoni, one which scared him enough to hire a crisis management team this week. Well, speaking of all of that, the Hollywood Reporter has an interesting piece about the studio giving a lot of full-throated support for Blake, especially after she screened IEWU: The Lively Cut to Colleen Hoover’s groupies in Texas in June.

In mid-June, star-producer Blake Lively traveled to Dallas to attend author Colleen Hoover’s Book Bonanza for a Q&A in the lead-up to the August release It Ends With Us. Lively surprised the 2,000-plus attendees when she announced they could screen a rough cut of the movie adaptation the following night. The screening of the movie — the first of Hoover’s popular novels to hit the screen — proved to be a stroke of marketing genius for Sony, which bought rights to release the movie from Wayfarer Studios, whose co-founder, Justin Baldoni, both directed and stars in the film.

“Colleen Hoover’s Book Bonanza and her fans sparked the fire that was the beginning of the cultural movement,” says Josh Greenstein, a veteran marketer and president of Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group.

Absent, however, from the Dallas gathering was Baldoni. The version shown that night was Lively’s preferred rough cut of the movie.

By the time the movie opened Aug. 9, an ugly war had erupted on TikTok and other social media platforms pitting Baldoni and Lively against each other. Many took aim at Lively, despite reports that some cast and crewmembers, including Lively, felt uncomfortable over Baldoni’s behavior on set.

Sony is fully in sync with Lively. “Blake, Colleen and so many women put so much effort into this remarkable movie, working selflessly from the start to ensure that such an important subject matter was handled with care. Audiences love the movie. Blake’s passion and commitment to advancing the conversation around domestic violence is commendable,” Sony Pictures Entertainment Chair-CEO Tony Vinciquerra told The Hollywood Reporter. “We love working with Blake, and we want to do 12 more movies with her.”

Sony’s marketing campaign — in staying true to Hoover’s book — conveyed that It Ends With Us isn’t a story of victimhood, but a story of redemption. It traverses falling in love, becoming an entrepreneur, friendship and family, alongside pain and trauma. “Lily is a survivor and a victim, but that doesn’t define her, as she is in charge of her identity and her story. These themes were important to the campaign,” says one source connected to the film’s rollout.

Sources have told THR that there was a fracture between Baldoni and Lively in the postproduction stage, wherein two different cuts of the movie emerged. Lively commissioned a cut of the movie from editor Shane Reid, who was an editor on Deadpool & Wolverine, according to multiple sources.

[From THR]

This reads to me like why Baldoni hired crisis managers in the first place, because he was afraid he was going to get squished by the studio taking Blake’s side and throwing him under the bus. Sony is obviously doing the most to stay on Blake’s good side, and not only that, Sony is seemingly doing a lot (here and behind-the-scenes) to keep the arguments from devolving into petty, personal attacks. It suits everyone involved if the story is “Blake and Justin disagreed about which edit to use, that’s the big problem” rather than “Justin fat-shamed Blake and gave her a lingering kiss” or “Blake is a mean-girl bully.”

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.

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Here are some of the photos from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s first events in Colombiaon Thursday. They met Vice President Fracia Marquez and her husband Rafael Yerney Pinillo for breakfast/brunch around 9 am. The Sussexes were served coffee, tea and traditional pan de bono (Colombian cheese bread), according to People Mag. The two couples also exchanged gifts and embraces. VP Marquez had some words about Harry and his mother, and how she (Marquez) watched the Harry & Meghan Netflix series:

During the 30-minute visit, Márquez told the couple that she shared their same ideals and goals for championing a safer digital future and mental health landscape. The vice president also shared her admiration for Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, Harper’s Bazaar reported. At a press conference earlier in the day, the vice president was asked about Princess Diana planning a visit to Colombia shortly before she died in 1997. She said, “I think that Prince Harry being here today after that dream of his mum’s of visiting this country is an opportunity to show the best of our nation, to show who Colombians are. We are people who in the midst of adversities do everything possible to give the best of ourselves,” according to The Mirror.

Marquez also opened up about the provenance of the trip and revealed that she learned more about the couple through their docuseries Harry & Meghan, which debuted on Netflix in December 2022.

“How did I get to know Meghan and Harry? I first encountered them through the media, and I particularly watched the Netflix series about their lives and their story, which deeply moved me,” Márquez said. The vice president continued, “It motivated me to say, ‘This is a woman who deserves to visit our country and share her story,’ and undoubtedly, her visit will strengthen so many women around the world.”

[From People Magazine]

You mean the Netflix series which Salt Island swore up and down was a flop? The series which they claimed was only Harry and Meghan “whining” about the Windsors? It looks like the rest of the world watched that series and had genuine sympathy for Harry and Meghan.

Fashion notes: Meghan wore a sleeveless Victoria Beard suit with bright buttons (you know pillows were being thrown at Anmer Hall), plus Manolos and a Loro Piana bag. She also wore Pippa Small earrings, Diana’s Cartier watch, her own Cartier bracelet and more. If I’m being honest, this navy ensemble isn’t my favorite, but I’m grateful that she didn’t wear another sandy beige look.

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Photos courtesy of Instagram, Getty.

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Today in “there is a thing as having too much money” news, we have one of the most glaring examples, Mark Zuckerberg. I don’t know what is real and what is just for image, but Mark wants everyone to believe that he’s a Wife Guy. He and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have been together since they met at a party in 2003 while they were both attending Harvard. Priscilla used to work as a pediatrician, but according to her LinkedIn page, she’s now the co-CEO of their charitable organization, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. By all accounts, Priscilla is genuine and intelligent, and clearly her husband thinks so, too. In what I can only describe as an incredibly grand gesture, Zuckerberg commissioned a seven-foot tall Roman-style green and silver statue of his wife. It’s…something else, alright.

Mark Zuckerberg has raised eyebrows by commissioning a giant sculpture of his wife, Priscilla Chan.

In a photo of the statue, posted to Instagram, the Facebook CEO and co-founder said he was “bringing back the Roman tradition of making sculptures of your wife”.

The large sculpture was made by Daniel Arsham, a New York-based artist who has collaborated with brands including Tiffany and Dior. Chan is rendered in green and appears to be mid-stride, with a large silver cloak flowing behind her.

Zuckerberg’s photo shows Chan standing next to the statue, which appears to be roughly 7ft tall and has been placed under a tree. In the comments Chan wrote: “The more of me the better?” along with the heart emoji.

People magazine, which declared Zuckerberg to be “the ultimate wife guy!”, reported that in Roman times statues were sometimes made to honor dead loved ones or to “refer to significant relatives and to make meaningful associations”.

The statue received a largely positive response from Zuckerberg’s followers.

“Omg so beautiful, lucky girl,” one person wrote, while the account “The Billlionaires [sic] Lifestyle”, which posts pictures of rich people and expensive things, posted: “This need [sic] to be in [a] museum”, accompanied by the applause and fire emojis.

Not everyone was impressed, however. Andrew Mwangi wrote: “This is the most billionaire thing to do ever”, and a user called deviletter said: “yikes. this is quite unflattering”.

[From The Guardian]

Oh my goodness, hahaha. Thoughts?? That statue is truly wild. It looks like he was going for post-oxidation Statue of Liberty meets new age Roman god statue. To his credit, for all of Mark’s problematic sh-t, we don’t really hear any gossip about Mark cheating on Priscilla, so maybe he really is a Wife Guy? I guess the intention is flattering, though I have no idea what it’s supposed to symbolize other than a nerdy billionaire who wants to idolize his wife. We need backstory! Regardless, the statue is a seven-foot personification of why billionaires need to pay more money in taxes. I mean, he could have bought that ugly sh-t and still paid several tens of millions of dollars in taxes to go towards public schools that will have the opportunity to educate students all about Roman artwork.

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Everything’s coming up Gaga! This summer La Lady released her Chromatica Ball film, performed at the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony, announced her engagement via her press agent the Prime Minister of France, and will soon be premiering Joker: Folie à Deux at the Venice Film Festival. And all that while weightlifting an 8-carat diamond ring! But in the background of all these moments has been the drip drip drip of info about when we’ll get her next album. It wasn’t lost on Little Monsters when Mother bleached her eyebrows, signaling the hour was near. Now this musical/follicle update: Gaga debuted brunette hair (but the eyebrows are still bleached!) this week, seen out and about town and on Instagram. Not only that, but a post on Tuesday showed the newly-brunette Lady at the piano clad in a Bruno Mars t-shirt. Needless to say, these seismic events whetted fans’ appetites even more for LG7.

The pop icon stepped out for a romantic evening with her fiance, entrepreneur Michael Polansky, at Soho House in Malibu on Aug. 13, but it wasn’t her massive engagement ring that stole the show. For the dinner outing, she sported a look that stood in stark contrast to her signature style.

Instead of her blonde locks, Gaga rocked brunette hair that fell past her shoulders. The “Shallow” singer, 38, rounded out the darker ‘do by wearing large dark sunglasses, a short sleeve black top, black shorts and sheer black tights.

…The A Star Is Born actress first debuted her new hair in an Aug. 13 Instagram post, pairing her dark locks with a Bruno Mars T-shirt during a music session. In the video, she played a few chords while sitting at a white piano before flashing a peace sign with her hand.

While Gaga has recently been sharing more evidence of herself in the recording studio, some seemed to think her latest clip hinted at something more.

Many fans speculated that the post revealing her brunette hair was also a taste of an upcoming collaboration between Gaga and Bruno Mars, thanks to her T-shirt depicting the “Locked Out of Heaven” singer.

“She made sure we saw the shirt,” one user noted, while another commented, “Oh we’re so ready for that collab.” A third said, “I SEE YOU BRUNO. Omg can’t wait.”

[From E! Online]

So I was all done drafting my thoughts along the lines of, “Come on, she’s just wearing a t-shirt. There’s no coded message, this isn’t Taylor Swift,” when Gaga officially announced that she and Bruno Mars were indeed dropping new music, “Die With A Smile,” in a post captioned “While you wait till LG7,” and showed Gaga and Bruno in outfits best described as technicolor country. There’s no confirmation (as of this writing) whether the song is for Joker 2, but The Hollywood Reporter did get statements from both artists:

Rumors regarding a Gaga-Mars collab have circled the internet for several days, and the two singers confirmed the news with a post on social media earlier Thursday

In her announcement, Gaga said the song was for fans “while you wait for LG7,” her hotly anticipated new album which does not yet have a release date…

“Bruno and I have a lot of mutual respect for each other and were talking about collaborating,” Gaga said in a press release. “I was finishing up my own album in Malibu and one night after a long day he asked me to come to his studio to hear something he was working on. It was around midnight when I got there and I was blown away when I heard what he had started making. We stayed up all night and finished writing and recording the song. Bruno’s talent is beyond explanation. His musicianship and vision is next level. There’s no one like him.”

Mars added, “Getting to work with Gaga has been an honor. She’s an icon and she makes this song magical. I’m so excited for everyone to hear it.”

[From THR]

The song and music video for “Die With A Smile” are out now — I liked them both a lot! Despite the gettups, the song is not all that country, but more a rollicking, dreamy ballad equal measures sweet and wistful. Thematically I’d buy that it’s for Joker 2, so we’ll see. And I can’t help it, I love how Gaga goes all in with the quirky, weirdo vibe in her styling. Although I must note — her wig in the video is not brunette! Does that not matter, in hair-color-to-music-release prognostications? Is it merely the act of changing up the hair that signals music to come? A rubric would be very helpful here, s’all I’m sayin’. Like, eyebrows mean a single is about to drop, hair color for an album, and curliness of hair (or lack thereof) can speak to a genre of pop, rock, jazz, etc. Just because we’re rock stars doesn’t mean we can’t have some systems of organization.

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