Diddy and Cassie have been broken up publicly for over a week. When their split was announced, Cassie’s rep confirmed that they hadn’t been together for months. While the rumours were that Diddy left Cassie heartbroken without a ring and moved on with a model, I wrote that we shouldn’t be so quick t…

Diddy and Cassie have been broken up publicly for over a week. When their split was announced, Cassie’s rep confirmed that they hadn’t been together for months. While the rumours were that Diddy left Cassie heartbroken without a ring and moved on with a model, I wrote that we shouldn’t be so quick t…

The American midterm elections are on November 6th. Everyone is on edge, for good reason. This election is the arguably the most important in a century, honestly. It pains me that so many people can’t see that – we are on the precipice of something much, much worse, and it’s already incredibly terrible right now. But if we don’t take back the House and Senate, it really will be game over. I don’t want to hear any bulls–t about this or that Democrat being an imperfect candidate, or that so-and-so is canceled because he or she did one thing you didn’t like. Just vote. Vote as if your life depends on it, because it literally does depend on it.

So… I think what I’d like to do is highlight some positive celebrity-voting and celebrity-activism stories from here until Election Day. Janelle Monae is a queer African-American woman who votes, and talks about why voting means so much to her. She spoke to People:

“I will absolutely be voting Nov. 6th. It’s something that was instilled in me. My grandmother was a sharecropper. She served food in the county jail for 25 years. She picked cotton, shared one pair of shoes with her 14 brothers and sisters in Aberdeen, Mississippi. Then she migrated to Kansas City, Kansas. And she did not have the right to vote.”

When Monáe was of age, “She made me promise to her that anytime I had the opportunity to vote, that I would,” she says. “So, even though all the candidates are not perfect, in honor of my grandmother, I take my butt to the polls.”

“I do care about the rights of the LGBTQI community that I’m a part of, I do care about women’s rights, I’m a woman, I do care about black folks, minority rights, I’m a black person living in America. There are a lot of things that I care about, and so, I try to figure out ways in my shows to use my platform to support certain folks. I want to make sure that even in this political climate, that we are taking into consideration, as they’re making new laws, as folks are running for office, like who cares about those things that I care about.”

[From People]

For the past few election cycles in particular, black women voters have saved a lot of Democrats on the edge – black women come out in droves to vote in every election, and their demographic participation rate is usually above 90% (as in, more than 90% of eligible black women actually vote). The reason for the high participation rate is what Janelle describes – they know their own family history, they had mothers or grandmothers or great-grandmothers who couldn’t vote because of Jim Crow laws. And because they’ve understood for a long time that their lives depend on the country’s leadership.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

First of all, in this household we only recognize one bodyguard and that is Frank Farmer. But recognized as one stressful motherf-cker is David Budd, protagonist of the BBC/Netflix show Bodyguard. Portrayed by Richard Madden in a life-after-Game-of-Thrones role, David Budd is a PTSD-afflicted vetera…

First of all, in this household we only recognize one bodyguard and that is Frank Farmer. But recognized as one stressful motherf-cker is David Budd, protagonist of the BBC/Netflix show Bodyguard. Portrayed by Richard Madden in a life-after-Game-of-Thrones role, David Budd is a PTSD-afflicted vetera…

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Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner were photographed at a World Series game together on Saturday, game four, between Ben’s favorite team, the Red Sox, and the LA Dodgers. (The Red Sox won that game and the next to take the World Series five to one.) US Magazine reported that this spotting means they were seen together “weeks after finalizing their divorce.” They may have signed off on the details but their divorce is not legally final yet or we would have heard about it. It seems bizarre to me that they’re doing things together without their kids, but I have to say that in the photos taken of Ben he looks sober. Maybe having Jen attend events with him helps. It’s got to be hard to go to a baseball game and not drink. There are specific events that are associated with drinking and alcoholics can have a hard time with those.

Jen was seen in their private box talking to Angela Bassett. Lucky.
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The next night, Sunday, Ben, Jimmy Kimmel and Matt Damon attended the final game of the World Series together. Matt and Jimmy wore “I’m with stupid” shirts with arrows pointing to each other. That was mildly funny, which is usually the case with Jimmy’s humor. I’m still mad at Matt for convincing me to sit through Downsizing. (That movie only goes downhill after the first half hour. Do not bother.)
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Ben is currently working on a movie where he’s playing “a former All-Star basketball player who’s battling addiction while taking a high school coaching gig at his alma mater.” As TMZ reported, it’s all a bit method but maybe that’s working for him.

We just learned that Jen is dating a new guy, the CEO of a restaurant technology company named John Miller. US Magazine recently published details from Miller’s divorce that required a little digging and were not flattering to him. I wonder if Miller was on board with doing a whole rollout and pap stroll as jen’s boyfriend and then decided against that. That would explain a few things.

Jen, Ben and their kids were spotted out together at church on Sunday. She’s definitely dressing a bit nicer lately. She was also seen out running with her 12 year-old daughter, Violet, earlier that day.

Photos credit: Avalon.red and Getty

Vanity Fair published a very interesting and slightly suspicious article about the Duchess of Cambridge. The article is called “Welcome to the Golden Era of Kate Middleton,” and the point of it seems to be that Kate is coming “back” from six months of maternity leave, and she’s ready to queen this bitch. After more than seven years of watching her duchessing, I can’t say that I really buy any of this. Is it true that Kate has seemed more relaxed in general? Sure. Is it true that the sense of “competition” has made Kate more keen? Perhaps. But if you take away Meghan’s entrance into the royal fold, what are we really left with? Yet another story about how Kate *plans* to be super-keen very soon. These stories crop up about three times a year, on average. We’re always hearing about how this time, she really means it, she’s totally going to be keen now. She never is. You can read the full Vanity Fair piece here. Some highlights (yes, this is a really long piece, so I’m editing out some of the dumb fluff):

Kate’s turning point: Post-maternity leave and with Meghan around, “It’s a huge turning point,” said Susan E. Kelley, the owner, editor, and Middletonian obsessive behind What Kate Wore. “I think this is where Kate gets to make her mark…A couple of years ago, you might still have seen her being a little bit timid. Now, she seems like she’s in a more take-charge position. I’m beginning to see the person who’s going to be the queen emerging.”

Kate is a senior royal now: Kate is “no longer the “commoner” who married into the family but the future Queen Consort and mother of the future King. The role of princess-in-training has been passed on to Meghan—who, as a former actress and longtime humanitarian, is already perfectly comfortable in the public eye, but is just getting started with her own royal family and working with her chosen causes, including girls’ education. Kate has graduated to an unspoken Level Two, where she is more free to pursue her own passions—including mental-health issues, underprivileged children, and art—in a more targeted way.

Kate finally knows what she wants to do: “She found her role as a working member of the royal family through bringing up her own children and realizing what’s important to her,” said ABC News royal commentator Omid Scobie. “One of the things that we’ll see her really focusing on for the months ahead is working to help support disadvantaged children in the U.K. . . . Kate has this plan in place to really work with a number of organizations, including the Royal Foundation…If you look at Queen Elizabeth, she has that strength without really saying much, that has held this country together through some of the the fiercest wars and times that we’ve faced. I think Kate has the ability to do the same.”

Katie Nicholl’s take on Kate’s “work-shy” label: “She’s a mother, first and foremost. Her children are going to be her priority while they are young, and she will juggle her work commitments around the kids. The Duchess of Cambridge has been labeled work-shy in the past. But, actually, she’s taken on just a few patronages, things where she’s really made a difference. Early intervention with young children in primary schools, putting mental health on the map with Heads Together, was her idea. She’s been very instrumental.”

Nicholl believes Kate is “quite grateful” to Meghan, not jealous: “People who are often saying ‘Well, is she jealous of Meghan?’ She’s really not. Kate is happier in her life now than she ever has been. She has everything she wants. She has William, she has three beautiful children . . . she is where she always wanted to be,” Nicholl said. “The fact that there is a new glamorous sister-in-law in tow is not going to worry her one bit. I think Meghan came at the right time for her, because it was at a time when Kate wanted to step out of the spotlight.”

[From Vanity Fair]

Sigh… I understand that Kate is more conservative and she has to be more conservative, because she’ll be a Queen Consort eventually. But I’ve never understood the point of waiting around and doing next to nothing just to avoid controversy because you’re going to be queen in 25 years. The argument seems to be “well, different people are different, and Kate just wants to have a quiet life with her kids and her shopping, she doesn’t want to change the world.” And maybe that’s good enough for some of the British subjects. But if you’re paying for all of this upkeep, don’t you want a bit more? Don’t you want someone who understands their soft power and has passions beyond her kids? I don’t know. Anyway, we’ll be back here in another five months with another story about how Kate plans to be super-keen eventually.

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Photos courtesy of Getty, WENN and Avalon Red.

Dear Gossips,

How do you feel about Halloween? In my experience, you’re either not into Halloween or you are super into Halloween. And in the subgroup of those who are into Halloween, you’re either silly, scary, or sexy where costumes are concerned. If I HAVE to get into Halloween (and my job re…

I honestly hoped that Kim Kardashian took Kanye West to Uganda and just left him there, and that Kanye was just going to live in Uganda from now on and we would barely hear about him. Unfortunately, Kanye is still all about that MAGA life. Even though Kanye’s great love, Donald Trump, is radicalizing terrorists all over the place and those terrorists are targeting African-Americans and every non-WASP, Kanye still believes that Trump is somehow good for black folks. So Kanye has designed some “Blexit” t-shirts. My God.

Kanye West has designed T-shirts encouraging black people to exit — or “Blexit” – the Democratic Party. West’s designs debuted Saturday at Turning Point USA’s Young Black Leadership Summit, a meeting of young black conservatives in Washington. West didn’t attend the conference, but was there “in spirit,” according to TPUSA’s Communications Director Candace Owens.

“Blexit is a renaissance and I am blessed to say that this logo, these colors, were created by my dear friend and fellow superhero Kanye West,” said Owens, 29. She gushed that West “has taken one of the boldest steps in America to open a conversation we have needed to have.”

The new shirts come in traffic-cone orange, teal and a muted lavender with designs that say “Blexit” or “We Free.” The clothes were part of a broader launch of Blexit.com, which includes testimonials from black Americans who have left the Democratic Party.

[From Page Six]

Why not just sell t-shirts that say “The Sunken Place” and just leave it at that? Well, at least the self-loathing morons will be easier to identify in their Blexit t-shirts. If you see anyone in one of those t-shirts, just walk away. It really isn’t worth it. And I bet the people buying and wearing the t-shirts will mostly be white people too.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

The Pittsburgh community and the Jewish community is still reeling from the deadliest domestic terrorist attack on American Jewish people in American history. On Saturday, Robert Bowers killed eleven people within the Tree of Life Congregation synagogue. Bowers wounded several more people with his AR-15, including four police officers who responded to the anti-Semitic gunman. Donald Trump made a quick statement to camera, blaming the victims in the synagogue for not having armed security within the temple – at a bris, and at Shabbat services – and then Trump traveled to one of his Nazi rallies. When asked how he could have a Nazi rally just hours after a national tragedy, he lied and claimed that the New York Stock Exchange opened the day after the 9/11 attacks. The NYSE opened six days later, on September 17th.

So far, I haven’t even heard the White House say that they plan to send Trump or Pence to Pittsburgh for any memorial service, or to sit shiva with the families of the murder victims. But in a preemptive strike, the Pittsburgh Jewish community’s Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice already told Trump that he’s not welcome in Pittsburgh:

“Our Jewish community is not the only group you have targeted,” the group wrote in a letter to Trump. “You have also deliberately undermined the safety of people of color, Muslims, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities. Yesterday’s massacre is not the first act of terror you incited against a minority group in our country.”

The group also said Trump is not welcome in the city until he also stops targeting minorities, immigrants and refugees. The president has “spread lies and sowed fear about migrant families in Central America,” the group wrote. “The Torah teaches that every human being is made b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of God. This means all of us. In our neighbors, Americans, and people worldwide who have reached out to give our community strength, there we find the image of God.”

[From The Hill]

Yes, pretty much. This is how far we’ve come in two years – an endless stream of national tragedies in which the victims have no desire to see the Nazi-in-Chief pretend to mourn. No one from the Trump administration should go to Pittsburgh, because they would just turn it into a Nazi rally anyway.

And hey, remember how Trump radicalized another terrorist into sending pipe bombs to Democrats and media outlets? Guess who is still sitting on Twitter, stoking hatred for the media?

The Fake News is doing everything in their power to blame Republicans, Conservatives and me for the division and hatred that has been going on for so long in our Country. Actually, it is their Fake & Dishonest reporting which is causing problems far greater than they understand!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2018

Trump is clearly telling his radicalized terrorist supporters that they need to continue to target his “enemies.” That’s how it needs to be reported too.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.