Earlier this week, we heard that Angelina Jolie’s divorce attorney had filed paperwork to get a private judge thrown off the Jolie-Pitt divorce case. Angelina and Brad Pitt hired a private judge, John W. Ouderkirk, to oversee their divorce years ago. The idea behind hiring a private judge is that rich and famous people can keep things more civil and they don’t have to make their court filings public. There’s more secrecy in general, especially for contentious and long-winded divorces. The problem, according to Jolie’s attorney, was that Judge Ouderkirk has a long-standing financial arrangement with Brad’s lawyers, and this arrangement was not disclosed. In fact, Ouderkirk and Pitt’s lawyers tried to hide it. Pitt’s side ran to Page Six and claimed that Angelina is trying to get Ouderkirk thrown off the case because Pitt is “winning” the divorce. I would assume that Pitt is winning… because the judge is so biased. Anyway, I guess the filing just became public because wow, this new Page Six story is something else:

Angelina Jolie questioned the judge presiding over her and Brad Pitt’s divorce because she was “concerned that something untoward was happening.” Jolie filed court papers to have the private judge disqualified from their case after her lawyer Samantha Bley DeJean discovered Judge John W. Ouderkirk had an ongoing professional and financial relationship with Pitt’s attorneys Anne C. Kiley and Lance Spiegel, which allegedly was their “little secret”.

Jolie and Pitt have a bifurcated divorce, which means they are legally divorced, but still need to decide child custody and all financial issues with the help of a private judge. They have six kids, although the eldest, Maddox is an adult, aged 19. A source said, “Angelina isn’t trying to delay this process. In fact, the court papers state that she wants to get this issue with the judge resolved so there are no further delays [in deciding custody and financial issues like child support].”

The papers, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, state that there were “matters that Judge Ouderkirk did not ultimately disclose until [Jolie’s] counsel conducted her own inquiry into missing disclosures,” which “left [Jolie] without an … [understanding] of the professional relationship between the judge and [Pitt’s] counsel.” Angelina’s attorney, “on her own initiative, discovered the truth of what should have been disclosed long before,” the filing adds.

Jolie’s legal team was told that, from 2012 to 2013, Judge Ouderkirk “had heard a few cases involving [Pitt’s] counsel, but that in recent years he had only undertaken one or two cases that settled without his involvement. “Hidden was the fact that Judge Ouderkirk’s relationship with Respondent’s counsel had continued and expanded into 2020.” It is believed the judge had worked on numerous undisclosed cases for Pitt’s lead attorney Spiegel and one for his other attorney Kiley.

Jolie’s lawyer found out that one of these cases, the bitter divorce between “Modern Family” co-creator and executive producer Steve Levitan and wife Krista, “had not in fact settled in 2018 as had been represented by the judge’s disclosures. Rather, Judge Ouderkirk’s appointment was extended from June 20, 2019 to August 1, 2020.” The Levitan case and another case was declared by Ouderkirk’s office in 2018, “but erroneously indicated that both were settled,” the papers say. The papers state that “several cases” in 2019 and 2020 which Judge Ouderkirk was presiding over for Pitt’s attorney “were not disclosed at all.” When Judge Ouderkirk was asked by Jolie’s team why he did not disclose these cases, “he [appeared] to concede that he had a duty to do so. And his failure to do so was an ‘error,’” the papers state.

Given that there were “ever-increasing business relationships between Judge Ouderkirk and [Pitt’s] counsel — relationships that were providing a steady stream of income to Judge Ouderkirk and the potential for future work … These are precisely the type of repeat customer circumstances that create doubts about a privately-compensated private judge’s ability to remain impartial.” Private judges typically earn between $500 and $1,000 an hour.

However, “No one thought to let [Jolie] know. Instead, it was a little secret between Judge Ouderkirk and [Pitt’s] counsel.” And, “as is often true, the cover-up (or perceived cover-up) drives home the concern that something untoward is happening,” the court papers state.

Jolie’s attorneys are now demanding that “disqualification is the required remedy for the private judge’s failure to disclose ongoing financial and professional relationships with respondent’s counsel which create at least a doubt about impartiality.”

[From Page Six]

Basically, there are two shady things happening at once, and either is cause to have Judge Ouderkirk thrown off the case. The first shady thing is that Ouderkirk is basically a judge-for-hire specifically for Spiegel and Kelly, that most of the private cases he’s taken on have been for those two attorneys, and they’ve always been long, drawn-out affairs which see the judge raking in hundreds (if not thousands) of billable hours. The second shady thing is that Judge Ouderkirk failed to disclose this ongoing relationship with Spiegel and Kelly, and in fact he outright lied or falsified his disclosures/records in dealing with other divorce cases (with Spiegel and Kelly as lawyers). Jolie has every right to want him thrown off the case. I would not be surprised if there was a movement by Samantha DeJean to impeach the judge.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

Last night, I began reading Finding Freedom (the hard cover) and I’m really enjoying it. Honestly, I’ve skimmed some parts because I already knew some of it, but overall, this is a very enjoyable read. I’m again struck by how Prince Harry drove the relationship and how opinionated he was – the British tabloids always narrated the relationship to make it sound like Harry was so weak and Meghan controlled him. That was not the case, at all. He was the one pursuing, he was the one making decisions about the pace of their relationship and all of that.

I’m also thinking a lot about the fundamental differences between not just Kate and Meghan and their wants and needs, but the fundamental difference in desires of the two brothers: William craved the middle-class “family” represented by the Middletons, and the mummy who would “take care” of him, Carole Middleton. Harry craved intimacy, and he wanted to take care of someone and be with someone who would treat him like a man and help him become a better man. And, as always, Harry was just ready to be married. His light was on. So much of his relationship with Meghan hinged on that, I still believe that – the timing was everything for both of them.

What’s also striking – I’m about 150 pages into it – is how infrequently the Duchess of Cambridge appears in the H&M’s courtship. Meghan met Prince William about two months before she met Kate, and William appears several times throughout the courtship, mostly in the beginning. Kate clearly showed no interest in meeting Meghan, and Harry (again) drove the decision to introduce the two women. Even when it was clear that Harry and Meghan were head over heels, Kate did nothing to help Meghan or advise her in any way. Even when Harry had told the Kensington Palace courtiers that Meghan was the woman he would marry, Kate still didn’t do sh-t. What’s interesting is what is left unsaid:

Though not necessarily her responsibility, Kate did little to bridge the divide. She was fiercely loyal to her husband and his family.

Although Kate and Meghan were close in age, they weren’t meeting each other at the same point in their lives. Kate had been deeply embedded in the royal family ever since she met William in college. A mother of three (and mother of the heir to the throne), her life revolved around family and duty to monarchy and country.

Kate and Meghan came from different backgrounds and have had vastly different life experiences. Kate was never interested in having a career, while that was always a driver for Meghan. They also had different personalities. While Kate was shy and quiet, Meghan was an extrovert.

Harry didn’t care what his family thought or said. “Nothing was going to get in the way of his happiness,” a source close to Harry and Meghan said. “He knew Meghan was right for him. Their love was real, and their feelings for each other were genuine. Everything else was noise.”

[From Finding Freedom: Harry, Meghan, and the Making of a Modern Royal Family]

“She was fiercely loyal to her husband and his family” reads differently in context of the lack of support given to Harry and Meghan throughout 2017. Surely Kate saw Harry as part of William’s family? Where was her loyalty to him? It seems like Kate’s fierce loyalty dissipated as soon as another woman entered the picture. As for the authors’ comment about “Kate and Meghan came from different backgrounds and have had vastly different life experiences. Kate was never interested in having a career, while that was always a driver for Meghan…” I mean, it’s true. Kate spent 10 years waiting for the ring and going on beach holidays and ski holidays and pretending to do a couple of made-up jobs. Meghan hustled and worked since she was a kid, and she never thought about making a career out of throwing herself into the path of princes.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red.

Joey King is promoting The Kissing Booth 2. I didn’t see the first one but I know it was wildly popular. It is also supposed to be the nice side of star Jacob Elordi, as opposed to his fearsome Nate in Euphoria. The reason I bring up any of that is that Joey and Jacob were dating during KB1 but have since broken up and it doesn’t sound like filming love scenes for KB2 was that much fun for the exes. However, the show must go on and Joey’s found a way to delicately discuss filming with Jacob. She also made some very relevant comments about mental health and Black Lives Matter.

On setting goals: “Some people are really good about setting goals—if they set a goal, they know they have to do it and they won’t feel good until they do it. I am the same way, yet I still let myself not get it done for some reason.”

On mental health: “I preach a lot about being proactive about your mental health and not feeling selfish for feeling depressed or upset, but then when I sink into these weird moods, I immediately feel super selfish, which makes me feel worse. When it comes to taking care of yourself, there is a certain level of selfishness you have to have, but it’s hard. I haven’t found that balance yet. Because I in no way, shape, or form want to make any conversation that I start right now about me.”

On the Black Lives Matter movement: “I am a guest. Like every white person who enters, we are guests. This is not an issue we have to make about ourselves. We don’t get to make it about ourselves.”

On acting with her ex-boyfriend: “No one’s thinking to themselves, That was easy, because it wasn’t. I’m sure people will analyze every movement and every detail. And you know what? Let them. But at the end of the day, I was just thrilled to be Elle Evans again…There’s so much I want to say. What’s the most, um, correct way to go about this? Elle Evans needs her Noah Flynn, and whatever that means for my personal life, I’ll do anything to make sure the story of my character who I care about so much is complete.”

On 2020 and hope: “2020 is a piece of shit. And I know it’s silly to hope that everything’s beautiful by September because it won’t be. So I’m hoping that there’s hope. That’s more realistic.”

[From Cosmopolitan]

These are the pull quotes Cosmopolitan gave us but I really like them. I relate to what Joey said about mental health. It’s had to overcome the feeling of selfishness when you stop to focus on your needs yet that is exactly what you should do. I appreciate the simplicity of her BLM comments. She’s right, this moment in history is not about us as white people. If we are looking for credit for fighting for BLM, then we should step aside and try not to get in the way.

All that said, I think the part that absolutely rung the truest in my world were her comments about 2020. I can longer see the forest from the trees. I’d love to walk into the voting booth in November with the same feeling of exhilaration I did when I voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, but knowing how that turned out and everything that’s happened since, I’ll have to join Joey in just hoping for hope.

Photo credit: Eric Ray Davidson/Cosmopolitan

As with so many things involving Donald Trump, the collusion and criminality is in plain sight. Always. And I always think “if this is what we can see with our own eyes, how bad is it behind the scenes?” What’s the collusion this month? It’s the Kanye West presidential “candidacy.” Kanye West announced that he’s running last month, then did one “campaign event” in South Carolina where he said Harriet Tubman didn’t really free the slaves and that he wanted Kim to have an abortion when she was pregnant with North. He was in the throes of a manic episode, and some people assumed that when his manic episode was over, so too would the presidential candidacy stop. Not so much. Even though Kanye has been absent from the “campaign,” it has continued across a dozen states. The campaign is being run by various Republican operatives, all of them Trump supporters, blatantly looking to siphon votes from Joe Biden. While federal election laws are ever-changing, the whole “two campaigns colluding with each other” thing is still illegal. So… why are Jared Kushner and Kanye West meeting up in Colorado?

President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, met privately last weekend with Kanye West, the rapper who has filed petitions to get on the November ballots for president in several states.

The meeting took place in Colorado, where Mr. Kushner was traveling with his wife, Ivanka Trump, those familiar with the meeting said. Mr. West had been camping in Colorado with his family, and afterward flew to Telluride to meet with Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump, but was not accompanied by his wife, Kim Kardashian West, those with knowledge of the meeting said.

After an inquiry, Mr. West tweeted Tuesday evening: “I’m willing to do a live interview with the New York Time about my meeting with Jared,” adding that they had discussed a book about Black empowerment called “PowerNomics.” He did not elaborate on his meeting with Mr. Kushner in a brief follow-up interview. He instead expressed anger about abortion rates among Black women and said he didn’t reflexively support Democrats.

A White House spokesman did not respond to an email seeking comment.

The meeting came at a notable time. Mr. West recently criticized Joseph R. Biden Jr. in an interview with Forbes. He did not deny that he is acting as a spoiler to damage the Biden campaign with his effort to get on several ballots in states like Colorado, where he will appear. It’s less clear that his name will be on the ballot in Wisconsin, where his signature petitions are being challenged.

[From The NY Times]

It’s not that I’m worried that dipsh-ts will go to the polls and vote for Kanye in droves. The strategy at play is to make Kanye into a Jill Stein-like candidate, meaning the Trump campaign wants Kanye to pull a few thousand votes in what they think will be the tightest swing states. The problem is that there are not that many tight swing states – Biden is leading by significant margins in nearly all of the states deemed “battlegrounds.” Still, it’s a strategy and it’s something on which Republican operatives are clearly colluding with Kanye.

Forbes is also reporting that their sources – I would assume someone Kanye-adjacent – say that Kanye and Jared are speaking “almost daily” and Kushner has been telling Kanye that he can win the race. Kanye has apparently been telling people: “Jared’s scared and doesn’t want me to run because he knows that I can win.” Kanye’s people know that Kushner is working Ye, with one source saying that Kanye “is just like a kid. The more you tell him he can’t do a thing, the more he’ll do it… he has a tremendous drive to prove people wrong.” Kanye regularly refers to Jared as “my boy” and when Kanye was being interviewed by Forbes he apparently referenced things Kushner had told him recently. It’s gotten so bad that there are people in Kanye’s orbit who are concerned that Kushner is just manipulating and exploiting a mentally ill man. Duh.

PS… I also think it’s kind of interesting that Kim Kardashian hasn’t given People Magazine another diary entry in several days, basically ever since she and Kanye returned from the Dominican Republic. Judging from her IG, I think she’s back in LA? Did she drop Kanye off at the Wyoming Dome on her way to file for divorce in California? Also: LMAO Kim did not want to spend any time with Jared or Ivanka.

I’m willing to do a live interview with the New York Time about my meeting with Jared where we discussed Dr Claude Anderson’s book Powernomics

— ye (@kanyewest) August 12, 2020

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red.

In March 2019, a reimagined trailer of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air produced by filmmaker Morgan Cooper went viral. The gritty and modern depiction of the story got fans of the 90 series hyped, then it caught the attention of Will Smith who later interviewed Cooper on his Youtube channel.

An hour-long remake based on the trailer is being produced by Will’s Westbrook studios and is being shopped around. Netflix, HBOMax and Apple are very interested. The series will take the theme of the original sitcom and modernize it. The Insider gives more details of the series.

On Why Will Smith wanted to co-produce the series
“I saw the trailer that Morgan Cooper hooked up and it’s called, Bel-Air,” Smith said. “This was the first time that I heard something and was like Yo, that’s an idea that is brilliant.’”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Bel-Air” will provide a “dramatic take” on the TV show and will “will dive deeper into the inherent conflicts, emotions and biases of what it means to be a Black man in America today.”

The reboot is reportedly being offered to streaming services including NBC’s Peacock, Netflix, and HBO Max. HBO Max is the current streaming home for the original series.

[From The Insider]

When the trailer came out my friends and I had a virtual meltdown because it was so good. The darker take on the series feels relevant for today’s climate and exactly what we need at the moment. Of course I hope they’ll work in the shenanigans that the Fresh Prince and Jazz got up to for comical relief. I still know pretty much all of the lyrics to the song and sometimes watch reruns.

In the trailer Will is still corny and Jazz is cooler but I like how Carlton and Hilary come off quite spoilt and entitled. The uncle Phil in this version is not as lovable but realistically I don’t think a rich uncle taking in his troublemaker nephew would be.

I grew up in the 80s and 90s which I feel were the best decades for black film and television. Those more down to earth sometimes dramatic voices and experiences are often missing from today’s pain porn laden storytelling of the Black American experience. I do hope a major streaming service will pick up this brilliant concept so that it has a global audience and reach. In the meantime, those of us who fell in love with Will Smith and the rest of the Fresh Prince cast will definitely embrace this newer original version of the show.

Here’s the trailer:

View this post on Instagram

Always amazing to spend an afternoon with my Fresh Prince family. Wishing that James Avery was still with us to make this complete.

A post shared by Alfonso Ribeiro (@therealalfonsoribeiro) on Mar 27, 2017 at 5:27pm PDT

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The response to Bel-Air has been amazing! I’ve been getting a lot of messages asking about the cam/lens choices I made on this project. I shot Bel-Air on Alexa Mini + Cooke S4’s. All of the Philly scenes were captured on a 32mm with no filtration, & all of the Bel-Air scenes were captured with a 28 and 50mm with 1/4 Black ProMist filtration.

A post shared by Morgan Cooper (@cooperfilms) on Mar 11, 2019 at 8:31am PDT

photos credit: LFI/Photoshot and via Instagram

Brian Austin Green does not seem to be taking the dissolution of his marriage to Megan Fox well. After initially claiming peace and unity with his estranged wife, he seems to be acting out a bit. His latest grumbling is about Megan’s IG official paramour, Machine Gun Kelly. Whereas Brian was initially okay with the pair, he seems to have changed his tune.

Brian Austin Green has been letting his discontent with estranged wife Megan Fox be more known.

The former 90210 star recently posted an Instagram slideshow of his sons with the same caption Fox used for a photo of new flame Machine Gun Kelly: “My heart is yours.” As a source tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue, his behavior has to do with how he feels about her moving on so quickly — and publicly.

“Brian is annoyed that she is so focused on her relationship with Machine Gun Kelly,” the source says. “He doesn’t understand the need to post social media pictures with silly captions to proclaim her love for him. They aren’t even divorced yet.”

“It definitely annoys Brian. And it stings a bit too that Megan moved on so quickly,” the source continues. “Megan was always very private, so Brian just doesn’t get what changed.”

In a recent podcast appearance, Green opened up about how he’s handling the high-profile relationship.

“You can if you ignore it and avoid it which is what I try and do,” he said of the pictures and reports of Fox and Kelly out and about. “I try to not read anything or look at anything and not involve myself in it. Just keep my head down and do what I do and focus on the kids. I know she’s going to do the same thing.”

[From People]

“I try to not read anything or look at anything and not involve myself in it,”. Posting digs implying Megan is ignoring her kids and talking to People about how annoyed you are is the very definition of involving yourself. I get his feelings are hurt and he has a point that Megan did not showcase their relationship like she’s doing with Kelly, which would also sting. But after the rumors about Brian controlling Megan during their relationship it’s hard not to read this wotj skepticism.

Brian has been trying to debut his own rebound relationshipt but none of them are working out. A few weeks back there was a very bizarre story about Brian having lunch with Courtney Stodden. When people made, “ew, gross” faces about him pursuing yet another very young and vulnerable young woman, Brian claimed he didn’t know who she was and that it was all her doing, using him for his fame. At the time of that lunch date, Brian was reportedly in a relationship with Tina Louise (the Australian Maxim model, not Ginger of Gilligan’s Island), which has also since ended. Recently Brian was photographed having lunch with Jane Seymour’s former stepdaughter, Jennifer Flynn. Supposedly, Brian and Jennifer are starting a cyber-crimes company, which, if true, is kind of cool, but this innocuous lunch they had to discuss it resulted in so many photos. That smells of someone tipping off the paps. I don’t know what Brian hopes to gain from all this. If he’s trying to show Megan and Kelly up, he’s falling on his face. He’d be better of sticking to his original plan of not paying attention to any of it.

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My heart ?? Happy Fathers Day everyone. My oldest text me at 12:21am this morning

A post shared by Brian Austin Green (@brianaustingreen) on Jun 21, 2020 at 11:24am PDT

Photo credit: Instagram and WENN

I had to read this headline twice: Ghislaine Maxwell wants to be released into gen-pop? Here’s someone who has spent all of her life in the most exclusive circles with access to the most exclusive rooms. Which is, in part, why she and Jeffrey Epstein were able to allegedly commit their gross crimes….

I had to read this headline twice: Ghislaine Maxwell wants to be released into gen-pop? Here’s someone who has spent all of her life in the most exclusive circles with access to the most exclusive rooms. Which is, in part, why she and Jeffrey Epstein were able to allegedly commit their gross crimes….

I had to read this headline twice: Ghislaine Maxwell wants to be released into gen-pop? Here’s someone who has spent all of her life in the most exclusive circles with access to the most exclusive rooms. Which is, in part, why she and Jeffrey Epstein were able to allegedly commit their gross crimes….

I had to read this headline twice: Ghislaine Maxwell wants to be released into gen-pop? Here’s someone who has spent all of her life in the most exclusive circles with access to the most exclusive rooms. Which is, in part, why she and Jeffrey Epstein were able to allegedly commit their gross crimes….