This news was broken by Page Six and then confirmed by People Magazine, so it’s legit: the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have moved out of Tyler Perry’s Mansion and into their newly-purchased home in Santa Barbara, a wealthy and quiet coastal community 100 miles north of Los Angeles. Many famous Angelenos have “beach homes” or second homes in Santa Barbara, and it would not surprise me at all if this Santa Barbara home turns out to be their second home, long-term. But for now, People confirms that “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex moved into their family home in July of this year. They have settled into the quiet privacy of their community since their arrival and hope that this will be respected for their neighbors, as well as for them as a family.” Page Six had more, including Harry sniffing at Tyler Perry’s Mansion.

Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle have secretly bought a private family home in Santa Barbara — the place they have chosen to put down permanent roots and bring up their son Archie after leaving the British royal family. Page Six can exclusively reveal that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have for six weeks been living in their own home in the upscale California community, which is also home to their friends Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres.

Amid much speculation that the couple would buy a place in Los Angeles, a source told Page Six, “Harry and Meghan have been quietly living in their own home in Santa Barbara since early July. They are not houseguests of Oprah or anyone else, they bought this home themselves. This is where they want to continue their lives after leaving the UK. This is the first home either of them has ever owned. It has been a very special time for them as a couple and as a family — to have complete privacy for six weeks since they moved in. They intend to put down their roots in this house and the quiet community, which has considerable privacy. This is where they want to bring Archie up, where they hope he can have as normal a life as possible.”

The source adds “Harry and Meghan never intended to make Los Angeles their home. It was a good place for them to be upon their arrival in the US to be close to Meghan’s mom [who lives in LA].”

The source would not reveal details of the home, such as the price they paid or the location, citing security concerns, but added, “They have thought about this carefully and researched it well. This is the place where they plan to be happy, make good friends and bring up Archie, giving him the chance to play with other children his age.”

The source added, with regards to the paparazzi drones flown over Tyler Perry’s LA house, “Harry and Meghan are both very upset by this breach of privacy, but that wasn’t the reason they left Los Angeles. They were already in the process of buying their home in Santa Barbara. While it was a nice favor to them at a very difficult time, Tyler Perry’s house with 18 bedrooms isn’t Harry’s style. Yes, he grew up in royalty and the halls of Buckingham Palace, but he prefers more intimate homes with character.”

[From Page Six]

Honestly, I bet Harry did have some culture shock just in regard to real estate as he moved to LA – the mega-mansions, the gaudiness and the lack of historical real estate in general. But yeah, Tyler Perry did them a solid so I don’t get the crack about Tyler’s house not being Harry’s style. Blah. As for wanting Archie to grow up in Santa Barbara… it sounds a lot like “we’re making our permanent base Frogmore Cottage.” Harry and Meghan want some space and distance, but I feel like they’ll find it’s unrealistic to be so far away from a major city like LA permanently.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

Most of us figured out that the Duchess of Sussex was pregnant when we saw her fuller face and her loose navy coat at Princess Eugenie’s wedding in October 2018. Meghan did not announce her pregnancy until two days after Eugenie’s wedding though, and the Sussexes announced it then because they were already flying out to begin their South Pacific Tour. As it turns out, Meghan was “just under twelve weeks pregnant” when the tour began, which is around the time most women do start telling people (between the third and fourth month). But people took issue with Meghan’s timing overall, especially since there were widespread tabloid stories that Meghan was going around telling the Windsors about her pregnancy AT Eugenie’s wedding. Which, if true, would have been slightly off-side and I could see why the Yorks might be mad about it, if it happened like that. So is that what really happened? From Finding Freedom:

Meghan, expecting in the spring of 2019, was just under twelve weeks pregnant when the [South Pacific] tour began. But a Palace aide said Harry and Meghan were comfortable with the decision to announce the news early to avoid an entire trip of speculation around whether Meghan was pregnant. “She was already showing, and hiding it would not have been possible,” the aide said. “The rumors would have dominated the coverage and taken away from the entire purpose of the tour. Meghan didn’t want that.”

(The timing of the announcement might have worked with the tour, but it conflicted with another happy royal event: Princess Eugenie’s wedding. Family members had found out about the pregnancy just days prior, at the wedding of Harry’s closest cousin. It did not go down particularly well with Eugenie, who a source said told friends she felt the couple should have waited to share the news.)

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

Well, that answers that – Meghan was telling people for the first time at the wedding, but it was more like a confirmation because she was already showing. I mean, I understand Meghan and Harry’s perspective that it is what is and it’s not like they could hide it. But I also understand Eugenie’s perspective that it was thunder-stealing on her wedding day. This is likely why the Yorks left their fingerprints on several of the smears on Meghan following the wedding too, in my opinion.

FF also says that Eugenie and Harry are particularly close and that Harry often confided in Eugenie about his girlfriends. They also report that Eugenie is the one who introduced Harry to her friend Cressida. Still, FF says that Eugenie embraced Meghan early on and Eugenie and Jack went on several double-dates with H&M.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red, Backgrid.

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While we’re trying to avoid going to the grocery store more than once a week, there are around 250,000 bikers gathering maskless, and mostly helmetless, in South Dakota for the annual Sturgis bike rally. What’s more is that there are music acts willing to entertain the maskless bikers, and not just ZZ Top cover bands but actual bands with 20 year-old one hit wonders, like Smash Mouth. Photos and video of the crowd show it packed without almost no one wearing masks. NBC News reports:

Smash Mouth’s concert on Sunday in front of a packed crowd at Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota drew widespread outrage.

The band was one of the headliners at the Sturgis Buffalo Chip music festival.

Smash Mouth was one of several musical acts — including Trapt, Night Ranger, Saving Abel, Buckcherry, Reverend Horton Heat, 38 Special, Quiet Riot and Big Skillet — to play at the multi-day festival where admission to the entire event cost $360 per person, according to the Buffalo Chip website.

Videos and photos posted to social media showed many in the large crowd seemingly flouting social distancing guidelines Sunday night. Most attendees did not appear to be wearing masks.

Frontman Steve Harwell told the crowd, “We’re all here together tonight. F— that COVID s—,” one video shows.

[From NBC via Dlisted]

Supposedly guests were told masks were required for entry but of course hardly anyone had one on. I guess Quiet Riot, 38 Special and Buckcherry are also on the “never listen to again list,” although I haven’t thought about any of those bands in years. My kid is going to be disappointed. He liked All Star, which was an oldie to him since it came out before he was born. The world is going to roll these losers and hopefully they won’t take too many people down with them. (I’m not making the obvious “sharpest tool” joke, but the years are going to stop coming.)

Meanwhile cops in New Jersey busted a 300 person party and arrested people. Imagine if the federal government sent troops to disperse concerts and parties instead of gassing peaceful masked protests. We would probably be back to normal by now.

Here is a brighter video to see all the people (credit KOTATV) pic.twitter.com/P7XW46BLiS

— Connor Matteson (@mattesontv) August 10, 2020

This is one more reason we will not see shows in the near future, or any future if it keeps happening. Sets the whole business back every time it does. Every time this happens it messes it up for those who want to do it right. https://t.co/jxOKT1YDPG

— KevinLyman (@KevinLyman) August 10, 2020

Thousands of bikers turned out to watch Smash Mouth play a concert in the middle of a pandemic: https://t.co/gUbQEkA6Mv pic.twitter.com/pXJMZRKvsW

— Consequence of Sound (@consequence) August 10, 2020

What timeline are we in where Juggalos are a better role model than Smash mouth? pic.twitter.com/zgwnr86OWA

— Ani-Mia (@AniMiaOfficial) August 11, 2020

imagine risking your life for fucking smash mouth https://t.co/gCclMefOPI

— ? (@PEACHYBLACKG0RL) August 10, 2020

I sort of forgot this happened, but Finding Freedom confirms a story I never completely believed: the Duke and Duchess of Sussex visited George and Amal Clooney in Como, Italy in the summer of 2018. This would have been about three months after Harry and Meghan’s wedding, and remember, H&M did a lot of events immediately following their wedding, then they took a summer break and traveled and we didn’t know all of the places they went. George and Amal had gone to their wedding, and no one exactly knew the connection between the two couples. As it turns out, the connection was between Harry and George Clooney, and they met each other way before Harry met Meghan. FF details H&M’s arrival in Italy and details how George and Amal had been hosting guests throughout the summer, like always, including Cindy Crawford and Rande, the Beckhams and… Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank. Remember, Jack is a Casamigos ambassador (Casamigos is Clooney’s tequila label).

During the three-day visit, a source said, “Meghan and Amal spent a lot of time relaxing by the pool and playing with the twins while George and Harry checked out George’s motorbike collection. Harry took one of them out with one of his protection officers. George recently had an accident, so he wasn’t back on his bike yet.”

The duke and duchess weren’t the only guests that weekend. Eugenie and her fiancé, Jack Brooksbank, were already at the villa when Harry and Meghan arrived, their visits overlapping briefly. To maximize security, the group stayed in every night, well fed by rotating chefs. On the final night of Harry and Meghan’s stay, George hired the chef from Il Gatto Nero, one of his favorite local restaurants, to prepare an Italian feast for fifteen. The party, including neighbors and their houseguests, dined at long trestle tables in the landscaped gardens. As live music echoed over the estate, guests enjoyed the gathering until the early hours.

Harry and George had been friends long before the prince met Meghan. After connecting at a charity event, the two men discovered that despite their age difference, they had a lot in common, including their love of motorbikes. George had collections of bikes in Lake Como, LA, and Sonning.

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

That’s interesting to me that the connection is Harry & George, not Amal and Meghan. But it sounds like Amal and Meghan hit it off, and the Clooneys hosted the Sussexes in the Clooney’s palatial English country estate in Sonning. George is such a “host,” and honestly, what Amal wants, Amal gets. She wanted to cozy up to the British aristocracy and royal family and George gave that to her.

Oh, and FF also says that Serena Williams and her husband Alexis Ohanian stopped by the Sussexes’ rented country house the summer of 2018, just before Serena played at Wimbledon.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red, Backgrid.

Forbes just released their highest paid actors of 2020 and shocking absolutely no one, Dwayne The Rock Johnson has held on to his number one spot for the second year in a row. I just learned last year that Forbes factors in endorsement deals including side businesses (well done, Ryan Reynolds), so some of these numbers make more sense. But, DJ, once again, is the highest earner for acting, racking up $23.5M alone for his Netflix film, Red Notice. That’s insane. According to Forbes, Netflix is responsible for one fourth of the money on this list. Does anyone remember when Blockbuster almost killed Netflix as a company? How the tables have turned. Forbes broke down the numbers here:

This year’s 10 top-earning actors collected a combined $545.5 million, more than a quarter of that paid out by Netflix. The streaming giant, in fact, cut $140.5 million worth of checks to six of the top 10. Dwayne Johnson tops the list for the second year in a row with $87.5 million, collecting $23.5 million for his role as an art thief chasing Interpol agent in the upcoming Netflix original film Red Notice. Netflix paid out an additional $85 million to Ryan Reynolds, Mark Wahlberg, Ben Affleck and Vin Diesel.

The economics of star power are the same for Netflix as they have been for the traditional movie studios: If you draw a crowd, you get top dollar. For Netflix, though, the secret isn’t in the blockbuster box office results but in how many monthly subscriptions it will sign up and retain as a result. That’s a figure that is calculated using Netflix’s treasure trove of proprietary data, including the number of times a film is streamed and the number of repeat viewings, as well as a dash of an actor’s social following.

The influence of streaming companies is accelerating. Netflix, which spent more than any individual studio on Hollywood’s leading men, is expected to invest more than $17 billion on content this year. Apple TV+ is reportedly planning to drop more than $30 million to snag Reynolds (No. 2, $71.5 million) for A Christmas Carol, and Amazon is paying Bollywood’s Akshay Kumar (No. 6. $48.5 million) $10 million for his role in an upcoming television series.

[From Forbes]

Honestly, I can’t wrap my head around these numbers. It’s almost like it’s too much money. I found the numbers breakdown between the streaming services interesting, mainly because I just never thought the streamers would have those kinds of budgets. Remember, everything they paid for, they did so before lockdown gave them the boost over any theater release. As for the list itself, meh. It’s the same one we keep seeing, action stars get all the money…. along with Adam Sandler. Bollywood star Akshay Kumar is a nice addition as is Mr. Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda (thanks Disney!) . Vin Diesel could technically be the surprise earner this year because he hasn’t really been in anything and COVID pushed his F9 backend earning off until the movie’s release in April 2021. However, he’s getting by on producing credits, which, frankly, is how Wahlberg stayed on the list. Here’s how the top 10 plays out:

Dwayne Johnson $87.5M
Ryan Reynolds $71.5
Mark Wahlberg $58M
Ben Affleck $55M
Vin Diesel $54M
Akshay Kumar $48.5M
Lin-Manuel Miranda $45.5 M
Will Smith $44.5M
Adam Sandler $41M
Jackie Chan: $40M

As always, we’ll have to wait for the highest paid actress list and as always, I’m sure it will be shockingly disappointing in representation and how far it falls behind the men. What I am very interested to see is next year’s list. With everyone’s paycheck on ice due to the filming stoppage, maybe – just maybe – next year this list will be something to talk about.

“wow, you just got 55M times hotter!

Photo credit: WENN/Avalon

The Old Guard, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, has been one of Netflix’s most popular movies this summer. It’s also been one of my favorites. The action scenes are gritty and kick-ass and the gay love story is absolutely moving. All of that was of course intentional. In an interview with NPR, Blythewood talked about action film tropes for women and why she was determined to keep in the kiss between characters Joe and Nicky.

On how women are often sexualized in action movies
I’m going to give a generalization. … Female characters are not the center of the story. They’re not integral to the plot or the climax. They are usually, if they do have superpowers, are sidekicks, or comic relief, or do not have full arcs or stories. And the fight scenes, the costume, it is about sexualizing the characters. …

Whenever there’s a cool fight between two women, it always has to turn into the sexy cat fight, as opposed to just these two women are warriors. Let them fight, let’s marvel at their athleticism. That’s what excites me. I know it’s because I am an athlete and grew up an athlete, and those were the women that I grew up with around me.

And also there tends to be a thought that … let’s just design the coolest fights, as opposed to being true to what a fight with a woman would look like. A woman does not have the strength to pick somebody up and throw them up against a wall like a man could, but there are different ways that a woman would fight and look cool.

On the audience’s reaction to the scene of the gay couple kissing
Before COVID shut everything down, we had two audience previews of the film. So I actually got to see it in the theater with 250 people per screening. And they target an audience of people they think will see the film for the previews. And I knew there would be nothing to get me to cut that scene. But we did not know what the audience reaction was going to be at all. And I remember sitting in the theater and as we’re getting closer to the scene, … and they kiss, and the audience erupted in applause, [at] both screenings.

It was such an amazing moment and surprising … But it honestly was tied to this moment when we were shooting. After we’d finished shooting the scene, two different guys from the crew came up to me and said how much they loved the scene and that when they were watching, they didn’t see two men, they just saw two people in love. I was like, wow, I think, maybe we did do our jobs here, because that’s what they felt and that’s what we wanted to feel. Love is love.

[From NPR]

I love action and fantasy films and always get irritated by how they portray women. They either have to be rescued or they cause the downfall of the male lead. Wonder Woman and now The Old Guard have flipped the script and are creating a blueprint for the action genre going forward. I also enjoyed the romantic relationship between Joe and Nicky. Their love for each other was palpable and not treated as taboo or something to gawk at.

I’d like to see more female characters introduced into a sequel, if there is one, and learn more about the backstory of Joe and Nicky’s romance. Gay relationships need to be normalized in movies. Like Bythewood said, “Love is love.”

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Dopeness on volume 10. @bethanylevy was part of the incredible #theoldguard stunt team. So skilled. Down for whatever. Always with a smile. #womensupportingwomen #blackstuntwomen

A post shared by Gina Prince-Bythewood (@gpbmadeit) on Jul 28, 2020 at 2:12pm PDT

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A post shared by Gina Prince-Bythewood (@gpbmadeit) on Jul 26, 2020 at 10:18pm PDT

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First up, thanks to those of you who’ve emailed me to share that you are not okay after the series finale of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay. I am not okay either – because my weekends are now so much less sweet and angsty and beautiful without them. Of course I have thoughts, though. A LOT OF THOUGHTS. Bu…

First up, thanks to those of you who’ve emailed me to share that you are not okay after the series finale of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay. I am not okay either – because my weekends are now so much less sweet and angsty and beautiful without them. Of course I have thoughts, though. A LOT OF THOUGHTS. Bu…

First up, thanks to those of you who’ve emailed me to share that you are not okay after the series finale of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay. I am not okay either – because my weekends are now so much less sweet and angsty and beautiful without them. Of course I have thoughts, though. A LOT OF THOUGHTS. Bu…

First up, thanks to those of you who’ve emailed me to share that you are not okay after the series finale of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay. I am not okay either – because my weekends are now so much less sweet and angsty and beautiful without them. Of course I have thoughts, though. A LOT OF THOUGHTS. Bu…