When Matt Lauer was fired from NBC in November 2017, Ann Curry made some vague comments initially – it was clear that was glad he was fired, but she wasn’t going to spill any tea. Looking back on everything, I think NBC probably forced her to sign a very strict non-disclosure agreement when she was pushed out. Ann was pushed out of the Today Show in 2012, and Lauer’s fingerprints were all over her firing. As I keep saying: he behaved like the king of NBC and women who were not “in favor” with the king were ordered away. Ann was not the first or the last, but she was the one we saw in real time as she struggled to stop what was happening to her. Now Us Weekly is trying to make it sound like Ann might speak out:

There’s no love lost between former Today cohosts Matt Lauer and Ann Curry. Curry, who left the morning show in 2012, reportedly at Lauer’s behest, tweeted in support of Lauer accuser Brooke Nevils earlier this month. And a source reveals in the new issue of Us Weekly that the news anchor might know more than she’s letting on to the public.

“Ann has maintained a dignified silence, but a lot of people confided in her years ago and still do to this day,” the source tells Us. “She knows more than most about the man Matt really is, and when she finally speaks out, it will destroy him.”

Curry, 62, previously revealed that she reported Lauer, 61, for sexual harassment on behalf of a colleague in 2012, which NBC execs deny. They also deny that they covered up Lauer’s alleged abuse. Megyn Kelly has spoken about Lauer’s alleged inappropriate workplace behavior too. In 2018, she told Us, “I know too much that others don’t,” and on October 14, she praised Curry and Today alum Meredith Vieira, who encouraged Nevils, 32, to report Lauer, for “sounding the alarm.”

[From Us Weekly]

As I said, I suspect that Ann has an ironclad NDA. I also suspect that she spoke off-the-record or as an unnamed source in Ronan Farrow’s book. And yes, I’ve always believed that Ann went the network executives and told them that Lauer was abusing his authority with the younger women around the office. And I believe that’s one of the major reasons why she was pushed out. It sucks. It’s awful. And I hope she does break the NDA and spills ALL. That doesn’t seem like her style though, so who knows.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

The past few issues of People Magazine have either celebrated highly successful people of color or tried to whitewash white celebrity criminals. Case in point: Viola Davis (LOVE her), Felicity Huffman, Tyler Perry, Oprah and now Michael Douglas’s felon drug dealing son, Cameron. Cameron Douglas ran a multi-state drug operation and was caught trying to sell a pound and a half of meth to a DEA agent. His sentence would have been much shorter if he didn’t violate his probation multiple times by being caught with drugs while on house arrest and in prison. Go here for a recap. Michael also thinks his son was made an example of because of his name. Well they’re not above using that name and his connections to score the cover of People Magazine. They’re promoting Cameron’s new book called Long Way Home. The last time we covered Cameron he failed a drug test while on probation. People’s story is focused on Cameron as a hopeless addict who has been able to beat his addiction.

“I hated the wreckage I saw in my life because of drugs, but I just couldn’t stop,” Cameron, now 40, tells PEOPLE exclusively in this week’s cover story.

Feeling all but helpless on the sidelines were Cameron’s parents, Michael, and Diandra, 63, a former model and producer, whose attempts at getting their son help over the years largely fell on deaf ears.

“There were moments when hope dwindled… and then it’s just a train out of the station,” Michael, 75, tells PEOPLE exclusively. “Life became a series of crises. I thought I was going to lose him.”

For a time, Cameron shot up cocaine nearly daily and withstood drug-induced seizures.

“It’s the sneaky power, the stranglehold that addiction has when you’re in the throes of it,” he says. “When you get that far down the rabbit hole, there are a couple options: there’s prison and then there’s death.”

Cameron narrowly escaped the latter, but in 2009 a DEA sting operation landed him behind bars. He faced a five-year term for conspiracy to distribute meth and cocaine. In all, Cameron would spend nearly eight years in prison — the sentence was extended for possession while he was incarcerated — but he emerged in 2016 a changed man.

Today, Cameron is raising his beloved 22-month-old daughter Lua with longtime girlfriend Viviane Thiebes, 41, a yoga instructor, working on restarting his acting career and feeling deep gratitude that his family never gave up on him.

Determined to help other addicts “seek help – and maybe save a life,” Cameron shares his harrowing, and ultimately inspiring, journey in an upcoming memoir, Long Way Home, excerpted exclusively in this week’s issue.

[From People]

As Kaiser often says, both things can be true. Cameron can be a former addict who had a serious problem AND he can be a manipulative person who used to commit crimes and is using his family name to sell his book. He has a new short on Amazon Prime too, so it’s safe to assume he also wants an acting career. I’m glad Cameron is sober and I have sympathy for addicts, but this does not rate the cover of People no matter who his dad is.

Just check out the covers of People for the past year and tell me if those look balanced at all. All the people of color are the most successful and talented then the rest are royals, celebrities, reality stars and criminals. Guess they needed another one for this week and they were running out of college scammers.

Look at this douchebag shirtless in his Eames chair. I’m so jealous, I want one of those chairs.

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I am thoroughly excited to share the cover of my book #LongWayHome…take a journey with me through my Life on 10/23 http://bit.ly/2APRa0H ?@Cabadasss

A post shared by Cameron Douglas (@cameronmorrelldouglas) on Oct 16, 2019 at 5:18pm PDT

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Think it through… #staysharp ? #livewell ?@Serebenyc

A post shared by Cameron Douglas (@cameronmorrelldouglas) on Apr 3, 2019 at 2:59pm PDT

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Working with the very talented @serebenyc always brings something powerful and inspiring to the surface. #WalktheWalk ?

A post shared by Cameron Douglas (@cameronmorrelldouglas) on Mar 29, 2019 at 1:14pm PDT

My top-five favorite things to talk about regarding celebrity weddings, in order: 1) the dress, 2) the food, 3) the cake, 4) the bridesmaids’ dresses, 5) the guests’ outfits. What can I say? You can tell a lot about a person from what they serve at their wedding. And g–damn it, please have a cake. The worst wedding stories involve “a fruit tart in lieu of a wedding cake.” Anyway, Jennifer Lawrence is getting married to Cooke Maroney. I thought the wedding would happen over the summer, but no. She’s going to be an autumn bride. An autumn bride with an amazing wedding reception menu! Jennifer and Cooke will apparently get married this weekend in Rhode Island (???) and TMZ found out all the details about the…menu. And I’m here for it.

Jennifer Lawrence is about to walk down the aisle this weekend — but the big scoop here is what she and her guests will feast on … a smorgasbord of fancy eats and drinks. We got some deets on JLaw’s wedding — which is going down Saturday at a swanky venue in Rhode Island, 8 months after she got engaged. We gotta say, for a relatively short engagement … they’ve put together a pretty elaborate affair. Clearly, Jen and hubby-to-be Cooke Maroney pulled out all the stops … hiring celeb wedding planner Mark Seed to do the party for about 150 people.

Let’s start with the grub, shall we? According to the menu, folks are gonna have their pick from a variety of hors d’oeuvres ..
.– sweet potato flat cakes
– brussels sprouts with cured egg yolk
– smoked pork belly with pickled apple
– salt cod beignet

Moving on to the main course options — here’s what Jen and Cooke, or their hired help, will be serving up …either wood-roasted fish with herbs and lemon-infused butter OR 5-week-aged leg of beef with forager’s sauce. There are veggies too — heirloom roasted carrots, smoked new potatoes, whey braised cabbage … blah, blah, blah. Let’s get to the good good.

Dessert’s coming in hot! Fire-baked sourdough bread pudding with chocolate; salted caramel and fresh apple; cauldron fritters with bourbon cream and cinnamon sugar; house-made marshmallow s’mores. As for drinks, specialty cocktails appear to boil down to either a bourbon old-fashioned or gin cucumber lavender champagnes … served at a cash bar. JK!!! Like we said, it’s gonna be extravagant. Dare we say … decadent???

[From TMZ]

BEEF. And lots of dessert options! And potatoes! LOTS OF POTATOES. I love Jennifer so much for this menu, I would marry her right now as well. You can really see Jennifer’s Southern/Kentucky influences in the desserts too, as well as her taste for more “fun” things. I mean, s’mores! Why not have s’mores at your wedding? BRING IN THE DORITO CAKE!! And I’m shocked that there’s not also a pizza option. She’ll probably have pizzas for the after-after party though, don’t you think?

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

It’s a full schedule for Prince William and Catherine today as they continue their tour of Pakistan in Lahore. They were the birthday surprise for kids at SOS Children’s Village where Kate gave a speech and they both participated in storytime. I like the faces Kate’s making as she’s reading.

…

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The @skims Waist a Trainer is here!!!! Designed with ultra-thin, high-tech neoprene, the @SKIMS Waist Trainer ($68) is soft to the touch and undetectable under just about everything. Available now in sizes XXS – 4X SKIMS.COM. Free shipping on domestic orders $75+.

A post shared by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Sep 30, 2019 at 9:11am PDT

For years, Kim Kardashian promoted various waist trainers on Instagram. She got paid to promote them, probably six-figures or more. But a few months ago, Kim introduced her shapewear line, SKIMS (formerly Kimono). Most of the shapewear just looks like Spanx in various nude and beige colors. I have no idea about the quality (some of it actually looks half-decent), but SKIMS is selling well. Like, extremely well. And Kim has introduced a new product with SKIMS: her very own branded waist-trainer. For the uninitiated, waist trainers are just the 2010s version of corsets. Some have boning, some are just fabric, but they’re really just old-school corsets. And much like OG corsets, waist trainers do next to nothing. In fact, if they do anything at all, it’s “be sucky and medically questionable.” This is not the first time we’ve discussed this, but consider this an annual PSA:

Kim Kardashian has promoted several questionable trends over the years, from heeled flip-flops to bike shorts — but her latest launch could be downright hazardous to your health. On Monday, the 38-year-old shapewear mogul debuted her new SKIMS waist trainer, which proceeded to sell out in every size (from XXS to 4X) in under 24 hours. “They just make me feel really snatched,” Kardashian explained in a recent Instagram video plugging the $68 style, inspired by the girdles she’s worn and loved for years. But although the star’s curve-enhancing contraption claims to “instantly erase inches,” buyers shouldn’t look to them as a long-term solution for whittling their waists.

“While they seem like a quick and easy fix, waist trainers don’t actually burn fat or make you lose weight, and there can be a lot of harmful side effects,” Dena Barsoum, MD, board-certified physiatrist in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Hospital for Special Surgery, told Page Six Style. “There’s a reason our bodies have the shape that they do. Waist trainers compress everything in the abdomen; not just your muscles and skin, but your intestines, stomach, liver, spleen and kidneys, and all of those need space to function.”

As a result, she said, wearers could experience indigestion and heartburn — or worse, cracked ribs and pinched nerves. And while Kardashian praised waist trainers as the perfect gift for her pregnant friends, Dr. Barsoum said there are far better ways for new moms to bounce back after giving birth.

“It’s understandable that women are anxious to get back to their pre-baby physique, but between a healthy, balanced diet and exercise, you can shed those pounds in a healthy way — safely, over time — that will allow you to keep that weight off. Whereas with waist trainers, they’re not causing you to lose weight, they’re just pushing things in different directions.”

[From Page Six]

Yep. I thought Instagram was supposed to crack down on these kinds of crackpot sponsorships? Maybe Kim got in through the backdoor (heh) because it’s her OWN product and not really a sponsorship. She’s not at Goop-level for the promotion of sh-tty pseudoscience, but she’s coming close. Sometimes I want to shake Kim and yell “you’re a 38 year old mother of four, stop promoting corsets!!” Jesus.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Instagram.

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A post shared by Jaime Pressly (@jaimepressly) on Oct 5, 2019 at 3:24pm PDT

I have become a fan of the show Mom. I had trouble getting into it because the humor can be very juvenile. But a couple of you told me I should stick with it because the core of the show was women’s relationships, and you were spot on (as usual). I am also wholly impressed with their examination of addiction and recovery, which includes relapse. Jaime Pressly is one of the five leads in the ensemble (six with Kristen Johnson joining the cast full-time). She’s really good. Her character can be unlikable and definitely unrelatable, but Jaime does great job of showing her flaws. Jaime is mom to three boys, 12-year-old Dezi, whose father is Eric Calvo, and two-year-old twins Leo and Lenon, with boyfriend Hamzi Hijazi. The other day, Jaime pulled the pin on a grenade and launched it directly into her Instagram page when she posted the beautiful pic above with her oldest, Dezi. What’s wrong with that lovely photo? Nothing. It was her caption that left people hyperventilating:

Best time ever hangin with my favorite son, Dezi. That’s right I said it. I have a favorite son although I luv all 3 of my boys with everything I have in me. Dez and I have a special bond that no one else will ever match because we’ve grown up together. #firstborn #iloveyou

The fact that the mom-shamers came out in droves over this isn’t even news. Publicly declaring you have a favorite child is an engraved invitation for them to respond. So Jaime decided to explain herself while on The Talk. She said:

I was just being honest. I mean, look, I love, like I said, all three of my boys. But the two little ones are twins and they’re turning two tomorrow so the 12-year-old’s my favorite. Now all three of my boys are my favorite for a different reason, but when it comes to, like, traveling on a plane – 12-year-old, my favorite. When it comes to dressing yourself, he can dress himself, they don’t even know how to say shirt. He’s my favorite for many reasons but that doesn’t mean I don’t love all three of my boys so all the parents need to relax.

If I understand Jaime correctly, she appreciates that her older child does not require so much of her attention. Now that she has young children again, she’s reminded how much babies and toddlers cannot do for themselves. So when she found herself out with her pre-teen son, having a more mature discussion about mutual interests and she didn’t have to worry about him having a tantrum or feeding himself, she appreciated it for what it was, a moment unique to them given the age difference between her twins and Dezi. Then say that! This was just not well thought out. I’ll even go a step further, I even kind of understand her saying her relationship with Dezi is different because they grew up together. If she had Dezi when she was 30 and they weathered her breakup with his dad and her divorce, not to mention the fallout with her DUI arrest, I imagine she does feel like they grew up together. And toddlerhood is a very challenging time with kids. But I can’t see any value in publicly declaring favorites, especially because Jaime added, “all parents have a favorite, even if they don’t say it.” I don’t believe all parents do. I’d bet more parents don’t have favorites.

Jaime went on to say that, “by the time (the twins) are old enough to know what a post is, this will be so long gone,” so she doesn’t have to worry about her comments. I beg to differ. Public posts and comments can always bite you in the ass. They never die.

Here’s the video of Jaime’s comments if you want to hear them:

Photo credit: WENN Photos

Canadians head to the polls – you guys have polling stations, right? – on Friday. This is Canada’s national election, but it’s a parliamentary system, so that means Canadians are voting for the MPs and whichever party gets the majority will determine the prime minister. Right? Right. So, yes, Justin Trudeau is “up for re-election,” but the Labour Party is the one on the ballot, and you’re voting for your local MP. I’m just explaining this for our American readers, who might not understand parliamentary systems!

We haven’t talked much about Justin Trudeau in several weeks, not since all of the blackface controversy last month. To be clear, Trudeau wasn’t doing blackface last month. We just found out in September that Trudeau spent too much time in his teens and 20s wearing race like a costume. I actually had to stop covering the blackface stories because I was losing count of how many times Trudeau had been photographed that way. It’s a mess and yes, it’s affected his standing in most of the polling. Bloomberg said this week that Trudeau is in the political fight of his life.

So… is it weird that Barack Obama is suddenly getting involved? As an American, I can only look at our political system in utter despair, but I still believe that… current or former presidents should not get involved in other countries’ elections. So I found this slightly strange:

I was proud to work with Justin Trudeau as President. He’s a hard-working, effective leader who takes on big issues like climate change. The world needs his progressive leadership now, and I hope our neighbors to the north support him for another term.

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 16, 2019

How is this playing in Canada? It hasn’t made much of a blip over here, probably because Trump is too busy asking other countries to interfere in OUR elections. Does Obama’s endorsement help or hurt Trudeau? I tend to think Obama is still very popular internationally, so maybe it helps Trudeau? Trudeau responded too:

Thanks my friend, we’re working hard to keep our progress going. https://t.co/l4V42PZbef

— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) October 16, 2019

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red and Backgrid.

It’s time to catch up with Prince Andrew. Even though Prince William and Catherine are in Pakistan dominating British royal headlines this week, and Prince Harry and Meghan Meghan are keeping it low-key until the release of their documentary this weekend, we shouldn’t forget about Andrew, as much as…

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I swear I didn’t mean to break it… Thank you guys for the kind, glitchy welcome ??

A post shared by Jennifer Aniston (@jenniferaniston) on Oct 16, 2019 at 2:39pm PDT

A few days ago, I put Jennifer Aniston’s first Instagram as the “lead link” in the afternoon links post. I thought it was cute that Jennifer has finally joined Instagram and obvious PR is obvious – she was clearly persuaded to join IG as part of her promotion for The Morning Show on Apple+. Looking back on it now, it’s sort of surprising that no one ever contractually obligated her to use social media as a promotional tool – I mean, she has all kinds of endorsements and ad campaigns. She could have been doing Instagram sponcon for Aveeno all this time. But she waited until now to open an IG account and guess what? America’s Sweetheart is still super-popular:

Jennifer Aniston made history when she joined Instagram on Tuesday. The actress, 50, broke the Guinness World Records title for the fastest time to reach one million followers on Instagram in five hours and 16 minutes, PEOPLE confirms.

Not only did The Morning Show actress gain friends, she also dethroned one famous couple for the title: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. The royal couple previously held the title when they launched their Instagram account in April and broke the title in five hours and 45 minutes. Some of the previous title holders include K-Pop star Kang Daniel and Pope Francis.

[From People]

Wait Pope Francis is on the ‘gram? We stan a thirst-trapping Pope, my goodness. As for Aniston, yes… one million followers in just about five hours. As I’m writing this, she has 11.7 million followers. Aveeno better run her a check because she absolutely will start shilling her ad contracts on IG now.

Jennifer also appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night and she talked about joining Instagram and she says she doesn’t know why she joined (LOL no one buys that) and how crazy it is that everyone is following her now. And she had a Finstagram to creep on IG. I know the feeling!

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Dinner with Dignity is dinner program run through Roncesvalles United Church in Toronto providing nutritious homemade meals to about 250 people in need every Sunday. Meals are created and served by volunteers and the weekly gathering builds community and understanding, bringing together people from …