If you follow me on Twitter during the Slams, I apologize. There are a lot of tennis tweets. In my defense, this year’s US Open has been really good! There have been some great match-ups and storylines. Some of the storylines I will continue to ignore, like Coco Gauff – I think it’s completely irresponsible to put all of this hype on a 15-year-old. It makes me uncomfortable. But I’m here for the hype of adult players who are making big breakthroughs.

Very quietly, British women’s #1 Johanna Konta has been having a great season. She’s back in the top 20, and she might end up top 10 by the end of the year. Konta is doing really well in New York this year, a Slam where she historically has not done so great. And in her matches during the fortnight, she’s had some big support from… Tom Hiddleston! Yes, Tom Hiddleston has been in her box and he’s been very vocally rooting her on. Tom has been attending Konta’s matches with his Betrayal costar Zawe Ashton. That’s why Tom is in New York during the US Open – he’s on Broadway with Betrayal, and in his spare time, he’s checking out the tennis.

I’m pretty sure Konta has a boyfriend so it’s not like she and Tom are undercover dating. I suspect that Tom and Zawe are undercover dating though, and I’ve suspected that for months now. During one of her on-court interviews, Konta explained the connection:

Tom Hiddleston was spotted supporting Konta at the side of Court 17 during her 6-1 4-6 6-2 win over Daria Kasatkina on Monday afternoon and the 16th seed revealed the pair had only met a matter of days before. ‘Yes, he was in the box,’ Konta said. ‘He’s here in New York and has quite a few shows till Christmas, he said. We only met a few days ago and he turns out to be a big tennis fan and so I invited him down and he brought some of his co-stars and I had some of my friends there as well, so I had a lot of great support in the box, it was good.’

Konta wouldn’t divulge exactly where they met but gave an insight into their chance meeting in the Big Apple. ‘Just in New York actually, just literally we crossed paths,’ she added. ‘I did the Good Samaritan thing and said, “Don’t bother him, he’s obviously busy,” and then he actually said, “I don’t usually do this but I’m a massive fan,” and I was like, “What, who? Who else is here?” ‘It was basically that and then we got chatting and he’s super nice and his co-stars came as well and they’re also super nice, so it’s good.’

[From Metro]

So there you go – Tom sought out Konta and possibly wanted some free tickets. It’s nice! We usually see Tom at men’s matches when he goes to Wimbledon and the French Open, but I’m glad to see a British guy showing support for a British WTA player.

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Photos courtesy of Getty and Avalon Red.

Denise Richards latest project, The Secret Lives of Cheerleaders, premiered last night on Lifetime. Denise plays the mom who forces her teenage daughter to try out for the squad. As the title suggests, the movie is Mean Girls who cheer, but like dark pom-pom cage-fighting kind of bullying. In real life, Denise is mom to two teenage daughters, Sam, 15, and Lola, 14 (her youngest, Eloise, is seven). I’m sure Denise didn’t force her girls on to the cheer squad, but she did give them phones, which she thinks might be just as bad. She said this in an interview with Extra, below.

What Denise said about social media was:

I feel like it’s so difficult now, even more so difficult for kids today because of social media.
I think so too and I’m definitely seeing that with my own daughters, you know, there’s just so much access and they can see everything and hear everything. It’s very different and I think it’s a lot of pressure on kids now.

Are they on social?
Yes. I’ve taken it away several times. I feel like the biggest mistake I ever made was given them phones

We talked about Kelly Ripa and Jerry O’Connell not giving their kids phones for as long as they could. But their discussion was centered more around their kids getting lost on the phone and never seeing them again, not bullying, which it sounds like what Denise is suggesting is going on. But it’s not really the phone that’s the problem, is it? Because I assume these kids have access to computers and tablets. If they want to get into social media, I don’t know that parents can effectively stop them. As we discussed on the Alex Rodriguez post, kids will find a way. I think maybe educating myself about what’s out there will be a better course for me than trying to eliminate my kids’ access.

I remember being so grateful when the school bell rang, and I could walk away from all the high school drama for the day. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have it follow me home by way of social media. And I know that if kids want to come for each other, they’ll come for everyone in the family, which would make having a mom on a realty show a liability. And let’s not even start with their dad, Charlie Sheen. Could you imagine what kids who want to be hurtful lob at Sam and Lola? They have to fight social media fires on three fronts – oof. It might be easier to just not let them be teenagers. “Happy Birthday, Honey! Today you’re 22.” “But yesterday I was 11?” “Don’t argue with me, I’m your mother.”

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I’ll keep saying this: this year’s Venice Film Festival is better than the past two years of Cannes Film Festival coverage. The festival selections are better, the attendees are more fashionable and there are more A-listers in Venice than there were in Cannes. Venice is also doing the old-school Cannes thing of inviting models and random actresses to show up as part of various sponsorships with beauty companies, fashion labels or jewelry houses. All in all, Venice has been glam as hell. So here are some fun fashion photos from the past few days. Cate Blanchett came out for the premiere of Joker, likely as part of her Armani contract (she’s the face of an Armani fragrance). She wore Armani Prive and I kind of hate this? The skirt is way too stiff.

Penélope Cruz in Ralph and Russo. Penelope will just always have that showgirl style, right? She loves “explosions of tulle.” She loves rhinestones and spangles and sparkly things. This is very on-brand for her.

Call me crazy, but I friggin’ love Sienna Miller in this Gucci muumuu. It feels very Indian-influenced and I’m into it.

When Sack Dresses Go Wrong: Meryl Streep Edition. This is Givenchy and it looks… comfortable, I guess. The fabric is actually rather pretty but the design is so bad.

Zazie Beetz in Valentino… I kind of love this? Is that weird? There’s too much fabric up top but I genuinely think this looks cool.

Bella Thorne was there with her new boyfriend Benjamin Mascolo. She wore a see-through Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini dress. I mean… she got some headlines, which was the point.

Barbara Palvin in Armani. LMAO. Do you think Armani green-lighted the pink bow, or did she add that after the fitting? She looks like she picked that up at CVS.

Photos courtesy of WENN and Avalon Red.

Last week, we learned that Donald Trump had fired his longtime personal assistant, Madeleine Westerhout. She looks like Hope Hicks’ sister, which is creepy. Westerhout was fired for cause – she was spilling her guts to journalists and everybody else about Trump and the Trump family. That was all we knew at first… but of course more was revealed after a few days. Because, again, Westerhout was spilling her guts to journalists.

Madeleine Westerhout, who left her White House job suddenly on Thursday as President Trump’s personal assistant, was fired after bragging to reporters that she had a better relationship with Trump than his own daughters, Ivanka and Tiffany Trump, and that the president did not like being in pictures with Tiffany because he perceived her as overweight.

The critical comments happened at an off-the-record dinner, according to two people familiar with the matter, that Westerhout and deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley held earlier this month with reporters who were covering Trump’s vacation at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Westerhout also jokingly told the journalists that Trump couldn’t pick Tiffany out of a crowd, said one of the people. “She had a couple drinks and in an uncharacteristically unguarded moment, she opened up to the reporters,” the person said.

Trump on Friday confirmed that Westerhout had been dismissed for talking to reporters about his children, calling the comments “a little bit hurtful.”

“It was too bad,” Trump told reporters before leaving the White House for Camp David, adding that Westerhout was a “very good person” who performed her job well. “I wished her well.” Trump said he would speak by phone with Tiffany when he reached Camp David, disputing that he had ever personally disparaged his daughter. “I love Tiffany,” he said.

[From Politico]

Not that Tiffany Trump needs me to defend her, but I think Donald Trump avoids being photographed with Tiffany because A) she’s not Ivanka and B) he sometimes forgets that she exists. It has nothing to do with her weight and she’s not overweight, and even if she was, who cares. Apparently Westerhout also dished about Trump’s feelings about Barron and a lot more. In the wake of Westerhout’s dismissal, Trump has gone out of his way to defend HER and not Tiffany, by the way. He told reporters: “I really think she had a bad night. I think it was unfortunate. She said she was drinking, and the whole thing was very unfortunate.” He also tweeted this bizarre statement:

While Madeleine Westerhout has a fully enforceable confidentiality agreement, she is a very good person and I don’t think there would ever be reason to use it. She called me yesterday to apologize, had a bad night. I fully understood and forgave her! I love Tiffany, doing great!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 31, 2019

Well, if he tweets that he loves Tiffany, that means he does not, since everything on his Twitter is a lie. Sorry, Tiff!

Photos courtesy of WENN.

During the start of the Labor Day weekend/holiday, Johnny Depp was trending on Twitter. I thought it was because of some new mess involving Amber Heard. But no. It was about his latest commercial for Dior. For several years now, Depp has been the face of Dior’s cologne Sauvage, which is just the French word for “savage/wild/untamed.” The commercials have always been questionable, like they seem to follow in the grand tradition of Matthew McConaughey’s Lincoln commercials, trying to be “deep,” but really just stupid and unintentionally hilarious.

Anyway, so a new Dior Sauvage commercial came out and it featured Depp wandering around an arid landscape, picking up a guitar and playing some music, all while a Native-American woman looks around confused, and a Native American man in full dress dances around.

That’s the original commercial which Dior pulled within a day, deleting it from Twitter and from their YouTube channel. Twitter was up in arms, and so were many Native American historians and activists:

“It’s an arrogant appropriation of imagery that is unimaginatively executed,” Hanay Geiogamah, a UCLA professor, playwright and historian who is a member of the Kiowa tribe, told The Washington Post. “What offends me is that they so casually appropriate imagery like that and blend it together for their own purposes.”

Geiogamah noted that “savage” is one of the original slurs used against Native Americans.

“That’s more insulting than anything else,” he said. “This calls attention to the ongoing reality that the ad industry nationally and internationally still thinks they can appropriate American Indian imagery when they see fit. Here they’re doing it in a very high-gloss way, but it misses the mark completely.”

[From The Washington Post]

WaPo also notes that Dior did work with some Native Americans in the creation of the commercial – Hanley Frost, “a cultural education coordinator of the Southern Ute tribe in Colorado, blessed the land for the film crew and was filmed in a traditional outfit for one of the videos.” Frost was paid $1000 for his work and he says now that he’s not bothered by the “Sauvage” name. Apparently, Dior also worked with Americans for Indian Opportunity (AIO) to “ensure respect for indigenous cultures, values and heritage.” Which… I understand that Dior – and possibly Depp – thought that they did their due diligence on this and actually attempted to be respectful. But… it’s also a mess which should have gotten shouted down in the meeting, you know? “So then we have a Native American – like, a REAL one, dancing in our commercial for Sauvage, HEAR ME OUT!” No.

Ads courtesy of Dior.

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Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara were all smiles on their way to the #VeniceFilmFestival premiere of Joker. Stay tuned for more behind-the-scenes photographs from @gregwilliamsphotography.

A post shared by Vanity Fair (@vanityfair) on Sep 1, 2019 at 6:55am PDT

First, some nice stuff. Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara are still together, and she came to Venice to support him for his big promotional push for Joker. While they didn’t walk the Venice Film Festival carpet together, they happily posed together on the gondola on their way to the premiere, and then they posed separately on the carpet. Rooney wore a custom Givenchy gown which looked like a high-fashion take on a Papal frock. Her style is so… odd. But she and Joaquin are in love and it’s sweet to see, genuinely. Rooney was also there to see Joaquin (and the film) get an eight-minute standing ovation after the premiere.

As for the whole Joker promotion and reviews… ugh. The final trailer came out last week, and I said – as did many other people – that the trailer really doubled-down on the Joker’s backstory, and it seems to be “the origin of a white terrorist.” White dude feels alienated and like he’s losing power. So he decides to sow chaos and violence. It feels very irresponsible to put that kind of story out there right at this very moment. Venice was the first time critics got to see the completed film and the reactions were… divided, let’s say. People already know that Joaquin can act his ass off, so his performance is being widely lauded. But the film as a whole… well, critics are divided. Some assorted reactions:

IndieWire’s David Ehrlich: “Todd Phillips’ “Joker” is unquestionably the boldest reinvention of “superhero” cinema since “The Dark Knight”; a true original that’s sure to be remembered as one of the most transgressive studio blockbusters of the 21st Century. It’s also a toxic rallying cry for self-pitying incels, and a hyper-familiar origin story so indebted to “Taxi Driver” and “The King of Comedy” that Martin Scorsese probably deserves an executive producer credit. It’s possessed by the kind of provocative spirit that’s seldom found in any sort of mainstream entertainment, but also directed by a glorified edgelord who lacks the discipline or nuance to responsibly handle such hazardous material, and who reliably takes the coward’s way out of the narrative’s most critical moments…“Joker” is a movie about a homicidal narcissist who feels entitled to the world’s attention — a man who’d rather kill for a good laugh than allow the world to treat him like its punchline.”

Time’s Stephanie Zacharek: “In Joker… Phoenix is acting so hard you can feel the desperation throbbing in his veins. He leaves you wanting to start him a GoFundMe, so he won’t have to pour so much sweat into his job again. But the aggressive terribleness of his performance isn’t completely his fault. (He has often been, and generally remains, a superb actor. Just not here.)…Director Todd Phillips… bears at least some of the blame, and the aggressive and possibly irresponsible idiocy of Joker overall is his alone to answer for. Phillips may want us to think he’s giving us a movie all about the emptiness of our culture, but really, he’s just offering a prime example of it.

And I’ll give you something nice – Rotten Tomatoes did a summary and editorial about how Joaquin should be considered for the Best Actor Oscar for his performance. Gizmodo also did a thorough and fair review of what works and what doesn’t.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Ladies and gentlemen, A KING. Or perhaps THE KING. On Labor Day, Timothee Chalamet was in Venice to promote The King, which is sort of a Generation Z version of Henry V. I truly hope there are 13-15 year old girls reading Shakespeare’s Henry plays just because Timothee Chalamet introduced them to them to works. I’m including photos of Timothee and his girlfriend/costar Lily-Rose Depp at the photocall and at last night’s premiere.

Timothee has always had his own style and he’s not going to wear a suit and tie just because all of the other dudes are doing it. NO. Timothee likes fashion and so I can just imagine him checking out what Tilda Swinton wears and he was like “I’m going to aim for THAT.” So he contacted Haider Ackermann and they gave him this FULL SWINTON look. Personally, I would have loved it more without the rolled up pants and the boots. Or maybe with the boots, but without the roll-up. Hm. But the jacket is fantastic! We stan a king who dresses like Tilda Swinton. Timothee could do the Orlando remake.

As for Lily-Rose… she wore this Chanel gown which… is fine. It’s actually kind of plain dress, but she loved how it billowed, so she played with the skirt a lot on the carpet. It looked dramatic.

As for the reviews… well, they’re mixed. Some critics are like “Timothee is the most beautiful king to ever brood” and some critics are like “Robert Pattinson gives a bonkers, scene-stealing performance as the Dauphin.”

Timothée Chalamet is great, and grows up, in THE KING. Meanwhile, Robert Pattinson is bonkers in it. https://t.co/7lbq7Et7VW

— Richard Lawson (@rilaws) September 2, 2019

I wish I could have recorded the sound my audience made when Pattinson first started speaking in his Fraaanch accent. I think he won everyone over by the end bc he’s just so committed to its terribleness.

— Richard Lawson (@rilaws) September 2, 2019

THE KING is not good. but Robert Pattinson plays a hilariously sociopathic dauphin who looks like Klaus Kinski and talks like a castrated Pepé le Pew and that is *very* good.

my #Venezia76 review: https://t.co/DoCvMumvad pic.twitter.com/sqTf2MVVxF

— david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) September 2, 2019

Photos courtesy of WENN and Avalon Red.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex had a relatively quiet Labor Day weekend, and yes, I know Labor Day isn’t a thing in the UK. But Meghan is American and I feel like she’s attuned to American news/gossip cycles and she knows when not to announce things or break news. This is a big month for the Sussexes – Meghan will officially come off her maternity leave, she and Harry will take baby Archie on his first royal tour, and there’s still time for the Sussexes to make a brief appearance at Balmoral. So here are some of the stories which were percolating this weekend:

The trip to South Africa. The Sussexes will set off to South Africa (the first leg of their tour) later this month. To do some advanced hype for the trip, this message was posted on the SussexRoyal IG Stories: “In just a few weeks our family will be taking its first official tour to Africa, a region of the world that over the past two decades has been a second home to me,. Our team has helped create a meaningful programme that we’re so excited to share with you. On a personal note. I can’t wait to introduce my wife and son to South Africa! We’ll see all of you very soon. The Duke.” I love Harry’s sign-off as “the Duke.” I wonder if Meghan calls him that?

The trip to Balmoral. It feels like the Sussexes will probably be on their way to Balmoral sometime this week. The Daily Mail said that it will be happening this week and that it will be Meghan’s “first trip” to Balmoral. I’m pretty sure she and Harry went to Scotland last summer, but maybe they just spent time at Castle Mey with Prince Charles and Camilla. The DM also noted that the Sussexes managed to avoid seeing the Cambridges in Scotland, which… I mean, obviously.

Will the Sussexes eventually move away from England? The DM had another story about whether the Sussexes are unhappy in Windsor and whether they might move. Sources claim that Meghan is homesick and that she wants to buy a place in Malibu, which… probably not. It sounds like the fakest of fake news. Interestingly enough, the same DM story claims that the Sussexes “snubbed Prince Charles’s plans to take on an estate in Herefordshire, which had been set aside for Harry as part of a scheme by the Prince of Wales to create an estate near the Welsh Borders.” That would have been interesting, for the Sussexes to basically be exiled on the Welsh border. Prince William just perked up at the thought of that.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, WENN and Avalon Red.

I don’t care too much about Lady Gaga and her new boyfriend, but I will talk about them in this context, because I just learned that The Cure and The Pixies did a show together again! I saw The Pixies open for The Cure in Toronto in 1989 with Love and Rockets (Love and Rockets was my favorite), when I was 16 years old. I will remember that concert for the rest of my life. I still have the t-shirt from that tour! This latest show wasn’t a full tour, it was a one-off at the Pasadena Dream Festival, organized by The Cure and also featuring Deftones, Throwing Muses and The Joy Formidable, among others. It’s not like I would have gone, festivals are too expensive and crowded for me, but it sounds cool and I would have liked to see some of the acts.

Lady Gaga has been with audio engineer Dan Horton since at least July, when they were first spotted out together. She’s not dating Bradley Cooper, she wanted us to know, as there were rumors that Gaga was behind Irina Shayk and Bradley’s split. She also wants us to know that she’s having fun with Dan in these last days of summer. Gaga posted some footage from the concert to her Instagram stories. It was just her dancing by herself. At least one Twitter user posted photos of Gaga there with Dan. Then, on Sunday, she posted a story featuring some food Dan made for her. Here’s more:

Lady Gaga and her rumored boyfriend, Daniel Horton, were spotted at the Pasadena Daydream Music Festival in California on Saturday night.

The “Shallow” singer, 33, and the audio engineer, 37, stopped by to watch The Cure and The Pixies.

“I love the cure, felt my old self come alive tonight what a show,” Gaga captioned an Instagram Story of herself dancing at the concert, adding, “whateveridoitsneverenough,” which is a lyric from The Cure’s 1993 single ”Never Enough.”

The Oscar winner later shared another video of herself dancing with the caption, “When music is magic.”

A fan, who was also at the concert, spotted Gaga with Horton and shared photos of the pair on Twitter. In the photos, the Grammy Award-winning artist could be seen smiling with Horton by her side.

“I WENT TO SEE THE CURE AND THE PIXIES IN PASADENA AND LADY GAGA WAS THERE SHES SO F—— CUTE,” the user wrote on Twitter alongside the photos of Gaga and Horton.

Their concert outing comes just one month after a PDA-packed brunch at Granville restaurant in Studio City, California, in July.

[From People]

Unfortunately that Twitter user made their account private but here are some other tweets of Gaga at the show. It looks like so much fun! Also, her dancing is sweet, she’s just rocking out.

Lady Gaga and Dan Horton at The Cure concert in Pasadena, CA last night! pic.twitter.com/RPFBtCo5kf

— Gaga Media ?? (@GagaMediaDotNet) September 1, 2019

Lady Gaga going crazy while enjoying The Cure’s performance at Pasadena, California, tonight. ?pic.twitter.com/vWDbpOLrZZ

— GAGA NOTIFY (@gaganotify) September 1, 2019

Here’s Gaga’s story of the sauce Dan made. That’s cute that he cooks for her. You can see more photos of Dan here, at People. Gaga was seen making out with him at brunch a month ago. She was wearing shorts which did not cover her ass. Dan’s ex wife posted a photo of herself to Instagram right around that time with the caption “poker face,” which is excellently veiled shade. If he did it with you he’ll do it to you, just saying.

A New Flame? Lady Gaga Photographed Kissing Audio Engineer Dan Horton in L.A. During Brunch Date https://t.co/GHKZIRXpJb

— People (@people) July 30, 2019

photos via Instagram, twitter and credit Backgrid

We learned last week that Pete Davidson has a new girlfriend: Margaret Qualley, daughter of Andie McDowell. Qualley is an actress in her own right, and a talented one at that – she was fantastic as Ann Reinking in Fosse/Verdon, which is the first time I’ve seen her in a substantive role. I got in trouble with commenters for disrespecting Pete and this new love affair, so I am going to try to be a tad nicer. It will be easy, because I kind of think these photos are cute.

Margaret went to the Venice Film Festival to promote her role in Seberg (with Kristen Stewart as Jean Seberg). Margaret decided to bring her boyfriend Pete as her plus-one. They didn’t walk the carpet together, although he did attend the premiere and he was seated just behind her in the theater. After Margaret’s work was over, she and Pete stayed in Venice and it looks like they were just hanging out and being tourists. They both look so young, like two college students on their first study-abroad trip, and Margaret is possibly looking up directions on her phone. Either that or she’s looking up all of the gossip-reactions to her new romance!

Anyway, I won’t say anything about how Pete’s dressed. They… look like tourists, and even more specifically, they look like American tourists. And it’s fine. That’s what they are. It’s actually kind of nice that Margaret gets to go somewhere like Venice for work and that she gets to bring her newish boyfriend to enjoy the city together.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid and Avalon Red.