The Earl and Countess of Strathearn arrived in Dundee, Scotland mid-afternoon for a series of events. I always enjoy it when I get the chance to use William and Kate’s Scottish titles – they’re not the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge once they cross into Scotland, they have to use their Strathearn titles. Duchess Kate become Countess Kate! Anyway, their half-day of activities will include the opening of a new Victoria & Albert design museum (Countess Kate is the V&A royal patron), then a walkabout, and then they’ll be meeting with some factory workers from the Michelin plant in Dundee, which is set to close in mid-2020. William will make a speech at the factory and – I would assume – draw some attention to the factory closing and try to apply a little bit of pressure to Michelin? There are 850 jobs which will be lost when the factory closes.

For the afternoon of activities, Countess Kate repeated a coatdress, as is her (recent) wont. This is a tartan McQueen coatdress which has been in Kate’s closet for more than six years – we saw this for the church pap stroll at Sandringham on Christmas Day in 2013, and for a visit to St. Andrew’s in 2012 (according to the Daily Mail). Looking at some of those photos from Christmas 2013, you can tell it’s the same coatdress (obviously), but I swear, she’s had it re-tailored or something, because the fit looks slightly different (to me). It also looks like she’s just wearing a clingy little black dress underneath the McQueen, and we probably won’t get to see it.

I wish I knew more about individual family/clan tartans and their significance in Scotland. I’m sure there IS a “Strathearn tartan,” but is it this? This green and navy tartan? Or did she just want to wear ANY tartan while in Scotland?

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Like a famewhore phoenix rising from the ashes, Samantha Markle is still finding ways to get attention, even though the palace let it be known that Scotland Yard has designated Samantha a “fixated person” and a “risk.” Samantha is barreling on, continuing to find some way, some angle, some unhinged scheme to latch onto her half-sister and profit from her. Apparently, Samantha has gotten a SECOND book deal. Jesus Christ.

Samantha Markle has announced that she will be releasing a second book on half-sister Meghan. Ms Markle, 54, who changed her name from Grant to Markle upon news of her sibling’s engagement to Prince Harry in 2017, revealed the news on her Twitter account over the weekend. The latest admission comes after Samantha told how her first book will be released to coincide with the birth of the royal baby, Meghan and Harry’s firstborn, in April.

Florida-based Samantha, who is the firstborn daughter of Meghan’s estranged father Thomas, shared the news with her 6,000 followers, claiming that she ‘couldn’t help but let it slip’.

She tweeted: ‘I couldn’t help but let it slip! There are actually two books coming out! In The Shadows Of The Duchess I and II! #April #June #booklove #Markle #Samantha #Royal #History #family.’

She added: ‘And you will love some of the pictures in my book also to refute any of your nasty troll gossip that we did not have a life together. I’m very much your sister and if you don’t like it too bad. Bring it on.. I think everyone should take a lie detector test.’

Her first book was initially titled ‘The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister’ and was later renamed ‘A Tale of Two Sisters’, but it now appears to be called In the Shadows of the Duchess.

[From The Daily Mail]

“…To refute any of your nasty troll gossip…” Um, bitch, YOU are the nasty troll. And if Samantha had some treasure trove of evidence, photos and proof that she and Meghan secretly had this amazing sistery connection throughout their lives, then she would have already sold it to the British newspapers for a tidy profit. She does not have that evidence, because she and Meghan really weren’t in each other’s lives that much. Samantha is a con artist. Don’t give her a book deal.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Embed from Getty Images

Here’s something of an update about Jenny Slate. I tapped out of paying attention to Jenny Slate’s love life last year, when she and Chris Evans were doing their on-and-off thing and it felt like they wanted us to pay attention or care. I think they did break up for good last March, even after they almost seemed to be apartment-hunting together in New York (it was a weird time). Something like that, but honestly, they might have had a few more reunions and breakups since then. I do know that Slate is refreshingly honest about what dating is like as a twee 30-something divorcee.

So, good news? Jenny Slate has a boyfriend and he’s not an Avenger. Her new boyfriend is Ben Shattuck and they made their coupled-up public debut at the Sundance Film Festival. They were seen canoodling all over Sundance, and getting “very cozy at The Vulture Spot.” Ben is described as an “artist” in most of the gossip items, and I did some creeping on his Instagram. He seems to be a painter with a kind of woodsy vibe. I like it.

Embed from Getty Images

Photos courtesy of Getty.

Technically, it’s not really a “royal tradition” that princes, dukes and viscounts are all graduates of Eton. Prince Charles didn’t go to Eton, but he sent his two sons there, so it feels like a “newer” tradition for the royal family. But does Prince William feel strongly about sending HIS sons to his prep school alma mater? I would suspect that William doesn’t feel like he has a choice – it’s simply what is done at this point, sending your princes and aristocratic sons off to Eton so that they can board with the sons of merely wealthy and politically well-connected. But Will and Kate have already made some unconventional choices for their kids’ early education, so maybe this is a fight Kate wants to have: apparently, Kate is not keen on sending George off to Eton. She wants to consider HER alma mater, Marlborough College:

The Duchess of Cambridge is considering sending Prince George to her alma mater Marlborough College, friends say. She and Prince William are said to have discussed enrolling their eldest at the £12,605-a-term boarding school rather than Eton, where his father and uncle went.

George, of course, is only five years old and the couple will not decide on his future education for years to come. He is a pupil at Thomas’s Battersea, a £6,158-a-term co-educational school in south-west London, where he can stay for another eight years. Both Marlborough and £13,556-a-term Eton take full-time boarders from the age of 13.

Friends say the couple are deliberating a ‘less traditional’ educational route for the future king than previous heirs. Although Wiltshire-based Marlborough is one of Britain’s top boarding schools, it prides itself on being less of a ‘hothouse’ than its rivals. It seeks a mixed-ability intake, although results are still good and 10 per cent of pupils go to Oxbridge. Eton sends a quarter to Oxbridge, latest figures show.

Kate and her siblings, Pippa and James Middleton, were Marlborough boarders and adored their time there. All three excelled, particularly at sport, with the duchess representing the school at hockey, netball, athletics and tennis. The ‘jaw-dropping’ facilities include an observatory and swimming pool with a movable floor to change its depth.

The friend added: ‘William and Catherine surprised many with their choice of Thomas’s Battersea for George over more traditional royal schools, but picked it because they felt it was the right fit for him. They are very keen to allow George to spread his wings as a child and won’t ever do what people expect them to do when it comes to their children.’

[From The Daily Mail]

In the long term, I suspect that this will be one of the areas where Kate “cashes in” some of the goodwill she’s accumulated over the years: she’s going to fight to get her way on her kids’ education. And to be fair, I think a lot of people take issue with packing off their kids to same-sex boarding school for years, so Kate’s not alone there. Marlborough is at least co-ed, and Prince George could get to spend time with girls, and just be part of a less competitive environment. Still, I think Kate is more likely to get her way on Charlotte and Lou’s education. At the end of the day, they’ll probably be forced to send George to Eton.

And here’s an update, which I was expecting – Charlotte will be joining Prince George at Thomas’ Battersea in the fall.

Photos courtesy of Kensington Palace, WENN.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kate Hudson (@katehudson) on Jan 19, 2019 at 8:38am PST

Last week, there was a weird Kate Hudson headline and it became something of a debate and discussion among the Mommy Mafia. Hudson was talking about her baby daughter Rani Rose, who is just three months old, and whether Hudson plans to raise Rani any differently than she’s raised her sons. As I said in that post, there was always a feeling that Kate desperately wanted a daughter and I was happy that it happened for her. I figured that after waiting all this time, she would go overboard with Rani and everything would be pink and lace and “girly.” But when asked about the differences between raising boys versus girls, Kate said: “[Having a daughter] doesn’t really change my approach, but there’s definitely a difference. I think you just raise your kids individually regardless — like a genderless [approach]. We still don’t know what she’s going to identify as.”

Many applauded Kate for not pushing gender stereotypes/norms onto her kids, and other people criticized her for… I don’t know, suggesting that there was a “genderless” approach to parenting, maybe. Anyway, Kate is here to clarify. She posted this on her Instagram:

“Dear all my friends, fans and others who read this, Recently someone asked me something along the lines of if having and raising a girl is different from boys. My response was simple. Not really. This whole click bait tactic of saying I’m raising my daughter to be ‘genderless’ is silly and frankly doesn’t even make sense.”

[From Kate’s Instagram]

I feel like I’m going crazy because I didn’t see the controversy with her initial comments, nor do I see the controversy with her clarification. She never said that she was raising Rani to BE genderless. She was about the different approaches to parenting, and whether she’s going to reinvent the parenting wheel now that she finally has a daughter. Her point was that she’s basically raising all of her kids the same, in that they should be treated as individuals and not a collection of gendered stereotypes. Whatever – maybe I’m just not seeing the controversy here.

View this post on Instagram

Went a little crazy on the holiday outfit but let’s be honest…I did grow up watching @bobmackie design for my mother so I have a bit of an affinity for the embellished and sequined ? #RaniThreeMonth ?

A post shared by Kate Hudson (@katehudson) on Jan 6, 2019 at 10:04am PST

Photos courtesy of Instagram.

I kept seeing references to this on my TL yesterday, but I didn’t realize that the “ground zero” point of contention was a Hello Magazine article. Hello got an exclusive, of sorts: Kensington Palace is super-worried that BOTH duchesses are being victimized by online trolls and haters. Both Sidesism: Duchess Kate and Duchess Meghan are being equally hated-on, okay? To be fair, the Duchess of Cambridge has received criticism over the years for various things and there are absolutely “haters” dedicated to spreading conspiracies and shade about her every move. But to be fair, the UK media has also been 100% complicit in whitewashing the narratives around Kate, in elevating her and pouring sugar over her every move. Meanwhile, the Duchess of Sussex has been victimized by racist trolls who take their cues from the same UK media. But sure, both sides.

Staff at Kensington Palace reportedly spend “a lot of hours” managing negative comments online aimed at Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle. Social media backlash has increased in recent months, ranging from pitting the royal sisters-in-law against each other to “violent threats,” a source tells Hello! magazine.

“The Palace has always monitored comments, but it’s a hugely time consuming thing,” the insider said. “They can block certain words, but some of it is quite serious. Over the course of last year, with hundreds of thousands of comments, there were two or three that were violent threats. You can delete and report and block people and the police have options around particular people. It’s something you have to manage because there’s no other way to control it.”

According to Hello!, “A lot of hours are being spent reviewing old material and moderating comments under posts.”

Although the Duchess of Sussex deleted her social media accounts ahead of her marriage to Prince Harry and Kate has never had personal pages, Kensington Palace shares news about Prince William, Prince Harry and their families – but arguments can get quite heated between Meghan supporters and Kate supporters.

“It follows a Kate vs Meghan narrative and some of the worst stuff is between Kate fans and Meghan fans,” the source told Hello! “Arguments about who looks more appropriate, for example, that turn into personal attacks on other users. It’s creating a supercharged atmosphere and everyone can join in, but what are the consequences of this?”

In response, the news outlet has launched the #HelloToKindness campaign, to combat negative online behavior. Emily Nash, royals reporter at Hello!, adds that the magazine has noticed the abuse on their own social media pages related to stories about Meghan and Kate, both 37. They’ve even had to turn off comments after comments became threatening.

“It seems to me to be particularly sexist,” Nash told CNN. “You have people comparing them in a way that doesn’t really happen with men – ‘she’s walking funny, or her heels are too high, or her legs are too skinny.’”

[From People]

On the Kensington Royal social media – Instagram and Twitter – I’ve seen the comments and back-and-forth in the comments. Sussex-supporters have been pointing out for months that the KP social media clearly favors the Cambridges – the Cambridges get post after post, photo after photo of each one of their events, while it often takes hours for the Sussexes’ activities to even get one photo posted. Now I kind of wonder if KP has been avoiding doing posts about the Sussexes because they know it will be hours of work for them to moderate, delete and block comments from haters, racists and trolls. But… wouldn’t that indicate that far from “both sides,” it’s mostly just anti-Meghan trolls using the same racist dog-whistle cues which they get from the British press?

Photos courtesy of WENN, Backgrid.

The Super Bowl is happening on Sunday, and I guess I’m still in a state of disbelief that the Patriots are going back there yet again. How is it that a team with a 41-year-old quarterback is really doing this??? Well, it’s because Tom takes very good care of himself. He really does, no shade. I reserve my shade for his hokey, fraudulent “trainer” and the pseudoscience they promote together. While Tom follows an absolutely insane diet, he also believes he can “prevent” concussions by… stretching and doing a bro-version of yoga. He also believes that drinking water prevents sunburns. And the Patriots, as an organization, just have to eat that. They have to live with Tom’s pseudoscience, even though Bill Belichick tried to kick out Tom’s hokey trainer/business partner. But I digress – Tom is in pretty good shape, and apparently he’s not here for any retirement questions. Remember when he got tons of retirement questions after the Patriots lost last year’s Super Bowl? Yeah, Tom still doesn’t want to talk about it.

Attention fans of the 31 NFL teams that are looking forward to the day when Tom Brady finally retires: Don’t hold your breath. The 41-year-old insists he won’t be hanging up his cleats anytime soon, regardless of what happens this weekend. After losing last year’s championship to the Philadelphia Eagles and experiencing a decline in numbers this season, many have wondered whether Brady would be looking to score one last Super Bowl ring to close out his legendary career on a high note. Yet, according to the man himself, he isn’t riding off into the sunset for another few seasons. In fact, there is a “zero” percent chance.

“I’ve said that for a long time,” Brady told ESPN on Sunday. “I feel like I’m asked that a lot, and I feel like I repeat the same answer. But no one believes me. I’ve set a goal for myself at 45. Like I’ve said before, it’s very hard to make it that far. I know how hard it was this year and the commitment it takes, and hopefully, I’ve learned from some of the things that happened this year to be better next year. But every year is tough.”

When it comes to retirement, Brady says he’ll know when the time is right — and that time isn’t now.

“I’m gonna feel like, ‘OK, I’ve had enough,’ ” he told the outlet. “I don’t quite feel like that yet.”

And while Brady’s stats may have dipped in some categories this season compared to previous years, he sees enough positives to feel he can compete for a long time to come.

“I feel like I’ve still made a lot of improvements, and I still feel like I can continue to do it at a championship level,” he explained to ESPN. “And I think that’s where I was at before, and that’s still where I’m at now.”

[From People]

There are always debates about elite athletes and ageing and the wear and tear of professional sports on someone’s body. I’m reminded of Andy Murray’s tearful retirement announcement several weeks ago – his retirement is being forced on him, because his body can’t handle the sport any longer. Meanwhile, Roger Federer and Serena Williams are still trucking along at their high levels, and both will turn 38 later this year. If anything, age has made Serena and Roger trickier and more aggressive. We do live in an era when professional athletes can compete longer and at very high levels well into their 30s. But considering the brutality of football and what we know of CTE, I just find Brady’s decision so fundamentally irresponsible. Actually, I go back and forth on it – on one side, he’s incredibly irresponsible for being so short-sighted about his health. On the other side, I do see how he talks himself into it – he’s still winning, he’s still playing at a high level, and perhaps he feels like his decades of experience have made him wiser and more aggressive. But still… four more years of this?

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

Ashton Kutcher was on The Graham Norton show last week. I’m going by the clip on YouTube, so I didn’t see the whole thing and assume that he was promoting The Ranch on Netflix. (Is anyone watching that? I have heard no buzz about it.) He told a story I’m assuming he thought was funny about making a thousand dollar bet with his buddy back in high school that he would go out with Jennifer Aniston at some point. When he finally became famous and got the chance to meet Aniston she was married to Brad Pitt. So he asked Pitt first for some reason, because men own us, and Pitt was like “whatever man” and kept smoking up (I’m taking creative license with this story). When Kutcher asked Aniston she wisely said “no” though. Can you imagine?

I made a bet when I was in high school. You have to imagine I’m living on a farm in the middle of America, really having no chance of living a happy life. Sitting around a basement with my buddies making bets… I say [to my buddy] ‘I bet you $1,000 dollars that one day I will go on a date with Jennifer Aniston.’ I’m 17 years old, she’s like on my screen saver on my computer. Four or five years later I actually meet Jennifer Aniston. She’s married to Brad Pitt at the time. So I went to Brad Pitt and I asked him permission to ask his wife out.

I said ‘Listen I made this bet with my buddy. You’re a cool guy, you’re going to let this go down, right?’

He looks at me and he’s like ‘You go for it.’

So I asked her and she turned me down. She’s like ‘That’s not a good idea. No.’

Ashton Kutcher has blocked both Kaiser and me on Twitter so he’s not likely to see this. I get it, he was young and wanted to win this long standing bet and get to know his teenage crush, that part isn’t that bad, but it’s a story that doesn’t age well. A lot of things Kutcher has done don’t age well. He’s matured and grown though, we all have, and I have to say that he looks hot now. What is wrong with me? He needs to get rid of that Shaggy from Scooby Doo beard though.

Comedian Greg Davies was on too. I know him from a show now on Netflix called Cuckoo with Andy Samberg. (That’s mildly funny but it made me cringe too much. I didn’t stick with it. Incidentally Davies is huge, he’s 6’8?.) He told a story about shagging his girlfriend in his parents’ garden and his granddad coming around the corner. That’s well worth watching.

Here’s the video

Also I think Ashton and Mila are cute together. I said it!

View this post on Instagram

Night out with the wife

A post shared by Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) on Mar 4, 2018 at 8:20pm PST

Embed from Getty Images

Over the weekend, Terry Crews and D.L. Hughley got into a Twitter feud. It was an emotional exchange resulting in Hughley lambasting Terry for his non-violent reaction to being sexually assaulted. Of course, Hughley is not the first celebrity to attempt to tear Terry down over this, but you could tell it broke Terry’s heart even more because up until this mess, Terry looked up to Hughley.

It began when Terry posted a tweet with a clip of an interview Hughley gave in which he was asked about Terry’s response to being forcibly grabbed. The clip is NSFW for language and because Hughley is an a-hole:

@RealDLHughley

You told the world “God Gave Me Muscles So I Could Say No…”

Are you implying I “wanted” to be sexually assaulted?

I’m listening, sir…https://t.co/v6Q4xrvfJQ

— terry crews (@terrycrews) January 27, 2019

What did you think of the whole Terry Crews sexual assault thing?

I think it’s hard for me to think that a dude with all those muscles can’t tell a agent not to touch his ass. I don’t understand it. Everybody is so into this notion, ‘it happened to #MeToo!’ Hey, M***F***, God gave you muscles so you could say no and mean it.”

In addition to Terry’s point, that Hughley is implying he didn’t smack Venit because he wanted to be abused, Hughley is also saying that those who are physically weaker than their attacker, like most women, are not allowed to say no. At one point, Hughley’s point is hinged on the fact that because actors pay their agents, their agents can’t molest them. Like, if Terry had just anticipated Adam Venit rushing him and grabbing his crotch without warning, he could have held his hand up and said, “Oh, no, sir – you may not touch me because 10% of my salary goes to your agency” and that would have prevented the whole thing. Then Hughley likened “Athletes, porn stars and entertainers” to sex workers with their agents serving as their pimps. The whole time, the interviewer served as Hughley’s Billy Bush by laughing and feeding him punchlines. There was so much stupid that Terry was wise to only address Hughley’s main point, which is that Terry is a big, strong man and should have beaten the guy instead of how he reacted. And this isn’t some joke that went sideways, because he doubled-down when Terry asked him about it:

You saw the video!

— DL Hughley (@RealDLHughley) January 27, 2019

Terry tried, once again, to get Hughley to listen and Hughley, once again, spoke out of his ass:

That’s different than slapping the shit outa him

— DL Hughley (@RealDLHughley) January 27, 2019

The thing is, Terry isn’t asking for Hughley’s or anyone’s permission to act as he did. He’s asking for a national dialogue to change this behavior. So, when Hughley kept at it Terry stayed to play:

So sir…

If you truly feel that is a correct way to deal with toxic behavior…

Should I slap the shit out of you? https://t.co/GmePqluEIX

— terry crews (@terrycrews) January 27, 2019

Notice Terry is not, in fact, threatening anyone. He is literally applying Hughley’s logic to his own argument. It’s a boss move. Following that, Hughley quickly changed the subject on Twitter.

Obviously, there’s a lot of support for Terry. He wants justice for victims everywhere and knows that lending his voice will help others speak out.

Dear @terrycrews: I appreciate your courage. You are a compassionate, educating voice for male victims of sexual assault. Thank you for standing. It matters for all of humanity and especially for boys and men who’ve been violated, but feel voiceless. Blessings.

— Be A King (@BerniceKing) January 27, 2019

I say this to say I feel it is very important that @terrycrews has stood strong in his truth and hope it has helped some man or boy in the shadows know that violence or drugs or self-harm aren’t the only path and that they are not alone

— Chelsea Peretti (@chelseaperetti) January 28, 2019

They know not what they joke – your action forced change @ WME. They replaced their HR head Carole Katz, who for more than 18 years protected abusers and terminated those that reported abuse.

— Facciabrutta37 (@Facciabrutta37) January 27, 2019

pic.twitter.com/j2e326joMi

— Tarana (@TaranaBurke) January 27, 2019

And just to show how unconnected to reality he is, Hughley did end up posting post this to his Instagram:

View this post on Instagram

#Indeed ??? No witty captions necessary????? #TeamDL #isaidwhatisaid #notakebacks #itiswhatitis

A post shared by realdlhughley (@realdlhughley) on Jan 27, 2019 at 10:50am PST

Oh, the irony.

Photo credit: Twitter, Avalon Red and WENN Photos

Last fall we learned that Zoe Kazan and Paul Dano had a baby together over the summer although we never heard she was pregnant. They both stay under the radar, she wore loose clothing on red carpets, and they didn’t talk about it. I know they’re not incredibly famous, but they’re well known enough that they could have Instagrammed it and it would have gotten coverage. That’s what came to mind with the news that Melanie Lynskey and her fiance Jason Ritter had a baby together! I’m similarly pleased by this, because I know them both from separate projects, I didn’t realize they were a couple, and now they have a baby. We only are hearing about it secondhand from a friend of theirs who Instagrammed about it, and someone who spotted them at the airport. Us Magazine confirmed that they did welcome a baby girl sometime last year but no one knows when or what her name is. They got engaged in early 2017 and if they got married we never heard about it.

Jason Ritter and his longtime love, Melanie Lynskey, quietly welcomed their first child together, Us Weekly can exclusively confirm.

[Ritter], 38, and the New Zealand actress, 41, never announced news of their pregnancy or the birth of their little one, and the name has yet to be revealed. Though it’s unknown when the couple welcomed their newborn, Ritter’s pal Neema Barnette congratulated the pair in early December 2018.

More recently, an onlooker spotted Ritter and Lynskey with their baby girl on Saturday, January 26, and tweeted about their encounter — which even got a “like” from the Kevin (Probably) Saves the World alum.

“I saw @JasonRitter and @melanielynskey at the airport and I smiled at her and I hope she took that as ‘I love you, you’ve been in so many movies I adore and your baby is adorable,’” the fan wrote.

[Lynskey] announced her engagement to Ritter during a Hollywood Today Live interview in February 2017. “Now he’s my fiancé,” Lynskey gushed at the time. “Yes, I know, I’m announcing it…”

[Ritter] is the son of the late Three’s Company star John Ritter, who died at age 54 in 2003.

[From US Weekly]

Am I dumb for not knowing that Jason Ritter is John Ritter’s son? I know Jason from Parenthood and Girls and he’s a good actor. Melanie is more famous probably, she was on Two and a Half Men and I just saw her on Castle Rock. (That’s on Hulu, it’s crazy good but it can be hard to wrap your mind around. Also check out I Don’t Feel At Home in This World Anymore on Netflix.) How is she from New Zealand? Her American accent is perfect. I know we’re not going to see baby photos and we probably won’t get a confirmation of their kid’s name, but I like to hear this random happy news about celebrities who stay undercover most of the time. Congratulations to Melanie and Jason!

Here’s the congratulations post. It’s old but US just got confirmation now.

View this post on Instagram

Congrats to Raising Dion Co Star Jason Ritter & his wife on the birth of their beautiful Sag baby girl???Babies are a blessing & so is Jason! What a hands down brilliant talent & exceptional human being he is! I’m blessed to have shared creative energy with you. Thank you for giving me a seamless performance?? @raise.the.vibe.tribe @jason_ritter @iamcharlesdking @netflix @gatelife @raisingdionnetflix

A post shared by Neema Barnette (@neemafilms) on Dec 18, 2018 at 9:58pm PST

Embed from Getty Images

Photos credit: WENN and Getty