I always enjoy it when a hot guy turns up at an event and we have the photos. Alexander Skarsgard walked the carpet for the New York premiere of An Actor Prepares. He’s not listed in the cast, so I think Alex just came out to see the film or to support his friends. Who knows? What I do know is Alex got the hotness back. Last year, he shaved off most of his hair for a film and he looked… not great. But his hair grew back and he’s rocking some stubble/half-beard which is really working for me. God knows I like ‘em scruffy and furry.

You know what I also enjoy? The fact that Alex looks a bit sweaty. It’s been crazy-hot all up and down the East Coast this week, and Wednesday was one of the hottest days. It was still, like, 90 degrees in the early evening. That’s why Alex looks a bit damp. It works on him. If anything, it makes him more attractive.

Anyway, I don’t have anything else to say. I don’t even know if Alex is still with Alexa Chung? I suspect that they’re still in their on-and-off cycle, but God knows. While Alex doesn’t have anything coming out in the next few weeks, he does have several TV and film projects coming out this fall and winter, including The Little Drummer Girl miniseries, adapted from John Le Carre’s bestselling novel. So we’ll be seeing more of him in the coming months. Yay!

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Here are more photos of Prince Harry and Royal Meghan at Hamilton in London last night to benefit Sentebale. They met with Lin-Manuel Miranda and his wife Vanessa Nadal before the show and sat with them during the performance. Check them out as they arrived and also taking their seats:

Princ…

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As we learned earlier this week, Louis CK is trying to make a “comeback” roughly nine months after he admitted to sexually harassing multiple women. The harassment was towards coworkers and fellow comedians, and while Louis CK did admit to some of it, there really hasn’t been a reckoning over his campaign to shut down and gaslight his victims for years. It wasn’t just him – it often felt like (and still feels like) the bro-centric world of comedy has always had Louis’s back and those dudes are all too eager to “give him another chance.” The New York Times would have us believe that Louis CK was embraced completely by the audience at the Comedy Cellar, but they were wrong. Vulture spoke to some of the women who were in the audience, and they had a completely different read on the situation:

Two women who sat through C.K.’s set told Vulture that though the small venue’s audience was overwhelmingly supportive of the comedian, one joke about rape whistles was “uncomfortable,” and that there seemed to be a divide between how men and women reacted to C.K.’s presence.

The women were at the Comedy Cellar that night to see another comedian on the lineup when C.K. appeared onstage after a brief introduction from the night’s emcee. “It felt like he was being thrust upon the audience without telling them,” one woman, who asked to remain anonymous, told Vulture. “The audience was very loud when Louis C.K. walked in. They were clearly supportive and surprised when he showed up, but there were a number of women sitting in the front row,” the woman said. From her seat to the left of the stage, she could see a pair of women sitting stone-faced. Her friend, who asked be identified with the initials S.B., noticed the same reaction: “There were at least four to five females that I could see, and three or four of them were not having it. They were just looking at him, deadpan, straight, not having it.”

S.B. said the audience was mostly white, with lots of couples. Both women say the set was awkward, but the first woman was particularly upset by it. “It was an all-male set to begin with. Then, it’s sort of exacerbated by [C.K.’s] presence,” she said. “If someone had heckled him, I think they would’ve been heckled out. It felt like there were a lot of aggressive men in the audience and very quiet women. It’s the kind of vibe that doesn’t allow for a dissenting voice. You’re just expected to be a good audience member. You’re considered a bad sport if you speak out.”

After C.K.’s set, Comedy Cellar owner Noam Dworman said the comedian showed up unannounced, and he didn’t know about the surprise set until later. Dworman told The Hollywood Reporter that he’d only received one email complaining about C.K.’s set, but that the comedian received “a real ovation,” according to audio he heard after the fact. The women agree that C.K.’s reception was warm, with one man shouting that it was “good to have [C.K.] back.” S.B. recalled that the applause at the end of C.K.’s set was a bit quieter than the beginning. “I was actually surprised personally how his exit round of applause compared to his entrance round of applause,” she said. “It was way quieter for sure. There was a huge difference in that volume or in those number of claps.”

The women say C.K.’s set was similar to his usual material, and included a joke about the phrase “clean as a whistle,” which built up to a joke about how rape whistles are not clean. “When he said ‘rape whistle’ people were laughing, and I was just sitting there like oh my f–k. This is so uncomfortable and so disgusting. Everyone around me was laughing. That was just depressing.”

[From Vulture]

Towards the end of the piece, it was just driven home how Louis CK’s set was so much like his admitted sexual misconduct/abuse: he wasn’t invited to whip it out, it was really gross and uncomfortable, and women were made to feel like they couldn’t speak about how uncomfortable it really was. And then afterwards, all of the dudes just started gaslighting women about how NO ONE had any problems with it and EVERYONE should be so grateful that it happened. Ugh, I’m going back to bed.

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Photos courtesy of Getty.

Dear Gossips,

It’s been a week since Jennifer Garner took Ben Affleck to rehab. She’s also been getting her kids ready for back to school – which no doubt includes shopping for supplies, coordinating schedules, and probably so many other things – and focusing on them emotionally too as they wrap…

Kanye West has been saying words for months. Very few of those words make much sense when he strings them together into sentences. 2018 was the year when Kanye fully came out as a MAGA-hat-wearing Deplorable. He loves Donald Trump, he is completely ignorant of history and politics, and he thinks slavery was a choice. When asked a direct question about whether he really thinks Trump cares about black folks, Kanye was stunned silent. But after all of these months of saying words, Kanye would like to correct the record. He sat down for an interview with WGCI 107.5 in Chicago on Wednesday and set the record straight about some stuff:

Whether he believes Trump cares about black people: “I feel that he cares about the way black people feel about him, and he would like for black people to like him like they did when he was cool in the rap songs and all this. He will do the things that are necessary to make that happen because he’s got an ego like all the rest of us. He wants to be the greatest president, and he knows that he can’t be the greatest president without the acceptance of the black community. So, it’s something he’s going to work towards, but we’re gonna have to speak to him.”

On his “slavery is a choice” comments: “I don’t know if I properly apologized for how the slavery comment made people feel. I’m sorry for the one-two effect of the MAGA hat into the slave comment, and I’m sorry for people who felt let down by that moment.” Saying he didn’t want to “over-intellectualize” the comment, West spoke directly to his fans: “This is something about the fact that it hurt people’s feelings and the way that I presented that piece of information. I could present in a way more calm way, but I was ramped up. And I apologize. That happens sometimes when people are … I’m not blaming mental health, but I’m explaining mental health.”

[From The Hollywood Reporter]

I’m not going to over-intellectualize his comments, since he’s not going to either. I’ll say this: there’s a bit of nuance to what he says about whether Trump cares about black people. Kanye is sort of right, much as I hate to give him credit for NARROWLY being right about something. Trump “cares” about whether black people like him. Trump cares about himself and he cares about being seen as cool by cool people. Deep down, Trump knows that he’s a profoundly uncool fascist. Deep down, Trump is a white supremacist who hates anyone who isn’t white. But he’s also obsessed with “celebrities” and that means he does care about people like Kanye, Tiger Woods, etc.

As for Kanye’s apology about his slavery comments… it’s not really an apology. Look at what he’s really saying. He’s saying “I’m sorry you got so upset when I said the truth in such a harsh way.” And he needs to STOP. Kanye West is a choice. Don’t choose him.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

After the premiere of #PEPPERMINTmovie last night, I can officially say— this is one to watch with a crowd. Thanks to everyone who came out to cheer on #RileyNorth— just watching her made me sore! #icantbelieveididit #?? #intheatersonseptember7th!

A post shared by Jennifer Garner (@jennifer.garner) on Aug 29, 2018 at 1:12pm PDT

I was going to skip covering this premiere until something occurred to me. Check out the photo that Jennifer Garner used to mark her return to Instagram after driving her ex, Ben Affleck, to rehab and working out the details of her divorce with him. She was quiet for a few days (at least publicly) until that story died down, and then she posted this. The photo is from the premiere of her movie, Peppermint, which is out on September 7. Jen plays a vigilante mom who trains to get revenge after the courts fail to bring her family’s murderer to justice. (I’m here for an “older” woman as action hero, however this film is getting criticism for featuring a white savior character killing brown people in a minority neighborhood, at least according to the trailer. If people choose to skip it for that reason, that’s completely understandable.)

It’s very deliberate that Jen is posing in the middle of wings made up of colorful bullets. This reminds me of her interview with Vanity Fair in 2016, when she got the cover after Ben’s nanny scandal. She gave this interview before it was confirmed that Ben’s giant back tattoo was real. (He initially called it fake for Live By Night, even after Garner said this.)

You know what we would say in my hometown about that? ‘Bless his heart.’ A phoenix rising from the ashes. Am I the ashes in this scenario? I take umbrage. I refuse to be the ashes.

[From Vanity Fair via CB]

As I wrote on Instagram, it’s no coincidence that the art for Peppermint features giant wings behind Jen’s character.

This promotional image for Peppermint has been out for some time and I missed this until seeing the premiere photos. (Also, this is Photoshopped poorly.)

In terms of her fashion, at least she’s mixing it up and this isn’t as staid as we usually see from her. Jen could do better than this wrinkled Narciso Rodriguez black mullet dress with a cape-like train. Her hair and makeup are gorgeous though.

This is Annie Ilonzeh. I’m not familiar with her, but she was on Empire in 2016 and Person of Interest from 2015 to 2016. Holy crap this dress! It’s by designer Rami Kadi and while I’m not a fan of the deep v-neck, I think those are overused in general, the skirt is amazing. At first I thought it was made up of separate rainbow pieces but they’re rainbow stripes mixed with sheer stripes and the result is so striking. We’ll be seeing more of her.

There are some hot dudes in this film. From left to right this is Juan Pablo Raba, director Pierre Morel, Jennifer Garner, John Ortiz, Annie Ilonzeh and John Boyd.

Here are a couple of Garner’s Instagram story posts from the premiere. (There are about two more.) She’s good about thanking her entire team.

Photos credit: WENN and Instagram/Jennifer Garner

Leonardo DiCaprio has been dating Camila Morrone for most of this year. Since all of his relationships follow similar patterns, it’s easy to forget that Camila and Leo really haven’t been together (officially) for even a full eight months or so. His habit is choose an official girlfriend in the spring, spend the summer and fall with her, and then he begins to wind things down in February of the next year. I think Camila will be different because she’s so young – she’s only 21 years old, and years away from his “under 25 only” cutoff. Leo would send every woman over the age of 25 to a deserted island if he could. Leo is 43, and Camila’s mom is 42, and Camila’s mom dates Al Pacino. That’s another reason why I think Leo and Camila are going to last a bit longer – she’s well-connected and Leo likes hanging out with her mom. They have a lot in common considering they were born around the same time.

So where am I going with this? I don’t know, I guess I wouldn’t be surprised if Camila lasts a couple of years. But make no mistake, he’s not going to marry her. He’ll take her on vacation, he’ll help her with the Cool Girl narrative she’s trying to work, but he’s not giving her a ring. Still, “the ring” helps sell the romance, so here you go:

Leonardo DiCaprio can kiss his infamous bachelor life goodbye! Since embarking on his eight-month romance with Camila Morrone, 21, the actor is finally ready to settle down.

“They’re very in love and serious,” an insider says in the new issue of Us Weekly of the couple, who have yet to comment publicly on their relationship. “They’ve talked about getting engaged.”

And though the model is 22 years his junior, the source adds the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood star, 43, has “never loved a girl like this.” Not even Gisele Bündchen, whom he dated from 2000 to 2005. Says the insider, “Gisele wanted to get married and Leo felt he was too young at the time.” Now he’s up for it as he and Morrone are talking about a family expansion. “He’s ready to have kids,” the source says. As is she: “She loves having little kids around and wants to have kids with Leo,” the pal notes, “but she wants to get married to him first. She’s very traditional in that way.”

While a wedding may not be happening anytime soon, the pair are enjoying spending time together. Adds the source, “Cami and Leo want to have fun and are very playful.”

[From Us Weekly]

Of course he’s playful with her, HE IS HER BABYSITTER. Leo is the best babysitter ever! No, I don’t know. The thing is, I actually think Leo does want to be a father. I think he sees that for himself in some distant future, after he “sowed his wolf pack oats” or whatever. He sees himself as a guy who will eventually marry and have kids. Like he’s trying to follow the Warren Beatty path. But no, I don’t think Camila is the one. I think he likes her a lot. I think he’ll keep her around because she’s years away from turning 25. But he’s still not ready to marry HIS Annette Bening yet.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

There really is nothing like Serena Williams in primetime on ESPN every other night. Serena’s feeling the love in New York this year too, after years of shenanigans and controversies. It just feels like… everyone is just happy that Serena is still around, still playing, still killing it, still wearing whatever the hell she wants. As we discussed previously, for this year’s US Open, Virgil Abloh (of Louis Vuitton) collaborated with Nike on Serena’s USO kit. The result was a one-sleeved tennis dress with a full tulle skirt like a ballerina’s tutu. For Serena’s Round 1 match, she wore the black dress. For Round 2 last night, Serena wore this baby-blue version.

What I love about this is that the US Open cannot and will not say sh-t about Serena’s ballerina get-up. Serena is big business for them, obviously, but they also don’t want to get into a controversy over her clothes, especially after the French Tennis Federation president stepped in sh-t by trying to ban Serena’s catsuit. Other players had Serena’s back on the catsuit issue – French player Alize Cornet was given an “unsportsmanlike conduct” warning for rearranging her shirt on the court a few days ago at the US Open, and she ended up receiving an apology from the tournament. When asked about it, Cornet brought it back to Serena and how men are always trying to police female athletes’ bodies, and Cornet said that what happened to Serena was “10,000 times worse.”

Anyway, Serena won her match in primetime last night. It was a great match too and Serena looks pretty sharp and very fast. Next up for Serena: Venus. Serena versus Venus in what will probably be the most-watched women’s match of the tournament. I’m assuming it will be primetime on ESPN on Friday night, right? The last time they played, Venus beat her little sister. That was in Indian Wells in March. Who do you think will win this time?

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

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I’ll admit it: I haven’t been following the Texas Senate race that closely. I basically only read the headlines. Zodiac Killer Ted Cruz is the incumbent Republican senator, and Democrat Beto O’Rourke is the challenger. I do know that O’Rourke was been running a smart campaign and he’s winning over the key demographics in Texas: women, Hispanics, progressives, young people. In polling this week, O’Rourke is only one point behind Ted Cruz! So, obviously, the Texas GOP establishment is scared witless. And because they’re so out-of-touch, they tried to slam Beto O’Rourke by… posting a photo of him in the ‘90s, when he looked hot as hell.

Maybe Beto can’t debate Ted Cruz because he already had plans… pic.twitter.com/LdqKTh3yK4

— Texas GOP (@TexasGOP) August 28, 2018

I would have had such a crush on Beto in college, OMG. HE IS SO HOT. Also smoking hot? His mug shot from the ‘90s, which the Texas GOP also posted:

There’s always the chance that Robert “Beto” O’Rourke won’t debate Senator Cruz because he got into a hazy situation… pic.twitter.com/4nmd42AEkl

— Texas GOP (@TexasGOP) August 29, 2018

*stares at dreamy mugshot*

I’m sorry, what was the point of this? Is the Texas GOP just trying to remind us that Beto was really hot and really cool, and that he’s still pretty attractive and pretty cool? In addition to being the Zodiac Killer, Ted Cruz also found time to be a mime.

Is Ted Cruz really trying to scare voters with pictures from Beto’s band days when there are pictures of him out there as a mime? pic.twitter.com/waHTLM1fi5

— Schooley (@Rschooley) August 29, 2018

here’s what ted cruz and beto o’rourke were doing to unwind during roughly the same period pic.twitter.com/yxsXGaaF0y

— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) August 29, 2018

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Photos courtesy of Getty.

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On Tuesday night, Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum won the Democratic primary for the Florida governor’s race. He’ll be facing off against “Trump acolyte” Ron DeSantis. Gillum’s primary win was a surprise to even the Florida Democratic Party establishment, but his rise was widely heralded too – he’s got great progressive-Dem credentials, and he happens to be one of only a handful of African-American candidates to win their party’s nomination for any state’s governorship. Obviously, since we live in Trump’s America and Gillum is running against a dude who worships Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis had some sh-t to say on Wednesday:

Ron DeSantis says on Fox that Florida shouldn’t “monkey this up” by electing his opponent, the first African American to win a major-party nomination for governor in Florida. https://t.co/g9JvXhEesY pic.twitter.com/jzb4Ud39ag

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 29, 2018

Honestly, I was ready to cancel DeSantis as soon as he said Gillum was “articulate.” But in the next breath, DeSantis says the last thing Florida needs to do is “monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda…” Monkey this up… is not an idiom. DeSantis is just a racist Deplorable who couldn’t even wait 24 hours to call the African-American candidate a monkey.

Gillum responded. I love that he didn’t minimize it.

“I don’t know the phrase. Looking at the whole clip, I think he was clear about what he meant, he understood the dog whistle that he was blowing” Tallahassee Mayor @AndrewGillum reacts to Congressman DeSantis “monkey this up” comment. pic.twitter.com/onqz2AsMxo

— Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) August 30, 2018

WATCH: Democratic candidate for Florida Governor @AndrewGillum joins #MTPDaily and responds to his opponent’s remark on being “articulate” and telling voters not to “monkey” up the race.@AndrewGillum: “Let me be articulate and clear here. We’re better than this in Florida.” pic.twitter.com/kPXSfv1T7R

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) August 29, 2018

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Photos courtesy of Getty.