Most of us believe that Taylor Swift will be releasing a new album in the new year. I think the album will probably come out in February or March, although it could totally be later than that. This will be Taylor’s first album since 1989, the Grammy-award winner from 2014. Taylor usually releases an album in the autumn every two years, so it’s notable that she broke her pattern and didn’t release an album this year. Whenever she does release the album, I feel certain that Tay-Tay will have a whole new re-brand to her image, and I can’t wait to see what it is. The rebrand for 1989 was “girl squads” and “Bad Blood against Katy Perry” and “a low-key relationship with Calvin Harris.” Star Magazine theorized that Taylor’s rebrand will involve fewer squad members, maybe a “curated” squad of only intelligent, interesting people.

Taylor Swift has a catty New Year’s resolution: get smarter friends!

“Taylor’s tired of her old crew full of models. This year, she’s planning to build a squad that seems sharper in the brains department,” says a source, adding that she’s going to shake off professional pretty faces like Gigi Hadid and Cara Delevingne. “She wants to hang out more with Aziz Ansari, Blake Lively and Todrick Hall. People she considers more substantial.”

But Taylor’s clique reconstruction has less to do with legit friends than it does rebranding.

“Taylor’s reputation took a beating this year, and she needs to reinvent herself,” explains the Swift source. “Certain people just aren’t a good fit for her anymore.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition]

A “Swift source” told Gossip Cop that this story is “false” and that “The singer is not ditching her girl squad, nor is she hoping to rebrand her image.” Sure. We’ll see. The thing is, while this is being framed as “Taylor is Machiavellian and she’s all about her image,” the truth is that people outgrow their friends all the time and it has nothing to do with branding. That’s one of the points I kept making when Taylor continued to insist that the Girl Squad Is Forever and of course she would be friends with that huge group of people for the rest of her life. People outgrow friends all the time. Life takes people to different places, and you realize that some of your girlfriends or boyfriends are kind of vapid, or that you have nothing in common, or that you’re just tired of your friend’s dumb drama. It happens. That being said, of course she’s going to rebrand herself for this new album.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.

Tom Hiddleston has made it to the final of GQ’s Most Stylish Man 2016 Showdown. Whatever. I like playing these stupid games. But… HIM??? To get to the finals, Tom took out Tom Hardy, Jeff Goldblum, David Beckham, and Justin Theroux. The other finalist is Roger Federer. And the winner will be anno…

Tom Hiddleston has made it to the final of GQ’s Most Stylish Man 2016 Showdown. Whatever. I like playing these stupid games. But… HIM??? To get to the finals, Tom took out Tom Hardy, Jeff Goldblum, David Beckham, and Justin Theroux. The other finalist is Roger Federer. And the winner will be anno…

Congratulations are in order for Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard.

The 19 Kids and Counting star, 25, and her husband, 27, are expecting their second child, PEOPLE reports.

“We are so excited to be expecting Dillard baby #2!” announced the Counting On stars. “Children really are a wonderful blessing from God. Having Israel has been such a delight to us that we know a second sweet baby will only continue to add joy to our family. We are thankful to God for this sweet child and we cannot wait to see her or him face to face!”

The couple are already parents to 1-year-old son Israel David.

In August, Jill’s younger sister Jessa Duggar, 24, announced her second pregnancy. Jessa and husband Ben Seewald are already parents to 1-year-old son Spurgeon.

TLC’s Counting On moves to Mondays (9 p.m. ET) in the new year, starting on Jan. 16, 2017.

Here is Benedict Cumberbatch and his increasingly tragic hairline at a screening of the Sherlock Christmas special, which already aired earlier this year but is getting trotted out as a holiday warm-up to season four. He was joined by Martin Freeman, whose stylist apparently got a different memo …

It’ll be blue booties again for Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott.

The Beverly Hills, 90210 alum, 43, and the Always and Forever star, 50, were joined by their kids — Liam, 9, Stella, 8, Hattie, 5 and Finn, 4 – in a gender reveal party.

“Well, it’s a tie-breaker … boys win!” says Spelling on the E! News video. “We’re just going to have to have one more, then.”

This marks the first time the couple have opted for a surprise reveal.

“With Liam and Stella, we found out at the doctor’s office. Hattie and Finn we didn’t find out until they were born,” Tori shares. “So this is the first reveal. We really wanted to do it with the kids because they were so excited and we wanted to do it as a family.”

In October, Tori and Dean announced their fifth pregnancy.

“It was a total surprise,” Tori said. “But we always wanted a big family. I’m really excited.”

Embed from Getty Images

This should just serve as a reminder, because I honestly forgot: Sherlock Season 4 begins airing on New Year’s Day, two Sundays from now. British viewers and American viewers get to see it on the same day, which is nice, although I think the Brits get it hours ahead of the Americans, so no spoilers, you guys. These are photos from the BBC’s premiere event in London last night. Benedict Cumberbatch wore a nice suit and looked like an undertaker. Martin Freeman wore a denim jacket and looked rather cute. Remember, this is the season where Sherlock hangs out with a bloodhound. This is also the season where Mary (Watson’s wife) has a baby, so Sherlock is sort of an uncle.

A few months back, Benedict said some words and some people thought he was basically saying that Season 4 might be the last of Sherlock, although producers came out pretty quickly and said no, that they’re keeping everything open-ended and that worst case scenario, these will be the last episodes for a few years. At the event last night, Bendy talked a bit more about all of that:

Benedict doesn’t want to read fan-theories: “I think I would be pretty affected by what I read or saw, so I stay clear of that. I can’t have too many voices and influences. I have to trust my directors and writers and actors to make what we’re making. Reaction veers passionately in every direction with this subject and character. Some of that does get back to me – but hopefully that’s the nicer stuff.”

The opening episode, called “The Six Thatchers.” Benedict says the season is “darker than the previous three” and “goes to extremes”. “It tests the bounds of the relationships you’ve come to know and it redefines who those characters are. It starts off with a smile and gets dark as oil.”

This season is not the end: “You have to see these three stories (in series four) to understand what I originally said, which was that it feels like something comes to a head in this series. That’s not just false advertising. As we have always said, we never say never. Enjoy what’s coming now, rather than what may or may not be coming in the future.”

[From BBC]

I do wonder if Benedict is a little bit “over” Sherlock at this point. I think the series is fun to make for Benedict and Martin, but both actors have so much other stuff going on, and it must be difficult for them to carve out five months every few years for Sherlock. Plus, it does feel like after Season 3 and the Christmas special (which was pretty bad), people just aren’t as into the series anymore. We’ll see. I mean, I’m going to watch Season 4, but my expectations are kind of low.

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Photos courtesy of Getty.

Dear Gossips,

I’ve read a lot of articles about Zsa Zsa Gabor the last couple of days. Had to read Cindy Adams’s post of course because she knew her so well. And I quite enjoyed this one in The Guardian by Suzanne Moore – Zsa Zsa “knew femininity was a performance. She played it perfectly”.
…

A few weeks ago, I tried to discuss the creepy saga of Sofia Vergara and Nick Loeb’s embryo drama. This situation has been going on for a few years and there’s enough backstory to fill a book, so let me summarize: Nick Loeb wants “custody” of the embryos he created with Sofia when they were together. He wants to implant them in another woman, then raise those daughters on his own, because he’s “pro-life.” Sofia refuses to sign off on the scheme, and Nick is suing her. The latest issue involves a radical anti-choice organization in Louisiana filing suit against Sofia as well, claiming that these embryos have a constitutional “right to live.” That lawsuit even names the embryos, calling them Emma and Isabella. Basically, Emma and Isabella have “sued” Sofia. It’s all very dystopian and disgusting and I have so much sympathy for Sofia. Loeb comes across like such a manipulative douchebag. So, what’s the latest?

In the latest twist in the wild battle over Sofía Vergara and Nick Loeb’s frozen embryos, Page Six has learned that lawyers are gearing up to file a lawsuit demanding that the embryos be shipped from California to Louisiana. Earlier this month a stunning suit was filed against Vergara on behalf of the fertilized eggs — which are named in the papers as “Emma” and “Isabella” and listed as plaintiffs. The embryos’ “trustee,” James Charbonnet, was also listed as a plaintiff.

But insiders tell us that in the new year, attorneys will ask the ART Reproductive Center in Beverly Hills, Calif. — where the embryos have been cryogenically frozen since the former couple’s IVF treatment was completed in 2013 — to transfer them to a facility in Louisiana. The legal team is hopeful that ART will agree because it will consider the embryos a “legal hot potato” that it would like to be rid of. But if ART — or Vergara — declines permission for the embryos to be moved, Charbonnet intends to sue in federal court for the right to move the embryos.

Insiders say that the choice of Louisiana as their new home is significant because it’s the only state where embryos have legal rights of their own, rather than being considered the belongings, or “chattels” of their parents. The embryos would be sent by courier.

“Although Nick Loeb is not a party to the existing litigation or [this] subsequently contemplated litigation, he may be a beneficiary if the court adjudicates that the embryos are not chattels but entities with constitutional rights of survival,” Loeb’s attorney Mark J. Heller told us. “Such a ruling would defeat [Vergara’s] intention to keep her daughters’ embryos frozen in perpetuity and endorse the irrevocable right of parenthood granted to donors when they contribute to the creation of an embryo.”

Loeb already sued for custody of “Emma” and “Isabella” in 2014 but dropped the suit this month after a California judge demanded Loeb identify women with whom he’d had aborted pregnancies. Loeb said he would rather “go to jail” than give up the names. Vergara’s rep didn’t get back to us.

[From Page Six]

This is just INSANE. Sofia’s legal argument has been simple throughout: custody or possession of the embryos belongs to both herself and Nick. As in, they both have to sign off on anything involving the embryos. So, no, the Beverly Hills clinic isn’t going to shrug and send the embryos off to Louisiana, nor will Sofia sign off on that. And the legal implications for this are stunning across the board. Basically, what happens when couples undergo IVF treatments and freeze a number of embryos, some of which don’t get used? This could set a precedent for all of those unused embryos to “sue” their parents. It could be used to legally force women to carry children.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

The story of Rihanna’s “discovery” in Barbados has always been gossip fodder. I’ve heard people swear up and down that Jay-Z secretly “discovered” Rihanna in Barbados… but not while she was singing. I also find the whole idea of someone being “discovered” to be sort of outdated, especially in this case, because it feels like we’re using coded, racialized language, like it took white folks coming to a “savage” island for Rihanna to be “discovered.” In any case, the official story is that a 15-year-old Rihanna was discovered while performing with her girl group in Barbados in 2003. She was discovered by American producer and songwriter Evan Rogers and a year later she had her “Pon de Replay” demo sent out to labels and once Jay-Z heard the demo, he signed her to Def Jam that day.

But there could have been another story of Rihanna’s discovery. Before Rogers ever came around, apparently Andrew Lloyd Webber took a vacation in Barbados too. And he heard her sing. And he thought about “bringing her back.” This is the creepy way he explained it:

King of musicals Andrew Lloyd Webber has said that he discovered Rihanna while on holiday but chose not to “bring her back” to the UK. In an interview on Good Morning Britain this week, Lloyd Webber explained how he had stumbled upon the global star while she was singing karaoke at the Sandy Lane resort in Barbados 12 years ago, but he and his creative partner, Nigel Wright, decided not to follow their impulses although she sounded “very, very good”.

“I said to Nigel, ‘If we bring her back, you know it’s like when you see a picture when you’re away and you take it home and you think, why did I buy that?’” said Webber. “I thought: we’ll get her back, it’ll be fine, but then what do we do with her?”

When asked if he had any regrets, he said his missed opportunity was “not something he was proud of”.

[From The Guardian]

So creepy, right? “You take it home and you think, why did I buy that?” And “we’ll get her back, it’ll be fine, but then what do we do with her?” God. The way men – older men – talk about women, right? I understand what he was trying to say, he just said it in such a creepy way. I’m assuming he meant that he was impressed with her voice but he would have no idea how to shepherd her music career. But to compare Rihanna to an impulse purchase while on holiday? Gross.

Photos courtesy of WENN.