Benedict Cumberbatch appeared on the Graham Norton Show this weekend. Britishers already saw the episode, although BBC America staggers the airings so we won’t get to see it here in the US until next weekend. Thankfully, the whole episode already popped up on YouTube! Cumberbatch shared the couch with Eddie Redmayne, Bryan Cranston and then LeAnn Rimes was the musical guest. I have to confess something: LeAnn’s brief time on the couch didn’t bother me at all. Benedict was sort of fine too. Eddie was charming – especially during the magic show – and Cranston talked a little bit too much. Here’s the episode. Ah, they took it down, but here’s a clip:

Thankfully, nobody made news on the show and the only cringing I did was over the length of some of Cranston’s stories (I like him a lot, but he seemed a bit wired). As for Benedict, thankfully we do have some actual news about him. Some quotes! Here are some highlights from two new(ish) Bendy interviews:

Becoming a parent: “It adds – it never takes away. Lots of people, especially women, get told, ‘Oh you know, it’s going to really affect your career’, and it does, but for the better in most cases that I know. I am in a very privileged position in my career but I think everyone – even if they’re in a challenging time in their life – draws strength from their children. They’re inspirations rather than hindrances.”

He no longer wants to discuss posh-bashing: Back in 2012, Cumberbatch told Radio Times he was so sick of “posh bashing” that he was considering quitting Britain and moving to America. But today his comment on the issue of class is simply that it is “a conversation” he doesn’t want to get “involved with”.

His ‘f—k the politicians’ speech: He also speaks of his “deep regret” in having been “very rude about politicians” during the times he had taken to the stage after the curtain call of Hamlet to raise money for Syrian refugees, and criticised MPs for their response to the crisis. “I’m not in power and I’ve very much learnt my lesson on that front. But what I can do is try to ask people in power if they could consider it important enough to take action on.” To this end, he says, he is in conversation with Unicef about the possibility of becoming one of its ambassadors. “Listen, if I’m going to be criticised for something, I might as well be criticised for trying to help.”

His purpose is his family: “I have a family which gives me a purpose that is greater than me and more important than me beyond my work and my public life…. Everyone says it goes by so quickly and as a new parent you really experience that, especially if you’ve been away for 10 days [the Marvel promotional schedule has taken him on a world tour]. But it’s about enjoying every moment you have, when you have it.”

What it means to be British: “It’s an ever changing thing now isn’t it? I can tell you what it means for me. It means a pride in a form of belonging to a culture and history that is varied, chequered, wonderful, awful, just everything it should be. For me it’s very much a sense of place, a sense of home, London in particular, but also Manchester [where he went to university], parts of Scotland. For me it’s a sense of belonging. But it’s ever evolving. And obviously post everything that happened in the summer it is seriously evolving.”

Whether he’s worried about Brexit: “I’ve quite a strong faith that we’ve already made do so often. Everyone doesn’t know what’s going to happen so worrying is a kind of waste of energy.” He voted for Remain but “I thoroughly respect the reasons why people voted to leave. To me the most despairing thing is that what it showed was the massive under-privilege in our society, the problems of zero hours contracts, industrial towns that have been left to decay for decades. People voted for a change to their circumstances and their incomes and their job security and their healthcare that demagogues were offering an answer to, and they’re not going to get what they want. And we need to tackle those problems. As a culture we’re all aware of that now. There’s no hiding it, these things have been voiced and heard.”

[From The Telegraph & the Belfast Telegraph]

I’m actually sort of shocked that Benedict sounds so diplomatic about Brexit. Considering his politics – posh liberal/progressive, one would assume – it’s interesting to me that he acknowledges that pro-Brexit voters had legit complaints. Although he basically says that the pro-Brexit politicians lied to people, which checks out.

As for what he says about how having a kid hasn’t affected his career negatively – while he uses the word “privilege,” it’s sort of clear that he hasn’t actually given it much thought, which is that he’s in a completely different position than an actress who has a baby in her 30s and finds herself receiving fewer and fewer scripts.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Pacific Coast News.

Cutie!

Michael Phelps‘ fiancée Nicole Johnson posted an adorable image of their barenaked baby boy, 5-month-old Boomer, via Instagram Saturday.

Johnson also shared a sweet snapshot of the father-son duo.

“Turn around and find these 2 taking #selfies @m_phelps00 @boomerrphelps #saturdayerrands #checkouttheirsunnies,” she wrote.

The Olympic swim champ, 31, and the former Miss California USA beauty queen, 31, welcomed their firstborn on May 5.

@m_phelps00

A photo posted by Nicole Michele Johnson (@nicole.m.johnson) on Oct 15, 2016 at 6:25pm PDT

Turn around and find these 2 taking #selfies @m_phelps00 @boomerrphelps #saturdayerrands #checkouttheirsunnies A photo posted by Nicole Michele Johnson (@nicole.m.johnson) on Oct 15, 2016 at 12:17pm PDT

View Slideshow »»

View All Photos »»

New mom Chrissy Teigen stepped out with daughter Luna, 6 months, on Friday (October 14).

While pushing her tot in the stroller, the Lip Sync Battle star, 30, was all smiles during their afternoon walk in New York City.

That same day, Teigen and her husband, Grammy Award-winning singer John Legend, posted photos of their daughter in celebration of turning 6-months-old.

“I can’t believe you have been making me laugh and smile and extremely sleepy for 6 months now! First trip to the park. Best NYC stroll day ever. I love you, my Lu!” Teigen captioned a cute boomerang video.

The FABLife star and the All of Me hitmaker – who were wed in Sept. 2013 – welcomed their firstborn on April 14.

View Slideshow »»

Picture perfect!

Who’s the Boss? alum Alyssa Milano posted her kids’ school portraits via Instagram. “Speaking of school pictures,” the actress, 43, captioned the image of son Milo, 5, and daughter Elizabella, 2.

The mom-of-two also posted a throwback school photo from her childhood.

As well, the Charmed star shared an image of her former baby bump.

“Such an amazing experience being featured in #bellyartproject by @sarablakely,” she captioned the snapshot.

Milano raises her kids with husband David Bugliari.

Speaking of school pictures…

A photo posted by Alyssa Milano (@milano_alyssa) on Oct 14, 2016 at 1:59pm PDT

#tbt #pictureday A photo posted by Alyssa Milano (@milano_alyssa) on Oct 13, 2016 at 10:18am PDT

Such an amazing experience being featured in #bellyartproject by @sarablakely ????

A photo posted by Alyssa Milano (@milano_alyssa) on Oct 11, 2016 at 7:15pm PDT

View Slideshow »»

View All Photos »»

Mom-of-two Jessica Simpson posted a family photo via Instagram Saturday.

“Travel Buddies,” the singer-entrepreneur, 36, captioned the image with husband Eric Johnson and their two children — daughter Maxwell, 4, and son Ace, 3.

On Thursday, Simpson shared a snapshot of her kids boarding a private jet.

The Irresistable hitmaker recently opened up about traveling with her family-of-four.

“We definitely love going on road trips and it’s definitely in our Budget rental car, I’ll be honest. The kids love it,” Simpson said. “Eric and I listen to them banter back and forth and it’s like, “Oh, my gosh, can we just give them an iPad or something?” It reminds me of when I grew up and going on road trips with my sister and my parents. It’s always a sentimental time. Even if your kids [are] screaming, I feel like I’ll miss that one day.”

Travel Buddies

A photo posted by Jessica Simpson (@jessicasimpson) on Oct 15, 2016 at 6:01pm PDT

Another weekend, another 20 million awful stories about Donald Trump. Before I get into Trump’s deplorable shenanigans, let me just spend a moment on Rush Limbaugh, because I honestly think Rush made some comments that will end up defining this election in a really horrible way. Last week, Rush was bloviating in his usual way about liberal conspiracies when he hit upon a new conspiracy: consent. As in, liberals believe that whatever happens between consenting adults is fine. Rush pointed that out like it’s a bad thing, like “consent” is a dirty word, that “consent” is ruining Trump’s chances. That’s how far down the rabbit hole we are at this point: conservative thinkers believe that the concept and reality of consent in sexual relations is a negative thing. Think about that. Think about what that says about rape culture that 40% of the population buys that. As for Trump… here are the most deplorable stories.

Donald Trump was not impressed with HRC. As Trump flails around at rallies, he’s been going off-Teleprompter and he’s been saying some truly and profoundly disturbing things. He returned to Hillary’s performance at the second debate, the same debate where he literally stalked Hillary around the dais, and this is what he said: “I’m standing at my podium and she walks in front of me, right. She walks in front of me, you know. And when she walked in front of me, believe me, I wasn’t impressed.” As in, Donald Trump doesn’t like the way Hillary Clinton looks. Because that’s the worst insult he can lodge at her, because he’s a f—king child.

Speaking of objectifying women. Trump has also been flailing around as he tries to say something incriminating about the multiple women accusing him of sexual harassment and assault. On Friday, we discussed how Trump had dismissed People journalist Natasha Stoynoff’s claims of assault by saying “look at her, I don’t think so.” As in, Trump is so classy, he only harasses and assaults beautiful women. Well, he said something similar about Jessica Leeds, the woman who claims Trump assaulted her on a plane. Trump told his audience: “Yeah, I’m going to go after her. Believe me, she would not be my first choice. That I can tell you. You don’t know, that would not be my first choice.” THAT. Not her. THAT. Remind you of the P-ssy tape, when he referred to an actress as “it”?

Sniffles McSnorts-a-lot wants Hillary to take a drug test. Again, the conversation has never been about Hillary seeming like she’s on drugs. Trump is the one who can’t get through a 90 minute debate without sniffling like a cokehead. But Trump still wants Hillary to take a drug test, saying: “At the beginning of her last debate, she was all pumped at the beginning, but at the end she was all ‘take me down.’ She could barely reach her car. I think we should take a drug test. Anyway, I’m willing to do it.” Good. Take a drug test, Sniffles.

What else? Many media outlets are struggling to keep ongoing and updated lists of all of the women coming out with sexual assault and harassment stories – Vox is keeping a detailed list, which you can read here. Politico has also been trying to report (with a straight face) how unhinged Trump has been sounding over the past few days especially. And I haven’t even spent any time discussing Trump’s dog-whistle anti-Semitism. Ugh…

So let’s end this on a nice note? Our lovely neighbors to the north understand that we here in the US need a little pep talk. And since Canadians are the sweetest and most polite people in the world, they made us a little video to tell us how much they love us. Thank you, Canada! We don’t even deserve to have such nice neighbors.

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Photos courtesy of Getty, WENN, Pacific Coast News.

October 11th was the International Day of the Girl, as recognized by the United Nations. It was also the birthday of Olivia Wilde’s second child, a little girl! Olivia and her partner Jason Sudeikis welcomed their first child, Otis, was born in April 2014, which makes him two-and-half right now (time flies, right?). And on October 11th, 2016, Olivia welcomed Daisy Josephine Sudeikis.

The question? Do “Daisy” and “Otis” fit together as sibling-names? I feel like Olivia and Jason have a little bit of the Sarah Palin-flair, in that they don’t mind giving dog-appropriate names to human children. I always thought Palin named her kids like puppies, I’m just saying! That being said, I don’t mind this name in particular. Daisy feels pretty popular but it’s not hypersaturated like Madison or Isabella. And the “Josephine” gives it some balance, some seriousness and weight. She’ll probably just go by Daisy, but there’s always a chance she could end up a Jo Sudeikis or Joey or JoJo Sudeikis. You never know. I also think that Olivia probably feels like it’s difficult to get a name that feels right with “Sudeikis.” It’s a difficult last name.

Olivia was still riding the subway deep into her third trimester, even though people wouldn’t give up their seats for, as she said, “a giant preggo.” She’s also been taking a lot about how she’s voting for Hillary Clinton and reproductive rights.

There goes the neighborhood. Daisy Josephine Sudeikis. Born, like a boss, on #internationaldayofthegirl. ??

A photo posted by Olivia Wilde (@oliviawilde) on Oct 15, 2016 at 12:24pm PDT

Photos courtesy of Instagram, WENN.

This has been on the edge of so many conversations about Donald Trump in the past few weeks especially: the idea that Trump behaved appallingly to contestants during the runs of The Apprentice and Celebrity Apprentice. In the immediate wake of the Grab-Them-By-The-P-ssy Tape, many theorized that there was some kind of supercut of Trump’s offensive words and behavior captured on-camera for those TV shows. So far, Apprentice producer Mark Burnett has refused to release anything, and MGM – which owns those properties – says they can’t release the audio/videos because of existing confidentiality agreements.

All of that hasn’t stopped former Celebrity Apprentice and Apprentice contestants from speaking out. It also hasn’t stopped many behind-the-scenes people from speaking out as well. So here are some stories related to Donald Trump and those shows:

Summer Zervos. Zervos was a contestant on The Apprentice in 2007. She claims that Trump kissed her twice on the mouth without consent on one occasion, and then on another occasion, Trump allegedly kissed her aggressively and felt her up. Zervos is being represented by Gloria Allred. Trump’s spokesperson gave a blanket denial and basically called Zervos and everyone else crazy famewhores who are just claiming these things for attention.

Khloe Kardashian. Khloe appeared on Celebrity Apprentice in 2009 and sources told HuffPo that Trump loathed Khloe simply because he didn’t think she was hot. One source said, “He basically wanted to just get rid of her. He called her a ‘piglet.’ Trump asked, ‘What is this? We can’t even get the hot one?’” Another source backed up those claims, saying: “He said: ‘Why don’t we fire Khloe? She is a fat piglet. Why did we get the ugly Kardashian?’” A third source said that Trump wanted Khloe off of the show so badly that he fired her off the show not based off of merit, it was just because he didn’t like her. Jesus – now I feel really sorry for Khloe.

Marlee Matlin. We heard last week that Trump was both sexually suggestive/harassing towards Marlee and it was very uncomfortable for everyone involved. We also heard that Trump referred to her as “r-tarded” to other people. Well, Marlee is speaking out:

My response to recent media reports – Marlee. pic.twitter.com/Mkrbh47dUO

— Marlee Matlin (@MarleeMatlin) October 14, 2016

Trump didn’t understand a very simple racial slur. For non-Americans, this might seem like a weird thing, but to call a black person an “Uncle Tom” is basically like saying that the person is a “traitor to their race,” and that a black person is subservient to white folks. It has a very specific meaning in America, and a very specific connotation. Well, during the 2013 season of Celebrity Apprentice, Trump apparently wouldn’t stop calling Lil’ Jon “Uncle Tom.” It was for no reason other than Trump is too stupid to know the difference between Uncle Sam (representing America) and Uncle Tom. Lil’ Jon was dressed up as Uncle Sam for one event in the competition. And Trump repeatedly called him Uncle Tom. Lil’ Jon actually released a statement confirming that it happened in front of him and he asked Trump to stop and Trump did.

pic.twitter.com/BTLCWa0AlA

— LILJON (@LilJon) October 15, 2016

Dear MGM, Mark Burnett and whoever else: we need the tapes. We’re beyond confidentiality agreements at this point. In fact, I would argue that A) it’s for the good of the public in the middle of a presidential campaign and B) these tapes involve criminal matters like sexual harassment, workplace discrimination and assault. Therefore, confidentiality should be thrown out the window.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Saturday Night Live’s cold open was once again devoted to politics, as Kate McKinnon and Alec Baldwin spoofed Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in a skit about the second debate. While I think SNL’s political writing has been mostly on-point thus far, you can really feel that the writers struggled with this skit. Like, if you watched the actual debate, the whole thing was so profoundly strange and skit-like already, so how do you spoof something that is already like a spoof? That being said, Kate and Alec nailed it, Kate especially. If anything, I worry that Alec is making Trump into too much of a harmless buffoon. Trump is not harmless!!

I liked “Nah, I’m good” and Trump calling the black guy “Denzel.” The Jaws music was a good touch, although once again… it was SO MUCH weirder and more disturbing in real life, the way Trump stalked HRC on that stage.

SNL also did a skit/music video called Melanianade, where Melania Trump and the Trump-associated women spoof Beyonce’s Lemonade. This is clever! SNL’s host Emily Blunt played Ivanka Trump. Shout out to Beck Bennett for once again nailing Mike Pence’s whole vibe too, and Alec Baldwin does another cameo as Trump.

Incidentally, does anyone else think it’s interesting that SNL isn’t doing a mid-week special like they did during the 2008 campaign? You would think that since they have such great casting picks with Kate and Alec, they would go full-on with their political stuff. I suspect that… people at NBC are really nervous about their long-standing relationship with Trump.

Screencaps courtesy of SNL.

An expectant Marion Cotillard radiated the red carpet at the premiere of It’s Only The End of the World in London, England on Friday (October 14).

Joined by fellow pregnant costar Lea Seydoux, Cotillard, 41, was beautiful in a black and gold patterned dress accessorized with matching pumps.

While Cotillard rocked head-to-toe Christian Dior, Seydoux was beautiful in a blue Louis Vuitton gown during the 2016 BFI London Film Festival.

Cotillard and her actor-director beau, Guillaume Canet, 43, are expecting their second child together. They are already parents to 5-year-old son Marcel.

Recently, the actress announced her second pregnancy, and slammed rumors that she’s responsible for the breakup between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

View Slideshow »»

View All Photos »»