Eva Green covers the new issue of The Edit, net-a-porter’s online magazine. Eva’s promoting Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, in which she was directed by Tim Burton (who she might be dating now). While I find Eva compelling, beautiful and interesting on screen, this editorial isn’t doing much for me. The interview is an interesting read though. Eva has been big on talking about how she’s an “introvert” lately. I understand that a lot of people are truly introverted, but it does feel like the “I’m such an introvert” thing is the new “I was always such a nerd” or “I was never popular” thing that celebrities used to say in interviews. Eva also casts some harsh judgments on people who care about fashion, people who take selfies, and people with ambition. You can read the full piece here, and here are some highlights:

She considers herself a classic introvert. “I’m not the most eloquent person. I’m not great at talking about myself. People are surprised when they see I’m shy.”

She’s not on social media: “Because I don’t want to get drunk and go ‘blahblahblah’. sometimes I do drunk texting. So if I went on Twitter… There’s something quite desperate about it. ‘Look what I’ve done!’ No. And I hate selfies. Lots of people ask for a selfie now; it’s sad. They want a picture, but it’s about them, rather than sharing a moment. It feels like they steal something, rather than looking at you and going, ‘I like your work.’”

Whether she considers her style goth/gothic: “I’d say more baroque. I like to have my armor when I go on a red carpet – I feel very vulnerable otherwise. I like a smoky eye or a red lip – I just want to be in a costume that will protect me.” Would she tend to pick a high-necked dress over anything too revealing? “Oh, yes. I’m not comfortable with booby.”

Personal style: “Years ago, my publicist gave me an article saying I was the worst-dressed actress in the world. If you’re too original, like Helena Bonham Carter with the one red shoe…I adore her for doing that. But people are, ‘Oh my gahhhd!’” she says, affecting a shrill American accent. “Even now, I wouldn’t go [looking] too original. It’s such a big fuss, to be myself. But to have to remain safe is boring. F****** boring. ‘What are you wearing?’ is all [reporters] care about, rather than about your movie. It’s not very clever.”

Her role in Miss Peregrine: “It was nice not to be a love interest. To play the guardian of those children, who would risk her life to protect them – I loved the idea that her children are her life. Tim calls her a Scary Poppins. I like dense stuff. I’m not good at the in-between kind. It’s nice to give your heart and soul to something. It’s very jubilating.”

Is acting a job? “It’s definitely not a job. I love to have time to really dissect a character. I’m kind of a geek in that way…. Even the actors I’m friends with, they’re not actor actors. It’s such a narcissistic job. Ambition kind of disgusts me; it becomes quite scary in people.”

The idea of a female Bond: “I think Bond should remain a man. Of course you can have a movie about a female spy, but Bond has to be a man.”

[From The Edit]

“Ambition kind of disgusts me; it becomes quite scary in people…” Maybe I’m completely wrong, but I feel like that kind of sentiment is felt more often among French and British people. Like, “ambition” is a dirty word. Ambition means you think too highly of yourself and you need to be cut down. In America, ambition doesn’t have the same kind of overwhelmingly negative connotation. Also: “‘What are you wearing?’ is all [reporters] care about, rather than about your movie. It’s not very clever.” She knows she’s talking to an American fashion magazine, right?

Photos courtesy of The Edit.

Congratulations to Lacey Chabert and David Nehdar.

The Party of Five alum, 33, and her husband welcomed their first child – daughter Julia Mimi Bella Nehdar – on Thursday, Sept. 1., she announced via Instagram.

“And then my soul saw you and it kind of went, ‘Oh, there you are. I’ve been looking for you.’” #TBT to the best day of my life. One week ago I became a mom to this precious angel. Julia Mimi Bella,” announced the proud new mom. “Julia, you are my heart’s deepest dream come true. I love you more than I could ever say. Welcome to this big beautiful world sweet girl!”

In August, the Mean Girls star shared a shot of her burgeoning baby bump.

“#47weekspregnant OK not really, but seriously, for real…am I going to be pregnant forever? Is this a thing that happens to some women?? This last week and a half or so is no joke! #pleasecomesoonlittlelady #readytopop,” she captioned the mirror selfie.

And in May, the actress radiated the red carpet in a black maternity dress at a charity event in Beverly Hills.

Congratulations to the Chabert-Nehdar family!

“And then my soul saw you and it kind of went, ‘Oh, there you are. I’ve been looking for you.’” #TBT to the best day of my life. One week ago I became a mom to this precious angel. Julia Mimi Bella Julia, you are my heart’s deepest dream come true. I love you more than I could ever say. Welcome to this big beautiful world sweet girl!

A photo posted by Lacey Chabert (@thereallacey) on Sep 8, 2016 at 1:33pm PDT

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As we discussed previously, Kanye West’s NYFW show was an utter mess. It was a disaster. Fashion writers, journalists, models, friends, everybody had to wait for hours. People got stuck on buses. Models passed out from the heat and humidity. The clothes were falling off, the heels were breaking, and very few people were happy about it. While Kanye has big ideas and somehow he manages to execute them, most of the time, Kanye does have issues with getting his big ideas to translate into something workable, commercial and/or considerate of coworkers’ well-being. In the wake of Kanye’s NYFW disaster, Kanye is feeling burned. Burned by his sisters-in-law who didn’t show up!

Kanye West has a bone to pick with a few members of wife Kim Kardashian West’s famous family. In the wake of mixed reviews for Wednesday’s Yeezy Season 4 fashion show on New York City’s Roosevelt island, a source tells PEOPLE the rapper–turned–designer is taking issue that he didn’t feel the support of his sisters- and mother-in-law. Though Kanye, 39, and Kim, 35, welcomed the Keeping Up with the Kardashians star’s youngest sisters, 20-year-old Kendall Jenner and 19-year-old Kylie Jenner, the source says, “Both Kim and Kanye would have wanted the rest of her family in N.Y.C., too.”

Almost seven months after a near-complete family turnout at February’s Yeezy Season 3 presentation, the source shares that “it was a big disappointment to Kanye that Kris, Kourtney and Khloé didn’t attend his fashion show.”

The frustration could stem from an unusually high level of stress in preparation for this week’s event: “Kanye has been very stressed about his fashion show,” says the source. “He is a perfectionist and was a nightmare before the show.”

And he wasn’t the only one feeling the pressure as the source notes that “Kim has definitely been annoyed. She is hoping that he will calm down now after the fashion show is over.”

[From People]

“Kim has definitely been annoyed. She is hoping that he will calm down now after the fashion show is over.” Ooooooh, that’s interesting. It’s true that the entire Kardashian-Jenner clan came out for his spring show. Khloe is currently on vacation, I think, and lord knows what Lucifer’s Homegirl is doing. And who ever says, “Man, I wish Kourtney was here?”

Meanwhile, if you have five minutes today, I would definitely encourage you to read Page Six’s interview with Vanessa Beecroft. Beecroft is a performance artist and Kanye’s friend. Beecroft and Kanye collaborated on the Yeezy NYFW show. The piece just confirms, for me, why the show was a disaster: because Beecroft is even crazier than Kanye. Beecroft insists that having fashion people wait for hours was all part of the master plan, because it was all performance art, meditation, observation and emotional stress.

Here’s Kim modeling some Yeezy boots. Yes, he made boots made of clear plastic.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

Congratulations are in order for Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied.

The Academy Award-winning actress, 35, and her French choreographer husband, 39, are expecting their second child. The actress debuted her growing baby bump in a white Valentino gown at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday (September 8).

The Oscar winner surprised fans while promoting her new film Planetarium, which she costars in alongside Lily-Rose Depp.

Millepied and Portman – who were wed in California in 2012 – are already parents to 5-year-old son Aleph.

Portman also currently stars as former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in the upcoming biopic Jackie.

Congratulations to them!

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In case you were wondering what Angelina Jolie was up to this week, she was in London to attend the UN Peacekeeping Defence Ministerial. She attended the conference alongside UK defence Secretary Michael Fallon and American SecDef Ash Carter (she greeted both men like old friends). Angelina’s appearance at the conference was described as a “surprise” but she also gave a speech, so I think she probably was always scheduled to attend.

As for the speech, Angelina first honored the work and sacrifices made by UN Peacekeepers, but she also called for changes to be made to the business-as-usual of peacekeeping missions. She pointed out that peacekeeping missions around the world need more female employees from top to bottom, and perhaps the inclusion of more women in the bureaucracy of the UN will lead to more comprehensive changes in how peacekeepers behave while on the ground in a crisis. She specifically called out the UN’s missions, credibility and reputation were “sadly undermined by the actions of a few intolerable cases of women and children being sexually exploited by the very people in charge of protecting them.” Jolie asked for a new approach by UN missions with “the rights and protection and involvement of women at its heart… Peacekeeping forces can only gain and keep the trust of local populations if they are able to engage with women as well as men in that community.” You can read more about the conference here.

Here’s a clip from Jolie’s speech:

God, I just love her. She’s such a badass. She’s up there talking to a room full of seasoned diplomats and military-defense people and they are all listening to what she is saying.

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Photos courtesy of Getty.

Star claims that Jennifer Garner caught her estranged husband, Ben Affleck, texting with his ex girlfriend, Jennifer Lopez. This story could be more Star fan fiction, but it sounds likely enough to me. Lopez has made it clear that she thinks Ben is goofy, but she also just got out of relationship with Casper Smart and look at that guy. Plus she showed up on stage at her ex husband, Marc Anthony’s, recent concert. I wouldn’t put this past her. Affleck has admitted that he still emails with Lopez, although he’s also blamed her multiple times for her career downturn, as have his friends. So would they start texting each other again now that Lopez is single? I think it’s possible.

“Ben’s been back in touch with his ex-fiancee, Jennifer Lopez,” the source tells Star. “Jen couldn’t believe that Ben would contact J.Lo – it really sent her into a tailspin.”

“They were having a blast [on Ben’s birthday in Montana, but Ben kept slipping away to check his phone – and Jen eventually began to wonder who it was he felt compelled to contact so often.”

What she ultimately saw when she finally found a moment to check his phone shocked and horrified her. According to the source, Ben had been having a text-fest with J.Lo, 47, who recently split from her longtime boyfriend, backup dancer Casper Smart, 29….

Though the texts were innocent, with Ben lending support to J.Lo through her romantic problems, the source claims [sic]. Yet Jen couldn’t help but feel betrayed. “Everyone thought she and Ben were on the road to reconciliation. But his reaching out to J.Lo made her question what’s really going through Ben’s mind, not to mention his heart.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition]

That source sure speaks in flowery language. GossipCop has a denial from “a reliable source close to the situation” who says there is “no truth” to this report and that “Affleck and Garner are still separated and not on the verge of reconciling their marriage, despite still being on good terms and successful co-parents.” Yes that sounds like the typical quote from a Garner-Affleck source. Even if Affleck and Lopez are texting again, and that’s doubtful, they would probably get bored with each other soon enough. Affleck likes young starry-eyed women who hang on his every slurred word, and Lopez probably seeks a similar dynamic in her relationships. They’re not looking to rekindle whatever they had.

Now that this story is out, watch for another press update on the state of Ben and Jen’s conscious uncoupling.

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Ben Affleck is shown out with his kids on 9-4. Jennifer Garner is shown out yesterday, 9-8, in both casual and workout gear, and at the Telluride Film Festival on 9-4. She’s wearing heels! Credit: WENN, Getty and FameFlynet

Jude Law covers the October issue of Esquire UK. He’s promoting the TV miniseries The Young Pope, the film in which he plays a very orange “young pope.” The series is said to be pretty good, for what it’s worth, and the early reviews say Jude does an excellent job. Jude still works consistently in a variety of projects, and it’s interesting to see him turn to TV in such a big way. As for his life… well, he hasn’t gotten anyone pregnant in a while. His ex-girlfriend Catherine Harding welcomed his last child (that we know of) last year, and since then, Jude has been quietly dating a woman named Phillipa Coan. But that’s not what he talks about in this Esquire piece, which is a surprisingly good read. Jude ends up talking about Ruper Murdoch, the British tabloid press, fame, being hacked for years, and more. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:

How the press turned on him circa 2003: “First it got crazy and then it got nasty.” He doesn’t know why, exactly. “Certainly it’s not some Bond villain sat somewhere going, ‘When shall I go to Phase Two?’ That’s not happening. I think things changed because of my divorce. It’s almost like, ‘There’s a chink in his armour! Now we want to know the dirt.’ I do remember feeling slightly beaten down by it. By the constant presence of [paparazzi] outside my house. And the interaction with these people you don’t want in your life. They’re trying to be chatty and friendly and you just want to punch them in the face. Don’t be chatty. Don’t give me, ‘Good morning, mate.’ Just because you’ve been sitting outside my house for four months doesn’t mean we’re mates.”

He still wonders about why he was singled out for so much tabloid attention: “I think I put people’s backs up a little bit. I don’t know why that is, but I feel like I do. I felt like [the newspapers] were waiting to put the boot in. And when they did, they did it with glee. I really don’t know, though. It might also be — and I say this with absolute seriousness — it might also be my own paranoia.”

He didn’t appear before the Leveson Inquiry. “I took that decision very seriously. There were a number of reasons. It seemed to me that they already had a lot of people from my industry who’d suffered for the same reasons as me and did they really need another one? Second, after the court cases I’d just had enough. I also felt that I would be recounting stories that they had already written, only for them to then rewrite them.” This did indeed happen: the Leveson Inquiry and the criminal trials allowed the papers to report again the personal details of the hacking victims’ lives. “It’s like the echo, you know: ‘He had an affair;’ ‘He had an affair;’ ‘He had an affair!’ It’s like, ‘F–king hell, I thought I’d put that to bed.’ And then it comes back and hits you again.”

‘The Young Pope’ airs on a network owned by Rupert Murdoch, whose papers hacked Law: “Yeah, I know, it’s a funny one. I have to be a bit careful here. First of all, when I took the job, I don’t think [Sky] had bought [the show]. When I heard they had, I thought, ‘Well, in my opinion he’s supporting something great here.’ Do I have an issue with the other areas of [the Murdoch empire]? Well, yeah, I do. But what’s your question? ‘Does that sit uncomfortably with me?’” Yes; did it give you pause? “No, I wanted to work with Paolo. I liked the piece.”

Whether working with the Murdoch empire makes him hypocritical: “Yeah, maybe. Maybe. Jesus. I’m trying to think of who I can work for that I haven’t had problems with. F–king everybody… You know what? I don’t feel like it necessarily erodes my moral stance on the way another area of [Murdoch’s] empire treated me. I think I had a right to complain, I got an apology, I got a payout. I bet Private Eye probably would call me a hypocrite. But in answer to your question: no, it didn’t really give me pause. Anyway, if I turn down the role in The Young Pope, I don’t think that Rupert Murdoch’s going to suddenly feel slighted.” No, I say, he would have found another actor instead. “And he’d probably have hacked them as well.”

[From Esquire UK]

The Esquire journalist and Jude do get specific at one point, and Jude admits that if it was just a matter of the tabloids reporting the actual shady stuff he had done, like have an affair with the nanny, that would be one thing, and he would have just dealt with it quietly. But he says that the media/tabloid presence in his life was just constant, nasty and overwhelming for several years. My thought – and maybe this is very unfair – is that “the shift” came because of Sienna Miller. Because Sienna was, at that place in time, a total famewhore and she adored being the It Girl with the hot movie star. Of course that doesn’t justify the completely crazy way the tabloids treated Jude, but Jude’s girlfriend at the time was very much playing the game, even if he wasn’t.

Photos courtesy of Esquire UK.

From what I remember, we didn’t cover every little detail of the Amanda Knox saga, but I did end up doing a fair amount of coverage about Knox when all of the legal/trial shenanigans started happening in 2011 – you can see our archives here. In 2007, Knox, then an American college student studying abroad in Peruga, Italy, returned to her shared living quarters and learned that her roommate, a British student named Meredith Kercher, had been murdered. Knox and her boyfriend of a few weeks, Raffaele Sollecito, were accused of murdering Kercher. They were tried and convicted. Knox spent years in jail, awaiting retrial, and then her conviction was overturned in 2011 and she finally returned home to Washington state.

The case was an international media sensation, and lurid “details” were thrown around in the press for years. Knox ended up writing a memoir and doing an interview circuit, although I think the book and the interviews were just a way for her to pay for her extensive legal bills. Knox maintained her innocence, although there were times when I understood why the Italian authorities focused their investigation on Knox: in several interviews, she came across as cold and secretive. Keep that in mind, because Knox agreed to sit down for a series of interviews for a Netflix documentary about her life and the trial. Netflix is premiering the documentary today at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), and Netflix released two trailers for the film. One trailer is about her innocence, one is about her (perceived) guilt.

The Hollywood Reporter did a story about the documentary filmmakers, Rod Blackhurst and Brian McGinn, who began their journey in 2011, shortly after Knox’s conviction was overturned. Knox wasn’t the only one who agreed to an interview – as you can see, they also interviewed reporters following the case, the Italian prosecutor Giluliano Mignini and Knox’s Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito. It doesn’t seem like anyone from Meredith Kercher’s family was interviewed… which is their choice, of course, but I would have more faith in the documentary if there was a bigger range of interviews. The documentary will be available on September 30th on Netflix. Will you watch it? Hm.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

I only follow gossip about a handful of country music people: Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood and…? Yeah, that’s about it. I don’t mind looking at photos of Luke Bryan, mostly because I’m not paying attention to his personality. So while I know that the name “Jason Aldean” is important in bro-country, I really don’t know much about him. Aldean has an interview in the latest issue of Billboard, and I don’t know what it is with Billboard lately, but this is the second major story with a country music bro where the bro sounds like a total Donald Trump supporter. The first Billboard profile was Blake Shelton’s, but Aldean’s might be worse.

First, some backstory: last November, social media photos began to creep out of various celebrities’ Halloween costumes. Aldean, it seems, had decided to “dress up” as Lil Wayne. Complete with blackface. Because… we can never have too much blackface in 2015, right? Aldean was widely criticized for it when the photos came out, and Billboard asked him about it in their story. Here’s some more backstory: Aldean was caught cheating on his then-wife Jessica Ussery in 2012. Ussery was his high school sweetheart and mother of his two kids. Aldean then married his mistress, American Idol contestant Brittany Kerr, last year. Kerr’s name comes up in this piece. You can read the full Billboard piece here. Some highlights:

On the label “bro country”: “It’s a f—ing ridiculous term. It’s incredibly insulting to me. It’s meant to describe guys whose songs are all about pickup trucks, drinking beer and girls. It’s meant to talk down to us — me, Luke Bryan, Florida Georgia Line, all of us. They haven’t bothered to listen to the body of work I’ve recorded over the years. At least take time to do your homework.”

How he ended up dressed up as Lil Wayne: He found the costume in a store and Kerr, a makeup artist, painted his face so he could go unrecognized in public. “In this day and age people are so sensitive that no matter what you do, somebody is going to make a big deal out of it. Me doing that had zero malicious intent … I get that race is a touchy subject, but not everybody is that way. Media tends to make a big deal out of things. If that was disrespectful to anyone, I by all means apologize. That was never my intention. It never crossed my mind.”

He’s an investor in Jay-Z’s Tidal & against streaming: “This isn’t about me making more money. It’s about wanting to stand up for not only myself but for an entire genre of music and an entire town — Nashville. It’s about the writers, publishers, producers, everybody who’s getting the short end of the stick on this deal.”

[From Billboard]

What world do people live in where they can say “people are so sensitive” when those people are literally upset that an adult white man in the South thinks it’s appropriate to “wear blackface” as a Halloween costume? Say what you will about Julianne Hough, but when she got caught up in the exact same kind of controversy (wearing blackface for Halloween) she had the decency to be ashamed about it and admit that she was ignorant and dumb. Also: “I get that race is a touchy subject, but not everybody is that way.” Race is a touchy subject… for everybody but white country bros whining about political correctness.

Jason Aldean doesn’t see the big deal about dressing up as Lil Wayne in blackface https://t.co/gGyNuZHRGt pic.twitter.com/8zevCitNK8

— SPIN (@SPINmagazine) September 9, 2016

Photos courtesy of Billboard, WENN.

What do we know for sure about Taylor Swift? That she’s a Snake Emoji obsessed with getting the “last word” on her relationships. So while the Tiddlesplit aftermath has been mixed, both good and bad for Taylor, you can bet your bolt-ons that this week is nowhere near the last word. Taylor is keeping a Sh-t List and that mother is LONG. So many blind item songs. It’s going to be epic. But what’s interesting is that Tom Hiddleston is the second ex-boyfriend in a row, after Calvin Harris, who isn’t going away in a sulk and letting Tay-Tay dictate the narrative. Tom has a hardworking publicist named Luke Windsor, and Windsor’s name was invoked in Ephraim Hardcastle’s latest column:

After parting from his so-called girlfriend Taylor Swift, 26, Etonian actor Tom Hiddleston, 35, has also fallen behind rival thespians vying for the role of James Bond. Bookies have reduced Hiddleston’s prospects of succeeding the current 007, Daniel Craig, after Craig was reportedly offered more than £100million to do two more films. Might the Hiddleston-Swift romance be the creation of public relations types? I am advised that Tom can still rely on the support of Luke Windsor, 32, described to me as his ‘friend, publicist and nanny’.

[From The Daily Mail]

The idea that Tom’s publicist is a nanny figure for him does not surprise me in the least. Tom is his own worst enemy from what I’ve seen, and he desperately needs someone around him at all times saying, “stop being so extra” and “don’t dance” and “don’t recite sonnets to swans” and “don’t get involved with Taylor Swift, it will blow up in your face.” But Luke Windsor has earned his paycheck this week, because there is a lot of pushback on the Team Swift-driven narrative, and of course Team Swift is pushing back on Team Draganfly’s pushback. Some highlights:

Gossip Cop finally denies the proposal story. Us Weekly had been saying for a month that Tom was thinking about proposing, and that story was brought up again in Us Weekly’s breakup-cover story this week. The idea was that just a few weeks ago, a wedding and Tiddlebabies were on the table and what went wrong? But Gossip Cop spoke to “a source close to the actor” who insisted that Tom “had no desire to get engaged so soon. We’re told the publication’s assertion about Hiddleston ring shopping and wanting to rush to the altar is simply ‘trash.’”

Tom is a gym-rat? The Sun claimed when Tom visited Taylor in Rhode Island the last time (three weeks ago) that the trip “turned sour due to his obsessive fitness regime.”

Taylor doesn’t care about Tom’s PR. This is sort of a funny “shots fired!” internal-tabloid moment. An unnamed “pal” of Taylor’s told The Sun: “Taylor knows what went on with Tom and won’t be affected by his team’s claims. It’s all water under the bridge as she’s concerned.” Oh, Snake Emoji is salty when the PR war is fought on her level, right?

E! News says Taylor is fine. An “insider” tells E! that “She is doing OK. Tom and her at times were on two different pages. It was a very emotion-filled time [they] spent together. It was a very fast and heavy relationship.” Allegedly, they “ended on amicable terms and even communicated with one another this week.” They decided to be “friends.” Sure.

Last thing: Tom can pap stroll too, Snake Emoji!

Think Taylor Swift’s GNO signals she’s moved on? We raise you smiling Tom Hiddleston. https://t.co/ZQVnSqZAkF pic.twitter.com/4SOjkW46N5

— E! News (@enews) September 8, 2016

Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News, Fame/Flynet.