Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, as we know, have been relentlessly targeted by the UK tabloids, and they’ve been pushing back. They’ve sued the Sun and the Daily Mail and they spoke to Oprah during the Television Event of the Year about the British royals’ fear of the tabloid press and alluded to th…

Kim Kardashian agreed to an interview with the Good Morning Vogue series, and I’m including the video at the end of the post. I mean, love it or hate it but Vogue takes Kim Kardashian seriously. They interview her the same way they’d interview an actress or a socialite. I actually enjoy the interview more because Jonathan Van Meter (the Vogue journalist conducting the GMV interview) takes her seriously and asks her substantive questions about Keeping Up with the Kardashians. It’s better than someone trying to make fun of Kim or act cooler than her or whatever. Kim chatted about a number of things, including KUWTK’s last season (airing right now), Martha Stwart, attending the Met Gala for the first time and her attitude during the pandemic. Some highlights:

Life returning to “normal” post-pandemic: “I think this year has been challenging for so many people but I also think that this year was a huge cleanse and just a huge opportunity for people to really be grateful for the simple things and that is a huge — I think awakening that some people had…. I always try to look at things in a positive way. Even though it has been such a challenging year, it’s a time to regenerate, get creative, spend so much time with family and just this time I’ve been able to spend with my children has been priceless. That part has been so beautiful.”

Celebrities love SKIMS, her shapewear line: “I’ll never forget. I’m obsessed with Martha Stewart. So I was walking in New York and I hear, ‘Kim! Kim!’ And I turn around and she’s like, ‘I just need SKIMS. I love it!’ I was like, anything for you! It was just such a proud moment that Martha Stewart wanted SKIMS.”

Wearing the floral Givenchy gown while pregnant at her first Met Gala: “When I went to my first Met Ball the theme was punk and I was like what is this? What am I gonna wear? I would have done anything to go so I was just to be happy to be dressed up,” the star, who famously wore a floral printed Givenchy gown and gloves while pregnant with daughter North, remembers. Givenchy’s then-creative director Riccardo Tisci told Kardashian to just embrace the grungy, punk mindset. “He was just like, ‘F–k it, you’re punk.’ Like, it is what it is. And I get that. As I’m I think more confident in myself, I get that more. I think punk is just an attitude of not giving a f–k. [It’s] not being not mindful of people and feelings — it doesn’t mean you’re a total a–hole. It just means that you live your life your way and beat to your own drum. Hopefully, that inspires people to want to do that for themselves.”

[From Page Six and People]

Yeah, the floral Givenchy was not punk. It’s fine because it was years ago and people don’t actually care anymore, but it wasn’t punk. Riccardo Tisci kind of screwed her over on that one. As for her humble-bragging about SKIMS… I’ve said it before, but she finally found a niche market in which she’s flourished. I mean, shapewear isn’t really “niche” but Kim has tried so many different things, it sometimes feels like she fell backwards into a massively successful business completely at random. I keep hearing that SKIMS is a good-quality line though, for whatever that’s worth.

Photos courtesy of Kim’s IG, Avalon Red, Vogue.

The American political media is bored, can you tell? They actually *miss* that terrible orange monster and they’re scared that the Biden Administration’s “return to competence” will make them lose ratings and subscribers. For the past week or so, reporters have been trying to make “Biden needs to do a press conference” into a big story and it’s just like… is that all you’ve got? I don’t need to see Biden do a press conference. I feel like he’s at his best when he can take his time and answer questions, usually one on one. Which is why the White House got him to do a sit-down interview with George Stephanopoulos for Nightline/ABC News. It was a wide-ranging interview about foreign policy, the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, Russian interference in the 2016 & 2020 elections, vaccines and Major Biden being a good boy. Some highlights:

Getting the politics out of vaccinations: “I honest to God thought we had it out. I honest to God thought that, once we guaranteed we had enough vaccine for everybody, things would start to calm down. Well, they have calmed down a great deal. But I don’t quite understand – you know – I just don’t understand this sort of macho thing about, ‘I’m not gonna get the vaccine. I have a right as an American, my freedom to not do it.’ Well, why don’t you be a patriot? Protect other people.”

On Russia’s election interference & Vlad Putin: “He will pay a price. We had a long talk, he and I, when we — I know him relatively well. And the conversation started off, I said, ‘I know you and you know me. If I establish this occurred, then be prepared.”

When asked “So you know Vladimir Putin. You think he’s a killer?”: “Mmm hmm, I do,” Biden replied. While the president said “you’ll see” that Putin is “going to pay,” he did not elaborate.

Whether Major Biden will be back at the White House: “The answer’s yes. Look, Major was a rescue pup. Major did not bite someone and penetrate the skin. What happens is for– th– I guess what surprised me is the White House itself, living there. Every door you turn to, there’s a guy there in a black jacket…. You turn a corner, and there’s two people you don’t know at all. And he moves to protect. But he’s a sweet dog. Eighty-five percent of the people there love him. He just– all he does is lick them and wag his tail.” Biden said “the dog’s being trained now” in Delaware and that he planned to see him later that night when he stayed in Delaware. “He was going home. I didn’t banish him to home. Jill was gonna be away for four days. I was gonna be away for two so we took him home.”

[From ABC News]

JUSTICE 4 MAJOR. He’s a good dog who was just looking out for Handsome Joe!! He got startled by a Secret Service agent and he said PROTEC. Anyway, the Major Biden update, while welcome, was not the part of the interview which got the most attention. It was Biden calling Vladimir Putin a killer, something that Jen Psaki did not walk back in the press room. So someone asked Putin about it and said: “I remember in my childhood, when we argued in the courtyard, we used to say: it takes one to know one. That’s not … just a children’s saying or joke. We always see our own traits in other people and think they are like how we really are.” He also wished Biden “good health,” which absolutely means that Putin has already sent people to poison Biden with Polonium.

Vladimir Putin has responded to US President Joe Biden’s accusation that he is a “killer” – by saying “it takes one to know one”.

The Russian president said he wishes Biden “good health”.

More videos here: https://t.co/9In6Tp1s5a pic.twitter.com/r1QwEAzb6L

— Sky News (@SkyNews) March 18, 2021

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Photos courtesy of Getty, Avalon Red, Backgrid.

I couldn’t click on this Variety story fast enough: “British Media Caught by Surprise as U.S. Outlets Continue to Break Meghan and Harry News.” Hehehehehe. As an American covering the royal beat, I have to say, the Duchess of Sussex’s entire journey on Salty White Folk Isle was really eye-opening for me. Before Meghan, I never really understood the deep well of anti-Americanism in the British press, aristocracy and establishment. I never understood how the British media and establishment is decades behind the US in understanding and identifying racism and bigotry and institutional white privilege. I never understood that the British media feels like their royal family is “theirs” to abuse and torment. The British media has been irritated this entire time that Meghan specifically has allies in the American media because of all of that, because they can’t control her and “own” her. So let’s check out what Variety has to say.

In one week, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s nuclear CBS interview with Oprah Winfrey became a global television event that toppled incendiary presenter Piers Morgan from “Good Morning Britain” and now leaves a sizeable question mark over Sharon Osbourne’s future as a co-host at “The Talk.” But it’s the war of words being played out across the Atlantic that has prompted extensive pearl-clutching from British royal watchers puzzled by U.S. outlets controlling the narrative about the British royal family.

In the latest jaw-dropping development, Gayle King, a co-host on “CBS This Morning” and Winfrey’s BFF, revealed on March 16 that Prince Harry has been in touch with his father, Prince Charles, and brother, Prince William. “The word I was given was that those conversations were not productive,” King declared live on TV. “No one in the royal family has talked to Meghan yet.”

To see a major update on private family conversations revealed by an American broadcaster rather than the British press is unprecedented, says royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams. “If you’d told me, I wouldn’t have believed it,” a flabbergasted Fitzwilliams tells Variety. “This is one of the royal family’s worst nightmares.”

Katie Nicholl, royal editor for Vanity Fair and the author of “Harry and Meghan: Life, Loss and Love,” says she was “really shocked” to see the couple “using Gayle King as their mouthpiece, not least because we heard so much from them previously that we didn’t expect there to be a running commentary from their friends in the media.”

Buckingham Palace is likely “very worried” but, notably, is in uncharted territory and “won’t know how to respond,” Fitzwilliams says. “It’s not possible to know how on earth you can have a conversation with Harry and then have Gayle King report it.”

Indeed, there’s a wariness among British media about Markle and Prince Harry’s revelations in their interview with Winfrey. U.K. outlets have focused efforts largely on debunking points made by the couple regarding their son Archie’s eligibility for a title, rather than interrogating racism within the royal family or a lack of mental health support for Markle.

Nicholl argues that the couple has received their share of “sympathy” from the public — particularly among younger generations — but that British media are less willing “to just accept everything the couple have said because they’re probably more aware than any other section of the media that there are two sides to this story. We’ve heard Meghan and Harry’s side, but there is another side as well,” says Nicholl.

Asked whether British press are rankled by royal news originating from the U.S., the commentator insists it “doesn’t make a difference.”

“Whether it was the U.S. or any other outlet, they’re continuing to feed the narrative. It’s got the world talking and selling newspapers, so from a journalist’s perspective, why would you want to cut that off?” says the commentator.

“But from the other perspective, here is a family trying to heal a very serious rift,” notes Nicholl. “It does seem a very unusual strategy [by Harry and Meghan].”

Chris Ship, royal correspondent for broadcaster ITV, which aired the program in the U.K., tells Variety that the impact at home is “slightly bigger” than even Princess Diana’s landmark interview with the BBC’s “Panorama” program in 1995. “What Harry and Meghan have done has really damaged the royal family’s reputation in the U.S.,” Ship says. “You have to think: How long does that international reputation for the royal family last?”

[From Variety]

Super-shady (and accurate) by Variety: “U.K. outlets have focused efforts largely on debunking points made by the couple regarding their son Archie’s eligibility for a title, rather than interrogating racism within the royal family or a lack of mental health support for Markle.” The British press is trying to whine and nitpick this or that detail of Meghan and Harry’s interview instead of, you know, actually examining whether the broad strokes are right, whether there was a vile, racist hate campaign against Meghan which everyone in the British media was actively participating in, largely at the behest of the Windsors. That’s what’s bothering the British media more than anything else – that their actions and their history of misogyny and racism are suddenly under the microscope too. They’re also worried that their arrangements with the Windsors are about to be massively exposed.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

With The Falcon and the Winter Soldier dropping on Disney+ today—review of episode one coming Monday—the Marvel machine now turns to promoting Loki, which will premiere on June 11. That seems a long way away, but the marketing department must be bored since they are holding off on promoting Black Wi…

I passionately loathe Piers Morgan and I can’t stand writing about him or giving him any air. Piers Morgan is a narcissist, a famewhore, a bully, a misogynist, a stalker and a toxic abuser. We’re not debating any of that – he openly heaped verbal abuse on the Duchess of Sussex for years, on air, in front of millions of viewers every day on Good Morning Britain. He felt so entitled to Meghan that he ripped her to shreds on a daily basis because she refused to pay attention to him. He is toxic white male aggrievement personified, and he has a stupid face to boot.

Piers has still been in the news constantly since he had some kind of thin-skinned meltdown on GMB following the Sussexes’ interview. Within a day, he was fired/allowed to resign from GMB and it turned out that there were thousands of complaints about him, yet Meghan got the blame/credit for ending his GMB career. He’s spent his post-GMB time throwing Twitter tantrums about everything under the sun, from cancel culture to racism to Gayle King:

Piers Morgan has ripped fellow TV host Gayle King for acting as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s “PR mouthpiece” after she dished about the couple’s latest gripes over their split from the royal family.

“Hi @GayleKing — rather than acting as your Sussex friends’ PR mouthpiece to facilitate their ongoing public trashing of our Royal Family, how about doing your job as a journalist and ask them about all the lies they told in @Oprah’s interview?” Morgan tweeted the CBS host Wednesday. “America should hear THE truth,” he insisted.

Morgan’s ongoing insistence that the duchess lied during her bombshell Oprah interview ultimately led to the 55-year-old former tabloid editor quitting as host of the TV show “Good Morning Britain” — following a formal complaint from Markle. Morgan, meanwhile, insisted Wednesday that it was not “‘racist’ to disbelieve someone who’s telling lies.” He added, “You don’t have to agree with a word I say to support my right to have my own opinions.”

[From Page Six]

“It’s not ‘racist’ to disbelieve someone who’s telling lies” says the toxic white man who publicly stalked and harassed a Black woman and then accused that same woman of lying about the racism she experienced. Might I suggest that it is pretty f–king racist? Anyway, a pig is a pig and the whole reason I decided to even talk about this deplorable douchebag is because he will probably find himself employed again sooner rather than later. As much as we wanted to declare victory that we had successfully pushed Piers out of his GMB post, racist white misogynists always land on their feet. In the UK media, that is.

Piers Morgan has always divided TV audiences, but he gained new notoriety this month after taking on the Duchess of Sussex. With two combative UK media outlets about to launch, that could help him land his next job.

Two new UK media ventures — former BBC host Andrew Neil’s GB News and Rupert Murdoch’s News UK TV — are preparing to launch. They’re expected to replicate the contentious and personality-driven political discussions that dominate US cable and talk radio, but are largely absent from British television. And Morgan, a high-profile and outspoken critic of “woke” culture, would be a natural fit.

“He’s certainly someone who generates publicity,” said Patrick Barwise, co-author of the book “The War Against the BBC” and emeritus professor of management and marketing at London Business School. “He would fit that model very well.”

In a recent interview on the BBC, Neil said that Morgan “would be a huge asset to GB News,” and that he’d be “delighted” to talk with him if he’s interested. “Could we find a role for Piers Morgan? Of course we could,” said Neil, who is the network’s founding chairman. “Any network worth its salt could find a role for a broadcaster of his caliber.”

Murdoch’s News UK TV declined to comment on whether it had made the former tabloid newspaper editor an offer. Morgan is fanning gossip about his next move, which includes speculation that he could land in the United States. When The Sun tabloid ran a story with the headline that Morgan was at the center of a £10 million ($13.9 million) bidding war, he tweeted: “Just 10?”

“There is a lot of interest in securing my services,” he told CNN Business, while declining to comment on specific offers.

[From CNN]

So, basically, two new cable news channels are launching in the UK and both want a “legacy” name to help draw attention to their launches and Piers is just the kind of sniveling, whiny, reprehensible, spineless a–hole they’re looking for. I assume both networks will be modeled after Fox News and feature a lot of white men being disgusting about trumped-out “culture wars.” Ugh.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Selma Blair is the kind of exhilaratingly self-aware performer who will cartwheel weeks after a stem cell transplant, then curl up into a ball and laugh about how she wanted to stick the landing, only to lie on the floor dormant before saying, “I’m trying to look dead for a dramatic ending.” These p…

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For all you can say about The Golden Globes, and there is a lot, they had the great idea to create virtual nominee rooms that the at-home audience could watch. They didn’t have the good sense to cut the filler, which was even less entertaining than usual, but they used technology to their advantage. The Emmys last fall with Jimmy Kimmel were not that bad, all things considered. They had a wall of monitors showing people at home and I loved the fact that for nominees living in LA they sent actual people in space suits with boxes to their homes. Nominees who lived out of town got just the boxes to open, which contained a confetti bomb along with a statue for winners. This pandemic is leading awards show to come up with creative ways to use technology to adapt. Only the Oscars are not going to bother to use technology much at all. We’ve already heard that they will only allow nominees plus one guest at the show. The organizers recently sent out an email to nominees saying they’re not going to accommodate anyone zooming in from home. Their reasoning is that “the virtual thing will diminish” everything they’re doing to let people attend in person. How f’cking old and privileged are the organizers? That was meant to be a rhetorical question, but I’ll check. Steven Soderbergh, 58, Stacey Sher, 58, and Jesse Collins, 59, are the show’s producers who sent out that email.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released new details of the upcoming 2021 Oscars ceremony — including a request for all nominees to attend in person.

In a letter sent out to Oscar nominees on Thursday, producers for April’s award show revealed those nominated will not have the option to Zoom into the live show.

“For those of you unable to attend because of scheduling or continued uneasiness about traveling, we want you to know there will not be an option to Zoom in for the show,” producers Steven Soderbergh, Stacey Sher and Jesse Collins wrote.

The letter continued, “We are going to great lengths to provide a safe and ENJOYABLE evening for all of you in person, as well as for all the millions of film fans around the world, and we feel the virtual thing will diminish those efforts.”

For those unable to attend, the Academy will accept the Oscar on behalf of the artist.

The Academy’s COVID protocol for the live show takes its roots in “treating the event as an active movie set, with specially designed testing cadences to ensure up-to-the-minute results, including an on-site COVID safety team with PCR testing capability.”

The show’s theme was also revealed as “Stories Matter,” with the producers asking talent to take part in interviews where they’ll share their own personal stories. The idea is to connect each person’s story on the Sunday, April 25th award show.

Dress code was also touched on, with producers telling nominees to avoid “casual” attire.

“We’re aiming for a fusion of Inspirational and Aspirational, which in actual words means formal is totally cool if you want to go there, but casual is really not,” the letter said.

[From People]

This is so short-sighted, stubborn and so far behind the times. I get that they’re The Oscars and they want to maintain an air of exclusivity, but this is not it. Testing cannot take the place of masking, social distancing and just staying home. Yes Hollywood is continuing to work but they’re doing it in safe countries like Australia. In the US there are still outbreaks on sets. While the recent Grammys attendees wore masks, they did not have masks on the red carpet. Yes a lot of people have been vaccinated, but vaccines are still hard to come by in California and in some of the countries the nominees come from. Plus many of them will have to travel to get there! Also, how sh-tty does this letter sound? They’re adopting an air of faux youthfulness – “formal is totally cool if you want to go there” – while clinging to an old outdated format for the show. You know it will still be three plus hours too. I was really looking forward to seeing some pets and kids, but The Oscars are going to be interminable as usual.

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Emily! Happy Birthday! I had to laugh about how your “fangirling crush criteria” has changed over the last decade. You’ve gone from Twilight to The Untamed – excellent progression! As for your loyalty to Keanu Reeves… well… he’s the security blanket we all need, non?  There aren’t a lot of options f…

Dear Gossips,  Authorities have still not released the identities of all eight of the victims of the shooting that happened in Atlanta this week. They’ve said they have to make sure they can contact family members who don’t live in the United States before they can share the information to the publi…