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One of my favorite stories of the week is that Champ and Major Biden have arrived at the White House. The First Dogs were escorted to the White House on Sunday, and Dr. Jill Biden has already been showing them around to their new home. Major has posed prettily on the lawn, while Champ – the older dog – seems to want to just chill out wherever he is. I’m really looking forward to four years of Major and Champ content, aren’t you? We got some great content yesterday evening, when President Biden signed an executive order allowing transgender people to serve openly in combat. In the background of the pool reporters’ videos, you can hear Champ and Major barking. Such a happy sound!

President Biden’s dogs Champ and Major can be heard barking outside after Biden signs an executive order lifting a ban on transgender people serving in the military pic.twitter.com/O0Lur6amga

— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) January 25, 2021

The thing I would be concerned about with two German Shepherds is whether or not they’re possessive, or whether they’ll have a problem with people getting too close to their mom and dad. But I don’t think Champ and Major are like that? Again, Champ just seems like an older dog who wants to chill. Major seems like a ball of fur and chaos, but I doubt he’s going to cause problems. Well, problems beyond “barking in the middle of political events” and “being so rambunctious, he makes his dad slip and fall.” Anyway, First Puppy Coverage is something I’m really looking forward to, along with a return to political fashion coverage. I hope Vice President Harris gets a dog or cat too! And Dr. Jill still needs a cat!

Here’s live look at Champ and Major at the White House: pic.twitter.com/44Es0raVq2

— The Recount (@therecount) January 25, 2021

First dogs Major and Champ arrive at White House https://t.co/2hn2vTwNM9 pic.twitter.com/fKzKH8P5NU

— The Hill (@thehill) January 25, 2021

Photos courtesy of the White House, Backgrid.

Over the weekend you may have noticed a hashtag trending, #IStandWithKrystina, and wondered, “Is this some Star Wars sh-t?” The answer is yes, it is some Star Wars sh-t as the most infamous toxic fandom in the land reared its ugly head once again, this time coming for actor, table-top gamer, and hos…

Most of us only became aware of Claudia Conway last year, during the pandemic. Claudia is 16 years old and like most kids that age, she lives on social media and she despises Donald Trump. It’s notable because Claudia’s mother is Kellyanne Conway, she of the “alternative facts” and Nazi propaganda. Claudia earned her credentials as something of a Tik Tok Mark Felt, meaning she used her social media to call out her mom and the Trump administration and to record her mom doing and saying terrible sh-t, including the time Kellyanne got the coronavirus, refused to wear a mask and infected her entire family, including Claudia.

Every few weeks or so, Claudia or Kellyanne trend on Twitter because Claudia has TikTok’d some new exposé of her mom being awful. Recently, Claudia posted a video of Kellyanne screaming at her and verbally abusing her, then gaslighting her about the abuse. I think Claudia has also gotten her mom on camera (sort of) hitting her or smacking her. But the screaming video was apparently a big deal in the Conway house, so Kellyanne decided to retaliate against her teenage daughter by…posting her daughter’s semi-nude photos. Imagine your mom posting revenge pr0n.

Kellyanne Conway, ex-counselor to disgraced former President Trump, allegedly posted a topless picture of her daughter Claudia, 16, on Twitter on Monday. Reached for comment, a Twitter rep told Variety the company’s teams are investigating the incident. Kellyanne Conway could not be reached for comment.

According to screen captures posted by users on social media, Kellyanne Conway’s account (@KellyannePolls) shared an image of her topless teenage daughter using Twitter’s recently launched Fleets feature, which deletes posts after a 24-hour period (similar to Instagram and Snapchat’s stories). The account deleted the Fleet but not before Twitter users documented it.

On TikTok, Claudia Conway on Monday posted videos confirming that the picture was authentic; those have since been deleted from her TikTok account but Twitter users reposted copies of the videos. In the videos, a visibly upset Claudia Conway speculated that her mother may have accidentally posted the image. “I’m assuming my mom took a picture of it to use against me one day and then somebody hacked her or something,” she said. “I’m literally at a loss for words. If you see it, report it.”

In one of the TikTok videos, Claudia Conway said that “nobody would ever have any photo like that, ever. So, Kellyanne, you’re going to f–king jail.”

Last week, Claudia posted a series of TikTok videos accusing her mother of physical and verbal abuse, according to reposts of the clips on Twitter.

[From Variety]

There are some videos going around but the thread and background – not to mention the substance – really confused me and I don’t know if Claudia genuinely called the cops on her mom or what was really happening. But it seems like Kellyanne really did post her teenage daughter’s nudes in retaliation and all hell broke loose online. How absolutely disgusting. Claudia has spoken before about how much she hates her mom in particular and how much she’d like to be emancipated from her parents. Now that she’s 16 – she turned 16 last October – I would think that there are more options for emancipation or simply going to stay with friends for a year or two.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Claudia’s social media.

On Sunday, the internet was treated to what would become its new obsession, the trailer for Godzilla Vs. Kong starring Alexander Skarsgård, Millie Brown, Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry and, of course, King Kong and Godzilla. Did you get a chance to check it out? Here it is:

Obviously, there is just so much to love here. I don’t watch many monster films, but I did watch Kong: Skull Island, because Tom Hiddleston can get me to watch just about anything. Above and beyond my Tom love, I really liked the film, so I appreciate that Kong looks to be a continuation of the complex character they introduced us to in that. I did not see Godzilla: King of the Monsters but reading a few articles is making me think maybe I should prior to seeing this film. The Godzilla vs Kong rivalry is almost as famous as the Giants vs. Dodgers (sorry, West Coast native). The lore has cropped up in mythology from cinema to comic books to cartoons. And I love when someone says, “Look, I want to take a giant lizard, and a giant ape, have them fight – probably in the ocean so we can blow up a boat – and I want it taken as serious as Shakespeare, okay?” and the response they get is, “Sure. But I’d like to add lasers.” That’s a good time right there.

Above the cast taking this dead seriously, this trailer just plain rocks! Godzilla is clearly a bad@$$. That first punch from Kong had me on my feet, not to mention when he throws Godzilla’s laser breath back down his throat! And then there’s the ominous question of, “Godzilla’s out there hurting people, what we don’t know is why?” why Zills? What’s wrong, boo – who hurt you? And then the whole mythical giant monster war. They showed us the players in the post credit scene of Skull Island, will we get to see them all in Kong Vs. Zills? This movie did not come to play. It has t a great cast, it has a ton of stuff getting blown up – in the ocean, in the air, on land. It has mythical wars with dinosaurs and dragon-like creatures and little girls taming beasts in luscious, verdant surroundings. Once Skarsgård takes off his shirt, it will collect all the medals.

As for the other questions you didn’t know you had, don’t worry, sleuths are already on it. Like the fact that Kong grew over 200 feet between Skull Island and I assume Tokyo. Turns out, he was just a teen in Skull Island and hit a growth spurt. And I guess the movie will fill in the time gap between Skull Island and when this film picks up. And how he ended up chained to that ship. So much to know. Here’s my concern: I fell madly in love with Kong after Skull Island (sorry Tom, we had a good run). If I go back and watch Godzilla: King of the Monsters, am I going to grow an affection for Zills? Will I become tortured watching my boys duke it out in the Pacific as those other idiots sit back and watch? I don’t know if I can handle double monster love.

Godzilla vs. Kong streams on HBO Max starting March 26, which just happens to be my son’s birthday. Who said 16 was too old for theme parties?

Twitter’s reaction to the trailer:

We might just be overthinking #Godzilla’s motives for this film…#GodzillaVsKong pic.twitter.com/4mFkUBux9U

— JCam7861 (@JCam7861) January 25, 2021

After watching a trailer of Godzilla vs Kong; pic.twitter.com/KK5eRRZae8

— Zamir Mohyedin (@zamirmohyedin) January 25, 2021

so, i’ve seen the trailer of #GodzillaVsKong and this is why i am convinced Kong would win against Godzilla pic.twitter.com/4Jz7B3v9Xx

— Delacroix ?? Patreon from 2$? (@delacroix911) January 25, 2021

Oi! Cut that out! #GodzillaVsKong pic.twitter.com/qf290vwkAa

— Mana | ?New? Monster Girlfriend comics @ gumroad!! (@Tsundernova) January 25, 2021

#GodzillaVsKong already looking real good pic.twitter.com/1pdhdIPwOO

— ? WITCH ? (@RedPandarama) January 25, 2021

Photo credit: Warner Bros, YouTube and Twitter

FKA Twigs sued Shia LaBeouf for sexual battery, assault and emotional distress about six weeks ago, in mid-December. Twigs dated Shia for about a year, and she is still dealing with the trauma from that relationship. I tend to believe her lawsuit was mostly about forcing Shia to face who he is and perhaps force him to get help. So far, all we’ve heard is that he is looking for a place which might help him, like a rehab for abusers, only nothing has really come of it. So the lawsuit goes on, and Twigs continues to tell her story. She spoke with Louis Theroux for his series, Grounded. The BBC had a breakdown of the discussion, and here are some highlights:

The honeymoon period before the abuse began: “[There is] an intense honeymoon period at the beginning, which is a signifier of how brilliant things can be. It sets the benchmark for if you behave well. And if you fulfil all of the requirements and meet the rules, and all these things of the abuser, it can… be great.”

After the honeymoon period, Shia began to exert control over her: “The grooming, the pushing of your emotional and spiritual boundaries.” She says Shia would become jealous if she spoke to anyone else, “Being nice to a waiter, or being polite to somebody, that could be seen as me flirting or wanting to engage in some sort of relationship with somebody else, when I’m literally just ordering pasta… I was told that I knew what he was like and if I loved him, I wouldn’t look men in the eye. That was my reality for a good four months.”

Shia counted the number of kisses she gave him: “I had a quota I had to meet, that would change. It was like touches or looks or kisses… His previous partner apparently met this number very well, so I was inadequate compared to a previous partner of his. And I had to get the touches and the kisses correct. But I never… knew what the number exactly was.” If she didn’t hit the quota, “he would start an argument with me, berate me for hours, make me feel like the worst person ever.” He so convinced her that she was a terrible girlfriend that she would ring ex-partners to ask if she was horrible.

He would wake her up in the middle of the night: “…to accuse me of all sorts of things. He accused me of staring at the ceiling and thinking about ways to leave him… Accused me of not wanting to be with him. Accused me of wanting to be with somebody else. It would be always… between like four and seven in the morning.” She says throughout lockdown she has been, “trying not to wake up between three and seven [am] in a panic attack. I am there now, just, but for a long time anything that woke me up in the night, even if it was just my dog or a noise outside or needing to go to the bathroom, it would trigger an intense panic attack, because I was left with PTSD.” She reiterates wanting to talk about this because, “I don’t think we really talk about, as a society, the healing of leaving and how much work then has to be done to recover and get back to the person you were before.”

Why she didn’t leave: “That, ‘Why didn’t you leave?’ conversation is something I really want to tackle,” says twigs. “People often ask the victim or survivor, ‘Why didn’t you leave?’ instead of asking the abuser, ‘Why are you holding someone hostage through abusive behaviour?’ It’s a fair question for you to ask me, but it puts a lot on me. It puts a lot on victims and survivors.” She says that leaving, “genuinely felt impossible. I felt so controlled and I felt so confused and I felt so low, beneath myself, that the fear of leaving and knowing I had all this work to do to get back to just feeling OK, it was completely overwhelming.”

Growing up biracial in the UK: “I remember all the kids having to hold hands, like two-by-two, and [a girl] wouldn’t hold my hand in case the colour came off. I was probably about four and I’d never realised I was a different colour. It was the first time I’d ever, ever realised.”

Dealing with racism when she dated Robert Pattinson. “I think they considered that he should definitely be with someone white and blonde.” She says people on social media would compare her to monkeys, which deeply hurt her confidence for a long time. “But just for everyone to know, I now love how I look and I’m very confident.”

[From BBC]

I remember that Pattinson era and his fans – and Kristen Stewart fans – were unspeakably racist to Twigs. I also remember that Rob never said much about it in defense of Twigs and that kind of pissed me off too. I wonder if it pissed her off. As for her detailing of the abuse she suffered from Shia… Jesus. I found her descriptions of how the gaslighting and grooming began really striking – I’m guessing many girls and women will relate to that and begin to question what they put up with, the emotional and psychological abuse they’ve suffered at the hands of intimate partners. Shia is so disgusting, my God.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, WENN.

For Nico F– Happy 13th Birthday to the “best teenager, brother, baseball player, pal”, with love from your mom… and me too! By the way, you are lucky that you can have poutine any time. I see you’ve met Jay Baruchel, who’s always been the sweetest whenever I’ve interacted with him. Hope your experie…

Last week, at some point following the inauguration, I was watching a MSNBC segment about the takeaways from the Trump era and what lessons were learned on either side. The former RNC chairman Michael Steele was one of the guests on the segment. He said something that I’ve been thinking about ever since, which is basically that Republicans were really mad about “cancel culture” and “woke culture” and how those things are ruining society in their minds. What bugged me is that Steele seemed to think that they had a point. I’ve come to realize that this is the argument the GOP is making and will continue to make: that “woke” culture is coming to “cancel” you (“you” being Republican voters) for just being yourself. If you vote Republican, you don’t have to bother to learn how to be a functioning member of society, or learn how to not offend people 24-7.

The whole “anti-woke” and “cancel culture run amok” thing is also a conversational smokescreen for what actually happened before, during and after the January 6th insurrection. Donald Trump and his minions plotted a terrorist attack and they were genuinely trying to overthrow the government. It was an attempted coup, and Trump was still threatening violence and retribution even after the coup largely failed. Trump was threatening those things… on social media. And he promptly got deplatformed from most social media sites, and there was a mass banning of Nazis and MAGAts and the like. All of these things are connected, all of these conversations are connected. Which brings me to this: Rupert Murdoch decrying the “woke orthodoxy”:

Rupert Murdoch has been silent on Twitter for nearly five years, but the media baron has come out swinging against social media and what he described as the prevalence of a “woke orthodoxy” in the online realm. Murdoch, 89, created a stir with a two-minute video message that was released in connection with his receiving the Australia Day Foundation’s lifetime achievement award. The video was posted on the website of Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper, which News Corp. owns.

Murdoch’s remarks veer from a conventional thank-you for a lifetime achievement honor and kind words about his “undying love” for his native country to a deliberate swipe at social media. He remarks echo the recent refrain from far-right conservatives that Big Tech giants and social media platforms are seeking to impose censorship by flagging false and inflammatory statements from political figures such as former U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been permanently banned from Twitter and other platforms.

“For those of us in media, there’s a real challenge to confront a wave of censorship that seeks to silence conversations, to stifle debate and ultimately stop individuals and societies from realizing their potential,” Murdoch said. “This rigidly enforced conformity, aided and abetted by so-called social media, is a straitjacket on sensibilities. Too many people have fought too hard in too many places for freedom of speech to be suppressed by this awful woke orthodoxy.”

[From Variety]

Again, all of this sh-t happened in just the past THREE WEEKS. We were there. We all witnessed what actually happened, we witnessed Donald Trump inciting an insurrection in broad daylight, sending his Nazis to the Capitol to murder the vice president, the speaker of the house and anyone else they felt like. Those Nazis actually *DID* murder a Capitol Police officer by beating him to death. After he incited an insurrection, Trump was still issuing barely veiled threats on Twitter and calling on his supporters to stay agitated and violent. It’s not like Jack Dorsey just decided out of the blue that he hated what Trump was tweeting. These are private companies who realized – rather suddenly – that they had significant liability issues if they continued to allow Trump and his followers a platform to organize and incite violence. But Murdoch is definitely telegraphing the same argument which Michael Steele, Josh Hawley and others will make going forward: inciting terrorism is a “free speech issue” when white people are involved.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Dear Gossips, The pandemic has disrupted so many regular features of award season – the screenings, the parties, the red carpets, and perhaps even the major award shows themselves. The Independent Spirit Award nominations are happening today. Typically the Spirit Awards are held on Saturday, the day…

Page Six has yet another story about Ben Affleck and Ana de Arma that they’re billing as an exclusive. It came out yesterday and I missed it in my coverage, sorry! There was just so much to recap about them. Page Six, for years, has had insider stories about Ben so I have no doubt that he and/or his people are their source. I also checked Ben’s other go-to outlets, Us Magazine, ET Online and E!, and there are a few more sourced stories I missed. Page Six might just be meting out quotes they got last week so they can get more stories out of it, which is smart. Or Ben’s people are still talking to them because he wants to keep his name in the press. I’m going to quote a few sources like I did yesterday. Just the Page Six article, which is the first part, is from this week.

They still talk several times a day
In spite of their break-up, Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas are still speaking to each other “several times a day,” a source tells Page Six.

“They still love each other. Ben misses her,” added the source. – From Page Six

Ana wanted to get engaged
Armas and Affleck’s one-year relationship has come to an end, and ET’s source says it was partly due to the pair’s “age difference, life goals and career goals weren’t aligned anymore.”

“Ana wanted to get engaged and have children,” the source says. “While some friends thought they were on the path towards that, Ben ultimately isn’t ready for that right now.”

Affleck, the source notes, “is upset by the breakup,” while de Armas, 32, is busy “looking for a new place to stay since a lot of her stuff was at Ben’s house.” – From ET Online

They want to stay friends
Keeping it cordial! Ben Affleck and ex-girlfriend Ana de Armas are hoping to “still maintain some type of friendship” after their split, a source exclusively tells Us Weekly.

“Ben and Ana were so close to each other,” the insider says. “They have their issues, but still want to remain on good terms and keep a friendship.” – From US Magazine

[From Page Six, ET Online and US Magazine]

I’m getting flashbacks to all the stories about Ben and Jennifer Garner breaking up, getting back together, and co-parenting. At the time I thought Garner was in on it too, and she may have been, but now I’m suspecting that it was mostly Ben’s side. He always wants to control the gossip narrative to a ridiculous degree. We have a short memory and the news cycle is so fast now. The key to gossip is that if a celebrity disappears we stop talking about them. Ben’s trash brother, Casey, understands this and is using it to his advantage. Why has Ben never gotten it?

Ana has a new interview with The Sunday Times, which came out over the weekend. It’s behind a paywall so I’m just relying on excerpts from other outlets. She talked about the work she put in nailing the voice for her Marilyn Monroe biopic, Blonde, coming out this year on Netflix. The interview was conducted before the breakup and she also mentioned those t-shirts from Cuba that Ben always wears. They visited Havana, where Ana is from, early last year. She told The Times Ben was “obsessed” with those shirts and “Every time we go, he buys the whole store.” How many times did they go to Cuba together?

photos credit: Backgrid

You guys probably remember that I hate Meghan McCain and I hate covering her! She’s so useless and awful. Her claim to “fame” is that she talks out of both sides of her mouth, that she’s a “conservative Republican” who hated Trump, yet defended Trump on nearly everything, and that she says “my father” whenever she’s challenged on her inane political philosophy. Considering that her father hated Donald Trump, Trump hated John McCain as well, and Trump repeatedly suggested that John McCain A) wasn’t really a war hero and B) is burning in hell, you would think that Meghan would want to get as far away from Trump-MAGA politics as possible. You would be wrong. Even post-insurrection, even after President Biden’s inauguration, Meghan is still making these dead-eyed, convoluted arguments about how Katie Couric is the spokesperson for the Democratic Party and President Biden needs to seek unity with MAGA losers by massaging their poor Nazi feelings. Meghan also comes very close to saying that she f–king voted for Trump? Again, Trump loathes her father and said John McCain is burning in hell.

The View’s Meghan McCain, who has made a huge show over the years of being an anti-Trump conservative, on Monday seemed to count herself among the “cult of Trump” while railing against comments Katie Couric made about the MAGA fans who continue to believe the “stolen election” lie. Earlier this month, following the insurrectionist Capitol riot incited by President Donald Trump, Couric sparked a multi-day outrage cycle in the right-wing media ecosystem when she suggested there must be an effort made to combat the death spiral of conspiracy theories among a certain portion of the population.

“It’s really bizarre, isn’t it, when you think about how AWOL so many of these members of Congress have gotten,” she said on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher. “But I also think some of them are believing the garbage that they are being fed 24/7 on the internet, by their constituents, and they bought into this ‘Big Lie.’ And the question is how are we going to really almost deprogram these people who have signed up for the cult of Trump.”

Since then, Fox News and other conservative outlets have run wild with Couric’s “offensive” remarks, pointing to them as proof that liberals are not interested in unity and that her call to “deprogram Trump voters” (as Fox News narrowly described it) only “deepens the divisions” in the country. At the top of Monday’s broadcast of The View, McCain jumped on the outrage bandwagon, and in the process seemingly suggested she either voted for Trump or counts herself among the “cult of Trump” that Couric had specifically mentioned. It’s all very unclear.

After briefly discussing the current civil war in the GOP over impeachment and the Capitol riots, McCain quickly pivoted to President Joe Biden’s message of unity and her belief that Democrats aren’t interested in working with Republicans.

“Instead, we’re hearing a lot of language from people like Katie Couric that Republicans like me need to be, quote, ‘deprogrammed,’” she grumbled. “That we’re brainwashed, that there are people who are irredeemable people, and we don’t need to have anything to do with them.”

McCain went on to say it was “horribly dangerous” for the country and that it was on Biden and Democrats to pick up Republicans who feel “disenfranchised” before circling back to Couric’s comment, apparently believing the longtime TV host speaks for the entire Democratic Party (or that her remarks were somehow addressing all Republicans, even those like McCain who’d been ostensibly anti-Trump while remaining conservative in ideology).

“If President Biden and Democrats want to have a big party and include some of these people, great, and if we’re all just deplorable and need to be reprogrammed as Katie Couric said, then honestly they can go to hell because I don’t need to be deprogrammed!” McCain huffed in conclusion.

[From The Daily Beast]

Did Meghan vote for the man who mocked her father or nah? Does Meghan McCain think President Biden and Democrats need to reach out to seditious traitors who were sent by Trump to murder elected leaders? Does Meghan McCain even understand 50% of the right-wing word salad she spewed? Who knows.

The mental hoops from this moron – it’s even scarier when you see her two brain cells furiously rub together on live television.

Screencaps courtesy of The View.