One of the first big gossip stories to come out of Rebel Wilson’s memoir and promotion was that she accused Sacha Baron Cohen of being rude, unpleasant and perhaps even abusive to her. She said that he had spent years trying to intimidate her into staying silent, but she was now naming him as a massive a–hole. Cohen suddenly got his lawyers involved and they’ve been threatening Rebel and issuing statements and more. I actually believed Rebel’s story about Cohen and I found it interesting that she seemingly no longer fears him. I don’t think many people fear him anymore. Speaking of, less than two weeks after Rebel named him, Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher announced their divorce. It feels related, even though they state that they jointly filed for divorce in 2023.

Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher have called it quits.

“After a long tennis match lasting over twenty years, we are finally putting our racquets down. In 2023 we jointly filed to end our marriage,” they said in statements shared on their Instagram Stories on April 5.

“We have always prioritized our privacy, and have been quietly working through this change,” they added. “We forever share in our devotion and love for our children. We sincerely appreciate your respecting our family’s wish for privacy.”

Fisher, 48, and Baron Cohen, 52, married on March 15, 2010, and they share three children.

Baron Cohen and Fisher first met back in 2001 at a party in Sydney, Australia, well before they gained fame for their hit movies, 2006’s Borat and 2005’s Wedding Crashers, respectively.

“She was hilarious. We were at a very pretentious party, and me and her bonded over taking the mick out of the other people in the party,” Baron Cohen recalled of their first meeting in a 2020 interview with The New York Times. “I knew instantly. I don’t know if she did.”

The pair went on to get engaged in 2004, and welcomed their first child three years later.

[From People]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of their children, and I didn’t realize they have three kids (I thought they maybe had two). They apparently have two daughters and a son, between the ages of eight and sixteen, I think. According to People Magazine’s sources, they’ve been working out their divorce since last summer, although this was not the first time they consulted with divorce lawyers and they’ve had problems for years. Which I believe – it feels like SBC is probably a very difficult man to live with or be married to, to put it mildly. Anyway, they were clearly having big problems for a while, so why announce the divorce right after Rebel’s thing? Hm.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Isla’s IG Stories.

Dakota Fanning is the female lead in Netflix’s Ripley, a miniseries adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley. Of course, that was already adapted in a 1999 film starring Matt Damon, Jude Law, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Gwyneth Paltrow. Dakota plays the Gwyneth role, Marge, and Andrew Scott plays Tom Ripley in what appears to be a captivating performance. If I’m being honest, it sometimes feels like Dakota’s little sister Elle sort of eclipsed her at some point and nowadays, Elle is getting all of the big scripts and important roles. But Dakota works consistently and I’m interested in seeing what she does in this series. Dakota covers the latest issue of Porter, and here are some highlights:

Her big, blowout 30th-birthday party. “I’ve never had a party like it. I’ve had dinners, but this was… a party,” laughs Fanning, who took over the whole of hip Beverly Hills restaurant La Dolce Vita, hired an ice sculpture of legs “for fun”, and wore a red satin corseted Dolce&Gabbana dress. “I was destroyed on Saturday – from the biggest hangover I’ve had in years. But I was icing my head with a huge smile. The past few days, I have felt so light.”

Her 20s were not great: “I wouldn’t say I’m not a happy person, but I do think the late twenties f–k with you. I feel happier and more conscious of what I have, rather than what I don’t have. I know who I am, and the people who know me know who I am, and that’s really all that matters. But there is something about saying that at 30 that feels different to saying it at 28.”

Her 20-year-plus career: “I still have these check-ins with myself to make sure I’m enjoying it. If you can still find the light in moments that are tough, then you’re still enjoying it!”

Filming in Italy for nearly a year at the tailend of the pandemic: “I like being alone and I don’t mind getting acclimated to a place, but I felt really lonely in a specific way. I felt like I was trapped. I’m sure other people can relate… It wasn’t a unique experience, but I definitely went through a rollercoaster on this.” Having seen the results – the finished eight-part, black-and-white series – she has no regrets now. “I feel very rewarded and satisfied having seen the show; it all feels worth it. It’s so different to anything I’ve ever been in.”

On Andrew Scott: “I always hoped our paths would cross. He is so wickedly funny, warm and kind. He’s just a good person. And stunning, obviously. I worship him after working with him.”

She avoided the book & avoided talking to the 1999 film actors: Fanning deliberately steered clear of the 1955 book (“what you’re trying to achieve is what you’ve been given, which is, ultimately, the script”), and she, Scott and Johnny Flynn (who plays her partner Dickie) made a pact to have no contact with anyone who had played versions of their characters. “I was blissfully trying to not think about Gwyneth and her extraordinary beauty and grace!” laughs Fanning of the original, which became known as a stylish cinematic moment. “I’m a huge fan of the film, but it’s so different, I hesitate to even talk about it.”

On wanting children: “Being an actor is a huge part of my identity. I don’t really know who I would be without it. But I also have a desire to set up my life and career so that I always have a choice. Having kids is probably more important to me than anything, even being an actor. If somebody said I had to choose, I would choose having kids. I’m one of those people who has always felt that pull. I don’t know how I’ll feel when that time in my life comes – and how much I’ll want to work. But, because I don’t have that at the moment, I’m trying to take advantage of the adventures now. I’m trying to push myself to keep saying yes to things that make me uncomfortable, to keep going to places for long periods of time that maybe I’m scared to do because – God willing – one day, it won’t be as easy.”

[From Porter]

I love that she threw herself a huge birthday party and really got ripped and started her 30s with a bang. Good for her. Over the years, I’ve noticed that trend among Millennial and older Gen Z women – their 20s always f–king suck. Like, they’re just weighed down with emotional baggage, sh-tty relationships, self-doubt and neuroses, and then they enter their 30s and it’s like they leave all of it behind. It’s a weird little sub-phenomenon, and I’m not saying it’s universal, but a lot of women (famous and unfamous) have described it that way.

As for the film versus the series… my first thought, months ago, was “why does this need another adaptation?” But Andrew Scott is the reason why it needed to be adapted again, because we need to see him as Tom Ripley. But I can’t imagine trying to “redo” one of Gwyneth’s most iconic roles, frankly. Like, I think Gwyneth is an a–hole, but she killed it in Ripley, it was one of her best roles.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, cover courtesy of Porter/net-a-porter.

Dev Patel attended the premiere of Monkey Man (which he directed & stars in) with his longtime girlfriend Tilda Cobham-Hervey. I hope they’re happy, sob. [RCFA]
This week’s Cardi B situation was super-complicated but this is very good coverage of what went down & how Cardi de-escalated. [LaineyGossip]
Kate Beckinsale has been hospitalized for three weeks?!? [Just Jared]
God, TLC’s “No Scrubs” is such an iconic song. [OMG Blog]
This male model’s big expression is “confusion.” [Socialite Life]
Donald Trump accused Pres. Biden of… doing cocaine?? [Pajiba]
Can anyone fix this Constance Wu look? I have my doubts. [Go Fug Yourself]
Conan O’Brien will be a guest on the Tonight Show. [Seriously OMG]
I did not know about American Pickers’ Danielle Colby’s side job. [Starcasm]
Cassie is reportedly cooperating with the feds. [Hollywood Life]
I don’t see this as a big deal? Sometimes parents like to give their adult children Easter baskets, although I agree that your parents’ 20s were wildly different than the current 20-somethings. [Buzzfeed]

Carole Middleton has only been seen in public twice since Party Pieces went bankrupt and got sold for £180K. Following the Middletons’ appearance at the coronation – which was just a few weeks before PP was sold – Carole skipped every social event last summer, even Wimbledon. She wasn’t seen until December, when she scurried into Kate’s Together at Christmas event. The only time Carole has been seen this year is in that grainy-as-hell photo in February, with Kate (or “Kate”) riding shotgun in a car near Windsor.

While there’s been some chatter about the Middletons helping out while Kate was recovering from abdominal surgery and going through chemotherapy, there has been a very spooky silence coming from Middleton Manor. Carole usually runs her own PR operation out of Bucklebury, but the whole thing went silent as the grave last year. Perhaps Carole doesn’t have the money to do much of anything – this week’s news is that the Middletons are too broke to pay the insolvency firm which restructured the debt-ridden Party Pieces and sold it, fleecing the business’s creditors for millions of dollars. That was the start of something else… something vaguely resembling a pivot from Middleton HQ. Suddenly, sources were saying that Carole does not want poor Kate to worry about the Middleton finances, Kate must simply focus on her own recovery. And now this – a reminder that Carole seems to be doing a lot with the Wales kids while Prince William is… in the wind?

Carole Middleton has been a “driving force” for Princess Kate and Prince William amid the Princess of Wales’s cancer diagnosis, sources have claimed. Kate’s mother has been praised for playing a vital role behind the scenes for the Prince and Princess of Wales.

A source close to the Middletons said: “Carole has been the driving force keeping the family together with minimum fuss and maximum modesty. She’s ferried and fetched George, Louis and Charlotte, taken them to school sports matches and given them endless support. She’s been a real Mary Poppins-like figure.”

Carole, 69, has provided the young family with the “three R’s”, according to the source. They said: “She’s come to the rescue, provided reassurance, and has been a rock to Catherine and William as they come to terms with the news.”

Carole is thought to have stepped up by taking her grandchildren, Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, eight, and Prince Louis, five, to school. Alongside her husband Michael, Carole is free to provide support wherever required.

The source continued to tell The Independent: “Her actions are in huge contrast to those mouthing support from afar.”

Carole is understood to have been among the first to learn of Kate’s diagnosis.

[From GB News]

“Her actions are in huge contrast to those mouthing support from afar.” Can’t believe Carole would talk about Pippa and James Middleton this way, since both of Kate’s siblings were on luxury holidays when Kate was recovering from surgery and being diagnosed with cancer. No, I jest, I know that was an oh-so-subtle dig at the Sussexes. Pretty rich from broke-ass Carole, especially considering that I’ve always been convinced that Carole was the “source” for the whole “Meghan made Kate cry” saga.

As for this brand new information that Carole has been a tireless Mary Poppins, juggling the school runs AND taking care of Kate AND taking care of poor William, it once again begs the question… what exactly is William doing in this scenario? He only visited his wife once in the hospital, no one can prove that they’ve been living together whatsoever, and now Carole is claiming the fakakta school run? Interesting.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red.

Last week, the Washington Post did a pretty even-handed piece about the conspiracies and confusion around the Princess of Wales’s cancer-announcement video, which was released on March 22. WaPo spoke to AI experts, most of whom said that the video was likely legitimate, although WaPo did speak to one Pentagon-contracted firm which said that the video had a “high likelihood” of being “manipulated with AI.” WaPo also got Kensington Palace on the record to say that accusations of AI tampering are “factually inaccurate.” WaPo’s larger point – and one which I strenuously agree with – is that Kensington Palace’s credibility is in the toilet after lying for months and manipulating multiple photos, so the palace and the BBC should do more to validate the video and ease concerns. It feels notable that no one has done anything like that – instead, BBC Studios has gone radio silent and no one has heard anything from KP in almost two weeks.

In the credibility vacuum, it was curious this week that Getty added an editor’s note to the palace-handout screencap photo from Kate’s video. It was basically a disclaimer saying: “This Handout image was provided by a third-party organization and may not adhere to Getty Images’ editorial policy.” “May not” is doing some heavy lifting. Well, now the NY Times has a piece called “How an Editors’ Note Fueled Another Kate Conspiracy Theory.” Some highlights:

Why did Getty add the disclaimer? With disinformation spreading fast online, at times amplified by hostile states, some social media users were primed for skepticism. A note from Getty Images beside the video announcement, released on March 22, said it “may not adhere” to its editorial policy and fanned more conspiracy theories over the video’s authenticity. There is no evidence, according to researchers, that the video is a deepfake, and agencies routinely attach such notes to content given to them by third parties. With images easy to manipulate, researchers say that news agencies are being transparent about the source of their content.

A standard editors’ note which only appears on a handful of photos: That disclaimer is not unique to this video. A spokeswoman for Getty Images said on Wednesday that it added a “standard editors’ note” to any content provided by third-party organizations. Other agencies also use such notes routinely for clarity. It was not clear when that policy came into practice, and the spokeswoman declined to comment further. Online sleuths, however, pointed out that the same note was added to a clip provided by a government agency of the bridge that collapsed last week in Baltimore.

Was the video a deepfake? “I don’t see any compelling evidence that it’s a deepfake,” said V.S. Subrahmanian, a professor of computer science at Northwestern University who has researched deepfakes. Professor Subrahmanian ran a copy of the video through a system of 15 algorithms his team has been developing to detect manipulated videos, and he also manually examined it with another analyst. Components such as the video’s audio and Kate’s movements appeared to be natural, and technical evidence suggested it was unlikely to be fake. “Context is a very big part of it,” he added. “The bigger context is that it was a video shot by the BBC, who is a highly reliable source.”

The problem with photo handouts: “[Photo agencies] are very keen not to take handouts and have their own photographers where possible,” said Nic Newman, a senior research associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. News agencies, however, have concerns about the way public figures, including politicians and celebrities, are increasingly using handouts to try to “control the narrative,” he said. The note was an example of agencies’ efforts to be more transparent with their clients who used those photos, he said, but there was the risk that they could fuel conspiracy theories. “People often take those labels and then blow them up out of all proportion.”

The Mother’s Day photo fiasco: The episode prompted news agencies to look again at their policies, Mr. Newman said, and re-evaluate which sources were trustworthy. “The whole question of whether you can believe what you see is certainly not as clear as it used to be. There is a trust deficit in society, at least in the United States,” Professor Subrahmanian said. “Deepfakes have the potential to widen that trust deficit.”

[From The NY Times]

“The bigger context is that it was a video shot by the BBC, who is a highly reliable source.” One would think, but again, it wasn’t filmed by BBC News, meaning there wasn’t an actual news crew around Kate. This was filmed by BBC Studios, and they still refuse to come out and talk about the filming or even confirm really basic facts about the video (when and where it was shot, what kind of camera was used, how many takes were done). Again, I felt a certain amount of relief two weeks ago when we learned that the BBC had been brought in to film the video – finally, the Kensington Palace clowns brought in mature professionals to manage their messaging. But everything since then has only raised more questions.

Photos courtesy of Kensington Palace, Getty, Avalon Red, Cover Images.

I love Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter. I would argue it’s her best album since Lemonade, and I consider Lemonade to be her magnum opus. All that being said, there are a couple of skips on Cowboy Carter, for me at least. Let’s say it this way: while the whole album is brilliant, I’m not “in love” with a couple of the songs. And that’s fine! I’m not trying to make a big thing about it, and my whole personality is not newly devoted to nitpicking Beyonce’s choices. It’s like people don’t realize they can just not be crazy about every single song and keep it to themselves. Speaking of, Lily Allen had to chime in about how much she hates Beyonce’s version of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.”

Lily Allen isn’t the biggest supporter of Beyoncé’s version of “Jolene.” On the Wednesday, April 3, episode of the Miss Me? podcast that Allen, 38, cohosts with her friend Miquita Oliver, the pair shared their thoughts on the 32-time Grammy winner, 42, covering a Dolly Parton classic.

“I don’t think the ‘Jolene’ one’s good,” Oliver, 39, said as they discussed Cowboy Carter — Beyoncé’s eighth studio album.

“It’s very weird that you cover the most successful songs in that genre,” Allen replied.

“But I also feel like ‘Jolene”s such an excellent song. Like, I’ve listened to the story of how Dolly Parton wrote it in about 20 minutes, like, over and over, because I just think it’s so genius. And I don’t know, it just felt a little bit like a kind of standard hip-hop beat under a ‘Jolene’ cover,” Oliver said. She added, “It’s like, ‘Let’s do something with this song. If we’re going to take it apart and put it back together. I feel like Beyoncé could have done a bit more with that.”

Allen agreed, adding, “Yeah, I just feel like it’s quite an interesting thing to do when you’re like trying to tackle a new genre and you just choose the biggest song in that genre to cover.”

“I mean, you do you, Beyoncé, and she literally is doing her. Or is she doing Dolly?” the “Hard Out Here” singer said.

Despite what Allen and Oliver think, the Houston native recently made history as the first-ever Black female artist to top the Hot Country Songs chart with her single “Texas Hold ‘Em” in February. The same track also debuted at No. 2 on the Hot 100 chart.

Following the achievement, she received praise from Parton, 78, herself. “I’m a big fan of Beyoncé and very excited that she’s done a country album,” the original “Jolene” hitmaker wrote in a statement via Instagram on Feb. 22. “So congratulations on your Billboard Hot Country number one single.”

[From People]

Does Lily Allen not understand that Dolly publicly and repeatedly asked Beyonce to cover “Jolene,” and that Beyonce did so with Dolly’s permission? While I believe Beyonce reworked the lyrics on her own, I also believe that she sought Dolly’s permission to do so and Beyonce didn’t credit herself (Dolly was given sole authorship of “Jolene” on Cowboy Carter). Now, I would have preferred a straight cover as well, because I think so highly of Dolly’s original song. But Beyonce did the thing and she made it her own, and Dolly signed off on everything. So what is Lily complaining about?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, ‘Cowboy Carter’ cover.

There’s a lengthy, extensive history between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s legal issues, and the personal and business issues are intertwined. In 2016, Angelina left Brad immediately following his hours-long terror and abuse of Jolie and their children. She filed for divorce and they’ve spent the past eight years battling in family courts and, on one notable occasion, the California Supreme Court. Then in 2021-22, Angelina Jolie successfully sold her 50% ownership stake in Chateau Miraval to a Stoli subsidiary. Pitt freaked out and began suing everybody. Jolie countersued, and Stoli has also countersued. French law enforcement is involved, and Pitt is currently being carved up in American, French and Luxembourg courts. Before Jolie sold her stake to a Stoli subsidiary, she tried, in good faith, to sell her half to Pitt. Then at the eleventh hour, Pitt tried to add a very strict non-disclosure clause to the deal, a clause which would have effectively silenced Jolie not just about their finances and the Miraval sale, but about their divorce and custody battle. Now that Pitt is suing Jolie over the sale of her half of Miraval, all of this is connected as Jolie defends herself. In a newly filed motion, Angelina and her lawyers lay this out plainly, and reveal something new: Brad’s abuse of Angelina did not start on the plane, he was abusive before that flight.

Angelina Jolie’s legal team filed a motion Thursday to acquire Brad Pitt’s communications stemming from an “all-encompassing” nondisclosure agreement he wanted that purportedly tanked the sale of his ex-wife’s share of their Chateau Miraval winery to him. The former Hollywood power couple’s protracted legal dispute over the winery — and its legacy for their six children — took another turn as Jolie’s team asked a judge to compel Pitt and his company, Mondo Bongo, to produce documents pertaining to his calling for a “more onerous NDA” in order to purchase Jolie’s share of the south-of-France winery.

The documents Jolie seeks, according to the Thursday filing in Los Angeles County Superior Court, are “highly relevant” and also likely to yield admissible evidence in the case, her team argued. Her attorney, Paul Murphy, also accused the “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” Oscar winner of “unrelenting efforts to control and financially drain” Jolie, as well as “attempting to hide his history of abuse, control, and coverup.”

In Thursday’s motion to compel , reviewed by The Times, attorneys for the “Girl, Interrupted” Oscar winner asked again for responses from Pitt to help them figure out his reason for pulling out of their implied agreement for him to buy Jolie’s stake in the winery. Pitt’s decision to pull out of the sale, her attorney said, “nearly broke” Jolie. “If that sale had been completed, this lawsuit never would have happened. But at the last minute, Pitt ‘stepped back’ from his agreement to buy Jolie’s interest in Miraval, and the deal collapsed. The question at the heart of this case — and at the center of this motion — is why,” the motion said.

The answer, her attorney said, has to do with sealed documents Jolie submitted in the ex-couple’s separate but simultaneous custody dispute. The new filing referred to sealed March 2021 documents — titled “Testimony Regarding Domestic Violence” — that “apparently enraged Pitt” and led to him “stepping back” from the sale.

“When Jolie filed the evidence in the custody suit, she was careful to file it under seal so that no member of the public could see it. But Jolie’s sealed filing, which included emails, summaries of the family’s expected testimony, and other evidence, caused Pitt to fear that the information could eventually become public,” the document said. Pitt then decided he could no longer rely on Jolie’s voluntary efforts to keep things private and demanded that she “contractually bind herself to that silence,” her filing said.

With that, her team indicated there was abuse of Jolie that predated the contentious 2016 private-plane flight. In referring to that sealed filing in the custody case — as well as another titled “Testimony of Minor Children” — her team argued that Pitt tried to force a more sweeping NDA on Jolie to conceal his alleged “personal misconduct, whether related to Miraval or not.” Her team is seeking Pitt’s communications with the FBI, U.S. attorney’s office, the L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services and the Los Angeles Police Department regarding the private flight. She is also seeking information from DCFS about its investigation, drug and alcohol testing and a safety plan the agency purportedly required Pitt to undertake to address his conduct.

“While Pitt’s history of physical abuse of Jolie started well before the family’s September 2016 plane trip from France to Los Angeles, this flight marked the first time he turned his physical abuse on the children as well,” the new motion states. Jolie never pressed charges, the filing said, “as she believed the best course was for Pitt to accept responsibility and help the family recover from the post-traumatic stress he caused.” It also alleged that Pitt refused to seek domestic violence counseling. Jolie accused Pitt of gaslighting her and, according to the documents, signed a power of attorney authorizing her European lawyer, Laurent Schummer, to take over the sale process.

“Mr. Pitt refused to purchase Ms. Jolie’s interest when she would not be silenced by his NDA,” Jolie attorney Murphy, managing partner at the law firm Murphy Rosen LLP, said Thursday in a statement to The Times. “By refusing to buy her interest but then suing her, Mr. Pitt put directly at issue why that NDA was so important to him and what he hoped it would bury: his abuse of Ms. Jolie and their family. After eight months of delays, this motion asks the Court to force Mr. Pitt to finally produce that evidence.”

[From The LA Times]

I’m really sad to admit that this was my suspicion once the FBI files were released – the way Jolie described Pitt terrorizing the family and hurting her repeatedly, it just struck me that this was not the first time he had been violent. In her own description, before the plane terror began, Angelina was already trying to calm him and ease his mood, like she was afraid of what would happen (because it had happened before). A source close to Jolie also told the LA Times that Pitt’s lawsuit against Jolie (for the sale of Miraval) is what started all of this, saying: Pitt “is drawing all this out of Angelina. She does not want to be here, she does not want to be raising any of these facts, and she is doing it only because Pitt’s lawsuit against her is forcing her to defend herself. It’s incredibly sad and she just wishes he could move on and let her be.” The friend also said that Jolie has extensive documentation which she will introduce in court, if that’s what it comes to. Re: the Pitt records which Jolie is now seeking… I hope Jolie’s lawyer is also seeking Pitt’s communications with his crisis management team, because you know there’s a lot of sh-t there and I doubt any of that is privileged communication.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Matt Bomer says there’s real talk about bringing back White Collar, and I cannot wait! Also, Netflix is bringing back the original series. [JustJared]
I’m not ready for the Amy Winehouse bio-pic discourse. [Buzzfeed]
I’m not ready for the Joker 2 discourse either. [LaineyGossip]
Let’s destroy the Comstock Act. [Jezebel]
The best line deliveries from It’s Always Sunny. [Pajiba]
Travis Kelce & Taylor Swift are “career-driven” people. [Hollywood Life]
A rave review of the CW’s Sight Unseen. [Seriously OMG]
Nicole Richie looked great in Schiaparelli. [RCFA]
Duct tape by Balenciaga. [OMG Blog]

Royal commentator/author Sally Bedell Smith has been making a lot of public statements these days about the Duchess of Sussex and the Princess of Wales. A few weeks ago, Smith went Full Deranger and claimed that Meghan and Wallis Simpson “have similar qualities: very narcissistic, very controlling, very dominating,” and that Prince Harry has the same weaknesses and need for domination as the Duke of Windsor. Bedell Smith was also quoted extensively by Maureen Dowd in a recent NYT column. Dowd asked her if the Sussexes might return to the UK to help out while Kate is receiving chemotherapy and Smith sniped: “Kate doesn’t need Harry and Meghan to console her. She has her parents and a sister, and she’s very close to King Charles.” So, you get the idea. As always, Kate = perfect, Meghan = the devil. Well, Bedell Smith also had some thoughts about Kate’s cancer-announcement video:

Kate Middleton overcame her “inherently shy” nature to deliver some difficult news. In a video released on March 22, the Princess of Wales told the world that she was undergoing treatment for cancer discovered in post-operative tests following her January abdominal surgery. Royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith tells PEOPLE that Princess Kate, 42, was “sincere, dignified, poised, and she was forthright” in her delivery, but the announcement likely wasn’t easy.

“She is inherently shy, and for her to do that took a lot,” Bedell Smith adds. While the health update was extremely personal, Princess Kate acknowledged the many others who are also facing cancer, echoing something the late Queen Elizabeth may have done.

“When she ended with ‘You are not alone,’ it rang a bell with something that Queen Elizabeth would have said,” Bedell Smith explains. “It was very similar to what Queen Elizabeth said during COVID when she said, ‘We are all in this together.’ She was mindful there are very few people who read about that or watched that who doesn’t know someone who has cancer. She was mindful of that,” the journalist and biographer continues. “It was a way of reassuring people not only about her condition but helping them have courage.”

“There was not a trace of self-pity. She projected honesty,” Bedell Smith says. “It was the right balance.”

[From People]

I’ve never believed that Kate is “inherently shy” – she’s too much of an exhibitionist to be “shy.” But I do think Kate is awkward, and an especially awkward public speaker, which is why her video surprised so many people – there were no placeholder “ums” and none of her regular hair-flips or fidgeting. Beyond that, People Magazine once again repeats the claim that Kate wrote her speech all on her own… which I still don’t believe, and I find it to be an incredibly suspicious lie, like “of course Prince William took the Mother’s Day photo.” They keep showing us that they lie constantly about the smaller stuff, which makes you think about the bigger stuff.

Photos courtesy of Kensington Palace, Getty Images.

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As we discussed this week, the Duchess of Sussex visited the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles on March 21. The photos and videos just came out on Tuesday. I saw that the Daily Mail already has a story about how Meghan ordered a delay in the release of the photos because of the Princess of Wales’s cancer-announcement video (which came out on March 22). That might even be true, although we’ve seen before that Meghan and Harry often make undercover or quiet charity visits and the information isn’t released for weeks, sometimes even months.

Predictably, the usual people are mad about Meghan’s hospital visit. They’re mad because it’s a “royal-style” visit, they’re mad that Meghan isn’t hiding away while Kate has disappeared, they’re mad that Meghan exists. The Express is mad because apparently Meghan signed an autograph for a kid, which is yet another (fictional) royal rule. With all of this anger over an American woman visiting sick kids, imagine my surprise that the Telegraph devoted an entire style article to Meghan’s silk Oscar de la Renta dress, and they compared her to Princess Diana?

The late Princess Diana kept a “caring dress” in her wardrobe – a Bellville Sassoon shift in the most uplifting shade of cobalt blue, splattered with bright watercolour carnations. She called it so, according to its designer, David Sassoon, as it was the dress she would reach for when visiting children (particularly those in hospitals around the world) in an attempt to bring some colour and joy to any ward she stepped into.

Fast-forward to March 2024 and the Duchess of Sussex adopted the same style strategy as she joined story time at a children’s hospital in Los Angeles. Her take on the “caring dress” was a £2,776 Oscar de la Renta chiffon style, the hem of which featured a floral landscape with bold stems shooting up towards the waist. If the silk seemed a precious choice for an engagement with children, it didn’t stop Meghan from hugging and posing for photos with patients and staff.

It wasn’t a new addition to her wardrobe; this is a piece that she wears at home with her own children, as we saw in the 2022 Netflix documentary series Harry & Meghan. In those clips, she was barefoot in the family’s Montecito garden, her son Archie’s feet kicking around her waist as she carried him (and arguably adding some authentic mud to the picture).

Diana’s “caring dress” was also a designer number. She rewore hers on several public occasions after it was created for her in 1988: on visits to Lagos in Nigeria, in São Paulo, Brazil, and also while visiting a London Aids hospice. The repetition served to reiterate her point that bright colours and florals appealed to her audience. The press at the time goaded her, apparently telling the Princess to “give the dress a rest”.

For Meghan, some 35 years later, the floral dress feels markedly different to the beige “stealth wealth” outfits we are used to seeing her wear. As she prepares to launch her new lifestyle business, American Riviera Orchard, perhaps we will see a new chapter begin in her fashion playbook; the wholesome floral dress could be linchpin in any “trad wife” look.

[From The Telegraph]

Yeah, the dress is a familiar piece to longtime Meghan-watchers. She also wore it in 2022, when she and Harry brought their children to the UK. There were photos (seen in the Netflix series) of the Sussexes walking outside of Frogmore Cottage, and posing for photos inside the cottage, and Meghan is wearing the dress. I always thought it was a two-piece, blouse and muted silk skirt. Guess not. Anyway, it’s clear that this is just a dress that Meghan likes and one which has been in her closet for several years. I don’t find it particularly trad-wifey either. That being said, I am glad Meghan didn’t wear another f–king beige ensemble! I will buy ten jars of Meghan’s jam if she wears some bright colors this year.

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Photos courtesy of Instagram, Backgrid, Netflix, Getty.