As soon as I saw that Graydon Carter was hawking a new memoir (When the Going was Good), I knew that he would be dishing up bitchy comments about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Carter is like Tina Brown, his old predecessor at Vanity Fair, in that he cannot keep Harry and Meghan?s names out of his f?king mouth. Not only that, but Brown and Carter seem to have a similar royalist perspective that Meghan is terrible, that she?s led Harry astray, that Harry is supposed to be ?back in England? with his dogsh-t father and brother. Graydon made all kinds of nasty comments about the Sussexes back in 2023, when he predicted that a Sussex divorce would be in the cards. He recently told the NY Times that he thinks the Sussexes are ?chancers? too. Well, Graydon Carter is still shilling his memoir and this was part of his interview with Page Six:

One of his last Vanity Fair covers before he stepped down in late 2017 was Meghan Markle.

?Jane Sarkin, who booked our covers, came in and said, ?We should do a cover on Meghan Markle,?? Carter told the Post. ?I said, ?I have no idea who that is.? She said, ?She?s on ?Suits.? I said, ?I have no idea what that is, why should we do a story on her?? So she said, ?Because she?s going to marry Prince Harry.??

Carter laughs remembering how, at one point during the interview, Markle challenged the reporter: ?Excuse me, Is this going to all be about Prince Harry? Because I thought we were going to be talking about my charities and my philanthropy.?

Raising his eyebrows, Carter said of Markle, ?This woman is slightly adrift on the facts and reality.?

The editor was friendly with Markle?s late mother-in-law, Princess Diana, and had co-hosted the 1994 party for which Diana donned her so-called ?revenge dress? ? in supposed retaliation for the televised admission of adultery by her husband, Prince Charles. He remembers sitting next to Diana at several dinners. ?She was very intrigued and kept asking questions ? she wanted to know how Jackie Kennedy was treated by the Kennedy family because, I think, she felt there were parallels between how Jackie was treated and the way she was treated by the royal family.?

Carter believes that Diana would not be happy with her son Harry?s current estrangement from the royal family.

?I would think she would feel great sorrow for her son to have been pulled away from his family like this, especially his brother but also his father ? ,? he said. ?Anytime someone comes between siblings that?s a disaster, horrible for a family.?

[From Page Six]

These old farts have been trying to ?Yoko Ono? Meghan for six-plus years now. ??Her son to have been pulled away from his family like this? ? who ?pulled? Harry away? Harry escaped his awful birth family after they refused his offer of a ?half-in? solution. His family also pulled his security and did not give a sh-t about the mortal danger he, his wife and infant son faced. ?Anytime someone comes between siblings that?s a disaster, horrible for a family.? William literally assaulted Harry over Meghan. How did Meghan ?come between siblings? again? By existing? By being the person Harry prioritized over his violent psycho brother?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Backgrid.

Last week, the British media marked the one-year anniversary of the Princess of Wales?s cancer announcement video. I wouldn?t have thought that one of the worst moments in Kate?s life would need some kind of commemoration, but here we are. Not only were commemoration articles written, it looks like Kensington Palace also organized a special briefing to Becky English at the Daily Mail. English had this big exclusive: ?Story of Kate?s cancer battle: A year ago the Princess made her unprecedented announcement. Now for first time Rebecca English tells how Kate fought back from ?battering? of cancer.? This piece includes some new information as well as a great deal of sugar-coated revisionist history. Some highlights:

William & Kate are in a better place now: It?s clear that after a tumultuous 12 months, William and Catherine are, happily, in a ?much better place?. ?It?s actually lovely to see how far they have come,? says a friend.

Kate?s priorities: Her health remains her priority ? a diet packed with healthy antioxidants, trips to the gym and generally being outdoors, particularly with her family, as much as she can?. Perhaps just as telling has been the sight of William cheering on his beloved Aston Villa, or out on manoeuvres with the Mercians in Estonia this week. There?s a sense of normalcy regained. ?I don?t think many have seen them happier,? one insider observes.

Kate still won?t make plans to come back to work full-time: ?As cancer survivors will tell you, the recovery is still hard. Her health really took a battering last year. I can?t stress that enough, however well she looks now,? a source emphasises. There are no plans yet for any major foreign visit, for example ? although aides are keeping an eye on the situation. ?For the time being it?s steady as she goes. There?s no change of course from what?s previously been suggested, which is a slow and steady return to royal life,? another insider adds.

Kate?s abdominal surgery in January 2024: Such a lengthy hospital stay (the Princess was a patient at the London Clinic for two weeks) was highly unusual, they said, and had sparked much debate in their own staff room. In truth, I already had an inkling that it was much, much worse than Kensington Palace had let on. Indeed, the week before the Princess?s broadcast [in March], this was confirmed to me by a very well-placed source, who stressed how serious they believed her condition had been in the run-up to her surgery. Another contact also revealed that the increasingly upset and frustrated couple were considering issuing a public statement.

Kate?s statement last March: I am told that the Princess wrote every single word of her 371-word statement herself, without any advice from her press office at Kensington Palace. ?They were absolutely her personal words, it was her story and she wanted to share it,? a source says. Another adds: ?It was powerful and all the more so because it came so personally from her. Only she was in a position to truly get across how she was feeling. The Princess also wanted to make sure whatever she said reflected the experience of the many others around the world who get the same, life-changing diagnosis too. That was something only she was able to share with them.?

Controlling the narrative: The fact that this was followed up with two further personally penned and recorded messages in June and September ? plus a message on social media in January revealing that she was happily in remission ? only cements how determined she and William are to continue to tell this story in the way they see fit. On one hand this is down to the couple?s sometimes admittedly overarching determination to ?control the narrative?. As public figures, dependent on public finances, only time will tell whether this is truly possible to maintain.

Russian bots: Both they and their team were genuinely shaken by the discovery that huge swathes of the rumour and conjecture this time last year was down to the manipulation of Russian ?bots?. Excellent research last year by the BBC revealed how security investigators believed a Russia-based disinformation group deliberately amplified and added to the frenzy of social media conspiracies about the Princess?s health. In the weeks leading up to her video message there was a notable surge in online rumours and often wild claims about her health, they said, which added to the already unbearable emotional pressure on the couple. An analysis of the data showed ?hallmark signs? of a co-ordinated campaign (apparently sharing and adding to false claims is easier to do and harder to track than starting misinformation from scratch), presumably with the aim of destabilising the Royal Family, who are seen as a force for unity in the UK. ?It was already a crazy time but what the couple and their team didn?t realise at first was that the Russians were feeding the algorithm,? a source tells me.

[From The Daily Mail]

As someone who covered Kate?s months-long disappearance and all of the craziness around it, I have no doubt that ?Russian bots? were amplifying certain storylines/theories. But? saying ?oh, Russian bots were behind it all? is another version of whitewashing the very real crisis for the royals last year, and it?s a way of absolving William and Kate of responsibility for their immaturity as public figures and their clownish, slapdash damage control and outright lies. A huge chunk of the crisis was of Will and Kate?s own making, from their refusal to give considered and truthful updates on the future queen consort?s medical situation to their catastrophic decision to release a manipulated photo as a health update for Kate. Normal people, regular old royal-watchers and regular old gossips were talking about the story and trying to figure out what the hell happened. Even by English?s own admission, the speculation was everywhere from January through March 2024.

As for this new storyline that William and Kate?s marriage has never been stronger NOW, and that this is the happiest they?ve ever been? yeah, I don?t know. I do think that whatever happened in the past sixteen months or so, some kind of all-encompassing deal has been worked out with regards to living situations, work schedules, the reentrance of the Middletons into society and whether Kate will ever wear a tiara again.

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

Interestingly, there?s been a flurry of Kensington Palace briefings in recent days. Saturday marked the one-year anniversary of the Princess of Wales?s cancer announcement, and KP marked the occasion by giving an exclusive, sugary briefing to Becky English at the Mail. As it turns out, KP also gave a special briefing to Roya Nikkhah at the Times, but this one is all about Global Statesman Peg and his commitment to never doing a full-scale royal tour ever again. William spent two days in Estonia last week, visiting a British military outpost and highlighting NATO?s commitment to the Baltic states in the wake of Russia?s war with Ukraine. Apparently, the two-day trip was Prince William?s new model for ?tours? and foreign trips. He thinks he looks more like a global statesman if he keeps his schedule open enough to always have weekends off, in addition to a good chunk of the work week off too. Some highlights from this Times exclusive:

This is the new ?tour? model: When the Prince of Wales recently outlined his approach to the monarchy, he spoke of aiming for ?impact? and ?trying to do it differently?. With a whistlestop trip to Estonia last week ? where he spent less than two days on the ground and was home in time for a weekend with his family ? the prince gave another indication of what his ?different? approach to monarchy means in practice. Some royal watchers have questioned why the Waleses appear to have moved away from the traditional model of two overseas tours a year ? one in the spring and one in the autumn ? which the King adhered to for years as the Prince of Wales and has continued with as monarch.

Soft power: For William?s deployment of soft power on the global stage, he will increasingly opt for short foreign trips rather than the traditional lengthier royal tours. A source close to William said: ?What you saw last week is a short, impactful trip that showcased an important issue. It?s a model you?re likely to see more of.? William and Kate?s last overseas tour was to Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas in March 2022, and was beset by controversy and diplomatic hitches.

Why William & Kate won?t go on long tours: The Waleses have prioritised not spending extended time away from Prince George, who is eleven, Princess Charlotte, nine, and Prince Louis, six. The children?s weekends and school holidays are seen as special family time, which the couple try not to let work interrupt.

William loves the word ?impact?: While aides would not rule out longer overseas tours for the couple in future, they stressed that William?s vision for ?the role that modern monarchy has in diplomacy? and his role as a global statesman is more about that buzzword ? ?impact? ? over endurance. ?The idea of the short, sharp trip that has impact is one that works from a storytelling and impact perspective,? said an aide. ?He was in Estonia for under 36 hours, one minute he?s sat with the president, the next he?s taking selfies with Estonians [during a walkabout with hundreds of wellwishers], then he?s taking part in a military exercise on the Russian borders. In terms of diplomacy and the role the family has to play, that is an example of what they can deliver.?

No major overseas tours for a while: In November, William is set to travel to Brazil for a few days for his annual Earthshot environmental awards, and to attend the Cop30 climate conference which will be held in the northern city of Belem. He and the Princess of Wales, who is in remission from cancer and is continuing with a gradual return to public life, are not expected to embark on a major overseas tour any time soon.

More global statesmanship without the messy travel: While William is not expected to increase the amount of time he spends abroad on official business, there has been a notable increase in what aides call his ?statesmanlike work? since becoming heir to the throne. At every meeting, discussions about geopolitics and a range of world issues were on the agenda. ?I think he is more confident and he takes it in his stride,? said the aide. ?That role of global statesman is really important for him. When asked, he?s always willing to do what?s needed to support the government and His Majesty.?

[From The Times]

This reads like everyone knows that William is profoundly incapable of doing anything more than this, so they?re trying to work with what little they have. ?I was in Estonia for 36 hours, that makes me a global statesman!? Sure, Peg. That being said, it definitely feels like William is telling (and not showing) the press that this is the way it is from now on? and the press isn?t quite sold on it. Thus, Roya?s jabs about the Caribbean Flop Tour of 2022 and ?Some royal watchers have questioned why the Waleses appear to have moved away from the traditional model of two overseas tours a year.? This is a disagreement between Charles and William, right? Charles wonders why William can?t get off his ass and commit to traveling at least twice a year for something other than ?vacations? and ?football.? Oh well ? Charles got the heir he deserves.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Prince Harry?s Spare was an excellent read and I still maintain that Harry accomplished something no other Windsor has done: he created his own historical record, one which will be referenced for years to come. He wrote a definitive account of his own life and times, successfully altering dozens of false tabloid narratives about himself and his family. What was also interesting about Spare was watching people parse and exploit various parts of Harry?s story? and then ignoring other parts. Harry made it clear in Spare that he thinks he was fed some kind of cover story about his mother?s death, and that he still has questions about everything leading up to Diana?s death and everything around it. Oddly, the British tabloids didn?t have much to say about those parts of Spare.

I?ve always felt like part of the reason why Harry has pursued his security fight with Ravec is because he?s investigating how Diana was left without security in the final year of her life. What?s also interesting, just as a sidenote, is how The Crown absolutely left the impression that the Windsors and British intelligence were heavily monitoring Diana post-divorce, and that Charles was especially consumed by keeping track of his ex-wife. In any case, Harry still has a lot of unfinished business when it comes to Diana. Would he try to work out this unfinished business in documentary form? That?s what the Express is saying.

Prince Harry will be offered the chance to make a documentary to mark the 30th anniversary of his mother Princess Diana?s death, a senior Hollywood source has revealed. The two or three-part series would air in 2027, three decades after Diana was killed in a horrific car crash in Paris in August 1997, as part of a new long-term Netflix deal for the Sussexes.

?The idea is that it would be a solo project for Harry, who would be a co-executive producer as well as hosting and narrating the series,? said the Los Angeles source. ?He is uniquely placed, not only to talk about the woman he knew as his mother, but also to examine her role as an enduring social and cultural icon still beloved by so many.?

The production executive added: ?It?s felt that this is something he would handle with passion and sensitivity, offering fresh insights into not only her life, but also her lasting legacy.?

Our source added: ?Nothing has been agreed yet but this is being talked about in an extremely positive way. Harry might even see it as a stepping stone to building bridges with William and the rest of his family.?

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex?s generous ?77.2million agreement with the streaming giant, signed in 2020, comes to an end this year. Now the California-based pair look certain to be offered a fresh contract, as Netflix is to enter into a commercial partnership with the couple.

[From The Daily Express]

I honestly don?t think this is the worst idea, just the basics of it: Harry executive producing a docuseries about his mother, perhaps a more in-depth analysis of Diana?s life, death and legacy than anyone has ever done. But I also think it probably wouldn?t happen and/or that Harry just fundamentally wouldn?t agree to it. I don?t think he would pitch this, nor do I think he would handle it well if Netflix pitched this to him. Now? for the 30th anniversary of Diana?s death, I?m sure a lot of documentarians and journalists will be contacting Harry and asking him to speak about Diana. We?ll see.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

During the 2023 Hollywood strikes, Mandy Moore shocked a lot of people when she revealed that, despite a reported 18 billion streaming hours on Hulu, she only made ?pennies? in residuals from This Is Us. A few months later, Aaron Paul shared that he did not earn any streaming residuals from his Emmy-winning role on Breaking Bad. Over on the production side of things, the writers for Suits revealed that even though it was one of the most-streamed properties on Netflix that year with over three billion minutes watched, they?d only made a couple of hundred dollars each. Basically, actors, writers, and creators were getting screwed while streaming executives were making bank.

Like Suits and Breaking Bad, Gilmore Girls picked up a ton of new fans after it started streaming on Netflix. Lorelai Gilmore herself, Lauren Graham, is busy promoting her new series, The Z-Suite. During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! recently, Lauren revealed that she doesn?t make much at all in GG residuals. Why? Because there?s ?no residuals on Netflix.?

Lauren Graham is spilling some hot Luke?s coffee when it comes to her paycheck. The Gilmore Girls alum, who starred alongside Alexis Bledel on the WB series from 2000 to 2007 and in the 2016 four-episode revival on Netflix, detailed how much she gets paid now that the show has become popular on streaming platforms.

?There really are no residuals on Netflix,? Lauren said during a March 19 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. ?But I?ve been paid in love and appreciation.?

While Lauren said she doesn?t make money from residuals?payments typically made to actors and the creative teams behind TV shows due to reruns, syndication or streaming deals?actors have been trying to make changes in Hollywood, with residuals being key discussion point of both the writer and actor strikes in 2023. (At the time, Mandy Moore also admitted her This Is Us streaming residuals were ?very tiny, like 81-cent checks.?)

And for Lauren, her lack of compensation may be surprising to fans who have seen how much the show skyrocketed in popularity after it started streaming on Netflix.

?We have definitely reached more people than we were reaching on The WB,? Lauren continued. ?And now it?s trickled into younger people, older people, men whose kids or wives probably have forced them to watch it. Yeah, I get stopped a lot. It surprises me every time though.?

Although the 58-year-old?who dated fellow Parenthood alum Peter Krause from 2010 to 2021?may not be growing her bank account as a result of her time on the show, she has been open about her undying appreciation for getting to play Lorelai Gilmore.

?It?s the best part I ever had,? Lauren said during a February appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. ?I love doing it, and I think it was really wonderful. It?s just that thing where it was the perfect material at the perfect time with the perfect writer?and it just means so much to me.?

[From E News Online]

This is wild. During the strikes, Sean Gunn also mentioned that he was receiving almost nothing in GG residuals. Just like Breaking Bad and Suits, Gilmore Girls has made a ton of money for Netflix. In fact, Netflix made more than $8 billion in 2024. How much does it hurt their baseline if they shelled out an extra like $500 million to pay people what they?re owed? I thought that part of the strike negotiations was to make sure actors earned more money from streaming content. Apparently, the deal mainly applied to new properties and are dependent on them meeting certain streaming numbers. According to THR, many of them have met the threshold for bonuses.

I grew up watching Gilmore Girls, from mid-high school through just after college graduation. It will always hold a special place in my heart. I cannot believe that it?s been 25 years since it first aired! I did not have any type of crisis when I turned 40 last year, but I definitely had some sort of internal reckoning when I turned 32 and realized that I was now the same age that Lorelai was during the first season, only she was a badass with a 16-year-old and I was struggling with a two-year-old. It makes me so angry to learn that none of them are getting any residual money.

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Out of all the dumb moments during Trump?s joint address to congress earlier this month (of which there were many), was when he paused to wax poetic on how beautiful the word ?tariff? was. That speech came on the heels of Trump announcing tariffs against Canada and Mexico for the second time, before quickly backtracking and delaying for another month (as he did the first time). Anyway, one of Sleep Mango?s justifications for the tariffs was to stop the ?invasion!? of migrants and fentanyl illegally crossing our borders. Well, the numbers are in, and seizures at the border are up 116%!!! FOR EGGS. Fentanyl seizures, on the other hand, are down by 32%. Trump?s America: where the contraband people are smuggling, if not straight up stealing is? eggs.

Officials made 3,254 egg-related seizures in January and February 2025, according to new data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). That?s a 116 per cent increase in egg seizures compared to the 1,508 events the same two months a year ago.

The rise comes as U.S. wholesale egg prices are shattering records as an accelerating outbreak of bird flu in laying hens slashes supplies. Trump promised to lower egg prices on his first day in office but prices increased 59 per cent on a year-on-year basis in February, the first full month of his administration.

And while wholesale prices may be coming back down, they ?have yet to be reflected at store shelves,? according to the USDA?s most recent egg markets overview.

Egg interceptions at the Detroit border crossing (where most eggs are coming in from Canada) increased 36 per cent in the 2025 fiscal year compared to the same time period in 2024, according to data provided by CBP to CBC News.

In Windsor, Ont., a dozen large white eggs at Walmart currently costs about $3.93. On the other side of the border in Michigan, a dozen large white eggs at Walmart costs about $8.50 Cdn.

Overall, the U.S. CBP reports a 36 per cent increase in eggs being detained at all ports of entry this fiscal year, which is October 2024 to February 2025.

These numbers do not capture what is actually smuggled into the country, although CBP says most of the egg seizures happen after travellers willingly declare the product.

Fentanyl, on the other hand, was intercepted by CBP 134 times in January and February this year, down 32 per cent from 197 seizures the same two months in 2024. Of those 134 events in 2025, nine were at the northern border with Canada, working out to 0.53 kilograms of the 740 kilograms seized so far overall.

Canada has represented less than one per cent of all seized fentanyl imports into the U.S., according to federal data. About 19.5 kilograms was seized at the northern border last year compared to 9,570 kilograms at the southwestern border.

The latest monthly Consumer Price Index showed a dozen Grade A eggs costs an average of $5.90 US, or about $8.40 Cdn, in U.S. cities in February, up 10.4 per cent from a year ago. That eclipsed January?s record-high price of $4.95 US, or about $7 Cdn.

[From CBC News]

One of the reasons why Canadian eggs are more plentiful and affordable now is because Canada incentivizes smaller poultry farms. This means that when, say, a lethal bird flu pops up, wherein the protocol is to slaughter all the chickens on the farm to prevent the disease spreading, fewer chickens are lost as a result. Compared to the millions of hens packed onto American farms, coupled with the greedy nature of American capitalism, multiplied by the current administration taking a John Deere chainsaw to federal support programs for farmers, and yeah? We?ve laid an egg.

MSNBC had some coverage the other day of Trump voters being polled over Zoom about how they think things are going so far. To broadly summarize, the consensus was, ?I just wanted prices to go down. I didn?t think he?d do all this, and now I?m scared.? At which point I involuntarily went into a Tasmanian Devil impersonation at my TV. So here we are at two months in: on the brink of, if not already knee-deep in a constitutional crisis as Trump decimates the federal government by following the Project 2025 playbook. And of course, not one single thing he?s done has made the cost of living better in any way. The one issue, apparently so important to voters that it outweighed whether the American Experiment itself could survive under Trump 2.0, and the baby-fisted man hasn?t even delivered on that. Maybe if we accept King Charles? offer to join the Commonwealth, we?ll finally get some reasonably-priced eggs again.

Photos credit: TheNews2/Cover Images, Shotput on Pexels

I?m genuinely astonished by Jeff Bezos? hard right-wing swing in the past year. Maybe he always leaned towards conservatism, but he decided last year to go all-in on Donald Trump and the MAGA agenda. Bezos installed a high-profile lackey of Rupert Murdoch to dismantle the Washington Post from within, and Bezos even personally shut down WaPo?s endorsement of Kamala Harris last October. Ever since, Bezos has been openly sucking up to the Trumps ? apparently, Bezos and Lauren Sanchez even socialize with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner (or at least they did in Aspen just a few months ago). Bezos was one of the billionaires invited to the Trump inauguration, and Sanchez attended too, with her implants jacked up by her visible bra (how f?king tacky). Well, here?s an update: Bezos and Sanchez have finally set the date for their wedding. Both of their marriages imploded with their affair, years ago, and Bezos proposed to Lauren in 2023 with a 20-carat diamond. Their wedding will be in Italy this summer.

Invitations have gone out for Lauren S?nchez and Jeff Bezos? wedding nearly two years after getting engaged, Page Six has confirmed. The wedding is set to take place in Venice, Italy, sometime over the summer, we?re told.

Reporter Dylan Byers was first to report the news on X Saturday. Reps for the couple did not immediately return Page Six?s request for comment.

Earlier this year, Page Six exclusively revealed there was buzz the couple would wed in June on their $500 million yacht, Koru, off the coast of Italy.

The Amazon founder, 61, proposed to S?nchez in May 2023 after five years of dating. At the time, the couple had been hitting the party circuit at the Cannes Film Festival while staying staying on his $500 million yacht, where he popped the question. Rumors of their engagement were swirling as she was seen with a massive diamond ring on her finger.

In November that year, S?nchez, 55, detailed Bezos? proposal, telling Vogue that she ?blacked out a bit? when he opened the box. ?We?re still thinking about the wedding, what it?s going to be. Is it going to be big? Is it going to be overseas? We don?t know yet. We?ve only been engaged five months,? she said at the time. Experts told Page Six that the 20-carat sparkler, which he placed under her pillow, is estimated to be worth a whopping $2.5 million.

[From Page Six]

Many have questioned why a man worth $200 billion-plus would settle down with a 55-year-old woman with too much plastic surgery and absolutely zero class. My only answer is: Lauren has a certain kind of effervescence which I think many men appreciate. I?ve read her interviews and I?ve come away convinced that Bezos loves her because she?s bubbly, positive, an adventurer and because she?s most likely the most sexually exciting woman he?s ever met, to put it politely. That being said, I did wonder if he would ever get around to marrying her. When he divorced Mackenzie (his first wife), she walked away with something like $38 billion. I assume Bezos isn?t eager to repeat that experience? but I?m sure Lauren has signed a prenup. Plus, she genuinely wants to be with HIM and be his wife.

Also: I?m surprised they?re going to Italy. It?s very? Succession Season 3. Why not have the wedding in America? Is it because Trump will have turned America into a sh-thole country by the summer?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

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British actress Ella Purnell has been working since she was a kid, and in the last few years she?s been really booked and busy. I feel like she?s one mega hit away from entering a whole new level of fame. (I also feel like there must be casting directors just waiting for the opportunity to cast Ella as Emma Stone?s sister, but that?s another story.) It seems Ella had some downtime amid her very healthy career momentum, as she recently took to Instagram to share videos of work she was doing on her home. Renovations? No. Instead, Ella was chronicling the spiny elm caterpillar infestation that befell her elm tree-adjacent abode, along with the (gentle) efforts she was undertaking to remove the unwanted guests from her premises, so they could be on their merry way to becoming mourning cloak butterflies? elsewhere.

Ella shared that her yard was infested with caterpillars and documented the entire experience, and I can feel them crawling on my skin.

?In her Instagram stories, she teased the ordeal, writing, ?I don?t think any of yall will be able to guess what I spent my day doing today.?

After showing a salad bowl and some tongs, it became clear that she wasn?t making a salad when she videoed black caterpillars crawling on the outside wall of her house, in the flowerbed, on her fence, and everywhere.

She collected as many as she could in the salad bowl to relocate and then provided an update on the soon-to-be butterflies the next day.

Ella learned that the caterpillars eat the leaves of elm trees, revealing that she has a large elm tree in her yard. ?So, it turns out the spiny elm caterpillars love elm trees. Who would?ve thunk it?? she joked.

Sure enough, the caterpillars were crawling all over the tree?s bark, but how and why they went over to the house is a mystery I?m not sure I want to solve.

What most likely is a response to people flooding her DMs with unsolicited factoids, Ella addressed that she is ?not killing the caterpillars, and ?they are not poisonous as in they could kill you, but their spikes are stingers and hurt like ass,? based on her experience with them.

She added, ?They make really pretty butterflies. I wanted my garden to be a peaceful spring time oasis but instead I have hundreds of stinging caterpillars falling from the sky.?

According to this North Carolina State University entomology factsheet, a spiny elm caterpillar can grow to two inches long and transform into the mourning cloak butterfly after being a chrysalis for three weeks.

[From BuzzFeed]

Ella handled the whole scene with pretty darn good humor, if you ask me! Redditors put all her Instagram Stories together and she seems super chill for a home invasion. (Then again, these weren?t squirrels. IYKYK.) Who knows, though, maybe she hired a professional caterpillar relocator to round up the critters.

In the house I grew up in, there was a small pantry off the kitchen that my mother used as an office. The room had no door, and the kitchen didn?t have one either. After feeling like she?d heard faint, strange sounds in there for months, the day came when my mother noticed a bee in the room. And then another one. And on and on and on. Yellow jackets had chewed through the wall of the house and set up a nest!!! And, I repeat: in a room with no doors! I promptly made arrangements to stay with a friend until our home was certified as yellow jacket-free. When the specialist came, he told my parents I was the smartest one in the family. Granted, caterpillars aren?t as aggressive as yellow jackets (except for whichever kind went after Jamie Dornan). So I guess the lesson is, make sure you cater your removal efforts to the risk level associated with the intruder. And record the whole thing on social media, naturally.

Ella Purnell documents a poisonous caterpillar infestation pic.twitter.com/KojB9xQjTq

? lindy (@manifestAang) March 16, 2025

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After all of these years, I do enjoy a good ?Princess Kate misses Harry? nostalgia piece. I actually do believe that Kate misses her brother-in-law and I also believe she?s probably still incandescent with rage that he married Meghan and moved far, far away, leaving her with the other brother. According to this new report, it seems like Kate is basically the only one in the Windsor clan who worries that they?re actually setting a horrible example of how to handle intra-family disputes.

Kate Middleton is still hoping for a reunion with Prince Harry, according to a source who said she?s ?not willing to give up fighting.?

The Duke of Sussex and his wife Meghan Markle have been estranged from the royal family for years and have even made a number of explosive allegations against Kate and her husband Prince William. Harry alleged Kate made Meghan cry during one argument and detailed a physical confrontation with William in his memoir Spare. Despite the harsh comments, a source said family is ?hugely important? for Kate, including Harry. ?So of course she?s still holding out hope that, in time, things can heal,? they added.

The Princess of Wales is aware there would be ?challenges? in reuniting with Harry, but that isn?t going to stop her, according to the source. They explained, ?She believes that bridges can be rebuilt if there?s willingness on both sides.?

Initially, Kate is believed to have thought that creating space with Harry would have helped the situation with his brother. However, the source told Heat Magazine it?s actually made things worse. To try and fix things, Kate is reportedly ?quietly encouraging William? to forgive Harry. The source admitted, ?She hasn?t made a whole lot of headway with him, as he?s still very reluctant to trust Harry and Meghan.?

However, Kate won?t give up as she wants to ?set a good example for their own kids.? The Prince and Princess of Wales have three children together ? Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, nine, and Louis, six. The source continued, ?It breaks her heart to imagine something like this happening to them, so she wants to show them that family is worth fighting for.?

The Duke of Sussex is likely to return to the UK soon as part of his ongoing legal battle with the Home Office over a decision to remove his publicly-funded security. It?s unclear if he will reunite with his family during the trip. The source suggested Kate is hopeful Harry will reach out when he?s in the UK. They suggested she is hoping to get the chance to ?talk things through? with her brother-in-law.

The source concluded, ?She knows that may be a big ask and the challenge is that William and Harry see things so differently, so Kate can?t force anything. She?s doing what she can behind the scenes, but ultimately, it?s up to William and Harry.?

[From The Daily Mirror]

I remember all of that weirdness last year when Kate has disappeared and then stepped back from public life, and there were all of those briefings about how William wouldn?t ?allow? Harry to see Kate, and yet William was disappointed that Harry apparently made no move to contact him while Harry was in London twice last year. It was all very bizarre, but I still think it?s a good sign that Harry seems to be grey-rocking William and Kate in particular. It?s driving them crazy, to not know the Sussexes? moves or have any information on them to give to the tabloids. Anyway, within tabloid narratives, Kate has always been pretty willing to reconcile with Harry. Even sympathetic outlets position her as desperate to get Harry alone or away from Meghan, and she?s never said to be particularly interested in speaking to Meghan. It?s only about Harry. I find that interesting.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Prince William was in Estonia for two days. I was surprised by how little news he made outside of the most devoted royalist media, and even then, the coverage was almost entirely rote. ?William did this, yawn.? What?s crazy is that this trip was actually important from an optics standpoint. Russia is still waging war against Ukraine, and William was just a hundred miles or so from Estonia?s border with Russia. The whole reason he went to Estonia was to oversee the handover of British troops on NATO?s northeastern flank ? the Royal Dragoon Guards handed over their base to the Mercian Regiment (William is colonel-in-chief). William played some dress-up games and took a short ride in a tank, then he played pool and foosball with the men. Instead of actually emphasizing the political sensitivities around Russia and NATO, they just let William play dress up and play pool. Just as well, honestly.

During his second day of engagements in Estonia, William spoke to soldiers about what it was like to be deployed in the country, saying: ?It must focus the mind a little bit coming out here, knowing what?s going on the rest of the world, the context.
And in fact, the Russian border is only a few hundred miles from here. It does feel like it?s a bit more of an operational environment rather than just training.?

During his second day of engagements in Estonia, William took part in an exercise where he joined a convoy of Warrior vehicles that opened fire on an enemy trench with machineguns, before throwing in smoke grenades and then entering on foot to capture a ?high-value target?. Speaking to soldiers, William said that the Challenger 2 tank ?packs quite a punch?.

?I?ve probably churned up quite a lot of the mud here in the Challenger 2 and the Warrior, I made a bit more of a mess. We were saying it?s quite a useful exercise in itself, just viewing what?s gone on in Ukraine, seeing all the kinds of terrain they?re operating in and understanding the pros and cons of what?s gone on before. It?s quite a lot of things to be thinking about while you?re operating out here and does focus the mind a little bit . . . what the challenges are coming up?.

Staff Sergeant Amy-Jane Hale, in charge of welfare across Operation Cabrit in Estonia and Poland, welcomed the Prince to the welfare area at Tapa camp. The Prince appeared surprised to learn that Hale was the one welfare officer on the base. ?One?? he said. When the Prince asked Hale what she would wish for that would allow her to be more effective if she could ?wave a magic wand? she said another welfare worker to make the job less lonely.

In the cinema room, the Prince asked whether they got to watch the latest films. When he was told that Bridget Jones was due to arrive soon, he said: ?Oh that?s pretty good, not bad.? However, when he was told there was no fridge, he said: ?You?re joking? You do need a fridge. I?m definitely getting you a fridge.?

[From The Times]

It will be interesting to see if there?s any follow-up ? do you think William will actually send a fridge to Estonia? Would he actually demand a second wellness officer at the outpost? We?ll probably never know.

Incidentally, some people found it odd that William would be in Estonia for two days and his trip coincided with King Charles and Queen Camilla?s multi-day visit to Northern Ireland. The thing is? all of the Windsors move quietly whenever they?re going to NI. They don?t announce anything, they just show up with the royal rota in tow. So, it?s likely William didn?t even know that his father was going to be out of England too.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.