In yesterday’s links, I mentioned the Donald Trump-backed “Freedom 250” concert/show for the Fourth of July. The performer list was a who’s who of WTF? Well, to make matters worse, five of those acts have already backed out, including Bret Michaels, Martina McBride, Young MC, The Commodores and Milli Vanilli. LMAO. [Just Jared]
If you ever wondered what happened to Jason Lewis, here’s your answer. [Socialite Life]
More praise for Widow’s Bay. [Pajiba]
Love Josh O’Connor but I hate this cover image. [OMG Blog]
I missed Salma Hayek’s amazing feathered dress. [RCFA]
The Simpsons are surprising us with three new episodes. [Seriously OMG]
Who is Jenelle Evans feuding with this week? [Starcasm]
Jennifer Lopez says being single is “fantastic.” [Hollywood Life]
Personal stories about what men didn’t know about women. [Buzzfeed]
Jennifer Aniston won’t marry Jim Curtis any time soon. [Reality Tea]
Fendi’s new collection is goth AF. [Go Fug Yourself]
Surprise, billionaire nutjob Peter Thiel has escaped to Argentina. [NYT]

Mike Tindall loves to pretend that he’s the Windsors’ biggest cheerleader, but that man is always making the left-behinds sound like drunken idiots and buffoons. Which… fair enough, I actually believe that many of them are half in the bag or constantly buzzed, and I also believe they’re all buffoons. In late 2023, Mike revealed that his nickname for Prince William is “One Pint Willy” and that William is “not the best of drinkers.” Bless One Pint Willy’s heart, because he does try – he’s constantly boozing it up at events, even morning events. But what about the Princess of Wales? Back in the day, Kate had a love of rum punch and “crack-baby cocktails,” but in March of this year, she said that she rarely drinks these days because of her health trouble. Well, Mike Tindall now says that Kate “still” plays drinking games.

Kate Middleton is always up for a particular drinking game. Retired England rugby union player Mike Tindall, 47, who is married to Prince William’s cousin Zara Tindall, made the claim in a new interview with Woman & Home.

“Sport is rife throughout the family – everyone is competitive. We did a podcast on how much they love sport,” Mike said, according to Hello! magazine, referring to a special 2023 episode of his podcast The Good, The Bad & The Rugby that featured Prince William, Princess Kate and his mother-in-law, Princess Anne.

“I knew that the Princess of Wales was uber competitive because I’d seen her play a drinking game called beer pong, but normally we play Prosecco pong! She still plays it with us,” he said.

In September 2023, the Prince and Princess of Wales and the Princess Royal sat down with Mike and his podcast co-hosts for an episode of The Good, The Bad & The Rugby.

The special was filmed in the Green Drawing Room of Windsor Castle and timed to the Rugby World Cup, in which Princess Kate, Prince William and Princess Anne all backed different teams for their roles as patrons of the Rugby Football Union, Welsh Rugby Union and Scottish Rugby Union, respectively. A breakout moment of the conversation was Mike’s playful claim that Princess Kate, 44, was “uber competitive,” evidenced by her prowess at “beer pong” — which she coyly denied.

[From People]

Prosecco Pong? How gauche for Contadina Caterina. Let me tell you something – the royals are exactly the kind of people who don’t believe that wine and beer really “count” as drinking. They think you’re only really drinking if you consume five stiff martinis every afternoon. Which is probably what Camilla does. Anyway, Tindall keeps revealing the most unfortunate secrets. Ol’ One Pint Willy must have learned how to reveal all from Mike!

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar and Cover Images.

Furthermore, while Mackenzie suffered severe injuries she had to recover from, a blood test proved that she was not intoxicated. (She tested positive for THC, but as her social media would show, Mackenzie was very, very well practiced at driving while smoking weed.) So with all that evidence, police and prosecutors arrested Mackenzie on 12 charges, including murder, felonious assault, and aggravated vehicular homicide, among others. Mackenzie was convicted in August 2023 and is currently serving two concurrent terms of 15 years to life. People Mag has had a slew of stories this week about the case, including yet more damning info that wasn’t included in the documentary:

Mackenzie used pig latin in front of the police to ask her mom to tell them she had a seizure during the crash: One piece of evidence that The Crash didn’t include was an audio recording between Mackenzie and her mother, Natalie Shirilla, taken by police when Mackenzie was being interviewed in the hospital. In the recording, Mackenzie and her mom speak a “unique language” that appeared to be a version of pig latin, according to Assistant Prosecutor Tim Troup. When Detective Zaki Hazou tells Mackenzie and her mother that they are investigating her for aggravated vehicular homicide, Mackenzie turns to her mom and speaks to her in the gibberish language. Police later said they determined what the phrases translated to. “Can we tell the police I had a seizure, can we tell the police something like that?” Mackenzie allegedly asked her mom. She then asked Hazou, “Can’t you just take my license away for like, 10 years?”

Was her POTS claim NUTS? The audio recording ultimately played a role in Mackenzie’s conviction, as her defense lawyers argued that she suffered a medical event at the time of the crash. They alleged that she passed out due to the chronic medical condition postural othrostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), though she didn’t have proof of a diagnosis. First responder Brett Stanislaw testified in court that Mackenzie’s “pulse, motor and sensation in her four extremities” were normal, “which he said ruled out a stroke, seizure or other significant neurological emergency,” according to court documents. Stanislaw later acknowledged that she could have suffered a seizure before he arrived, as his findings were limited to the time he had with her after the crash. Mackenzie continues to claim that she does not remember the crash.

Former friends believed Mackenzie was guilty: “Mackenzie gets what she wants, Mackenzie is never punished and now Mackenzie is punished, and there’s nothing Mackenzie or her family can do.” Meanwhile, her former friend Jaina Maynard claimed that Mackenzie was “terrible to people,” but she could have “been a lot more if she just chose a different route and got the help she needed.”

[From People]

Speaking pig latin in front of the cops??? That’s just… I mean… WOW. Or should I say, “upidstay.” And the whole seizure/POTS argument only backed Mackenzie and her mother into a corner, anyway, which the prosecutor easily unraveled in court. He basically said, “If the POTS was a strong enough condition that Mackenzie could suffer a seizure quickly and without warning, then how did she get a driver’s license in the first place?” And Dominic’s sister further pointed out that wouldn’t her foot have let up on the gas pedal during a seizure? Also, this comment was spot on: “Mackenzie is never punished and now Mackenzie is punished, and there’s nothing Mackenzie or her family can do.” The Shirillas are interviewed in the doc, and I came away strongly feeling that they bore some responsibility, too. It was so apparent that they did not parent her. Mackenzie did have several friends speak positively of her in the film as well. The nicest way I can put this is, I truly think those friends have no idea how they sound. In negating the idea that Mackenzie was suicidal, one friend said: “She refused to eat a McChicken with me. I just don’t think someone who took such good care of themselves would be suicidal.” I’m paraphrasing — except for the McChicken.

The Crash is an infuriating watch. I recommend it, if you can stand it, but totally understand if it’s too awful to stomach.

Photos credit: Netflix

Will these horrid people ever stop crying about a tiara? It’s been eight years and they’re still coming up with wild stories about why the Duchess of Sussex is evil (?) for accepting Queen Elizabeth’s offer to borrow a tiara for her 2018 wedding. Let’s also be clear: all of these smears and stories have come from Angela Kelly, QEII’s dresser and the then-keeper of the royal jewels. It’s been eight years of Angela Kelly changing her story and spreading nonsensical lies about Prince Harry and Meghan. Harry attempted to correct the record on the tiara story in Spare, and yet the royalists persist with their increasingly bonkers lies. Recently, royal biographer Robert Hardman wrote a bio of QEII, a book which was very Sussex-intensive, obviously. Hardman got the most recent variant of the tiara story, and when he appeared on The Royalist podcast this week, he once again lied repeatedly.

Appearing on the latest episode of The Royalist podcast, journalist and royal expert Robert Hardman told host Tom Sykes about the late Queen Elizabeth II’s feelings over Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s tiara selection before their 2018 wedding.

“I think [the Queen], with… Meghan… they were a couple who were going to do things differently. And then Harry had, sort of, made that clear, really, from the start,” Hardman, 61, said. “So when the time came for Meghan to go and choose a tiara—and this is a sort of ritual, if you like, that the Queen loved doing with royal brides… as one of her staff put it to me, you know, this was a sort of bonding moment with her and a royal bride, particularly if it’s a bride from outside the family. So it’s not one of her own, you know, grandchildren, or whatever. It’s someone she doesn’t know that well and it’s a very nice way of, sort of, just getting to know.”

“And so she loved the whole business of picking out, because she has probably—well, did have—the most extensive tiara collection in the world and had quite a lot to choose from, so she’d pick a sort of handful, maybe five or six, and then be ‘Well, these would suit X or Y,’ and they’d all be laid out,” he added. “And the bride-to-be would come around and they’d have a very happy morning or afternoon going through them all and trying them all.”

However, the author of Elizabeth II: In Private. In Public. The Inside Story said, the future Duke and Duchess of Sussex threw a wrench into the queen’s tradition. “Where this one was different from the start was, Meghan turned up—she turned up with Harry,” he said. “So immediately, that sort of intimacy wasn’t there, and Harry… half acknowledges that in his book.”

“Meghan chose the one she wanted and that was fine. And then a few weeks later, there was this sort of demand, a sudden demand, ‘We need the tiara now,’” Hardman continued. “The world’s busiest hairdresser was sort of flying in for a hair rehearsal—I didn’t know such things existed—and needs this tiara. ‘Where is it? We’ve got to have it. Come on, come on.’”

Hardman noted that the tiara’s transport was a particular obstacle, as it was not “a simple case of sticking it on a dispatch rider’s bike” or sending it through the mail. “There are forms to fill, insurance stuff to sort out,” he said.

The royal expert explained that another issue with the tiara, Queen Mary’s Diamond Bandeau, was its origin. “What was particularly worrying—and this is something that never really used to be of any great concern in the past, but it has become lately—is the provenance of all these pieces,” Hardman explained. “What are the diamonds in this thing? Could some of them have come from somewhere that turns into a scandal? Are there going to be any accusations of, sort of, colonial loot?”

“No one’s ever going to wear, I think, the Koh-i-Noor diamond ever again, because it’s just so diplomatically, politically toxic. You’ve got about six nations all claiming it belongs to them. It’s got a pretty unfortunate imperial backstory,” he said. “They just wanted to check it out, check out all the various parts of it because it was a sort of tiara that had come from two different sets of diamonds. And that took a bit of time. So anyway, eventually the thing was given the green light and it was ready.”

“But by then, there’d been a lot of shouting,” Hardman continued. “Harry—and it was always Harry doing the shouting, interestingly. Never Meghan. She obviously got him to do this, and he’d been ringing around the house, shouting at people, saying, ‘Where is this tiara? I must have it. We need it. We’re having this hair rehearsal.’“

Hardman said that, finally, the queen’s dresser, Angela Kelly, arrived at Kensington Palace with the tiara, leading to a standoff between her and the prince. “Harry writes about this in his book. I mean, he acknowledges that this argument happened. But as he recalls it… he got a sort of earful from Angela, and that it was all very scary,” Hardman explained. “And as other people recall it—Angela’s never spoken about it—but I mean, other people recall that actually, you know, it was Harry doing the shouting.”

[From The Daily Beast]

It’s interesting that Hardman is trying to say that there was an issue with Harry in the tiara-selection meeting too. While I read Spare, I caught that too – it was odd to me that Harry wanted to go to the tiara selection with his grandmother and Angela Kelly. But I think that’s why he went with Meghan too – he was probably very concerned that Kelly was going to try to con Meghan or set her up in some way. And “Angela’s never spoken about it” – please, everyone knows that Angela has been the source of these stories the entire time. God, I wish Meghan had chosen to stick with the Spencer tiara. Of course, then the controversy would have been “Meghan’s refusal to accept QEII’s tiara offer was a slap in the face!” They just kept setting her up constantly.

This was always how they saw Meghan too: “…It was always Harry doing the shouting, interestingly. Never Meghan. She obviously got him to do this…” They view her as a witch who forced Harry to act in bizarre ways. Bizarre ways like “defending his wife” and “choosing his wife over his privilege.”

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Last year was full of gossip about Hugh Jackman and the end of his marriage. Hugh and Deborra Lee Furness separated in 2023, but Deb only filed for divorce in the spring of 2025. When she filed, she released a public statement, saying in part: “My heart and compassion goes out to everyone who has traversed the traumatic journey of betrayal. It’s a profound wound that cuts deep…” Hugh was furious, because he had just started rolling out his relationship with Sutton Foster, the same woman who was likely “the reason” for Hugh and Deborra’s separation in the first place, meaning Sutton was the whole-ass “betrayal.” Well, Sutton recently made some comments about how it’s lonely at the top and how women should support women. Girl…

Hugh Jackman’s girlfriend, Sutton Foster, has opened up about her career in the public eye and how she navigates the intensity that comes with it. The Broadway star shared that she often feels “really alone”, and hopes that more women begin “supporting” each other instead of competing.

“I’ve been a leading lady for a long time … but often I feel really alone,” she said during a Women’s Health Lab panel called The Science of Staying Strong: Longevity, Movement & Resilience. “I reached out to a lot of my contemporaries last year, and a lot of the women on Broadway, and we all are usually on our own. Everyone shared the commonality of loneliness.”

Sutton seemingly referenced the ongoing discourse surrounding comparisons to Hugh’s ex-wife, Deborra-Lee Furness. “Women of power can actually support each other, and we don’t have to be pitted against each other,” she added.

[From Hello]

To be fair to Sutton, I’m pretty sure the “women of power can actually support each other” comment is specifically about Broadway divas and the actor world. To be fair to everyone else, it’s difficult for people to support Sutton after her relationship with Hugh basically destroyed both of their marriages and damaged at least one of their exes. People always forget that too, that Sutton was married when this thing with Hugh began. Her ex-husband seemingly went away quietly, while Deborra did not. And that’s not Deborra pitting herself against Sutton either – that’s Deborra speaking about the hurt that HER husband caused her.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

And speaking of, Goop Kitchen unveiled its first NYC storefront last month, which is why Gwyneth was on The Today Show this week to film a cooking segment. Gluten-free, grain-free turkey meatballs were on the menu, and Gwyneth shared a tip no trained chef has ever uttered before: arugula is a good substitute for dairy.

On May 27, Gwyneth appeared on the show alongside Savannah Guthrie and Carson Daly to make her gluten-free, grain-free turkey meatballs.

But while her Goop Kitchen recipe used a cup of Parmesan, Gwyneth opted for an unexpected substitute. “If you want to avoid dairy, one trick that I do is I dice up arugula, and I put it in,” she said, leaving Savannah visibly shocked.

“It sounds weird, but it kind of adds a nice texture to it, and it’s delicious,” Gwyneth insisted.

Reacting to the clip, which has been viewed over three million times on Instagram, internet users couldn’t help but poke fun at Gwyneth’s replacement:

“If you want to avoid arugula you can just replace it with a little dairy. Sounds crazy, I know”

“I just added arugula to my morning coffee—in lieu of dairy—in my stories, feel free to see how it turned out”

“I’ll try it in my coffee right now!”

“When I don’t have milk for my pancake mix, I just add lawn clippings”

“If you want to avoid arugula you can just put some dirt in it sounds weird but it kind of adds a nice texture to it?

“When I run out of croutons for my salad, I just grab a handful of mulch from my garden”

But at the same time, some people found the replacement disheartening:

“The way we have normalized being a afraid of food is wild”

“That just makes me feel sad”

Meanwhile, others questioned if the entire thing was “satire”:

“Is this rage bait”

“This is satire surely hahahahhaa”

“What a wild take”

[From BuzzFeed]

Ok, before we even bite into the main course, I have to point out that Chef Goop was at peak Gwyneth right from the start. Carson Daly takes the mushrooms she just rough cut and puts them on the burner, telling Gwyneth that he also went ahead and added the garlic for her. This is how Gwyneth said thank you: “Ok, I would’ve done that later, but whatever.” Priceless! See, I told you I enjoy unlikable characters on screen! And then the arugula of it all… Savannah Guthrie didn’t merely look shocked, she flat out said, “Really?! That’s weird.” The thing that’s so distinctive about arugula is that it’s peppery, which is not an adjective I typically associate with dairy! But this is where the internet served its best purpose, because these comments are positively sending me. “I just added arugula to my morning coffee” is brilliant. And as for the suggestion this was satire, well it is, but wholly unintentionally on Chef Goop’s part. And true to form, Gwyneth rounded out the segment with a very lofty, self-important explanation for what Goop Kitchen is: “We helped busy working parents feel really good about takeout.”

Lastly, Goop made headlines a couple weeks ago for massive layoffs, saying they were “pivoting to AI.” Can’t wait to see how AI will make all those meatballs.

Top 8 most obnoxious things Gwyneth Paltrow has said!

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In 2024, Shiloh Jolie filed the legal paperwork to change her name on her 18th birthday. She reportedly went out and hired a lawyer herself, without Angelina Jolie’s help, and Shiloh wanted to make a point of doing so on the first day when she was a legal adult. Her name change was simple: she wanted to drop “Pitt” from her surname and just go by Shiloh Jolie. Over the years, we’ve seen most of the other kids dropping “Pitt” from their surnames socially and at school, but Shiloh has been the only Jolie-Pitt child to go through the legal route. Until now. Maddox Jolie-Pitt has now filed paperwork to drop Pitt from his name too.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s son Maddox Jolie-Pitt really looks like he wants nothing to do with his famous pops … because he’s legally dropping his surname.

Maddox filed paperwork requesting a legal name change … specifically, dropping the “Pitt” from his last name and making his name simply “Maddox Chivan Jolie.”

The legal change comes on the heels of Maddox dropping the Pitt from his professional name … he’s listed as “Maddox Jolie” in the credits of Angelina’s recent flick, “Couture,” where Maddox worked as an assistant director.

Maddox joins some of his other siblings in dropping Pitt as a last name … Shiloh changed her name legally … Zahara dropped it informally … and Vivienne removed it from the playbill for a Broadway production she worked on.

On its face, it seems most of the kids are trying to distance themselves from their dad … a divide that’s only grown wider since Brad and Angelina filed for divorce in 2016 and took 8 years to hash things out.

We broke the story … Brad did not reach out to Zahara ahead of her recent college graduation from Spelman.

[From TMZ]

They don’t mention Pax, but he appears in various film credits as Pax Jolie in recent years too. As I said, all of the kids except Knox have made a point of dropping “Pitt” professionally, socially and scholastically. And I kind of think Knox probably dropped “Pitt” too, we just haven’t heard about it. But this is good – Maddox is 24 years old, and it’s smart to change his name through the legal route. I also feel like the timing is probably related to “sources close to Brad Pitt” throwing multiple tantrums after Zahara’s Spelman graduation.

Top 7 stories about the Jolie-Pitt children dropping ‘Pitt’ as a last name

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s children have systematically dropped ‘Pitt’ from their last names and are going by Jolie, both informally and legally. Get the top 7 stories about this when you subscribe to our mailing list!

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Dr. Jill Biden, former First Lady of the United States, has written her memoir, or a memoir of her time as the wife of a senator, vice president and president. The book is called View From the East Wing. An East Wing which no longer exists – Donald Trump ripped down the East Wing to make room for his gaudy ballroom and an UFC ring. I’ll admit, I’m not eager to read some of this book, even though I love Dr. Biden and I think she’s amazing. The early excerpts are about the most difficult moments – what happened during her husband’s disastrous debate in 2024, what she and Joe said to each other afterwards, etc. But there’s some lighter gossip too, like these sections where she writes about her visits to the UK. During President Biden’s term, Dr. Biden visited the UK a few times, including attending King Charles’ coronation. In 2021, Dr. Biden was also paired with the then-Duchess of Cambridge for an event. Kate did not do well at all, but Dr. Jill is gracious about it.

Her trip to the UK in 2021:
I’d been to the UK several times before as a Senate spouse and as second lady. On my first foreign trip as first lady, in June 2021, I attended a cocktail reception in Cornwall with the royal family before having dinner with the G7 participants. The reception was held at the Eden Project’s magnificent rainforest and Mediterranean biodomes in Cornwall, where Queen Elizabeth told Joe that her husband had not wanted to live to be one hundred, declaring it “too old.”

Duchess of Cornwall Camilla Parker Bowles told me she was happy to see someone her age there, because so many of the spouses were younger. I told her we were probably the only ones who were Beatles fans when they were still together.

At the dinner, I noticed how creative the menu was — melon soup with pansy blossoms (edible!), fresh turbot, roasted potatoes and spinach, a cheese course, a meringue with ice cream and then mini ice cream cones ( Joe, ice cream enthusiast that he is, ate three).

The conversation between Joe and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson centered around the challenges in getting people vaccinated, Putin and his agenda, childcare, the Social Security system — but when they started outgunning each other with obscure statistics, I stopped listening. This is what happens when you get a bunch of politicians together for what’s supposed to be a party, I thought. The charts come out.

At every event we’d been at together, Kate and William were friendly. When Princess Kate and I cooed over rabbits at a primary school in West Cornwall, I found her instantly likable, very unassuming. She made me feel at ease. She seemed so grounded. I encouraged her to keep a journal about her experiences. She said she liked to draw and paint, but I said you can never have too many ways to privately express your feelings.

Tea with Queen Elizabeth II, just a few months after Prince Philip’s passing:
Joe and I both looked forward to tea with Queen Elizabeth. After flying to Windsor Castle by helicopter, we were taken to survey the troops inside the courtyard. This is customary in the UK, and American presidents offer the same presentation when heads of state visit the United States.

After posing for a photo, we followed the queen to the elevator to take us to the second floor. It was just the three of us. British protocol had advised us not to talk about family since her husband, Prince Philip, had died just a few months prior, at the age of 99.

So I studiously did not ask the queen about her husband or anything related to the royal family. As soon as we began speaking, though, she filled us in on her 11 great-grandchildren and the new one on the way. I was amazed that she poured the tea herself and wanted to talk about foreign policy. She had two new Corgi puppies to help her through the hard times. One came in, and she gave him half a smoked salmon tea sandwich.

…I think she and Joe could have gone on talking forever. She had such a wonderful sense of curiosity about people and world events. She was rather honest about some leaders she disapproved of, and I felt grateful to be taken into her confidence.

As we were about to leave, someone came in and presented us with a small box of freshly picked strawberries from the garden and a bunch of red souvenir pencils with gold crowns at the top.

[From People]

People were surprised that Irish Joe Biden wanted to attend QEII’s funeral in 2022, but I always believed that he had respect for the old gal, and he probably did enjoy talking about history and politics with her. Interesting that in 2021, QEII mentioned that she had another great-grandchild on the way… that would be Lilibet Diana. As for what Dr. Biden says about Kate… yes, Jill makes Kate sound like a little girl who draws and twirls her skirt, but I think that’s probably an accurate representation of Kate’s personality. That’s how everyone talks about her, like she’s a big girl who has to be constantly praised for doing big-girl things like wear big-girl buttons and wigs, go to one meeting a month and “issue book reports about the Early Years.”

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar, Backgrid.

For years, there’s been a high-level campaign to disrupt and destroy any charity, any initiative, any NGO and any philanthropic partner involved with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Sabotage is the name of the game, and this high-level campaign has already taken down Sentebale. The people behind this campaign are royal, royal-adjacent, British establishment figures and the entirety of the British media. They’ve been aiming their sights on the Invictus Games and African Parks for years. We’ve seen the moves against Invictus in real time, but African Parks seems like a trickier situation for these anti-Sussex campaigners.

Prince Harry is now on the board of African Parks, after serving as president for years. He’s led delegations of high-level elected officials to show AP’s work on the ground, and AP is extremely well-funded and doing extremely important conservation and anti-poaching work. As I’ve said before: “This is an NGO operating across twelve countries and twenty-two protected areas and they have a staff in the thousands. They’re battling jihadists, bloodthirsty poachers and billion-dollar corporations. Of course everything is not going to operate perfectly and within the law.” And yet, this British-based campaign persists. It’s never really about trying to improve African Parks either – the campaign and the coverage is always centered on Harry and how he needs to resign from the board.

The Duke of Sussex is facing calls to step down from his role at the head of an African charity after it was accused of funding rangers who are alleged to have committed “horrific abuses.” Rangers receiving funding from wildlife charity African Parks have been accused of continued wrongdoing in the Republic of the Congo by Survival International.

The charity was initially accused of funding rangers who had committed human rights abuses in a 2024 report by the Mail on Sunday. The organisation, which Harry helps to run, is responsible for the management of 24 protected natural areas in 13 African countries.

Survival International, an indigenous rights charity, yesterday called on Prince Harry to resign from his role on African Parks’ board of directors over claims of continued abuses…The organisation committed to strengthening partnerships with Congolese human rights groups in the wake of the findings. It said it had developed a “bespoke remedy framework” addressing issues of indigenous people’s access to land. In a statement issued yesterday, Survival International claimed “the problems on the ground have not been solved”, however.

The group criticised the Duke of Sussex for attending a fundraiser in Arizona earlier this week as African Parks seeks to raise an additional $1billion.

A leader of the Baka community told Survival International, “We don’t work with them. The way the African Parks treat us here is violent”, The Times reports.The community leader’s identity was kept anonymous to protect them from any potential retribution from African Parks funded rangers.

Caroline Pearce, director of Survival International, said: “It is outrageous to see Harry’s continued support to African Parks despite the horrific human rights abuses committed by its rangers against the Baka.”

African Parks is backed by finance billionaires Howard Buffett and Bill Ackman. It has also received funding from the British Government and the European Union.

A spokesperson for African Parks said: “Over the past several years, African Parks has made substantial and sustained investment in human rights safeguards in Odzala-Kokoua national park. This has included the establishment of a fully operational grievance and redress mechanism, three independent human rights NGO partners providing trusted reporting channels for local communities around the park, and an independent panel of eminent African judges and human rights specialists who oversee the grievance mechanism, including the handling of all serious grievances.”

[From The Sun]

It sounds like they’re mad that Prince Harry was recently in Arizona for an African Parks event which was attended by NBA player and Olympian Devin Booker, a Walmart heir and Khaman Maluach. Notice that these people yelling and screaming about African Parks only want Harry to resign as well – none of these people can name anyone else involved with African Parks, nor are they calling for anyone else’s resignation. The chair of African Parks Foundation of America was alongside Harry in Arizona last weekend too, and yet no one is calling for his resignation? And that’s how it’s always been. The fact that all of these stories and claims have always been centered on Harry is so suspicious.

PS… This confirms my suspicions about what this is really all about – Tom Sykes’ latest Royalist column is about this issue and how Harry’s charities are in shambles because Harry is so commercial!

“We came together tonight to support a great cause, African Parks Network with Rob & Jordan Walton, Prince Harry and others, but it reminded me of something bigger: When exceptional humans come together with heart, generosity, and purpose… incredible things happen.” pic.twitter.com/Vk62B8he1o

— ChrisBaronSmith (@ChrisBaronSmit1) May 23, 2026

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Norman Baker is a longtime royal critic and a longtime royal-money watcher. I have no idea if Baker is actually a republican, but he certainly has no love for the ways in which the Windsors operate (with impunity). Well, Baker is on another tear. He’s previewing an upcoming parliamentary inquiry into royal real estate, specifically all of those “peppercorn rents” for various mansions, lodges, castles and palaces. The Mail surprisingly published extensive comments from Baker about which royal leases need to be examined and possibly thrown out. Hilariously, he talked at length about Prince William’s multiple forever homes.

Royal Author Norman Baker told the Daily Mail: ‘It is good that parliament, which generally does its best never to look into royal matters, has been forced by public opinion to examine the outrageous rental agreements which both ex-Prince Andrew and his brother Prince Edward have enjoyed – near-zero rents for gigantic mansions in the most charming surroundings of Windsor Great Park. As the profits from the Crown Estate go straight to the Treasury, it follows that applying a peppercorn rent rather than a market value means a loss to the taxpayer. We have been paying for these rich royals to live in luxury effectively rent-free.’

‘I think Beatrice and Eugenie would be wise to leave their properties in St James’s Palace and Kensington Palace before people (such as you and me!) start asking too many questions. Non-working royals should never benefit from grace-and-favour or peppercorn rent arrangements.’

‘In the case of Prince Edward’s Bagshot Park residence – it has an incredible 120 rooms for his family to rattle around in,’ explained Norman. ‘And not content with his peppercorn rent for this, he and wife Sophie lease out the mansion’s stable block for an eye-watering £130,000 a year. Does he forward that money to the Crown Estate? I’ll give you one guess.’

‘Other royals, such as the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Duke and Duchess of Kent have benefited from so-called grace-and-favour properties, a circumspect way of saying they get where they live rent-free. We have to hope that that Public Accounts committee will do its job properly and end the scandal of rich royals living in luxury at little or no cost to them – but considerable cost to you and me.’

Royal Author Norman Baker says Prince William has learned from the mistakes of more distant royals on how badly dubious rent deals can present to the public – at least when it comes to their main family home, Forest Lodge, in Great Windsor Park.

He says: ‘William has seen the warning signs and announced he will pay a market rent for their sumptuous new home, Forest Lodge, built in the 1770s and nestling inside a new and rather ugly perimeter fence some 2.3 miles long. But what of his other properties? For the prince who is championing the needs of the homeless has six other properties he and Kate can stay in.’

‘There is the modest-sounding but far from modest 20-room Apartment 1A in Kensington Palace in London, Anmer Hall in Sandringham, Restomel Manor in Lostwithiel, Tamarisk House on the Isles of Scilly, Tam-Na-Ghar on the Balmoral estate, and a royal retreat in Llandovery in Carmathenshire.’

While Kensington Palace remains the couple’s official London residence, Forest Lodge is only just over an hour’s drive from the capital, which largely renders the residence filed under ‘occasional use’ for the family. The Wales appear to favour ten-bedroom Anmer Hall to fully escape London life; the Georgian house on the royal Sandringham Estate was gifted to the couple by the late Queen Elizabeth and remains their country residence.

Beyond occasional holidays, the Wales are rarely at the other properties in Prince William’s portfolio: Restomel Manor, Tamarisk House, Tam-Na-Ghar and the royal property in Llandovery, Carmathenshire. And the Prince of Wales is unlikely to be worried by the lack of use… because, says Baker, he’s probably not covering the rent for at least some of them.

Baker explains: ‘It is believed that no rent is paid on Apartment 1A or Tam-Na-Ghar out of the pockets of William and Kate. In addition, it is likely that the properties which sit within the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster will be classified as business expenses and so reduce the taxation bills for Charles and William.’

[From The Daily Mail]

I looked up some of the additional homes cited here, and I think Baker is playing a little bit fast and loose – apparently, Restomel Manor is just a Duchy of Cornwall rental, available to anyone. Same with Tamarisk House, it’s a vacation rental owned by the duchy. Those are not really William & Kate’s homes per se, they’re just duchy-owned. But it’s remarkable to realize that they live completely rent-free at Anmer Hall and Kensington Palace, but still choose to spend most of their time at Forest Lodge, which they are “paying” for. Anyway, Baker should stick to critiquing the younger royals, because no one is really going to get behind evicting the Gloucesters or the Kents at this point. But evicting Edward and Sophie from Bagshot Park might be a good idea!

Photos courtesy of Kensington Palace.

Two weekends ago, Zahara Jolie graduated from Spelman College in Atlanta. Angelina Jolie was there, as were several of Zahara’s siblings. Zahara’s miserable father did not go, did not ask for an invitation, and did not mark Zahara’s milestone publicly or privately. It was actually a rare moment when Angelina’s team called out Brad publicly – sources close to Angelina went to TMZ (one of Brad’s favorite outlets) to basically call him a deadbeat and a loser (I’m paraphrasing). Well, “sources close to Brad” have been raging out ever since. There have been multiple pro-Pitt temper tantrums placed in the Daily Mail and Page Six since Zahara’s graduation.

First, Page Six had a dumb story about Brad’s latest “legal victory” against Angelina Jolie. That questionable victory? His lawyers will now get to depose Stoli’s general counsel, all over Angelina’s legal sale of Nouvel to a Stoli subsidiary. This case continues to expose Brad’s stupidity. Meanwhile, the Mail got yet another exclusive about Brad continuing to blame Angelina for their adult children’s refusal to have relationships with him.

As Zahara Jolie reaches what should be one of the happiest milestones of her life, tensions between her famous parents Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt reportedly continue to simmer behind closed doors. Shortly after the 21-year-old walked across the stage at her Spelman College graduation, reports began to surface that her dad never called to congratulate her.

‘Nothing prevented him from showing up for her. Or ever visiting her. The day was about all she accomplished. Not whether he was willing to attend,’ TMZ reported on May 18, citing ‘a source close to Angelina.’

In response to the backlash, a source told the Daily Mail that the ongoing public criticism surrounding Pitt’s relationship with his children has become increasingly frustrating to the actor.

‘When you’ve made clear that you’re pushing him away from the children, a reasonable person cannot then complain that he’s not close to the children,’ the source said. Multiple sources have spoken to the Daily Mail exclusively in defense of Pitt, insisting that he is not the absent father he has been portrayed as, and he wants a relationship with his six kids: Zahara, Maddox, 24, Pax, 22, Shiloh, 20, and 17-year-old fraternal twins Knox and Vivienne. The first source claimed that not only has Pitt made ‘efforts’ over the years to salvage his relationship with his children, but so has his extended family.

‘His family did try to do things and there were, at some points, communication,’ that source said, before admitting ‘it’s been a while’ since that has happened. ‘I know that there have been attempts with the cousins. [Growing up], they did have a good relationship, so that’s been cut off also. Nothing’s really changed.’

The second source added that Pitt’s family has seemingly tried to follow his lead, and have respected the boundaries that have been set. ‘Those closest to him, including his friends and family, are not judging him through any of this because they know he is genuinely trying his best under incredibly difficult circumstances,’ the second insider said.

The family divide was again brought to the forefront when Pitt’s mother, Jane Etta Pitt, died last year at the age of 84. Sources revealed at the time that Jane had been heartbreakingly cut off from Pitt’s kids for about nine years, and they did not get a chance to speak before her death.

‘The most gut-wrenching part is that Angelina kept the kids away from his parents, from their own grandparents,’ one insider alleged to the Daily Mail last August. ‘The question Brad has – that we all have – is: Angelina, where is your heart? Are you going to remain bitter for the rest of your life? It’s one thing if she wants no contact, but what about the kids?’

Sources close to Jolie have hit back in the past, with one claiming ‘Brad continues to play the victim. His fractured relationship with his children is a direct result of how he has treated them.’

The second source added that ‘Brad has come to understand that there is little more he can do beyond continuing to be present and available if his children ever decide they want him back in their lives.’ Meanwhile, a third insider has suggested that Jolie is able to control the narrative because she shares an extremely close bond with her kids, who are her ‘best friends.’

‘They are her entire world and she has convinced them Brad isn’t a good person,’ the third source claimed. ‘They’re now old enough to make their own decisions, but when you’ve been taught one thing for so long, it’s hard to suddenly unlearn things.’

‘Brad has been hoping for some kind of breakthrough with his kids, but right now it feels impossible,’ the second source told us. ‘The situation feels so surreal to him that it almost seems like it should be a bad joke rather than his reality.’

[From The Daily Mail]

While there’s been little mainstream reporting about this, I remember hearing that Angelina encouraged her kids to maintain relations with the hyper-conservative Pitt family and they did for a time, but the situation became way too toxic. Besides, this situation has been ongoing for a decade – four of the kids are adults (and the twins will be 18 in July), and they’re free to make decisions about who they spend time with. Zahara, Maddox, Pax and Shiloh have free will, and they want no part of anything to do with Brad. Those “Pitt sources” always fail to acknowledge something else: that the kids fully saw what Brad did to Angelina, and how he’s still abusing her and smearing her, and they’re ALL very protective of their mom. She was the one who got them out of that situation, she was the one who prioritized their well-being, she was the one fighting for their rights as minors.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

Kelly explained that she traveled to Palm Springs, California, to purchase some “amazing dates” that her family likes from a local street festival. “We’re gonna walk the street festival. We’re gonna have the time of our lives,” she said.

“She [Lena] made friends. She was like, ‘I’m a California girl now!’ She was prancing down the street. Typically, she’s very afraid of large groups of people and other dogs, but Thursday night, no. She was like, ‘This is who I am now. I am Palm Springs Lena. I have dog friends. I’m not afraid of people. I love it here,’” Kelly added.

After purchasing the dates, Kelly returned to the car and placed her dog in the passenger seat. However, upon walking to the driver’s side, she noticed the car doors were locked. “Now, I’m like, ‘Oh, my god! What do I do?’” she said.

Kelly enlisted the help of “a man in a van”. “He looks just as afraid of me as I am of the van. And I say, ‘I’m sorry. That is my car — I lied, it’s my husband’s car — that is my car. I locked the keys and my human dog and my phone inside the car.’ I said ‘my human dog,’ because they need to understand this is more than a dog, this is a person,” she shared. “And he says, ‘We’ll call AAA.’ And I go, ‘I would, but my phone is also locked in the car. And, if I’m being honest, I don’t know what AAA is.’ And he goes, ‘What’s your policy number?’ I go, ‘I don’t know what that means. I’m sure it’s all locked in the car.’”

The star had no choice but to then call 911. “I’m like, ‘Hi. I’m in the parking garage at the casino, and I have locked my human dog and my phone and my keys and my wallet and everything in the car. Can you send someone to break into the car for me?’” she said. “And they said, ‘Ma’am, we don’t break into cars,’” she recalled.

Kelly continued: “This tow truck guy comes. He doesn’t say one word to me. He doesn’t ask any questions, like, ‘Is this your car?; He just gets right to it. He comes. He breaks into this car in three seconds. I’m not even kidding.”

“I sit down in the car, I fasten my seatbelt, and Lena’s head pops up. And she was like, ‘You have no idea!’ She looked at me like this, like, ‘There were strangers trying to break into this car. I stayed hidden. Girl.’”

[From Hello]

Noooo, you never ever want your dog stuck in a car on a hot day! Or, you know, at all! But the heat really turns up the panic. I think Kelly took the right steps after realizing all the valuables were locked in the car: she got someone with a phone to let her call for help. Of course, it’s always good to know about AAA, and I hope Kelly files that resource into her mental awareness for future calamities. But I’m not gonna pretend that I’d know my policy number without looking it up on my phone, either. And hey, Kelly was probably embellishing just a little for the sake of storytelling (something certain raconteurs do… so I hear… speaking for a friend). Which by the way, Kelly really has Lena’s voice down in this tail! (No surprise, we already knew Kelly’s fluent in many animal tongues.) I could hear Lena herself in the whole inner monologue pup pep talk: “This is who I am now. I am Palm Springs Lena. I have dog friends. I’m not afraid of people. I love it here.” Sometimes we need a change of scenery to come into our own! But I think we can all agree the absolute best phrase to come out of this anecdote is “My human dog.” No explanation required, we know exactly what this means.

PS(A) — As summer settles in, let’s all make sure to be extra mindful of our human dogs in the hotter temps!

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