Freddie Prinze Jr. explains why he and Sarah Michelle Gellar don’t get papped
Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Geller have been together for 27 years and married
Blake Lively to the paparazzi: ‘You freak me and my kids out’
As Kaiser covered last week, Blake Lively is pregnant with her and Ryan Reynolds’ fourth
Benji Madden: Cameron Diaz is ‘a modern day feminist’ who shares positivity
Embed from Getty Images Benji Madden has a new extensive interview in Newsweek for the 20th anniversary of his band, Good Charlotte (with his twin brother, Joel). Good Charlotte returned from a multi-year hiatus to release a new album last week. I’m not too familiar with Benji and apart from the fact that he seems to be genuinely in love with and supportive of his wife, Cameron Diaz, I don’t have a strong opinion about him. A quick glance at our archives reminds me that he’s dated several famous women including Paris Hilton and Holly Madison and apart from hearing about his other occasional hookups, I haven’t heard a bad word about him in the 10 years I’ve run this site. No scandals, no paparazzi beat-downs, no DUIs. That’s really saying something. So he seems like a serial monogamist and a standup guy. He’s also very supportive of Cameron, and they’ve each gushed about each other on their social media and to the press. That’s all background to this interview, which just impressed me with how wise and thoughtful he sounds. I mean I don’t agree with him about Cameron Diaz, but he comes across extremely well. On how the music industry can be hard on artists My brother and I feel blessed to have survived and still have loving, connected relationships with each other, with our wives, with our family. We feel like: “Hey, there are a lot of artists who might be able to use our experiences.” We’ve been able to withstand a lot of things in the industry because we had each other. We feel protective of other artists. This is not a business that is set up in favor of artists. It’s important for artists to value themselves—whatever that means. Everyone’s going to take that in a different way. If you don’t value yourself, you will be bought and sold. On the public’s obsession with celebrity I think it’s a very unhealthy trend that will eventually be broken when people realize how hollow it is for our minds, it’s very cancerous…it’s like fast food. Fast food companies are trending down, lots of places are going out of business. People figured out: “This is killing us, it’s f-king terrible.” The celebrity obsession is doing the same thing for our minds—it’s very hollow and I think that trend is going to break soon enough. On how Cameron uses her platform for good I’m extremely proud of what she uses her platform for. She just released The Longevity Book, and before that she had The Body Book [a lifestyle guide to diet and health], and she spent thousands of dollars doing all the research, to get information to share with women who don’t necessarily have the resources to get that information. She’s a modern day feminist—she wants to change the conversation that’s being had about women and ageing. With The Body Book, she wanted to share all this information she has gathered over the years with women so they can live happy, pain-free lives. I’m proud of her because of what a light she is in a world where it would be so much easier to use that stage to promote products. But she’s using that platform she has to share positivity. It’s been one of the most inspirational things in my life watching a woman be so courageous…she’s got so much integrity. I’m a lucky guy that I get to experience that. [From Newsweek] He talks a lot about the industry and about how music gets made and artists are managed, and I didn’t excerpt that as it’s not relevant but it’s worth a read. Benji wants to empower young artists to do it on their own and not get chewed up by the industry, which can be brutal. Getting back to Benji’s thoughts on Cameron, she tried. I covered a lot of the press she did for The Longevity Book and she made some misinformed statements about women and aging, but she tried and she meant well. She’s not an authority on health or aging but she used her platform to try to be. It’s true that she’s not just shilling products, and that’s something. Also, of course I disagree with Benji’s opinion that celebrity obsession is terrible for us. Using his same fast food analogy, you can go to McDonalds and get something to eat once in a while, you just balance your calories and get your nutrients from other meals. Just because you like to follow celebrity news doesn’t mean you’re not informed about more serious events or that you don’t care. Sometimes we need a diversion. Here’s a video that Cameron shared of Benji. She left this gushing caption about how proud she is of him, which seems to be mutual. One of my favorite things about being married, is how much pride I take in my husband @benjaminmadden… He makes me proud everyday.. One day it might be how generous and giving, another how gentle and thoughtful. Or when he is fiercely protective of the people he loves and cares about… And everyday single day I am so incredibly proud of his integrity as a human being.. But TODAY what I'm most proud of is his talent… his gift…. Today his band @goodcharlotteband released their first album in 6 years #YouthAuthority .. What makes me even more proud is that he has released it on his own independent label MDDN… And it is so damn GOOOOOOOOD… Its so full of love and hope and truth… about forging and holding onto love… I wish that everyone could write music to express their pain.. their fears… their hopes and dreams. Baby you amaze me… CONGRATS!! @goodcharloteband @mddnco #youthauthority #proud http://apple.co/YouthAuthority A video posted by Cameron Diaz (@camerondiaz) on Jul 15, 2016 at 12:06pm PDT Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images
Taylor Swift-Tom Hiddleston Relationship is Fake, Actor Regrets Agreeing to PR Stunt (EXCLUSIVE)
Taylor Swift’s relationship with Tom Hiddleston is nothing more than a contrived publicity stunt, a source close to the British actor tells THG. Moreover, Hiddleston now regrets ever going along with it. We have omitted certain details such as the friend’s name, the London neighborhood in which he lives, and the pub in which he met Tom. While we believe the below account to be accurate, this is to protect our source’s identify for fear of retribution from Taylor Swift’s Squad. Kidding. Yet not really. Within the past seven days, this friend divulged to our source details surrounding the actor’s romance with a certain American pop star. Details suggesting, as we have theorized numerous times in the last few weeks, that Taylor Swift and Tom Hiddleston’s romance is fake. Not just flaunting it a little extra for the paparazzi, either. We’re talking full on arranged by publicists, staged kissing photos levels of fake. How so? Let’s begin. This friend, who describes Tom as “a pleasant guy who is very talkative, charming, and humble,” passed this along within the last seven days: “Tom and Taylor’s relationship was initially set up by Taylor’s PR team after they bumped into each other at Anna Wintour’s house-party.” This was fueled in large part by “Taylor’s desire to stay relevant within the public eye until she decides to release her next album.” Given “Tom’s attempt to become James Bond,” and his involvement in Thor, Hiddleston was a prime target for Swift’s managers. Did Hiddleston balk at this? Of course, however, “she is a beautiful, successful, and a generally lovely girl,” so … he ran with it: “Tom was prepared to go along with it because he believed that he and Taylor would be able to find something in common with each other.” “At least have some fun together. It worked, and whilst he does care about Taylor, he is now beginning to realize that he may have made a mistake.” Most notably, our source hilariously adds, “after she insisted upon them meeting each other’s parents within the space of twenty four hours.” LOL. That would be a red flag for most guys, even those agreeing to a fake relationship. Talk about going from 0-100, REAL QUICK! “Taylor is practically glued to his side,” our insider adds. “After only one month of dating, she is talking about moving in with him, getting married, and having children with him.” “Tom has always had huge commitment issues, so Taylor talking to him about those things, and after such a short amount of time, is really beginning to freak him out.” “He thought that he could handle the paparazzi intrusion, but he’s becoming tired of Taylor’s insistence that their every move is photographed by somebody.” “He misses some of the anonymity that he had.” “Tom is well aware of what people, such as his fans, his friends, and even his own family, have been saying about him.” “But because he isn’t as used to the public scrutiny as Taylor is, he is finding it very difficult,” his friend laments. “He has always been passionate about his acting, and he wants that to be what he is known for, not ‘Taylor Swift’s boyfriend.'” “He feels like he has become a laughing stock, and it’s getting him down. Everything with Taylor is choreographed.” “He feels like he has no choice but to adhere to her demands because he knows how much influence she has (her break up albums and the such).” “He didn’t get with Taylor with the intention of having anything long term (the previous sources regarding him wanting to ‘have fun’ and ‘blow off some steam’ [are] correct).” “But being under the spotlight and knowing who Taylor is makes it difficult for him … he’s beginning to feel like he has no choice (such as her deciding to go to Australia with him).” How will this play out? It sounds like we know the answer, but it’s only a question of when, and how ugly the fallout will be: “He knows that, sooner or later, he is going to have to be honest with her so that they can finally go their separate ways,” the source adds. Well? What do you think? You buying it? Did Hiddleston get played by Taylor’s team? Or are we getting played by our inside source? We think you know the answer to that … View Slideshow: 14 Famous Dudes Who Have Dated Taylor Swift
People: Ben Affleck ‘still doesn’t want the divorce & he might get his way’
Forgive me for missing this story when it came out yesterday but in my defense these Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner stories start to run together after a while. It’s like the same story every few days with some minor tweaks. I guess we have to give them credit for sticking to message, which they’re hammering home. On the Fourth of July Ben Affleck and his maybe not-so-estranged wife, Jennifer Garner, were seen out together at a Fourth of July Parade with three of their children. You can see those photos here at the Daily Mail. The kids are dressed in red, white and blue but Ben is wearing a black t-shirt like he can’t be bothered and Jen is in a white sleeveless shirt with a black jacket over it. How hard is it to find something blue or red to wear on the Fourth of July? Maybe nothing is fitting Ben right. Just like last week, this week there’s another story in People about how these two are “making it work”. Instead of Jen being “adamant” about divorcing though, it now sounds like she’s given in and that she’s not going to push it. It’s been just over one year since Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner announced their plans to split and during that time the two have maintained a close relationship – and still haven’t filed divorce papers. So what’s really going on? They’re still figuring things out,” a Garner friend tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “Ben still doesn’t want the divorce and he might actually get his way.” While the former couple have downplayed reconciliation rumors over the past year, they have continued living together, going on weekend outings with their kids and even vacationing as a family. This spring, Garner and their three children, Violet, 10, Seraphina, 7, and Samuel, 4, moved to London for several weeks with Affleck, sharing a rented house and sightseeing in Europe while the actor filmed Justice League. “She had the best time in Europe with Ben and the kids,” says her friend. “She seemed much happier when she returned to L.A. Jen went from being very adamant that a divorce would happen to instead avoiding any divorce talk.” [From People] People’s cover features the story of kidnapping survivor Jaycee Dugard, I remember that so well and am glad she’s doing well, and Ben and Jen got an inset to the upper right. This is not the first time they’ve had a sidebar on the cover since their split – they were on the Kelly Ripa cover in May. Of course Ben and Jen got two People covers last summer, in July and August, when they split. Isn’t that what this is all about? Informing us of their daily mood changes so that we’ll keep covering them? It works, and people are interested. It’s kind of fascinating to watch, especially since Ben looks so emotionally checked out in paparazzi photos (to be fair maybe he just hates the paparazzi) with his family but still insists on keeping his marriage. It’s like he doesn’t want to be with Jen but doesn’t want to let her go, either. For what it’s worth she seems ok with it, if only because she wants her family together. For those of you who believe in ring watch – neither Ben nor Jen is wearing their wedding rings. I think Jen first took hers off last August, because she told the press all about it. Ben wasn’t wearing his by September. photo credit: FameFlynet
Tom Hiddleston & Taylor Swift spent all of Thursday with her parents
I hope I’m not overselling this, but HUZZAH, finally some paparazzi wandered down to Nashville to get some photos of Tom Hiddleston and Taylor Swift. I’ve actually been waiting for this for a week and a half! While the original Tiddles photo-op in Rhode Island was super-obvious, it was also pretty obviously exclusive to one paparazzo, in that Taylor totally staged the photos. But her usual M.O. with her boyfriend-rollouts is to go somewhere public, populated and pap-friendly with her new boyfriend so that everyone can get shots. And that’s what we have now! After Tiddles spent Tuesday night at a Selena Gomez concert and spent Wednesday night having an “intimate dinner” at a steakhouse, what was on deck for Thursday? A whole day spent with Taylor’s family, it seems. Tom and Taylor were photographed out and about in Nashville with her parents and some other people, maybe Taylor’s brother? They visited the Country Music Hall Of Fame, then went to lunch and did some shopping. Then Taylor took Tom for dinner at Adele’s restaurant with some of her girlfriends. The photos are pretty amazing, right? They certainly seem… something. Well-connected, maybe? Especially since they’ve only been together for a few weeks? Also, there’s been a lot of commenting on Taylor’s bust in all of these photo-ops. Swifty had a boob job several years back, and some have been wondering if she treated herself to a size upgrade, perhaps after her split with Calvin Harris. While I do think she’s looking “fuller,” I don’t think the timeline makes sense as far as post-surgical healing. So did she get a bolt-on upgrade or is she just wearing hugely padded bras? And there’s one theory I’ve always had about Tom: he’s a boob man. Many of his exes are quite busty. Hm… Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
Melania Trump on The Donald: ‘He’s not Hitler. He wants to help America’
Melania Trump covers the latest issue of DuJour Magazine, and this might be the best interview Melania has done thus far. And I’m saying that as someone who enjoyed Melania’s crazy GQ interview last month. This DuJour piece is even better! Melania comes across as unapologetically elitist, hilariously vapid and politically tone-deaf. Basically, it sounds like she and Donald Trump are perfect for each other. You can read the full piece here (it is long, but totally worth it), and here are some highlights: She doesn’t drink Starbucks: “I don’t drink Starbucks,” she says. You don’t drink coffee? I ask. “I drink coffee, but I don’t drink Starbucks. My son likes it, the what do you call it? The Frappuccino? He likes that.” The Clintons’ wedding gift to the Trumps? “I don’t think they sent a gift. Some people didn’t send gifts.” How she’s been misrepresented in the media: “That I’m shy. I’m not shy. I know what I want, and I’m selective.” On Chris Matthews’ leering comment about her model-strut: “Unbelievable. That’s what I’m saying! I’m not only a beauty, I’m smart. I have brains. I’m intelligent… I would just say, Men will be men.” Where she shopped for furniture when she first moved to NYC: “I went to Crate & Barrel. Does that still exist or no?” She moved in with Trump before they were married: “When I moved here with my husband, we weren’t married yet—so I kept my apartment.” Meeting Michael Jackson: “I met Michael Jackson. It was here in New York in the Pierre Hotel. He called us, so we went over and we had dinner. Just after dinner, we were chatting on the sofa and my husband went into another room to see some art somebody wanted to show him. And Michael said to me, ‘Hey, when Trump comes back, let’s start kissing so he will be jealous!’ ” They didn’t kiss, she says, “No, no, no. But we were laughing so hard.” She’s not a famewhore: “I have a life. I go out every day. I bring my son to school. I pick him up. I’m not an attention seeker. I’m not the one who calls paparazzi, ‘I have lunch with the girlfriends, and I’m going to this restaurant.’ I get along [with] the moms at the school pick-up, it’s ‘Hello, how are you?’ But it’s not friends friends. I like quality over quantity.” Her 10-year-old son doesn’t sleep on the same floor as his parents: “The third floor is Barron’s. It’s much easier that way. For him as well. He has friends over, he has his toys. He has a play date tomorrow and is bringing two friends over. They come here, they go upstairs and they play. They kick a ball, they play with iPads. I don’t allow Xbox before homework is done.” What happens for immigrants, like Melania, who want to come to the US legally: “The law needs to be changed to help those kind of people. But they can’t just sneak in and be here. That’s what I’m saying. I do have sympathy. I’m a very compassionate person. But don’t sneak in and stay here without papers. We need to follow the law. If the law needs to be different, we need to do that.” On Louis CK calling Trump “Hitler”: “We know the truth. He’s not Hitler. He wants to help America. He wants to unite people. They think he doesn’t but he does. Even with the Muslims, it’s temporary… Maybe he needs to say it in a softer way. He doesn’t go after religions. He feels like we need to know who’s coming to this country. If not, we don’t have a country. That’s how he feels. We see how he is, and he wants to unite the country and bring people together and bring jobs back.” On campaigning in Iowa: “It was kind of a fun experience. We stayed in a hotel. It was clean. It was, I think, a Holiday Inn. You do it in a fun way. My husband knows me and how I am. I like beautiful stuff. I live the life. It’s funny when we go and travel. They don’t have five-star hotels there, but you go with it. It was a great experience in Iowa, because we went to an Evangelical church on Sunday. The church we got married in is very different. In Iowa there was a band, there was singing. It was very different, but it was a great experience. Being on the campaign trail and traveling around the country is hard work.” [From DuJour] Aren’t these quotes amazing? The Crate & Barrel thing, the way she obviously charmed by the peasants in Iowa, the way she has to mention that it’s hard work on the campaign trail because there aren’t many five-star hotels. What else is there? Her obliviousness to the privilege she had as a white, European model immigrating to the US versus those other people. The fact that she keeps insisting that she’s all about being a stay-at-home mother while her 10-year-old son has an entire floor in Trump Tower! There’s also a lengthy section where Melania tries to convince DuJour that Donald Trump values her ideas and that she’s one of the few people who can really advise him. If you believe that… well, God bless. Update: I misidentified Barron as 7-years-old originally, but he’s 10. Photos courtesy of WENN, DuJour.