Friday, August 31, 2018

This Day In History, 1997



It's now been 21 years.
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Wednesday, August 29, 2018

John McCain

Issue dated September 10, 2018: John McCain


It's two Tribute covers in a row as John McCain gets the main cover spot this week, along with stories about Ben Affleck, who's back in rehab, and Chris Watts, the Colorado man accused of killing his pregnant wife and their two daughters. McCain and Affleck were the two top stories on my Guessing Game list, see it here.

Last year at this time: Issue dated September 11, 2017
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Tuesday, August 28, 2018

The Guessing Game - Updated

What will be on the cover of People this week? My guesses:

John McCain: The senator's death is a huge story this week, along with the president's churlish and petty response to it. Will McCain be the main story this week?
Ben Affleck: Entered rehab for the third time
All the president's men and women: Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, David Pecker, Michael Avenatti, Don Jr., Stormy, Karen, Melania, etc. Before John McCain died, the president's legal jeopardy, and the actions of the various people around him, were the big news of the week
Dino Sajudin: The former Trump Tower doorman whose story about an illegitimate Trump child was "caught and killed" by the National Enquirer
Serena Williams: Controversy when French Open disallows her "catsuit"
Mollie Tibbitts: She was on the list a few weeks ago as a Missing Attractive White Woman, now her body has been found. Because the man who allegedly killed her was undocumented, her death has become a political issue
Hillary Swank: Married
Asia Argento, Rose McGowan and/or Jimmy Bennett: A complicated story of accusation, pay-offs, text messages, etc.
The Big Bang Theory: Will end in May, 2019 after 13 seasons; was Jim Parsons the reason?
Robin Leach and/or Neil Simon: Two other celebrities died this week
Harry and Meghan: They got a dog

Stories that appear on the new cover of People will highlighted in green.

Wednesday morning update: See the new cover, featuring John McCain, here.
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This Day In History, 1963 and 2008



45 years later, on August 28, 2008, Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for president:
 
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Saturday, August 25, 2018

The Contrast

When Melania Trump attended Barbara Bush's funeral in April, I wrote the following:

Was Melania considering what might be said about her at her own funeral? Was she anticipating what might be said about her husband during the garishly tacky gangster's funeral that will serve as his final sendoff from this world? Perhaps. (I certainly was.) As I'm writing this post, I assume Melania is on an Air Force plane, winging her way home and soon to be face-to-face with her husband. After a day spent surrounded by museum-quality authenticity, dignity, grace, service to country and overwhelming demonstrations of genuine love from family, friends and former political opponents, can you imagine what it would feel like to be going home to Donald Trump? I certainly can't. (Read the entire post here.) 

I'm having similar thoughts tonight, as tributes to Senator John McCain, who died today, are filling the airwaves and my Twitter feed. Are members of the Trump family pondering what the reaction will be when their patriarch leaves this earth? Is Donald himself? It won't be like this, of that I'm sure. Tonight people from across the political spectrum, friends and political foes alike, are speaking out with enormous affection, admiration, respect and love for John McCain, telling old stories about how honorable, heroic and inspiring he was. For example, there's this:

In October of ’67 McCain was himself still a Young Voter and flying his 23rd Vietnam combat mission and his A-4 Skyhawk plane got shot down over Hanoi and he had to eject, which basically means setting off an explosive charge that blows your seat out of the plane, which ejection broke both McCain’s arms and one leg and gave him a concussion and he started falling out of the skies right over Hanoi. Try to imagine for a second how much this would hurt and how scared you’d be, three limbs broken and falling toward the enemy capital you just tried to bomb. His chute opened late and he landed hard in a little lake in a park right in the middle of downtown Hanoi, Imagine treading water with broken arms and trying to pull the life vest’s toggle with your teeth as a crowd of Vietnamese men swim out toward you (there’s film of this, somebody had a home – movie camera, and the N.V. government released it, though it’s grainy and McCain’s face is hard to see). The crowd pulled him out and then just about killed him. 

 U.S. bomber pilots were especially hated, for obvious reasons. McCain got bayoneted in the groin; a soldier broke his shoulder apart with a rifle butt. Plus by this time his right knee was bent 90-degrees to the side with the bone sticking out. Try to imagine this. He finally got tossed on a jeep and taken five blocks to the infamous Hoa Lo prison – a.k.a. the “Hanoi Hilton,” of much movie fame – where they made him beg a week for a doctor and finally set a couple of the fractures without anesthetic and let two other fractures and the groin wound (imagine: groin wound) stay like they were. Then they threw him in a cell. Try for a moment to feel this. All the media profiles talk about how McCain still can’t lift his arms over his head to comb his hair, which is true. But try to imagine it at the time, yourself in his place, because it’s important. Think about how diametrically opposed to your own self-interest getting knifed in the balls and having fractures set without painkiller would be, and then about getting thrown in a cell to just lie there and hurt, which is what happened. He was delirious with pain for weeks, and his weight dropped to 100 pounds, and the other POWs were sure he would die; and then after a few months like that after his bones mostly knitted and he could sort of stand up they brought him in to the prison commandant’s office and offered to let him go. This is true. 

 They said he could just leave. They had found out that McCain’s father was one of the top-ranking naval officers in the U.S. Armed Forces (which is true – both his father and grandfather were admirals), and the North Vietnamese wanted the PR coup of mercifully releasing his son, the baby-killer. McCain, 100 pounds and barely able to stand, refused, The U.S. military’s Code of Conduct for Prisoners of War apparently said that POWs had to be released in the order they were captured, and there were others who’d been in Hoa Lo a long time, and McCain refused to violate the Code. The commandant, not pleased, right there in the office had guards break his ribs, rebreak his arm, knock his teeth out. McCain still refused to leave without the other POWs. And so then he spent four more years in Hoa Lo like this, much of the time in solitary, in the dark, in a closet-sized box called a “punishment cell.” 

 Maybe you’ve heard all this before; it’s been in umpteen different media profiles of McCain. But try to imagine that moment between getting offered early release and turning it down. Try to imagine it was you. Imagine how loudly your most basic, primal self-interest would have cried out to you in that moment, and all the ways you could rationalize accepting the offer. Can you hear it? It so, would you have refused to go? You simply can’t know for sure. None of us can. It’s hard even to imagine the pain and fear in that moment, much less know how you’d react. (From a David Foster Wallace article in Rolling Stone, written during McCain's first presidential run and published in RS's April 13, 2000 issue. Read it here.) 

I expect the opposite to happen on that day in the future when Donald dies. Seriously. Can you think of one, just one, story about Donald Trump where he's honorable, heroic or inspiring? I can't either and neither can anyone else, because there aren't any.   

 In his narcissistic, solipsistic self-absorption, Donald Trump may not even be fully aware tonight of the stark contrast being painted between himself and the man he held in such disdain, but trust me, the rest of us are. 

 And one more thing, Donald. You're still not invited to the funeral. 
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What Does John Dean Think?

Some interesting tweets from John Dean, starting Thursday:



The most recent tweet, directly above, is the one that intrigues me the most. As the epic disaster of the Trump presidency plays out over the next weeks/months/years, what will happen to the kids? Are they in any kind of legal jeopardy? (My guess? Yes.) Are they quaking in their designer boots right now? My guess, again, is yes, unless they're too stupid and/or too isolated to understand what's really happening. Would their father, the current president of the United States, throw one or all of them under the bus to save himself? Ivanka? Probably not. Don Jr. or Eric? I wouldn't bet against it. If they're sure he wouldn't they may be in for an unpleasant surprise. Perhaps they should talk to stepmother Melania about what it's like when you have to face the reality that your husband or father is a whole lot nastier than you allowed yourself to believe.  

I'm going to create a new blogpost tag called Trump Kids Trouble. My bet is that in a year or too, or possibly sooner, it's going to make for some very interesting reading. Stay tuned. 
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Is It Possible? - Updated

Arnold Schwarzenegger. John Edwards. Donald Trump? Is it possible that Donald Trump is in the "Secret Illegitimate Child" club? Maybe:
Update: Some context, from Talking Points Memo:

A former doorman at the Trump World Tower says he is now able to talk about an alleged affair that President Donald Trump had that resulted in the birth of a child, his attorney told CNN.

The doorman, Dino Sajudin, has officially been released from a contract he entered into with American Media Inc. in 2015, which kept him quiet about his knowledge of the affair Trump allegedly had with a former housekeeper, CNN reported. CNN obtained a copy of the initial agreement, which gave AMI, the owner of the National Enquirer, exclusive rights to Sajudin’s story.

The agreement does not outline the details of the doorman’s story, beyond saying that Sajudin “shall provide AMI with information regarding Donald Trump’s illegitimate child.” The contract shows that Sajudin would be paid $30,000 if the story was ever published, but explicitly says AMI doesn’t have to pay him if the company decides against publishing it. The agreement also states that Sajudin would have to pay AMI $1 million “in the event Source breaches this provision,” according to CNN.

Reports of the AMI contract comes on the heels of news that federal prosecutors granted David Pecker, AMI’s publisher, immunity in its investigation into Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen. Pecker reportedly outlined to investigators the details of payments Cohen arranged for Trump with AMI to keep women quiet about alleged affairs with the then-presidential candidate.

 Update #2: I'm posting this tweet just because it's interesting food for thought. At this point there's no definitive evidence that Trump has an illegitimate child, although given what we know about his activities, and his character, I'd say it's not out of the question. The big story right now is the fact that the National Enquirer paid to hide negative stories about Donald Trump. 


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Friday, August 24, 2018

Remember This? - Updated



It was almost exactly 10 years ago, August 28, 2008, to be exact, and what a lovely moment in the middle of a bruising presidential campaign.

After the announcement that Senator McCain has discontinued further medical treatment for his brain cancer, people from across the political spectrum are sending warm wishes to the Senator and his family. With one exception:
Saturday morning update:
Saturday night, update #2: Senator McCain's family has announced that he died this afternoon. In an interesting cosmic coincidence, today is exactly 9 years after Ted Kennedy died, of the same disease.
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Thursday, August 23, 2018

Paying Karen - Updated

The covers of Men's Journal magazine usually look like this:


So why does the September, 2018 issue look like this:

Rachel Maddow has an idea:

In late July, the Wall Street Journal published a report detailing the ways in which American Media Inc., the Trump-connected company that owns the National Enquirer as well as Men’s Journal, is trying to spin an alleged “hush money” payout to McDougal into making it seem like it was a payment to appear on the cover of the men’s magazine.

McDougal’s Men’s Journal cover was published “despite what appeared to be total bewilderment by the magazine’s own staff,” Maddow said. The WSJ‘s July report included descriptions of high-ranking executives at the company urging AMI CEO David Pecker—a man who considers Trump to be a “good friend”— to reconsider the move, which he reportedly ordered.

“Nevertheless, there she is,” the host said.

...The existence of McDougal’s AMI cover, the host said, is a “somewhat hilarious step” to make it seem like the $150,000 contract really was a legitimate publishing move — even though Men’s Journal neither did any original photography for the story, nor did its reporters interview her.

See the story, from Maddow's August 10 program, here.

In other AMI/David Pecker news, he has been given immunity to tell the feds what he know about Michael Cohen, and by extension, Donald Trump:

The chairman of the company that publishes the National Enquirer was granted immunity by federal prosecutors as part of an investigation into President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, NBC News reported Thursday.

The immunity deal was earlier reported by The Wall Street Journal and Vanity Fair.

Details of the agreement were not immediately known. But the Journal reported earlier Thursday that American Media Inc. Chairman David Pecker had given prosecutors details about the president's knowledge of payments Cohen made to women alleging affairs with Trump. (From CNBC, read the story here.) 

From Talking Points Memo, here's Josh Marshall's take on that:

The latest news is that National Enquirer chief David Pecker also “flipped” and agreed to cooperate in the Cohen/Trump case. This was pretty clear in the Cohen Information document, though it was not stated explicitly. For what it’s worth, this seems like the least surprising thing in the world.

If you read the Cohen Information, which is essentially the charging document, it makes clear that the Trump/Enquirer arrangement wasn’t just a friend keeping an eye out for his friend – the way the relationship and modus operandi had been portrayed in the media. It was a very specific arrangement: The Enquirer would troll for Trump-damaging stories, which there were obviously going to be a lot of, buy them and then sell them to Trump. The last part is key; and we didn’t know that until Tuesday. This wasn’t just being a pal. It was a specific, standing financial arrangement. The Enquirer would essentially act as a cut-out, buying stories on Trump’s behalf without the seller of the story knowing what was happening.

It was a great convenience. It’s obviously inherently difficult [for] Trump to purchase stories about his affairs from former mistresses or sex partners. Obviously he did that too. But in many cases it was going to be easier for the Enquirer to trick the sellers by making them think they were selling their story to a publisher rather than Trump.

It’s one thing to do something like this as an individual. But the Enquirer was doing this as a company, with multiple employees involved. Given the various ancillary crimes involved and the potential for other crimes that remain uncharged, that’s a big problem and a real threat to the company.

I see zero reason why Pecker would not turn on Cohen and Trump more or less immediately. He’s a big time operator in his own right. He definitely does not need this crap. There is potentially real legal jeopardy for him and AMI Media. And he may have more information to share than we yet realize.

Finally, at least for now, author Brad Thor has some fun with words on Twitter:

Update: Thor's not the only one having fun on Twitter:


And one more thing:
Friday morning update: Brad Thor loses his bet (but it's still a fun headline.)


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Wednesday, August 22, 2018

A Big Day - Updated

Donald Trump. | AP Photo
photo credit: Alex Brandon/AP Photo

It was a big day yesterday, for better or worse, in the life of our country and in the life and presidency of Donald Trump. (In the picture above, taken last night at his big rally in West Virginia, it sure looks like he's worried about something. He also appears to be aging fast. If you have the stomach for it, you can see a larger version of the picture here.) As I see things that interest me I'll post them here, First a couple of tweets from yesterday:
From political scientist Jonathan Bernstein, writing at Bloomberg: 
Some pundits are already dismissing this as just another bump in the road without consequences. Don’t be fooled. Trump has been badly damaged already by the various scandals surrounding him and his administration. This will add to the hurt. After all, the bad behavior doesn’t have to end with the president in jail to inflict real damage.

Cohen’s case carries substantial dangers for Trump. As for Manafort, the president isn’t implicated in the charges, but that doesn’t let him off the hook, even if there are no larger links to the Trump/Russia scandal (and there still could be). Nonetheless, the buck stops with the president, or in this case the presidential candidate, who failed to do even the most cursory vetting of an operative before hiring him to run his campaign. Trump’s failure to notice or care that Manafort -- and General Michael Flynn, his former national security advisor -- had deeply compromising ties to foreign nations is even more of a devastating mark against the president than the allegation that he ordered Cohen to buy the silence of two women during the campaign.

And Cohen’s admissions don’t add much to what we already know about Trump. He remains the man who had to pay out $25 million for the Trump University fraud, and who is currently being sued by the state of New York for fraud involving his foundation. Not to mention that as president he almost certainly obstructed justice, abused his power and used the office for personal profit.

The main reaction of the public should be deep embarrassment that this is our president. This is just the latest evidence that he’s entirely unfit for the position. And it’s a dark stain on the Republican Party that picked him instead of the dozens of perfectly acceptable politicians who would have delivered identical tax policy and judicial nominations, and probably would have been more effective at advancing other party policy goals.

 From Lawfareblog.com:
The consistent incompetence of Trump’s inner circle is all the answer one needs. That said, the starting place in this conversation must be the degree to which close associates of the president of the United States keep turning out to be felons. Yes, only one portion of Cohen’s criminal conduct and none of the charges on which Manafort was convicted connect directly to President Trump. But the parade of greed and the continuous criminal conduct on the part of two people closely associated with Trump and his campaign sheds disturbing light on who the president regards as appropriate top aides and associates. That Trump himself continues to express sympathy with Manafort, not outrage at his conduct, further undermines confidence in his judgment of character.

Presidential judgment matters.

... How big a deal is the Manafort verdict?

Pretty big.

It is a big deal first because the failure to obtain it would have been an immense setback to the investigation. Going to trial is always a fraught process. And for the Mueller investigation to have failed to garner a conviction would have risked consequences for the legitimacy of the entire enterprise. A conviction on eight counts and a mistrial on 10 other counts may seem like a split decision—but it is not. The jury found Manafort guilty of substantial criminal conduct, and he faces significant jail time at his sentencing in December. Having the jury hang on some charges and convict on others shows independence and makes it hard to argue that Manafort did not get a fair shake. Mueller’s shop is no doubt satisfied with this outcome.

... Are there dangers here?

Yes. Big ones.

Major investigations that touch the president directly are always dangerous. Trump accentuates those dangers. The general danger is of presidential distraction. The burden of running the country is real—or at least it should be to a president who takes the job seriously. Being under federal investigation would distract almost anyone. And whether or not one likes Donald Trump should not obscure the reality that interfering with a president’s ability to govern and represent the United States globally—by compromising a president’s legitimacy and by distracting him from governance—is dangerous at the best of times with the most focused of presidents.

Trump is not the most focused of presidents. He is also mercurial and angry. With Trump there is the additional risk of his lashing out, taking vindictive action or engaging in irrational behavior—things he does in spades on a daily basis. This sort of behavior is inimical to cohesive national security policy, which requires presidential leadership and direction. The myriad bureaucracies involved with defense, intelligence, foreign affairs, economic security, law enforcement and homeland security all have different institutional needs, interests and missions. Absent policy direction and leadership from the White House, the national security apparatus does not work optimally on autopilot. (Read the entire blog post here.) 

Is Trump continuing to "express sympathy with Manafort, not outrage at his conduct?" Oh, you bet: 

And because there's always a quote:


If you're not a West Wing geek, this is President Bartlet talking to his White House counsel, played by Oliver Platt, at the start of the "Bartlet has MS and lied about it" plot. See episode "Bad Moon Rising." 

I'll add to this post throughout the day. Stay tuned, more to come. 

 Update: Apparently Michael Cohen has deleted this tweet from December, 2015, but as we frequently say here at Writing The World, screenshots live forever:

Update #2: From Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo:

 Almost everyone who gets close to Trump ends up getting burned. Not usually indicted, or at least not yet – but no one emerges with their reputations or dignity intact. But this is a different issue. Neither of these alleged crimes have anything to do with Trump. It also doesn’t seemed like his climate of criminal permissiveness played any clear role. It’s something different and a pattern I think we know: people who gravitate to Trump tend to be people of poor moral character. Or to put it more precisely: people who gravitate to Trump tend to be people who share his values and those values include a high willingness to break the law. (Read the article here.) 

 Update #3: From Senator Lindsey Graham, in May, 2016:


Update #4: One more thing. An exchange between George Stephanopolous and Michael Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis on Good Morning, America today:

GS: "Would Michael Cohen accept a presidential pardon? Does he want one?"

LD: "He will not, and does not want anything from Donald Trump. After working for him all of those years he came to the recognition that Donald Trump is a president unsuitable to have that office and the powers of that office, which he has abused and which Donald Trump will continue to abuse, perhaps using the pardon power and Michael Cohen wants no part of that abuse."
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Aretha Franklin

Issue dated September 3, 2018: Aretha Franklin


It's Aretha Franklin on the cover, no surprise, honoring the beloved singer who died last Thursday. As they usually do with so-called "Tribute" (or "Dead Celebrity") covers for celebrities who are outside the target demo (read "old,") People uses a picture from 1987. The teaser article at People.com includes this picture of Ms. Franklin taken last year:

Aretha Franklin performs during the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival Opening Gala premiere of "Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of our Lives" at Radio City Music Hall on April 19, 2017 in New York City.

As I'm writing on Wednesday morning, the top three stories at People.com are about Missing Attractive White Woman Mollie Tibbitts. Her body was found yesterday, confirming her death, but it came too late for this week's issue. 

The only other headline is the True Crime story of the Colorado man who allegedly killed his wife and two daughters. Both stories were on the Guessing Game list.

Last year at this time: Issue dated September 4, 2017
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Tuesday, August 21, 2018

This Day In History, 2017: The Eclipse




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Monday, August 20, 2018

The Guessing Game - Updated

What will be on the cover of People this week? My guesses:

Aretha Franklin: Dead Celebrity
Thomas Markle: Meghan's father is still giving interviews, still criticizing the royal family and still making himself look like a fool. Will Meghan meet with him soon? 
Shanann Watts and her daughters: True crime, her husband is accused of killing her and the girls 
Crazy Rich Asians: The romcom, with a predominantly Asian cast, is Number 1 at the box office over the week-end
Omarosa: Still in the news as she releases recordings of the president and various staffers/family members
Asia Argento: One of Harvey Weinstein's first accusers, now she's accused of paying off her own accuser
Princess Eugenie: Just a few weeks until her wedding   
Ben Affleck: Is he dating a Playboy model? The SNL producer he's been dating has deleted her Instagram account. What does that mean? No one knows. And by-the-way, the model Ben had dinner with is 22 
Miss America: The current one has some complaints
Melania: Yes, I keep putting her on the list, and yes, People continues to ignore her. She's here this week because Omarosa's book contains some interesting tidbits about the First Lady and her relationship with Donald, and the New York Times published a new article about her on Saturday
Nick Jonas and/or Priyanka Chopra: Confirmed their engagement with Instagram posts and an engagement party in India. Is Priyanka, age 36, really going to marry 25-year-old Nick after dating for two months? We'll see. (My bet? No.) If they do have a wedding, will Harry and Meghan be in attendance? (My guess? Yes.)
Kaitlyn Bristowe: The former Bachelorette confirms that she and Shawn are still a couple 

 Monday afternoon update: Melania Trump has just announced that she'll be traveling solo to Africa later this year, to learn about issues facing children there. She also spoke about bullying at an event this morning. Ana Navarro isn't impressed:

Tuesday morning, update #2: The VMAs were last night, People may include a story, or at least some pictures, from the event. Separately, GMA reported this morning that Harry and Meghan are visiting George and Amal Clooney at their villa in Italy. 

 Stories that appear on this week's cover will be highlighted in green. Update #3: See the new cover, featuring Aretha Franklin, here. 
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Sunday, August 19, 2018

One Morning On Twitter...

Some interesting tweets this morning, in no particular order:

THIS IS A LIE. The e-mail proposing the meeting to Don Jr. specifically said: "This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump." Don Jr. replied "I love it" and eagerly set-up the meeting. https://t.co/3euM8uZgFS



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Do You Know How To Spell "Counsel'?

The current president of the United States doesn't:


Actually, I should say the POTUS still doesn't. See previous examples here, here, here and here.
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Thursday, August 16, 2018

Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan

Issue dated August 27, 2018: Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan


Fox/Pollan is one of those stories I didn't anticipate, featuring the (always) annoyingly pretentious headline "The People Interview." Brad. v Angie was the only guessing game story to make it to the cover.

Last year at this time: Issue dated August 28, 2017
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Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Omarosa's Not A Dog

An actual tweet from the current president of the United States:


And a response from the former president's official photographer:

A post shared by Pete Souza (@petesouza) on


#ThrowShadeThenVote
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Monday, August 13, 2018

The Guessing Game - Updated

What will be on the cover of People this week? I'm on vacation right now and paying only minimal attention to pop culture, so just a few guesses this week:

Thomas Markle: Meghan's father is in the news again
Aretha Franklin: There are reports that she's seriously ill
Omarosa: Her book tour started this week-end, including a spot on Meet The Press, where she played a tape of a recording with John Kelly, a conversation she claims took place in the White House situation room. She was also on the Today show this morning and who knows what's coming next. Her book officially comes out tomorrow
Bill Hybels: The lead pastor and entire Elders board of Willow Creek Community Church resigned last week, over the way the sex scandal around founding pastor Bill Hybels was handled. Full disclosure: I attended Willow Creek for about 10 years, 1994-2004, approximately, and for me the entire sordid mess has been both heartbreaking and rage-inducing. As I'm writing on Monday morning, Hybels has not acknowledged his failures, expressed any repentance, asked for forgiveness or publicly apologized. He did, however, delete his entire social media presence. Going off the grid to ponder his sins, or deleting evidence before the new investigation starts? You decide. (Read the Chicago Tribune's most recent article about this here.)
Richard Russell: The man who stole a Horizon Air airplane then crashed it in an apparent suicide
Robin Wright: Sean Penn's ex-wife gets married, he vacations with his 31-years-younger girlfriend
Angelina Jolie and/or Brad Pitt: Still fighting about custody and money
Elvis Presley: Thursday is the 41st anniversary of his death; apparently an extended version of his 1968 TV special will be shown in theaters to mark the occasion

Stories that appear on the cover of this week's issue will be highlighted in green.

Update: See the new cover, with Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan on the cover, here.
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Monday, August 6, 2018

The Royal Women Of Windsor (And Becca & Garrett) - Updated

Issue dated August 20, 2018: Royal Women


People rushes out the new cover two days early, and in a break from their usual practice, Becca and Garrett are not the main story. Instead, the magazine goes with another royal cover, the 10th one featuring Meghan since her engagement last November. For the record, I can't imagine any royal "secrets" that we haven't heard before. Chip and Joanna show up again too.

As I said last year when Nick and Vanessa were bumped down to a sidebar, I wonder if Becca and Garrett knew they weren't getting the main cover headline. (What I'm really wondering is if they're disappointed, annoyed and/or seriously pissed off.) The "lives, loves and secrets" of the royal women are hardly breaking news, that story could easily have been held until next week. Is People falling out of love with the Bachelor franchise? Maybe, but not completely. As I'm writing on Monday night, just after the 3-hour finale episode finished up, there are several Bachelorette stories at People.com, and more will probably pop up in the morning.

At this point I'm mostly over The Bachelorette. What I want to know is, who's the next Bachelor? (I wrote a long post about it a few days ago, read it here.) People has a story about that too, titled "Who Should Be the Next Bachelor? Our Top Three Picks--and a Wild Card Suitor." Read it here, or here's the short version: the top three picks are Becca's 2nd, 3rd and 4th place finishers, aka Blake, Jason and Colton; the wild card is Grocery Joe. 

If you're counting, we now have four engaged Bachelorette couples (Kaitlyn and Shawn, JoJo and Jordan, Rachel and Bryan, and now Becca and Garrett.) Will ABC pony up for one or more televised weddings? My feeling, regarding Kaitlyn and JoJo in particular, is that if a TV wedding was going to happen it would have happened by now, but who knows. ABC may have a few spare hours to fill at some point down the line. As of right now, getting engaged on Bachelor In Paradise is the best way to get a TV wedding.

Last year at this time: Issue dated August 21, 2017
Image result for people magazine cover bachelorette rachel

Update: I might have figured out why Becca and Garrett only got a sidebar headline. Do you remember Kate Coyne? She's an executive editor at People, responsible for writing some or all of the cover headlines. During the Bachelor finale in March, we learned that she really doesn't like Arie. (Read about that here.) Now it turns out she's not a fan of Garrett either:

Was it Kate Coyne who downgraded Becca and Garrett? I think it's possible.

Tuesday morning, update #2: A close-up of Becca's ring. The women in my Twitter feed hated it.


As Garrett was picking out the ring on the show last night, I was wondering what happened to Becca's first ring. You know, the one from Arie. In People's "20 Seasons of The Bachelor," published two years ago, Neil Lane was asked the question, "If the relationship doesn't work out, do the women keep their rings?" His answer: "I don't know where they go. I just say it goes to ring heaven." So where is Becca's first ring now? Someone must know. Lane explains how he created the new ring here.

Update #3: In an interview with Variety, ABC Sr. VP Robert Mills talks weddings:

Have you discussed with Becca and Garrett any plans to televise their wedding?

It’s funny because I feel like we’ve got this lineup of engaged couples now so we have to figure out what to do. None of them seem to want to take us up on a mass wedding, which I understand, although I’d love that [laughing]. But yes, I’m sure we’ll talk with them about what next steps are in their relationship. On “After the Final Rose,” we’ll talk about whether they’ve discussed a timeline. (Read the article here.) 
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Sunday, August 5, 2018

The Guessing Game - Updated

What will be on the cover of People this week? There's not a lot of suspense about the main cover story, which will almost certainly feature Bachelorette Becca and her new fiance. For some reason last year Bachelor Nick and his (short-term) fiancee Vanessa were bumped down to a sidebar, with a memoir by Prince's ex-wife featured as the main story...
 

...but after that Bachelorette Rachel and this year's Bachelor Arie both got the full treatment:

Image result for people magazine cover bachelorette rachel



Barring a major celebrity divorce announcement or a celebrity death, Becca and (almost certainly) Garrett should be front-and-center this time around.

Sidebar possibilities, some of which are repeats from recent weeks: 

Mollie Tibbetts: The missing college student
LeBron James: Dissed by the president, along with Don Lemon
Melania: Appeared to troll the president with a tweet supporting LeBron
Donald Trump Jr.: Is he in legal jeopardy?
Meghan: Celebrated her 37th birthday and attended a wedding with Harry; apparently there's still tension with her father
Arnold Schwarzenenegger: Now filming an "Untitled Terminator
Reboot." Linda Hamilton, who reprises her role, is also a possibility
Omarosa: Her book about the Trump White House comes out next week
Alan Alda: Announced that he has Parkinson's disease
Charlie Sheen: Says he's out of money and can't pay child support
Angelina Jolie: The custody fight with Brad
Charlotte Rae: The Facts of Life star dies at 92
Hope Hicks: Flew on Air Force One on Saturday
Lance Bass: Thought he had the successful bid for the Brady Bunch house in L.A., then the deal fell through to allow a studio to buy it. (Read about it here)

Stories that appear on the cover of the new issue will be highlighted in green.

See the new cover, featuring the Queen, Camilla, Meghan and Kate, here. Becca and Garrett are there too, but only as a sidebar. Once again the newly engaged couple didn't rate the main cover story.

Tuesday afternoon update: Who bought the Brady Bunch house? HGTV:

 On Tuesday, during an earnings conference call, the network announced they had the winning bid for the iconic California house, which served as the facade of Mike and Carol Brady’s home on the beloved sitcom from 1969 to 1974.

 “I am excited to share that HGTV is the winning bidder and will restore the Brady Bunch home to its 1970s glory as only HGTV can,” Discovery Inc. CEO David Zaslav said on the call. (Read the story at People.com here.)
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Saturday, August 4, 2018

A Tale Of Two Presidents - Updated

A tweet from the current president, who apparently had nothing better to do late last night than insult two accomplished black men:

I'd much rather send warmest birthday wishes to the former president, who turns 57 today:


Saturday afternoon update: Melania's signals aren't always crystal clear but this one seems pretty straightforward:

Maybe not so straightforward? Amanda Marcotte reads it differently:
 

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Friday, August 3, 2018

Now It's Leo - Updated

I'm talking about Bachelorette contestant Leo, aka Leandro Dottavio. After Garrett's controversial Instagram "Likes" came to light, followed by news that Lincoln is now a convicted sex offender, ABC probably thought they were done with the bad news, at least for this season. Nope.

In a strange saga featuring Bekah Martinez from Arie's season, several women have come forward to accuse Leo of inappropriate sexual behavior:

Martinez, 23, took to Instagram Wednesday to post a series of screenshots she collected from her fanbase, all of which claim the 31-year-old Dottavio acted inappropriately toward women.

The screenshots begin with an Instagram post by Dottavio, dating back about four years, saying “you need my big d—k.”

Martinez discovered the screenshot when browsing Bachelor and Bachelorette Reddit pages. She says that the screenshot of the comment has been floating around online since May. Dottavio told The Post that the screenshot of his comment is photoshopped, and was asking his lawyer to look into it. Martinez says she has seen multiple versions of this comment and believes it is real.

After Martinez shared it, many women responded by sharing what they say were their own experiences. (From a story at the New York Post, read it here.) 

Leo and Bekah, along with their respective Instagram followers, have been going at each other since Wednesday, but the story hasn't gotten too much attention in the mainstream media, at least not yet. Jezebel.com did a story, however, and Leo responded with a statement, which doesn't include anything about photoshopping, or about suing Bekah, which she claimed Leo had threatened to do:

“There have been some recent stories about me that have garnered attention and I want to address them. I want to start by saying no one has ever directly accused me of sexual harassment. No one has ever come to me in any way and told me I made them feel uncomfortable. However, I am NOT A PERFECT person nor have I ever claimed to be. Did I do things in college that I would be embarrassed about now? Absolutely. Was I a part of my culture, the times, movies? Yes. I have grown as a person since college. I am not the man I was 2 years ago let alone 14 years ago. It’s important for women to speak out if they felt uncomfortable or harassed. I support that. If there was anyone I made feel uncomfortable why not come to me? I would love an opportunity to right my wrongs and speak to any woman that wants to tell me how and when I made them feel uncomfortable. I want to take this as an opportunity to better myself and the treatment of women in my life.” (Read the Jezebel story here.)

Leo has been booted off The Bachelorette, so no worries there, but as we've seen in previews, he also went to Paradise, which has completed filming but hasn't aired yet. As I said in my post about Garrett, the production team can tweak the editing to minimize Leo's screen time, if they choose to, but they can't change what happened. Like Garrett and Lincoln, Leo now has an asterisk next to his name. 

I feel safe in saying that ABC has to be wishing this would stop happening. They also need to accept that in the age of social media, a superficial background check, based, according to Senior Vice President Of Alternative Series, Specials and Late-Night Programming Robert Mills, on locations where contestants have resided for the last ten years, isn't good enough anymore. If contestants on the show, i.e., Ashley Spivey and Bekah, can find this stuff, whoever is doing the official background checks should be able to too. 

 Friday night update: To clarify, Leo's statement wasn't issued directly to Jezebel. He posted it on his Instagram account and it's being reported on by several news/media websites. 
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Editors Are Important - Updated


photo credit: Princess Eugenie/Instagram

There's a very sloppy paragraph in a People.com story about Princess Eugenie, and yes, I cut-and-pasted it exactly as is:

The hallway features aeveral stunning portraits line the walls, which are painted pale blue. The sun is streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows, which light up the ornate end tables and trail of bust sculptures. And the photo also offers a rare glimpse of the lavish red palace carpet runs the length of the impressive corrider.

 The first sentence should say "several stunning portraits lining the walls..." and the last sentence should say "... the lavish red palace carpet that runs the length of the impressive corridor." 

 I'm also puzzling over the phrase "trail of bust sculptures" in the middle sentence. I don't see any obvious typos, but on the other hand I have no earthly idea what a trail of bust sculptures is. Yes I see the sculptures but are they really a trail? The whole paragraph is just weird.  

Read the story here.

 Sunday night update: People frequently doesn't correct their typos but this time they did. This is what the paragraph looks like now:

 The hallway features several stunning portraits lining the walls, which are painted pale blue. The sun is streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows, which light up the ornate end tables and trail of bust sculptures. And the photo also offers a rare glimpse of the lavish red palace carpet that runs the length of the impressive corridor.
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