As Stephanie Soteriou put it on X (formerly Twitter), comparing images from the video and another recent blurry image with an earlier photo of Middleton, “I might have to tap out of this whole Kate Middleton thing because I genuinely, hand on heart, do not think these pics look like the same woman & it’s making me feel like I’m losing my mind. Like, I’m not trying to be a conspiracy theorist, but that is not her??”

X user @MediumSizeMeech pointed out that Middleton appears to be recovering quite well. He tweeted, “My thing is — if this is indeed ‘Kate Middleton’ why would a woman who JUST GOT abdominal surgery that needed such a long recovery be carrying a large bag like this???”

Quite a few people used popular memes to express their disbelief. X user @toops99 wrote, “The whole world right now analysing the video of Kate and William” alongside memes including the famous “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” red string board.

@IBZDRAGON invoked Andrew Garfield’s emotional graveyard scene from “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” and captioned it, “The entire internet after seeing Kate Middleton without makeup for the first time.”

Some also pointed out that practically speaking, it doesn’t make sense that a high-quality photo or video of Middleton out and about isn’t available. After all, as @yolanda_parody put it, “you‘re telling me somebody was able to zoom in and get this footage of rihanna yet we can’t get a single high quality image of kate Middleton.”

Andy Cohen isn’t buying it either:

For others, the publication of the video and the immediate skepticism that followed online is an indication of just how steep of a climb Kensington Palace has to convince the public to trust them again, following their lack of communication about Middleton’s status and the release of a photo that had been digitally altered.

@SmoothDunk wrote, “‘these Kate Middleton pics will silence internet critics’ I don’t think u understand how badly you’ve f–ked this. there are now people on the internet who could SHAKE HER HAND and still claim she’s four cats in a wig.”

This was more seriously echoed by Ellie Hall, a correspondent who covers the royal family and previously worked for BuzzFeed. She tweeted, pointing to an earlier interview she’d done, “This @EliotHiggins quote proved prescient: ‘At this point, I think if there was a video of Kate holding a paper with today’s date on it published, we’d still have an online army explaining how you can tell it’s an AI-generated fake from the pixels.'”

Despite the potentially serious nature of the situation Middleton and Kensington Palace are engulfed in, plenty of people are still having fun. As Teen Vogue columnist Rainesford Stauffer tweeted, “One thing I do appreciate about the Kate Middleton conspiracy is that everything they do to try to make it better and less weird actually makes it worse, which is something I absolutely relate to.”

Hear, hear.

The post Kate Middleton Shopping Video Raises More Questions on Well-Being, Royals’ Secrecy: ‘I’m Losing My Mind’ appeared first on TheWrap.

“I have some news to tell you. Please don’t be sad. I am … dying. Oh I can see your faces now. The truth is we all are dying. Every day we live we are getting closer to our death,” he wrote on X early Monday.

When fans took those words literally, he posted a follow-up note: “Sorry many of you have gotten upset about my message today. Even the press has gotten in touch with me. I am not dying. It was a message about saying how we should embrace every day that we have. Sorry for this confusion.”

The 75-year-old is best known for his ’80s exercise video series, “Sweatin’ to the Oldies.” He has been out of the public eye for the last decade or so, prompting sporadic, Kate Middleton-esque searches, as well as a podcast called “Missing Richard Simmons” from 2014.

In 2016, Simmons called into the Today show to refute the rumor that he was being held hostage by his housekeeper. He explained that he “sort of wanted to be a little bit of a loner for a little while” after hurting his knee.

His rep then told Entertainment Tonight in 2018, when Simmons turned 70, “He’s doing very well. He’s his jovial self. He spends most of his time at home and in his yard. He keeps up with his reading and does what he wants to do. He deserves this time to himself.”

In January, Simmons wrote on Facebook that he never gave comedian Pauly Shore permission to play him in either the short film “The Court Jester” or the upcoming biopic being produced by Mark Wolper of The Wolper Organization 

“While we would love to have [Simmons] involved, we respect his desire to privacy and plan to produce a movie that honors him, celebrates him and tells a dramatic story,” Wolper told Variety when the feature was announced.

The post Exercise Guru Richard Simmons Apologizes for Scaring People Into Thinking He Was Dying appeared first on TheWrap.

In the interview, Lemon confirmed with Musk that he is prescribed ketamine by a doctor, asking what the drug is used for by the billionaire. 

“I mean, it’s pretty private to ask somebody about a medical prescription,” Musk replied.

However, the billionaire then explained that he suffers from a “negative chemical state in my in my brain, like depression,” which ketamine is used to treat.

“Ketamine is helpful for getting one outside out of a negative frame of mind,” Musk added. “I’m not a doctor, but I would say if someone has depression issues, they should consider talking to the doctors about ketamine instead of SSRIs.”

“Do you feel like you ever abuse it?” Lemon questioned. 

Musk denied abusing the drug and said, “If you use too much ketamine, you can’t really get work done… I don’t really have a situation where I can be not mentally acute for an extended period of time.”

When asked if he suffers from bouts of depression, Musk said, “I wouldn’t say I have a case of extended depression. It’s just once in a while I get into a negative sort of chemical mindset, once in a while. It’s not a common thing.”

Lemon then asked whether Musk was concerned that his ketamine use may prevent government contracts or worry Wall Street. 

“Well, from a standpoint of Wall Street, what matters is execution. Are you building value for investors?” Musk responded. “Tesla is worth about as much as the rest of the car industry combined, from nothing, so that’s pretty good.” 

The billionaire continued, “From an investor’s standpoint, if there’s something I’m taking, I should keep taking it,” referencing Tesla’s continued success. 

Musk also noted that the reason he revealed his ketamine prescription on X was the prospect of helping others become more familiar with treatments for depression outside the realm of the most commonly prescribed antidepressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).

The post Elon Musk Defends Ketamine Use: From Investor Standpoint, ‘If There’s Something I’m Taking, I Should Keep Taking It’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

As she put it, “This embrace of political violence, this dehumanizing language, is what Donald Trump has been preaching for years.”

Psaki referenced Trump’s warning in January that if the criminal cases against him result in him losing the 2024 presidential election, “It’ll be bedlam in the country. It’s a very bad thing. It’s a very bad precedent. As we said, it’s the opening of a Pandora’s box.” She also pointed at his November 2023 use of the word “vermin” to describe his political opponents. His choice of phrase drew comparisons to Hitler.

It doesn’t stop there. “During his first term, he flat out refused to condemn the political violence at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, saying there were ‘very fine people on both sides,'” Psaki continued. “In 2020, he reportedly asked his defense secretary about shooting people who were protesting the death of George Floyd, saying, ‘Can’t you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something.'”

“We all know by now that Trump’s allusions to political violence are not merely rhetorical His supporters take them literally, and that’s part of the big problem here,” Psaki said. “And he knows that too. So no, we did not miss the full context.”

The topic was also discussed on Sunday’s episode of “This Week” on ABC. Host Martha Raddatz pointed out that Trump’s comments were made while he was speaking about the auto industry and foreign vehicles, something that Rep. Mike Turner seized upon. Turner said, “I think, certainly, there are statements that he makes that, you know, many Americans would not agree with, and many Americans would agree with it.”

When pressed on Trump’s use of the word “animals” to describe immigrants in the same speech, Turner said, “Well, I, of course, have disagreed with those in the past. I think the American public disagrees with those. But I do think that people see that Donald Trump is the only candidate in this race that’s going to be able to fix this crisis [at the U.S.-Mexico border].”

Watch Jen Psaki’s breakdown of Trump’s comments in the video at the top of this story.

The post Jen Psaki Says Trump’s Election ‘Bloodbath’ Comments Reflect What He’s ‘Been Preaching for Years’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

Now it’s come to light that another photo purportedly taken by Kensington Palace, if not Middleton herself, has also been Photoshopped. A photo released in 2023 to celebrate what would have been Queen Elizabeth II’s 97th birthday came under scrutiny as media outlets and people on social media have found clear signs of alterations, edits and manipulation.

The photo in question was released in April 2023. At the time, Kensington Palace explained that the photo was taken by the Princess of Wales the year before, while the family was on a trip at Balmoral, the queen’s favorite of her homes. The photo features Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, as well as grandchildren Mia, Lena, Lucas, Savannah, Isla, James and Lady Louise.

The Guardian’s Sunday paper, The Observer, noted several instances in which the photo was digitally altered. It seems Prince Louis, the Prince and Princess of Wales’ youngest child, was moved back in the frame, and the hair of Zara Tindall’s daughter has been copied and pasted.

The outlet posed a question that sums it up well: “How could the news agencies possibly protect their reputations if they did not respond last week to mounting amateur claims that the image was not trustworthy?”

By many counts, Kensington Palace is becoming an increasingly distrusted source, something that was unimaginable only weeks ago. Conspiracy theories about Middleton’s prolonged absence were already operating at a steady hum; the release of the clearly altered photo on Mother’s Day threw those into overdrive.

Manipulation of the Balmoral photo was also called out on Twitter/X, where user Le__Katerina wrote, “Did the late Queen ever pose with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren? Seems like no. This photo, taken by Kate Middleton, was edited at least in nine places. Now the mass media are reporting about it, too. A little thread.”

She then proceeded to point out several inconsistencies and mistakes throughout the editing the photo, some of which appear to suggest some of the children were not actually in the photo at all.

At the heart of the conversation surrounding Middleton and Kensington Palace is a breakdown trust between the royals and the public — a public that funds the very existence of the monarchy through the Sovereign Grant. In 2023, that amount tallied up to £86.3 million, “£51.8 million which funds official travel, property maintenance and the operating costs of The Sovereign’s household.”

The main question surrounding the edited photos and secrecy surrounding Middleton’s whereabouts and well-being is simply, why? Why go to such great lengths to alter and manipulate images, and why not clear up speculation, confusion or concern with a video release or press conference of some sort?

It seems clear that the palace misjudged a public that has the time and interest to dig into conspiracy theories and suss out the truth, a public that has dealt with politicians insisting whole elections were stolen, and a world in which it’s startlingly easy to fake nude photos of one of our biggest pop stars.

Maybe the palace really didn’t think people would care enough about Middleton’s prolonged absence from the public eye to question it, or maybe they’re relying on an outdated approach to the monarchy in general, one that harkens back to an earlier time when the monarchy could count on the public to buy the line they’re being fed.

Either way, it’s clear there is still some explaining to do.

The post Kate Middleton’s Photo of Queen Elizabeth With Grandchildren Was Altered, Too appeared first on TheWrap.

“I don’t think I’ve said this, and this is not good news, but when I almost did ‘Captain Marvel,’ there was a crew member — because I was going down the process, and they said to me, ‘Yeah, you know how it is, these movies, you hit your mark, you say your line, you go home,'” she explained.

“I heard that and I was like, ‘That is my own personal nightmare. That sounds crazy and terrible to me,'” DeWise added.

In 2022, DeWise told Collider a different version of why she left the project. She originally said that leaving “Captain Marvel” was out of her hands due to an existing TV role and explained, “It wasn’t a choice. I committed to ‘She’s Gotta Have It.’ When you commit to something, you commit to it.”

“And it just so happened that when they decided to essentially expand the role in ‘Captain Marvel’ a little longer, a little larger, it conflicted with a very specific moment that we were shooting in Season 2, a very special episode that we shot that I would not trade for anything in the world when we shot in Puerto Rico.”

She also said that not being able to shoot the “Captain Marvel” part was personally disappointing. “That was experientially, spiritually, personally one of the most remarkable and life-changing moments of my life. So it was painful. It was painful to be told no at the time.”

“It wasn’t something that I didn’t have to grieve and process and be like, wow, this was a really big opportunity that felt like, at the time, that it was taken from me, but now of course, when you play it back and you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m playing a pilot. Here’s why. Here’s why. That’s why this didn’t happen, so that I could do this in this way.'”

Happily, DeWise went on to play pilot Kayla Watts in “Jurassic World Dominion.” Her comments on “Captain Marvel” followed her explanation for how she approaches acting in blockbuster films the same way she does any other role, still seeking the “emotional truth.” She described as “the Viola Davis school of acting,” citing her deep commitment to her role in the “Hunger Games” franchise.

Watch the interview with DeWise in the video above.

The post DeWanda Wise Left ‘Captain Marvel’ After Hearing About Marvel Acting Style: ‘My Own Personal Nightmare’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

The actress explained in the interview, published last year, that the show’s location was a problem for her. “I don’t like America and I didn’t want to be in Georgia for four months,” she said. “So I just said, ‘well, I want a million pounds’ and they said, ‘you can have half a million,’ and I said, ‘no, I don’t want to do it,’ so it just stopped.”

“Really it’s a story about my own greed rather than anything else,” Margolyes coyly admitted.

The show — which was in development previously with subtitles including “House of Harkness,” “Coven of Chaos” and “Darkhold Diaries” before settling on just plain “Agatha” — is set for release this September, starring Kathryn Hahn. She first played the character in “WandaVision.”

Elsewhere in that interview, Margolyes described her “Little Shop of Horrors” costar Steven Martin as “incredibly unfriendly,” owing to his perfectionism. She explained, “He was an artist and all he was interested in was getting the comic moment right, and he was correct to do that, but he should have included me. I would have included the person I was working with. He wasn’t interested in that.”

“I just thought he was rather horrid,” Margolyes concluded.

She also took issue with Mick Jagger, who at the time was in a relationship with her costar in “The Vagina Monologues,” Sophie Dahl. As Margolyes put it, “He thought he was important, and he is important, but important people should never think they’re important and should never show it if they think it. I just thought he was a tiresome old git.”

The post Miriam Margolyes Turned Down Marvel ‘Story About Witches’ Over Shooting in Georgia: ‘I Don’t Like America’ appeared first on TheWrap.

Things started when Pieters reached out to Carlson’s team via email and claimed he was the person who edited the Princess of Wales’ viral image, which the Associated Press and other photo services later pulled after finding that it had been digitally altered.

After reminding viewers of Middleton’s ongoing health-and-Photoshop-related woes, Pieters noted in the video that Carlson has “interviewed Putin and covered some really important stories” before he cut to a clip of the commentator expressing his disdain for a “plus-sized, obese purple M&M” on Fox News.

Since being fired by the network, Carlson launched his own streaming platform. That’s the outlet Pieters emailed to set up a potential interview with Manners, who posed as the recently fired digital content creator for the Prince and Princess of Wales.

“Tucker Carlson’s people have replied,” Manners told Pieters. “They’re calling today at 6 p.m.”

The pair then made a plan to move forward. Because Pieters was out of town, Manners was left to handle business.

“I just saw the email that you had sent,” an unnamed woman from Carlson’s team told Manners. “So if you could just kind of explain the story,” she added, before Manners jumped in.

His tale was that, as an employee (named George, coincidentally like Middleton’s oldest son) of Kensington Palace, he was asked to edit a photo before it was sent to “all mainstream media.” After the organizations issued a kill notice, “well, now I’ve been fired.”

The woman then asked if Manners could show the original, unedited photo first, and also for proof that he worked at the palace at all — “Not because I don’t believe you, we have to ask this for every single person.”

Manners relayed the information to Pieters, who put together proof of employment.

“Just use Photoshop, it’s very easy. That’s what everyone else is doing at the moment, it’s very in,” he told Pieters.

The pair agreed to “make it silly” to determine if Carlson’s team would appropriately vet them as a source.

Manners also asked Pieters to “un-edit” the Mother’s Day photo (“It’ll be quite fun,” he explained). Pieters dutifully swapped out a few details in the photo and added a Christmas tree in the room behind Middleton and her children. He also created a fake Kensington Palace logo which included three words in Latin that translate to “Every little helps” — the motto for the grocery store chain Tesco.

The ruse worked, and Manners is soon shown at Westminster Studios in London, where he connected with Carlson via video. In the voiceover, Pieters insisted that he felt Carlson would realize something was wrong and call off the interview, but things went ahead as planned.

At one point, Carlson himself said that “we’ve done our best to verify” Manner’s claims, which possibly indicated that someone — or maybe everyone — didn’t quite believe his story.

And that’s what Carlson’s team in fact later told TMZ. The outlet reported that someone on Carlson’s staff identified Manners as a well-known prankster within an hour of the interview and that “Tucker’s team wasn’t totally convinced the story was real to begin with, but decided to tape the interview anyway while continuing to look into the story.”

The pranksters also let the cat out of the bag early, announcing the prank online ahead of went they said they’d been told Carlson would be running the segment next week.

It makes sense that Carlson’s team hoped to get ahead of the story and claim they knew what was going on the entire time, but the fact remains that the former Fox News host has a checkered history of his own that works against him. Carlson has frequently appeared to dabble in lies, misinformation and falsehoods — he has practically bathed in them, such as his recent interview of Putin.

Carlson’s lies about election fraud were at the heart of the $787.5 million lawsuit the network lost to Dominion Voting Systems in 2023. He spent years disparaging those who spoke out against claims the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. The lawsuit produced plenty of evidence, mostly through text messages Carlson sent to others, that showed the commentator didn’t necessarily believe the claims he himself parroted on his show — and that he believed Trump was “a demonic force, a destroyer.”

Carlson has continued to peddle misinformation since his dismissal. As recently as January, he told viewers that “illegal immigration outpaced American births” during August 2023, a statement that has been proven so incorrect it would be comedic if it wasn’t clear that the man has no issue spinning untruths to prove a political point. Whether he was on to the joke Manners and Pieters played or not, one thing is clear: if Carlson got a taste of his own medicine, he probably deserved it.

Watch the entire Goon Productions prank in the video above.

The post Tucker Carlson Tricked by YouTubers Claiming They Edited Kate Middleton’s Mother’s Day Photo | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

It’s a matter related to the application supposedly being a security threat, the House claimed as its reason for the legislative effort, as TikTok has more than 150 million U.S. users on it. And in a 352-65 bipartisan vote, it decided it will give TikTok a choice: sell its stake or be banned.

“We have given TikTok a clear choice,” Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers said, per the Associated Press. “Separate from your parent company ByteDance, which is beholden to the CCP (the Chinese Communist Party), and remain operational in the United States, or side with the CCP and face the consequences. The choice is TikTok’s.”

Since social media users first got word of the news that their beloved app could be gone forever, many expressed their frustration … while others merely cracked jokes.

Others listed off the myriad issues they believe the U.S. government has yet to correct in the midst of putting up legislation to ban a social media platform.

Whether you are for the ban or against it, take a look at what folks had to say online. — and, yes, even politicians weighed in.

The post Potential TikTok Ban Draws Ire on Social Media: ‘But We Can’t Ban Assault Weapons’ appeared first on TheWrap.

The ousted CNN journalist assured potential viewers in a post announcing the news on Tuesday that “hardcore questions were asked” and that the interview will spotlight Musk “like you’ve never seen him before.”

“You won’t want to miss this,” Lemon wrote.

“The Don Lemon Show” premieres March 18.

First guest. @elonmusk like you’ve never seen him before.

You won’t want to miss this. #TheDonLemonShow pic.twitter.com/hEBGBAoqdp

— Don Lemon (@donlemon) March 12, 2024

Responding to fans’ wariness of Musk being his premiere interview, Lemon took to the comments on his X post to reassure the spotlight did not kowtow to the entrepreneur who, in essence, serves as his talk series’ boss.

“You know me better than that,” he wrote to one user who said, “I see Don is kissing the ring already.”

“Oh I did,” he wrote to another who encouraged him to “make sure you ask the right questions!”

“I was hoping that you would be asking some hardcore questions. Doubtful with Elon Musk as your first guest,” wrote another concerned fan, to whom Lemon replied: “Hardcore questions were asked.”

Lemon first announced his content partnership with X in January, saying at the time, “I’ve heard you … and today I am back bigger, bolder, freer!”

“My new media company’s first project is ‘The Don Lemon Show,’” the former CNN anchor continued. “It will be available to everyone, easily, whenever and wherever you want it, streaming on the platforms where the conversations are happening. And you’ll find it first on X, the biggest space for free speech in the world.”

X CEO Linda Yaccarino replied warmly to the announcement, writing, “We’ve been waiting for your return.” 

The post Don Lemon Sets First X Series Interview With Elon Musk: ‘Hardcore Questions Were Asked’ appeared first on TheWrap.