77: Duchess Meghan and Prince Harry announce podcast, Duchess Kate covers People, Our favorite stories of the year

Intro: Minutes 0 to 5 We’ll be off for two weeks and will be back with a new episode on January 10th. Chandra is doing well in lockdown, but it’s making me even more cynical than normal. Chandra is excited for the Moderna vaccine approval and we both have hope we’ll be able to get vaccinated by spring. Royals: Minutes 5:00 to 21:15 Harry and Meghan announced their new podcast on Spotify, Archewell Audio, on Tuesday. Before that they meted out the news expertly so that the press would freak out over that and wouldn’t have as much energy to focus on their podcast. Meghan did a video for CNN Heroes over the weekend thanking people who address food insecurity in their communities. Plus she invested in a woman-owned startup, Clevr Blends, and sent her neighbor, Oprah, a gift basket with their latte and matcha mixes. The royal reporters got in such a frenzy about that and were oddly silent when the news of the podcast came out. I play a segment from Zoom where Karen, Ameerah and Tanisha talk about this. We first heard in September that Harry and Meghan were going to do a deal with Spotify and now it’s come to fruition. There’s a lot of speculation about how much they got paid for it. I play a segment from that where they’re flirty with each other. I play a segment from Zoom where Laura, Ameerah, Tanisha and Karen talk about the new podcast.  The Cambridges went to a charity event and show called Pantoland for the children of essential workers. Will and Kate weren’t wearing masks on the red carpet, like the other guests and volunteers, but did wear them inside. They did a bizarre voiceover for a video about the event. It was very typical of them in that they were centering themselves when they should have been honoring frontline workers. This week Kate is covering People Magazine in a completely ridiculous profile that’s very similar to the cover story People ran after her Tatler puff piece backfired this summer.  The piece is offensive because it barely acknowledges how privileged she is and how much help she has. Our favorite stories of the year: Minute 21:15 to 38:15 The top 20 most commented posts this year are all royals stories. Some of these are smaller stories that are mostly fun for us. Chandra mentions the outing of Lea Michele. She loved covering it because so many of Lea’s costars and collaborators spoke out against her.  Minute 25: Katie Holmes hooked up with celebrity chef Emilio Vitolo over the summer. Chandra loves how extra they were, making out and taking joy rides for the paparazzi. Her favorite story was one from Page Six which said Katie wasn't very deep. At least Katie and Emilio always wore masks. Minute 28: In October, Trump got covid after playing it down, going maskless and not social distancing. The drama over the announcement and then Trump’s behavior afterwards was outrageous. Chandra thinks that the spike in covid cases in mid and late November was tied to Trump’s superspreader rallies. Minute 30: Chandra has two favorite royal stories. Her first was the Sussexes’ “you coulda had a bad bitch” farewell tour in March.  Her other favorite story was the insane Tatler profile of Duchess Kate, which first came out in late May. The first excerpt sort-of sounded positive about Kate, but the quotes were double-edged. Additional quotes were even shadier. Chandra thinks that the Cambridges authorized people to speak on their behalf but that Tatler turned it around on them. The Cambridges started denying the piece and issued a statement that “This story contains a swathe of inaccuracies and false misrepresentations which were not put to Kensington Palace prior to publication.” However Tatler stood by the story and called the royals out!   Richard Kay in the Daily Mail had a whole point-by-point rebuttal of the piece that made it worse and managed to confirm so many details! Then Kate and William threatened legal action against Tatler and Tatler called them out again! In September, four months after the piece came out online and in print, Tatler first removed a section referring to Prince Williams’ alleged mistress, Rose Hanbury. People theorized that the story was Rose and her friends’ revenge against Kate. A couple of weeks later they removed more parts referring to Kate as a “top CEO” and shading her family. In June, People Magazine ran a cover story about how hard Kate works. It was just a sugary repackaged version of the Tatler story. The royals responded to The Crown just like they responded to the Tatler story, they confirmed details and brought more attention to them while denying them. Comments of the Week: Minutes 38:15 to 41 My comment of the week is from Rapunzel on the post about Vladimir Put acknowledging Biden’s win before Mitch McConnell did. Chandra’s comment of the week is by Summerlover on the post about Will and Kate’s bizarre Pantoland video. Thanks for listening bitches! Happy Holidays! Here’s hoping that 2021 looks up for all of us. Text us or leave a voicemail at 434-218-3219.