Tuesday's Hot (and Smart) Gossip!

Working in entertainment journalism means you realize that holiday weekends are either feast or famine. You either take time off and celebrities misbehave and you're glued to your phone whilst still trying to have the semblance of a holiday with a burger and beer in hand. This weekend I stepped away  from my phone (well, it was in my pocket) on Friday late afternoon and the world seemed to stop with me. The quietest weekend in showbiz in years. Which actually makes my job harder, as I still want to bring you compelling stories from this world that entertain and make you think. The big stories were almost all slow burns rather than detonations. Mike Tindall let slip two words about Harry that said a lot. A French tennis player nearly defecated on a clay court at Roland Garros. And Chris Brown got a doctorate from a university nobody has heard of. 

But by Monday night the stars returned (with the exception of Taylor Swift) to bring the magic for the AMAs in Vegas.

If you have any celebrity tips or story ideas you’d like me to investigate, please reply to the email. Enjoy!

Taylor Swift led the 52nd AMAs with eight nominations, wasn't in the building and left empty-handed. Sabrina Carpenter, who spent much of 2024 opening for Swift on the Eras Tour, won three awards on the same night: Album of the Year, Best Female Pop Artist, and Best Pop Album for Man's Best Friend. The other top winners were BTS, Katseye, Sombr, and Bruno Mars with three wins each. Swift still holds the all-time AMA record at 40 wins.

Celebrity Intelligence Takeaway: The most nominated artist of the night didn't show up, didn't win anything, and still generated more conversation than anyone who did. Meanwhile the woman who spent last year as her opening act collected the biggest prize of the evening. The perfect baton pass.

In an interview with The Times of London published May 22, Shakira described her 2022 split from Gerard Piqué as her lowest point, telling the paper she had witnessed "the dissolution of my family, the family that I had dreamt to keep forever." She told the paper she leaned on friends including Chris Martin and Adele during the fallout and is not currently dating. "My kids are my priority. And my career. Strangely enough, I'm in love with my career like I've never been."

Celebrity Intelligence Takeaway: She turned the worst period of her adult life into a bestselling album and a stadium tour.

Arthur Gea’s emergency bathroom break mid-match at Roland Garros on Sunday has become the dominant social media story from the tournament, overtaking the actual tennis. Gea warned he would relieve himself on the court if not allowed off, was permitted to leave, returned, and lost the match. His opponent Karen Khachanov presumably found this difficult to process.

Celebrity Intelligence Takeaway: Yep, This weekend was that quiet that this is news. But when it comes down to it when no one is watching on our phones, we all become the puerile kids who enjoy potty humor. A sport with pretensions to pure elegance is periodically reminded that the people playing it are human beings with digestive systems.

Donald Trump Jr. married model and socialite Bettina Anderson in West Palm Beach on May 23, with a private island celebration in the Bahamas to follow. Ivanka, Eric, and Tiffany Trump attended, but the President did not, posting on Truth Social that the war in Iran kept him away. The ceremony was officiated by Bettina's brother-in-law. Fewer than 50 guests attended. Anderson had reportedly pushed for a White House ceremony but quietly shelved the idea given the optics of a lavish celebration during wartime.

Celebrity Intelligence Takeaway: Donald Jr was on The Apprentice so I think this counts as a Celebrity Intelligence story. But yes the intelligence and the celebrity is limited for sure especially with the President missing. It seems unusual for the family to navigate the gap between the dynasty it wants to project and the reality of governing during a war.

Alix Earle posted a TikTok yesterday confirming she ran into ex-boyfriend Braxton Berrios at a Miami club on May 24 and was emotional afterward. "I saw my ex tonight, but we're on good terms, so it was like, normal and fine," she told her 8.5 million followers, before clarifying it was actually neither. This is at least the third documented public encounter since their December breakup.

Celebrity Intelligence Takeaway: A 25-year-old processing a breakup in real time on TikTok has more viewers than most network television shows. By Monday evening (7 hours later)  2.9 million folks had watched the video of her taking her make up off and recounting the story. That's not a criticism. It's a reminder that emotional honesty has become its own content category.

Back in network television land, a Big Bang Theory alum has been confirmed as the lead of the new spinoff Stuart Fails to Save the Universe. Stuart, the comic book store owner played by Kevin Sussman across all 12 seasons of one of the biggest shows in TV history, gets the focus. The show is described as a comedy about failure.

Celebrity Intelligence Takeaway: The most beloved character of a show about lovable failures turns out to be the most lovable failure of all. 

Speaking at the Hay Literary Festival with his Good, the Bad and the Rugby co-hosts, Mike Tindall reflected on his 2011 wedding to Zara and quipped that Harry had been one of the more embarrassing guests, noting with obvious fondness: “Harry, when he was fun.” He also got a laugh by joking he would want his bedroom at Buckingham Palace to be at the “opposite end to Andrew.”

Celebrity Intelligence Takeaway: That phrase, “when he was fun,” is doing a lot of work. It’s not cruel. It’s mournful. The gap between who someone was and who they’ve become is one of the oldest human stories there is.

Chris Brown announced on Instagram on May 23 that he had received an honorary PhD in Visual and Performing Arts from Harvest Christian University, a private faith-based institution in Dallas that is not accredited by any agency recognized by the US Department of Education. He simply captioned the photos “I DID A THING!” 

Celebrity Intelligence Takeaway: There is a specific type of institution that exists entirely to hand celebrities laminated degrees. It says something about how desperately fame craves academic validation and vice vesra. 

After months of online speculation following her 2026 Oscars appearance that she had quietly undergone a facelift, Anne Hathaway told Elle magazine this week: “These are huge medical decisions that people are presuming.” She had already revealed on Instagram in March that the “lifted” look came from two small braids near her temples, pulled back and hidden by hairstylist Orlando Pita. She added in Elle that she might still get a facelift someday, just not yet.

Celebrity Intelligence Takeaway: We hate speculation about plastic surgery. The confidence with which people speculate about other people’s bodies says more about the speculator than the subject

I hope you enjoyed this edition and took something away from Celebrity Intelligence. Let me know if you have any tips or if there’s something you want to read about or for me to investigate. And please forward this to someone who'd appreciate it. Have a great week!