I Ain't One To Gossip But ...

Apparently it’s not just Samantha who took a hard pass on the reboot rehash mishmash of Sex and the City after all.

After HBO Max announced its limited 10-episode SATC revival entitled And Just Like That…, word came that Kim Cattrall, who’d already passed on what would have been the 51^st sequel—I know that’s wrong, it’s just the first two sequels were sooooo long it felt like fifty-one—was not having it.

And that started a feud of sorts between Kim and desperately seeking attention Sarah Jessica Parker that was just about over until the reboot rehash mishmash came along.

Only, Kim wasn’t asked to come back, and I’m sure she doesn’t care about that, but now we learn that Mr. Big, Carrie’s husband, played by Chris Noth, has also declined the invitation to return.

I wonder if they’ll play it like Mr. Big finally dumped the shallow, shoe-obsessed, always on the lookout for the next thing, Carrie, for the fabulous Samantha?

Now that would be a show!

photo 1 photo 2 photo 3

Kylie Jenner notoriously dropped her best friend, Jordyn Woods, after Jordyn hooked up with Kylie’s sister Khloé’s piece, Tristan Thompson, who had hooked up with Khloe while his then-other girlfriend was pregnant with their child. Tristan then cheated on Khloé while she was pregnant with his baby because dogs will be dogs.

And while Jordyn and Kylie never made up, Khloé took Tristan back so they could have another child so their two kids would be actually related to one another. And that lead to an online commenter asked:

“So… Is Kylie allowed to be friends with [Jordyn] again?” 

And Khloé snapped, and wants y’all to know that both her newest face, and all her old faces, does not like that; at all:

“I’m so sick and tired of this narrative that I control my sister or I dictate who she chooses to surround herself with. Never once have I ever and I mean EVER told my sister who she can be friends with. She is an adult, who can do whatever she wants to do. I will support her in anything and everything she wants to do! I love my sister unconditionally! That means regardless of who she chooses to be friends with, I will always love, respect and value my sister unconditionally!! She is my life partner and I will always respect what she chooses!!! By the way,  I have no ill feelings towards ANYONE!!! Truly. My heart carries no hatred at all. Unless you actually know what you’re talking about, respectfully SHUT THE FUCK UP!”

Sounds like someone doth protest too much.

Besides, we all know that no one tells Kylie what to do because she brings the most coins into the family. When Khloé starts dropping some coins maybe her opinion will matter.

photo

I never watched Buffy so I know none of these people but that’s never stopped me before, so here goes … it seems Buffy actress Charisma Carpenter has accused Buffy creator Joss Whedon of behaving inappropriately toward her on set. And once she spoke out, many of her Buffy and Angel co-stars told their own tales of Whedon’s bullying behavior.

Well, not all; Alyson Hannigan and Nicholas Brendon have said nary a word about the situation. And while there is no reason for Hannigan’s silence, the reason Brendon isn’t talking is because … wait for it … as excuses go it’s epic …  he slipped and fell, paralyzing his penis and anus.

Seriously. Brendon said he slipped the week before and felt a pressure in his coccyx bone. That pressure slowly traveled down his right side, and soon his anus and penis were paralyzed. In Nicholas’ own words:

“It’s weird not being able to feel your fucking anus when you’re shitting.” 

Yeah, might be best if he didn’t speak out?

photo

I blame Anna Wintour.

André Leon Talley, former Wintour BFF, is in danger of eviction from his White Plains, New York manse because maybe he doesn’t own it, and maybe he does?

While André claims ownership of the home, his friends—well, ex-friends—George Malkemus, former CEO of Manolo Blahnik, and his husband, Anthony Yurgaitis, claim it’s their house and that André was merely a renter who is behind in the rent to the tune of $500,000.

In November, George and Anthony filed documents seeking to evict André from their home claiming “$515,872,97 representing alleged arrears” while André filed his own lawsuit against George and Anthony claiming that, in 2004, the home he was living in developed mold and he needed to find a new place to live. He says that George, a friend for almost 40 years, helped him out because—and this makes literally no sense—his “work schedule was particularly demanding, and he could not obtain traditional financing” so he and George entered into a “gentleman’s agreement.” 

According to André, George and Anthony agreed to buy the White Plains mansion, with help from a $120K down payment provided by André, who would then make payments to George and Anthony until the balance of the purchase price was paid off and then the deed would be transferred to him. André claims he paid George and Anthony back and then some; the purchase price was $1.02M and André says he’s paid the couple $1.075M and then spent another $200,000 on home repairs.

Wait, so he overpaid? At any rate, André says he’s overpaid in full, and the couple did not sign over the house to him, and in March 2020, George and Anthony told André to pay it off or get out.

André believes that the couple was having money problems related to Manolo Blahnik’s bankruptcy and so they are trying to steal the house out from under him. That begs the question, though, how do these high-powered, somewhat affluent people, make a “gentleman’s agreement” and not put one word in writing? Makes no sense … unless ….

Like I said, I’d be looking at Wintour. This story has her claws all over it.

Oops, probably should have said that last part. If I suddenly stop blogging and you never hear from me again, someone tell the police it was Anna!

photo 1 photo 2

Remember when the Gynecological world took Gwyneth Paltrow to task over her assertion that every vagina needed to be stuffed with a jade egg?

Good times. But now it’s England’s National Health Service [NHS] coming for GOOP demanding that she stop trying to prescribe any treatments for COVID-19 on her, ahem, “lifestyle” blog.

NHS medical director, Professor Stephen Powis, is asking Paltrow  to stop pushing misinformation lies, specifically the diet and health regimen she touted as a cure for COVID-19’s long-lasting effects. Gwyneth posted to GOOP that she had the virus early on and it left her with “long-tail fatigue and brain fog” and she offered up a lot of costly GOOP products—a “keto and plant-based” diet, fasting until 11AM every day, “coconut aminos,” sugar-free kombucha, kimchi, supplements, an “herbal nonalcoholic cocktail” called Seedlip and wrapping yourself up in a “sauna blanket”—that you can all buy to deal with its symptoms though you will never get over the pain of lining Gwyneth Paltrow’s pockets with coins over some 2021 snake-oil shiz.

Professor Powis—not be confused with Has been Actress Paltrow—says:

“I see Gwyneth Paltrow is unfortunately suffering from the effects of Covid. We wish her well, but some of the solutions she’s recommending are really not the solutions we’d recommend in the NHS. We need to take long Covid seriously and apply serious science. All influencers who use social media have a duty of responsibility and a duty of care around that. Like the virus, misinformation carries across borders and it mutates, and it evolves. So, I think YouTube and other social media platforms have a real responsibility and opportunity here.”

Oops! He called GOOP a “social media platform” when Gwyneth calls it The Answer To Every Single Problem That Anyone Anywhere Any Time Ever Can Access To Cure Themselves, Feel Better, Look Better And Empty Their Bank Accounts For.

Personally, I’ll listen to the professor working for a nationwide medical organization whose entire job is to facilitate the medical well-being of every citizen in a country over that of a woman who suggests you stuff a rock into your cooch.

photo

I Ain't One To Gossip But ...

More Anna and Andre? Sure …

You probably know that Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour is about as cold and unfeeling as an actual rock, hence what Maddie calls her: Nuclear Wintour. And if you read this same blog last week you’ll know that Anna released an internal email to Vogue staff members last week, in which she acknowledged the lack of diversity at the magazine and tried such placating phrases as “we will do better” and “I value your voices” and “someone get my shoe carrier in here, my feet hurt.”

Okay, maybe I made that last one up, but former Vogue editor-at-large, André Leon Talley, who has written a book all about Anna, and a little bit about himself, and appeared on Sandra Bernhard’s SiriusXM show Sandyland to discuss Anna's statement. He claims that Samira Nasr, the newly appointed—and first black female—Editor-in-Chief of Vogue-rival Harper’s Bazaar, will affect Anna’s power base and that’s why she issued her Mea Culpa:

“The statement came out of a world of white privilege. I want to say one thing: Dame Anna Wintour is a colonial broad. She’s a colonial Dame … she’s part of an environment of colonialism. She is entitled and I do not think she will ever let anything get in the way of her white privilege. Own up to it, dear, all I’m asking for his human decency and kindness.”

There we be a real Nuclear Winter before Wintour owns up to that.

photo

I know Jeremy Piven was in Entourage but I remember him best when he appeared on Ellen, Ellen DeGeneres’ comedy about a girl names Ellen before she was a lesbian.

What I didn’t know about Piven was that he was ALLEGEDLY blackballed by Hollywood when he was accused of some #MeToo sexual perversity; he made a big show of taking, and passing a lie detector test, but his career has been less-than ever since.

As I said, I only remember him from the original Ellen show in the 1990s so …

Jeremy Piven today is offering his services—such as they are—to the public through Cameo. Yes, if you’re stuck at home during lockdown and have some extra cash on hand, say, oh I dunno, about $15,000, you can have a 10-minute Zoom call with Jeremy Piven.

Again, Jeremy who? Piven, whose ego knows no bounds because he’s not the only celeb selling their time, he just thinks his is worth more.

Lance Bass is charging $249 for recorded video or $1250 for Zoom Call. Sean Astin costs $295 for video or $599 live, while skating legend Tony Hawk is charges $200 for recorded  videos and $1,000 for live chat.

Just think, a few months back you could have had Tori Spelling for $95. Good thing you waited because I think she’s in the bargain bin for $19.95.

photo

In the middle of a pandemic how are our soap stars supposed to do those oh-so-sexy sex scenes? Well, one such show, The Bold and The Beautiful, which is set to go back into production next week, has a solution … they’ll be enlisting the help of the real-life partners of their actors for some kissing scenes and …wait for it … it’s epic … dolls for the sex scenes.

Barbie and Ken may have new careers.

Yes, The Bold and The Beautiful, the first US TV soap to start production, will enforce social distancing up to and including the social distancing of the actor’s nether regions. Bradley Bell, the executive producer, tried cutting out all the kissing scenes but it made the show awful.

Or, more awful. But fear not, the sex is back and here’s how it’s done … each actor in the sex scene will perform solo and then the two scenes will be spliced together; Bell explains:

“They’ll look like they’re nose to nose, in the throes of passion. But they’ll be shooting scenes all by themselves.”

It’s called the Masturbation Process? But for the sex they will enlist the aid of what Bell describes as “life-like blow up dolls that have been sitting around here for the past 15 years, that we’ve used for various other stories—[like] when people were presumed dead. We’re dusting off the dolls and putting new wigs and make-up on them and they’ll be featured in love scenes.”

Wow. Dust off the corpse of dead Aunt Sandy doll, slap a new wig on her and send her in, legs spread, heels to Jesus and mouth open …

Seriously.

UPDATE: BandB  was supposed to make its grand return to filming this week but … production was halted the first day of shooting to, ahem, beef up safety protocols.

Maybe one of those blowup dolls tested positive?

photo 1 photo 2

I imagine Lindsay Lohan is hoping her rebooted career as actress/singer/high-class … I kid … hooker gets into gear because she has one more mouth to feed.

No, LiLo isn’t preggers! Mama Dina, who we last left fighting another DUI charge has become engaged to her internet boyfriend of six years, whom she hasn’t even met yet!

Yes, Jesse Nadler, Dina’s online boyfriend slipped a virtual ring on it even though the two have yet to set actual eyes on one another. And then, to make it Social Media Official™ he mailed her the ring!

Nadler says he sent Dina the ring through the mail because they’re unable to travel due to coronavirus. He’s in California caring for his ailing mother while she’s on Long Island nursing a box of Chardonnay.

And one wonders how Lindsay got so effed up? This is why:

photo 1 photo 2

I Ain't One To Gossip But ...

Big Pandemic News! Oprah Winfrey cannot make her own bed.

Yup, with a crisis going on around the country, Oprah has been forced to do her own chores, and took to Instagram to complain that she didn’t know how to properly stuff a duvet into a duvet cover.

Hey O? Gimme a call. I’ll tell you how to stuff it.

photo

This was supposed to be Anna Wintour’s week. As always, the first Monday in May would find Anna Wintour perched atop the Metropolitan Museum of Art stairs in couture to preside over the Met gala. But then came COVID-19 and the party was shut down.

And out came former BFF André Leon Talley and his memoir, Chiffon Trenches, in which he trashes Wintour as a horrible friend and vicious human.

Now it’s Talley’s friend, designer Ralph Rucci, choosing to fan the flames on Wintour Dirt, writing on Instagram:

“[The] door has been OPENED WIDE [to criticize Wintour] … There has been so much personal evil and destruction, and now perhaps others will feel safe to speak.”

In simpler times, the very idea of bashing Nuclear Wintour would have been career suicide, but times have changed. Some industry insiders are relishing this Battle Royale because it “vindicates” those who have felt snubbed by Wintour over the years and exposes cracks in the almighty power she once[?] wielded over her fashion magazine empire.

Talley’s book was scheduled to drop this week, the week of the Met Gala, but was moved to September because of the pandemic. However, with juicy tidbits being released, and people coming forward with their tales of horror, the book will come out next week.

May is not a good month for Wintour. I think she may cancel the whole month next year. If she still wields any power.

photo

French Canadian musician—at least that’s what they say—Grimes gave birth to her first child, a boy, with Elon Musk. I know, who cares, right?

But remember back in the good old days when Contagion Paltrow named her daughter Apple and people freaked out? Times change … Musk and Grimes … sounds like a pandemic right there … named their little boy:

X Æ A-12 Musk.

And they’ve already picked out a therapist for the child to work through his soon-to-appear issues. First, though, they need to figure out how to pronounce it.

The state of California took one look at the birth certificate and said:

“Oh, hell no.”

You see, California state law does not allow some Xenu Scientology captcha ass mathematical equation bull. Names can only use the 26 alphabetical characters of the English language, according to the state constitution.

I suggest: XAEATWELVE, cuz that makes just as much sense.

photo

Elly Jackson, the lead singer of the pop act La Roux, appeared on Phil Taggart‘s podcast last March but the gossip is just now coming out because … who is Elly Jackson?

Yeah; I don’t know either, but … Elly dished on working with Republican Christian Nutcase Kanye West back in 2010, saying he’s not “100% normal” and when she told a mutual friend about his weird-ass behavior, Kanye demanded an apology letter from him.

Now, perhaps he wanted the letter because this isn’t the first time Elly has trashed Kanye. In 2014, she was first asked about working with him and said:

“No, fuck him. Nobody likes him.”

And now she’s back for more because, again, who is she? Elly and Kanye worked on his song All Of The Lights back in 2010 and also did a remix together of her song In For The Kill. She said she witnessed behavior she found “upsetting and unsettling”:

“I just saw some behavior that wasn’t directed toward me, but I saw some behavior that I can’t approve of as a human being—I can’t approve of… He’s one of those people that’s not 100% normal. He’s kind of fascinating. It’s a fascinating world to be in for, you know, like a few days. … [But] you can’t just have a normal conversation. I didn’t manage to anyway—I found it impossible. He’s on [a] show 24 hours a day, it’s just him. It’s also kind of amazing to be around. You know, I’ll never be around anything like that again. It was really strange.”

Then when Elly spoke to a mutual friend about Kanye’s weirdness, the friend ran straight to Yeezy  with the tea, and he was so insulted that he asked her to write him an apology; she did:

“I remember writing it. I was sat there on my sofa lol’ing to myself like: “Dear Kanye”.”

I would’a written just two letters: F and U.

photo

I always love when people I don’t know, never heard of, make the gossip news because it inspires me to think that regular folk are as fucked up as even pseudo-celebrities.

Apparently, NFL player Earl Thomas, currently of the Baltimore Ravens, is good at football  but sucks at being a faithful husband. See, while under lockdown, Earl had a spat with his wife, Nina, over his love of brown juice and left the manse with his brother, Seth, picked up some women, and had an orgy at an Airbnb in Austin.

Yes, with his brother, y’all. And before you get all Poor Nina and Team Nina on his ass, there’s more:

Nina used Snapchat to figure out where Earl went and used it to track his ass down … with a gun and two of her best girlfriends. When they arrived at the house, they “discovered Earl and Seth naked in bed with other women.” That’s when Nina pulled out the gun and put it to Earl’s head. Now, she claims to have removed the magazine—she just wanted to scare Earl—but didn’t realize there was still one bullet in the chamber. We know this because one of females involved in the orgy recorded it all on her phone … the attempted murder, I’m guessing, not the brother-brother orgy.

Earl wrestled the gun away from Nina, but not before she hit him in the face with it, but it still wasn’t over. By the time police arrived, an orgy goer with a phone, clearly the police say they observed Nina Thomas chasing a shirtless Earl Thomas around a vehicle.

One of the women, Earl’s ALLEGED mistress—he’s at an orgy with his brother and his mistress and at least one side-piece—claims Nina also threatened her and the other woman in the house, when she pointed the gun at them and shouted:

“I got something for all you ho’s!”

After speaking with everyone, police arrested Nina and both members of her posse. Nina was booked for burglary of a residence with intent to commit aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

The best part—other than Nina is required to stay 200 yards from Earl and his alleged mistress—is the recording of Earl that he posted to Instagram to get ahead pf the story before TMZ broke it, in which he says:

“Sometimes things don’t go as planned [and you get caught in a four way with your girlfriend and your brother and] stuff like this happens [when you get caught in a four way with your girlfriend and your brother.]”*

Man, lockdown is something else at the Thomas house, eh?

*My thoughts in parentheses.

photo

I Ain't One To Gossip But ...

Well, even marriages continue to fall apart during a lockdown, and this week it’s ‘reality star’ Kristin Cavallari and her soon-to-be-ex-husband Jay Cutler’s divorce announcement.

Kristin broke the news on Instagram—because, where else—with a picture of herself and Jay and explained that they have come to the “loving conclusion” to get a divorce.

“With great sadness, after 10 years together we have come to a loving conclusion to get a divorce. We have nothing but love and respect for one another and are deeply grateful for the years shared, memories made, and the children we are so proud of. This is just the situation of two people growing apart. We ask everyone to respect our privacy as we navigate this difficult time within our family.”

How Paltrow of you; but is it … the fact that Kristin made a point of saying they were getting a divorce, and weren’t just separating, is one thing, but she ratcheted things up by heading back to social media and removing the word ‘wife’ from all her sites.

Not so lovingly, I imagine, especially since, in the most recent season of Kristin’s E! reality series, Very Cavallari, Jay got pulled into a storyline that involved ALLEGATIONS of him cheating with Kristin’s former best friend, Kelly Henderson. Jay denied it happened; Kristin swore she didn’t believe it.

But then the rumor mills got hold of Kristin’s response to Jay’s divorce filing in which she ALLEGES “misconduct” on the part of Jay and says Jay “is guilty of such inappropriate marital conduct as renders further cohabitation unsafe and improper.”

Not so loving.

photo

I live for catfights, and a catfight between fashion guru André Leon Talley and Anna Wintour warms my cold, cold heart. Talley has apparently written a memoir and in it he puts Anna on blast as “not capable of human kindness”. Okay, so that’s not new, or even news, but when the passages were leaked, Talley, with a wry wink on an eye, took to social media—again, because, where else—to say:

“Did I miss anything this weekend?”

Apparently, in his book The Chiffon Trenches, Talley says his decades long friend, Wintour, is “ruthless” and says she has stopped speaking to him after she said he was “too old, too overweight, too uncool.” He says there is an 'endless' list of writers, stylists and models whom she has cast onto a 'frayed and tattered heap during her powerful rule'.

In an extended rant, Talley writes:

“Today, I would love for her to say something human and sincere to me. I have huge emotional and psychological scars from my relationship with this towering and influential woman.”

And then ends with a dig:

“'I wonder, when she goes home alone at night, is she miserable? Does she feel alone?”

Talley worked for Vogue on and off from the 1980s until 2018, when he was replaced as the magazine’s red-carpet reporter for the Met Gala.

Hmmm, maybe that spurred him to write his little book?

photo

You think Little Tommy Cruise became a diva once he became a big star, but you’d be wrong. And Rob Lowe is here to spill the tea.

Rob was feeling a wee bit shady when he appeared on Armchair Expert with Dax Shepherd and praised Tom Cruise’s “wherewithal” for always knowing he’d be a star by telling a story about Tommy going “ballistic” at the thought of sharing a hotel room with Lowe during the audition process for The Outsiders:

“All of the L.A. people survived the L.A. auditions, and then the hand-picked people had to go to New York to face the New York version/ So it was me and Tom Cruise and Emilio [Estevez] and C. Thomas Howell. [It was the] first time I ever stayed at The Plaza Hotel, and we check-in and Tom finds out that we’re sharing a room and just goes ballistic.”

Perhaps Little Tommy was worried about trying to control himself while locked in a  luxury hotel room with Pretty Boy Lowe?

photo

We’ve talked about celebrities self-isolating and then either whining about how hard it is to stay in the manse, or how blessed they are to be able to afford a mansion, or whine about how their kids are getting in their way because the mansion is just not big enough.

Well, Elizabeth and Philip Windsor have also taken themselves home for the foreseeable future and have self-isolated at Windsor Castle, just the two of them … and 22 members of their closest staff. We all know that the staff serves at Her Majesty’s Pleasure, so finding out that it takes 22 people to pleasure her, at age 94, is astonishing.

A memo to the staff written by Master of the Household—a title which I have just given myself, and Carlos has no say—Tony Johnstone-Burt reveals that since Britain went into quarantine, Windsor Castle has been dubbed “HMS Bubble”, and that the 22 members of the royal household staff are isolated there, away from their families, for the duration. Johnstone-Burt, a 40-year navy veteran, likened the situation to “a long deployment at sea where sailors are separated from their ­families for several months.”

But hey, if Liz needs a martini or Philip needs a backrub, you gotta have a staff, no? And staff can’t be goin’ home and then coming back to the castle the next day carrying some filthy virus.

photo

Just this past week we learned that Christopher Reeve’s son, Will, was reporting for GMA in a suit and tie and what looked to be his underwear. That caused a bit of a ruckus, a mild-mannered reporter kind of ruckus—see what I did there? Christopher Reeve? His son? Clark Kent? Mild-mannered? I’ll stop—but not near as much a ruckus as what happened when Spanish news anchor Alfonso Merlos reported from home.

While doing a live video chat from his house for the Spanish YouTube Channel Estado de Alarma, a half-naked woman showed up in the background, and people realized that the woman was not Marta Lopez, his long-time girlfriend. But Alonso ... Hey Player! ... didn't even notice the nekkid woman and kept going on with his report, long enough for eagle-eyed viewers to figure out the nude woman was his new side-piece Alexia Rivas … one of his colleagues.

After ignoring the escándalo at first, Alfonso did go back to TV to apologize, in a sort of, So I have a side-piece kind of way:

“If you think that my attitude has not been correct or that there are things that I have not done well, I have no problem asking for forgiveness, although my goal was not to harm someone else.”

And then he explained that he wasn’t a cheater because he and Marta had broken up, though Marta played the Ross-n-Rachel card and said they just had a spat and were on a break, until nekkid Alexia wandered onscreen.

And here we thought lockdown would be boring!

photo

And now some good news … Anderson Cooper is a Daddy, just not the kind of daddy I wanted. He’s a  literal father, and made the announcement last night on his CNN show, Anderson Cooper 360° this week:

"On Monday I became a father. I've never said that out loud and it astonishes me. I have a son. Wyatt Morgan Cooper was born on Monday weighing 7 pounds 2 ounces.”

Anderson said his son is named Wyatt, after his late father Wyatt Cooper, and that Morgan was on a list of potential baby names his late mom, Gloria Vanderbilt, and dad made when they were trying to pick a name for Anderson 52 years ago.

“I do wish my mom and my dad and my brother Carter were alive to meet Wyatt, but I like to believe they can see him. I imagine them all together, arms around each other, smiling and laughing, happy to know that their love is alive in me and in Wyatt, and that our family continues.”

Damn, Andy, why you gotta make me cry?

photo

Vacation Post: Andre Leon Talley ... To Gay Or Not To Gay

So, in last week’s Random Musings I talked a bit about one Andre Leon Talley, and how she’s some sort of fashionista, or big deal in the fashion biz, or Anna Wintour’s Number 2, but also about how Andre just loves a caftan.

Well, after that post I found a snippet of an article where ALT, the former editor at large for Vogue and former judge on America’s Next Top Model, says she is not gay.

That’s me, clutching my pearls! I mean, do we need Gaydar here? Really? While we may have wondered about Ellen and Anderson and NPH and, hell, even Rosie, has anyone ever thought ALT is just a straight man in a dress?

Well, as it turns out, ALT isn’t really saying that he’s not gay; he’s just saying that he rejects the gay label, whatever that is? And then he says he’s had sex with women.

Say whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

ALT talked to Vanity Fair contributing editor Vanessa Grigoriadis for the September issue, and says that “The world has become too casual, and people have become lazy. There was a time when people went on the airplane with gloves.” Talley then list the New Glove Ladies of the 2ist Century, like Kerry Washington, Michelle Obama, Beyoncé, Jackie O, and his friends Pauline de Rothschild and Gloria von Thurn und Taxis. “It’s about gloves, O.K., darling? It’s about gloves. Listen.”

Then he goes on to talk of his childhood in Durham, North Carolina, where he was raised by his grandmother in the 1950s and 1960s. Bullied in his black neighborhood, Little Andre found solace in fashion magazines, like Vogue, which he bought on the Duke University campus, and by reading John Fairchild’s memoir of couture, The Fashionable Savages, so many times he “practically memorized it.”

But, when Grigoriadis asks Talley if he thought he was gay, even in high school, he responds, “No, no, no. I was just into my magazines and the drawings. I had a very strict upbringing, almost puritanical. I lived there all the way through college. I was in my grandmother’s house, and I respected that!”

ALT goes on to say that he rejects the “label” and that, while he has “had very gay experiences, yes, I swear on my grandmother’s grave that I never slept with a single designer in my life. Never, ever desired, never was asked, never was approached, never, ever bought, in my entire career. Never. Not one. Skinny or fat. Never.”

Not gay, but gay experienced.

And, sadly, I think, ALT says he never been in love with a man—only two women: one a fellow student in Providence, the other a society woman with whom he fell in love after a night of dancing in Manhattan and whose name he declines to share because she later married and had children.

He says, of being single, “I just said to a friend, ‘I can create this magic, so why don’t I have a lover?’ [But] if I was a couple, I wouldn’t like to stay in the same bedroom. It is very un-chic in Europe to sleep in the same bedroom.”

On the subject of Anna Wintour, his former boss at Vogue, ALT says, “I wouldn’t have stayed at Vogue as long as I did without Anna being there. She was my biggest ally. There could not have been another way. … Ms. Wintour has had her bob since she was in her 20s. I have never seen her hair pulled back. Never. Not even at tennis.”

When the subject of his weight arises, ALT admits to a lifelong struggle, but says, “I do not weigh myself. I do not want to get on that scale. I only know what I weigh from the way my clothes fit. The people who are really close to me and know me have stopped bringing my weight up. They probably discuss it behind my back, some of them, in the fashion world.”

But, he says his weight has never affected his self-esteem: “I have never felt less of a person because of my dramatic weight gain. Up or down, my confidence and sense of self never wavered.”

ALT does wonder why he’s never been the editor of a major magazine, and believes race may play a factor: “People stereotype you. What person of color do you know who’s in a position like that, be it a man or a woman, unless it’s Essence magazine?”

His life is pretty simple, even given the way he lives and works; he lives in White Plains, New York and spends his evenings watching a lot of MSNBC: “Five o’clock is Chris Matthews; six o’clock is Reverend Al Sharpton. Then I wait for Rachel and Lawrence. And I’ll probably look at Judge Judy. I wish she were my friend.”

Wow. I kinda admire him for his sense of self, and then feel sorry for him that he doesn’t accept the gay label. There’s nothing wrong with that label, and when you have people like ALT who are so blatantly gay and refuse to admit it or address it, it says to other young black, gay, fashion-obsessed boys that maybe they should hide themselves, too. I kinda wish he’d have Judge Judy as a friend because she’d set him straight, so to speak, about coming out.