Tag: Why

Why is Kate Middleton taking legal action against Tatler? – The Sun

POSH mag Tatler has been ordered by fuming Kensington Palace officials to remove a spiteful article about a "perilously thin" Kate Middleton.

The society bible for Britain's most privileged claims the "yummy mummy" Duchess of Cambridge is worn out from a "larger workload" post Meghan Markle's infamous snubbing of the UK.

Why is Kate Middleton taking legal action against Tatler?

Tatler, one of the world's oldest magazines, is said to have offended Kate Middleton with a provocative profile on the royal.

The upsetting piece targets everything from the royal's relationship with Prince William to her weight, and the fallout with Meghan Markle.

The article, written by Anna Pasternak, quotes a source saying: "William and Catherine really wanted to be hands-on parents and the Sussexes have effectively thrown their three children under a bus."

On May 27, Kensington Palace issued a statement on the article saying it “contained a swathe of inaccuracies and false representations”.

The Times reports palace lawyers have sent a letter to Tatler demanding that it remove the article from its website.

Kensington Palace has declined to confirm whether legal action is planned.

What exactly did the Tatler article say about Kate Middleton?

Tatler published its article about "Catherine the Great" – with a glammed-up Kate Middleton gracing its July/August cover.

Inside the summer edition is a not-so-glowing piece about the Duchess of Cambridge, stating that royal courtiers have "murmured" she "understands that the only credo of the Royal Family is duty, duty, duty".

It also claims that she is "furious" about her "larger workload. She feels exhausted and trapped".

Scorning her as the previous "Duchess of Dolittle", the story says she is being burdened with more work after "Prince Andrew's fall from grace" and the "Sussexes' surly press statements" ahead of Megxit.

The story also rails against her personality and figure – saying the "bland" royal's true feelings are "impenetrable" and that she has "become perilously thin, just like – some point out – Princess Diana".

Sniping at Kate for being a so-called "country grandee", it alleges that William is "obsessed" with his mum-in-law Carole Middleton.

The story also reports that she and Meghan clashed in the lead up to the Duchess's wedding to Harry in May 2018.

What has Tatler said in response?

Tatler doesn't seem to be bothered about the fuss.

Dismissing the palace lawyer's letter, a spokesman for the mag said: "We can confirm we have received correspondence from lawyers acting for the Duke and the Duchess of Cambridge and believe it has no merit."

The article can still be read online.

One of Pasternak's mates told The Times: "I cannot believe that William and Kate would get this worked up about the piece."

Kate and William have been busy during the coronavirus lockdown, marking Australia’s inaugural Thank a First Responder Day.

The busy couple have also recently shared home-schooling duties while leading the Royal "crusade" against the killer bug.

And they were praised for a phone call with frontline NHS staff thanking "incredible" doctors and nurses.

 

 

Source: Read Full Article

'Tiger King': Why the Carole Baskin Ruling Is Devastating For the Animals at Joe Exotic's Zoo

In a court ruling on June 1, 2020, Carole Baskin gained control of the Tiger King Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park. Joseph Maldonado-Passage, aka Joe Exotic, is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence for attempting to hire a hitman to kill Baskin. Many fans are worried about what will happen to the animals still at the zoo after this ruling. 

‘Tiger King’: How did Carole Baskin take over Joe Exotic’s Zoo?

In the Netflix docuseries, viewers watched Baskin file a lawsuit against Maldonado-Passage for trademark infringement. The zoo owner intentionally designed his website to look like Baskins so that he could steal traffic from her site. 

Before the judge could rule on the lawsuit, Maldonado-Passage transferred ownership of the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park to his mother. He knew this would keep Baskin from taking the zoo as payment for the lawsuit. 

On June 1, 2020, a federal judge in Oklahoma City ruled that the transfer was “fraudulent,” according to CNN. He awarded the entire facility and all of the buildings and vehicles to Baskin to pay her the $1 million Maldonado-Passage owes her. 

‘Tiger King’: What will happen to the zoo animals when Carole Baskin takes over?

Baskin spoke out after Tiger King aired to explain that her Big Cat Sanctuary is very different from the G.W. Zoo.  She felt the Netflix docuseries told many lies about her.

“At the sanctuary, we take in abandoned, abused, confiscated, and orphaned cats and give them a permanent home,” Baskin wrote in a lengthy blog post refuting the allegations about her in the series. “A sanctuary does not breed, buy, sell, allow people to touch the cats, or put them through the stress of traveling offsite. It is basically a retirement home.”

It sounds like Baskin might be the best thing for the animals still at the zoo. However, the judge indicated that the Greater Wynnewood Development Group must remove all animals currently on the property, before Baskin receives it.

Fans are concerned for the well-being of the animals at the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park

“Sounds like she’s just getting the land though,” one Reddit user wrote. “Jeff Lowe gets to keep all the animals, which is disappointing because he’s utter trash.”

Lowe bought the zoo from Maldonado-Passage after the latter filed for bankruptcy due to Baskin’s lawsuit. However, according to an interview with Tiger King producer, Eric Goode, the G.W. Zoo is not doing very well under Lowe’s leadership.

“I got a very long text today from Jeff Lowe, who is running Joe’s old zoo,” Goode told Entertainment Weekly. “All I can tell you is that he is basically operating on fumes. No one is going now, and there’s no source of income, and that’s been going on for a long time.”

Although Lowe is building a new zoo, the Oklahoma Zoo, will not open until late summer 2020. He often shares pictures and videos on social media with the animals at the zoo. There are no reports yet about what Baskin is planning to do with the land and buildings.

Source: Read Full Article

Why 'Jeopardy!' Champ Ken Jennings Originally Turned Down the 'Greatest Of All Time' Tournament: 'I Told Them No'

Ratings soared when Jeopardy! aired its “Greatest Of All Time” tournament with top champs Ken Jennings, James Holzhauer, and Brad Rutter competing for the title.

Though Jennings ended up winning the entire match, he confessed that he originally wasn’t on board with going another round on the game show.

‘Jeopardy!’ was literally a game-changer for the champ

In an interview with the Boston Globe last month, Jennings talked about the impact Jeopardy! has had on his life.

“It changed everything,” Jennings shared. “Them calling me in 2004 and saying, ‘Hey, you’re going to be on Jeopardy!‘ at that point, I could’ve died happy.”

The game show champion revealed that his first go-round on the competition was even more memorable than earning the coveted “Greatest Of All Time” title.

“Winning that first game, nothing — not even the GOAT — compares with that,” Jennings said. “Because you realize no matter what happens, they can’t take this away. I’m a Jeopardy! champion to the grave.”

RELATED: Alex Trebek Was In Hot Water With This ‘Jeopardy!’ Controversy

Taking notes on James Holzhauer

Since Jennings was familiar with Rutter’s gaming style, he prepped for the best-out-of-seven tournament by focusing on episodes featuring Holzhauer.

“There was a ton of watching James. Brad’s game I know — he’s a remarkable Final Jeopardy player, and if he gets his buzzer timer going, I don’t know how you beat him,” Jennings revealed. “But James had such an unusual strategy.”

The Jeopardy! GOAT began to pick up on Holzhauer’s strategy of jumping around the board and going ‘all in’ on Daily Doubles. “It really struck me how much of James’s impact is just psychological,” Jennings explained. “The notion that he puts the game away before the first commercial, [and competitors] just check out. It’s just so demoralizing.”

Watching Holzhauer made Jennings realize he needed to follow suit. “I realized two things: One, there will be games where he does that and I just need to keep my cool,” he said. “Two, his strategy is so effective, particularly with big wagers. The only way to beat someone doing that is to do it yourself.”

RELATED: ‘Jeopardy!’ host Alex Trebek Goes by His Middle Name – So What’s His First Name?

Thankfully, Ken Jennings changed his mind

Before Holzhauer’s ratings-inducing run on the show, Jennings and Rutter had competed in a team tournament. The game show champ assumed that his stint on Jeopardy! was over after that.

“I heard very soon after James’s [initial] run,” Jennings recalled of being contacted for the GOAT challenge. “Brad and I had just been on earlier that year for a team tournament, so I thought I was off for a while, or maybe forever. They called me and said: ‘We want to have you, Brad and James [play] in prime time.’”

Surprisingly, the quiz master turned down the opportunity at first. “I told them no,” Jennings confessed. “I was having the Flowers for Algernon experience, being in my 40s, and not feeling as good at trivia as I did when I was young and sharp. I said I think I’m past my prime.”

Fortunately, persistence won out when Jeopardy! producers wouldn’t accept ‘no’ for an answer. “They called back and said, ‘We really would love you to do this.’ And [I realized] when the chips are down, I’m not going to turn down a chance to play Jeopardy! during the Alex Trebek years.”

After winning the grand prize of $1 million and earning the title of Jeopardy’s Greatest Of All Time, Jennings is probably very grateful he had a change of heart.

RELATED: ‘Jeopardy!:’ Who Are Alex Trebek’s Kids?

Source: Read Full Article

Why Paul McCartney Nixed 'Weird Al' Yankovic's 'Live and Let Die' Parody

“Weird Al” Yankovic has parodied numerous legendary artists, from Michael Jackson to Madonna to Elvis Presley. Fans of the artists he parodies often like his work and don’t see it as an insult. However, sometimes artists refuse to give him permission to spoof their work. Perhaps the most famous artist to turn Yankovic down is Paul McCartney.

Yankovic wanted to release a parody of “Live and Let Die” by Wings. Yankovic felt the parody was perfect. However, Paul felt Yankovic’s song would promote immoral behavior.

‘Weird Al’ Yankovic’s parody of ‘Live and Let Die’

According to LA Weekly, our story begins when Yankovic met Paul. Paul told Yankovic he was a fan of his work. Paul said he’d give Yankovic permission to parody any one of his songs. Initially, Yankovic couldn’t think of a good idea for a parody. After two years, Yankovic had an idea late at night. He’d write a spoof of Wing’s “Live and Let Die” but he’d replace the title phrase with “chicken pot pie.” Yankovic’s song “Chicken Pot Pie” would become the most legendary unreleased song in his catalog.

Some of the humor in Yankovic’s songs and music videos comes from the way he replicates the aesthetics of what he is parodying. “Chicken Pot Pie” would have been no different. Yankovic managed to speak with the members of the orchestra who played instruments on “Live and Let Die.” Yankovic brought them to his studio to work on his track.

RELATED: What Paul McCartney Said About the Allegations Against Michael Jackson

Yankovic felt “Chicken Pot Pie” was perfect. He liked it more than any song he’d ever composed. However, Paul wouldn’t let him record the track unless he made substantial changes. Yankovic ultimately gave up on the track.

Why Paul McCartney wouldn’t let that version of the song get released

According to Rolling Stone, Yankovic said “Paul didn’t want me to do it because he’s a strict vegetarian and he didn’t want a parody that condoned the consumption of animal flesh. He said, ‘You can do something else like tofu pot pie.’ I said, ‘No, the chorus of my song will be ‘Bawk-bawk-bawk-bawk’ and tofu doesn’t make any noise. It’s not going to work.”

RELATED: Why You Can Hear Paul McCartney Eating Celery on a Beach Boys Song

In a separate interview, Yankovic said Paul refused to allow him to release “Chicken Pot Pie” because Linda McCartney would disapprove of a song that referenced the killing of chickens, even indirectly. Yankovic, who is also a vegetarian, took no issue with Paul’s reason for refusing his offer to parody “Live and Let Die.” Ultimate Classic Rock reports Yankovic said “It’s a valid reason and I get it. And I hate it when people put him on the list of humorless guys, because that wasn’t the case at all. In fact, he said, ‘Think of any other subject and I’m happy to OK it.’”

“Chicken Pot Pie” never made it onto any of Yankovic’s albums. However, he did perform the track in concerts sometimes. Regardless, the existence of the unreleased track remains a famous bit of Paul/Yankovic trivia.

Also see: Paul McCartney: The Song He Wrote That Was Inspired by Taylor Swift

Source: Read Full Article

Why Was Whitney Houston's 'Cinderella,' Starring Brandy, So Diverse?

There might not be a Cinderella production as beloved as the 1997 TV version for the Wonderful World of Disney. Rogers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella is a wonderful musical take on the classic fairy tale. It was the only one of their musicals written specifically for television and first premiered on CBS in 1957, starring Julie Andrews. 

Following in the TV tradition, Whitney Houston produced the 1997 production and it starred Brandy Norwood. Not only did it star a Black lead, but the cast was wonderfully diverse as a whole. And that was, of course, on purpose. 

RELATED: Babyface Says Whitney Houston Predicted Brandy Would Be The Next Big Thing

The ‘whole point’ of this production was to have a Black Cinderella

In a very in-depth look at this production of Cinderella, Shondaland published an oral history of the 1997 TV special. One of the biggest aspects of the project was the diverse cast; it reflected the real world. Craig Zadan, one of the executive producers on the TV movie, said that a Disney executive really wanted to cast a white Cinderella. 

“The whole point of this whole thing was to have a Black Cinderella,” Zadan said of their pushback. “We didn’t want to make it with a white Cinderella. We weren’t interested in a white Cinderella. Still aren’t! We never approached anyone other than Brandy for the role.”

Originally Whitney Houston was going to play the lead role of Cinderella, but by the time the production actually started to take form, she wasn’t feeling that part anymore. In addition to producing and being a major creative voice on the project, Houston took the role of Fairy Godmother. 

Zadan said that the “unnamed” Disney exec kept trying to push singer Jewel in the role, which was the “white version” of Brandy” in their eyes. “Jewel was never approached,” Zadan said. And Debra Chase Martin, another executive producer, said, “Jewel as Cinderella would have been a nonstarter.”

RELATED: Whitney Houston Produced Some of Your Favorite Family Movies

They wanted ‘color-blind casting’ similar to ‘Hamilton’

The Shondaland feature, in celebration of the movie’s 20th anniversary in 2017, emphasized just how difficult the rest of the casting process was. This was especially true when it came to finding the perfect Prince Charming, or Christopher in this version. Wayne Brady, Antonio Sabato, Jr, Taye Diggs, and Marc Anthony all auditioned for the part before Paolo Montalban scored the role.

Another executive producer, Neil Meron, explained that they wanted a diverse cast when it came to the background dancers and actors as well. To do this, they went a similar route to Hamilton, although decades earlier.  

“Craig and I started in the theater, and we worked for a man named Joseph Papp at The Public in New York,” Meron said. “One of his mantras, the philosophy that begat Hamilton in fact, was to do color-blind casting and always cast with diversity.”

The whole point was to make the movie look like the world we all live in. “Since we’re going for this multiracial cast, choosing actors was kind of a checkerboard that we had to examine just in terms of keeping the proper balance,” he continued. 

RELATED: Brandy Starred in This Television Movie With Diana Ross

Norwood said that she “trusted” everyone involved, but was concerned because “not everyone was open-minded back then,” she told Shondaland. “Is this going to look realistic to America?”

There was still pushback on Norwood in the lead role, but thankfully they kept the cast list as is. “We were so consumed with making sure that we didn’t let any area of the production fall into an easy casting situation,” Zadan said. “For each and every detail, we wanted to make sure we were meticulous with how we put these roles together.”

Many actresses turned down the evil Stepmother role

The role of the evil Stepmother was also difficult because many actresses turned down the part. Martin noted that it was actually the “hardest role to fill.” 

They asked Whoopi Goldberg for it at first, however it was too big of a role for her schedule; she ended up taking the part of Queen. But a lot of white actresses wouldn’t take the role either. “No white actress wanted to be seen as being mean to the black Cinderella,” Martin said. 

She explained that they asked Bette Midler for the role, but got a “no.”

“I would write these long letters putting the role in context, explaining the importance of what we were doing with the multicultural cast, and the cultural impact we hoped to have,” Martin said. “I wanted them to understand that they wouldn’t just be coming on board for a great show; it was also going to be important culturally.”

Thank goodness it went to Bernadette Peters, who is absolutely iconic in the role. “I don’t remember if I thought about the optics of playing a white evil stepmother to a black Cinderella,” Peters said. “We weren’t really playing ‘real’ people — it’s a fairy-tale, and I just wanted to play the role as best as I could, as cruelly as I could. I think that’s how we all approached it.”

Meron said they wanted to have one Black stepdaughter and one white stepdaughter, “just to further hit home that color is irrelevant in this fantasy world.”

Overall, no other Cinderella movie has come close to touching the cultural relevance of this 1997 production. It’s also just one of the best, musically and theatrically. 

RELATED: How Rodgers & Hammerstein’s TV Adaptation of ‘Cinderella’ Broke Cultural Barriers

Source: Read Full Article

Ruby Rose On Why She Left ‘Batwoman’: "Those Who Know, Know"

Ruby Rose has officially hung up her cowl and cape. A week after the Australian actor revealed that she was stepping down from the CW series, Ruby Rose shared a statement about leaving Batwoman on Instagram, alongside a video of some of her favorite moments from the show’s first season. The clip, which is set to Reece’s "Last Time," appears to be a fan edit of clips from the show, featuring Rose in character as Kate Kane, an heiress and cousin of Bruce Wayne who takes up his mantle in order to protect Gotham City.

"Thank you everyone for coming on this journey," Rose wrote. "If I mentioned everyone it would be 1000 tags.. but Thank you to the cast, crew, producers and studio." The actor also acknowledged that leaving the show "wasn’t an easy decision" for her to make, "but those who know, know." She continued, "I didn’t want to not acknowledge everyone involved and how big this was for TV and for our community. have stayed silent because that’s my choice for now but know I adore you all."

Rose concluded her post by wishing her former collaborators and everyone involved in the show the best of luck on future episodes. "I’m sure next season will be amazing also," she wrote, adding that she is officially "hang[ing] up cowl and cape."

On May 19, Rose announced that she had made the "very difficult decision" to leave Batwoman after one season, and that the role will be recast ahead of the upcoming second season. "This was not a decision I made lightly as I have the utmost respect for the cast, crew and everyone involved with the show in both Vancouver and in Los Angeles," she said in a statement, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

In a statement of their own, Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television thanked Rose for her work and vowed to cast another LGBTQ+ actor in the lead role. (Rose made history as the first openly gay superhero lead when Batwoman premiered in September.) "The studio and network are firmly committed to Batwoman’s second season and long-term future, and we — along with the show’s talented creative team — look forward to sharing its new direction," their statement read.

Shortly afterwards, a source told TVLine that Rose’s departure "wasn’t 100% her decision," and compared it to a mutual breakup. "She wasn’t happy working on the show, and did that make her fun to work with? No," the source said, explaining that Rose was allegedly struggling with the long hours of filming and relocating to Vancover, Canada, where the show was filmed. "So everyone decided it would be in the best interests of the show, and for all concerned, if they parted ways. It just wasn’t a good fit."

Despite sharing her pride at making history with the role of Kate Kane, Rose has often acknowledged the difficulties of filming Batwoman. In September, she revealed that she had suffered a neck injury while filming a stunt that almost left her paralyzed. "I think in Hollywood it’s sort of like, you’re meant to be young and beautiful and strong and good at all these different things," Rose said on Buzzfeed’s AM to DM show, after sharing a video of a surgery resulting from her injuries. "And it’s kind of like — we’re also human beings." Thus far, Rose’s replacement has yet to be announced.

Source: Read Full Article

Why did Justin Hartley and Chrishell Stause divorce? – The Sun

THIS Is Us star Justin Hartley is divorcing Chrishell Stause after two years of marriage.

Stause, who stars on the Netflix reality show Selling Sunset, said she was blindsided by her husband's filing.


Why did Justin Hartley file for divorce?

Hartley, 43, cited irreconcilable differences in the November filing.

Stause broke down in tears in a trailer for Selling Sunset, a real estate reality show.

She told her friend Mary Fitzgerald: “I’m just kind of in shock with it all.”

“He just blindsided you? she was asked.

Chrishell nodded.


"It's just a lot all at once because everybody in the whole world knows," she said.

“I love him so much. This was my best friend. Who do I talk to now?”

The couple married in 2017, three years after they began dating.

Stause's co-worker on the show, Davina Potratz, was heard saying: “She knows why this happened.”

The 38-year-old Stause also revealed earlier this year that her mother has been diagnosed with cancer and has only a few months to live.

"I just found out today is #worldcancerday eerily on the same day I found out my mom has 1 to 2 months to live from the same lung cancer that took my dad on Easter," she wrote on Instagram.

"I can't make sense of what life is teaching me yet, but my heart is with every person fighting this horrible disease and every person that it robbed a loved one from."

Who was Justin Hartley married to before Chrishell?

The This Is Us star had previously been married to actress and singer Lindsay Korman from 2004 to 2012.

Korman has appeared on many TV shows and soap operas, including All My Children and Days of Our Lives.

How many children does Justin Hartley have?

Justin Hartley has a 15-year-old daughter with Korman named Isabella.

Hartley brought Isabella to an awards show earlier this year after filing for divorce.

Source: Read Full Article

Why is our galaxy’s black hole blinking at us?

The Moon revolves around the Earth, Earth revolves around the Sun, and the Sun — along with everything else in our galaxy — revolves around a supermassive black hole that sits at the very center. It’s a dance that began long before we got here, but scientists are doing their best to make up for the lost time by explaining how black holes work, why they exist, and what they can teach us about the formation of the universe.

Now, researchers using data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope operated by the European Southern Observatory in Chile have documented a puzzling phenomenon happening near the location of Sagittarius A*, the location at the heart of the Milky Way believed to be a black hole. It seems that the supermassive black hole is blinking in our direction.

In a new paper published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, researchers describe their observations of rapidly-flickering light curves coming from the location of Sgr A*. Black holes themselves don’t glow or emit light, so what could it possibly be?

“It has been known that Sgr A* sometimes flares up in millimeter wavelength,” Yuhei Iwata, lead author of the paper, said in a statement. “This time, using ALMA, we obtained high-quality data of radio-wave intensity variation of Sgr A* for 10 days, 70 minutes per day. Then we found two trends: quasi-periodic variations with a typical time scale of 30 minutes and hour-long slow variations.”

For all the discoveries scientists have made about our universe and our place in it, we still know precious little about black holes. That’s understandable, especially considering they’re invisible in visible light (they have a habit of swallowing it) and it’s not easy to study something you can’t even see.

However, due to the intensity of the gravitational pull of black holes, they tend to be surrounded by material that they are slowly slurping up. Hot gasses, dust, and debris form a halo around the black hole known as an accretion disk. Matter within the disk can move at speeds that approach the speed of light.

The flickering emissions are thought to be originating within an area of the disk nearest the black hole itself. Hot spots which can form within the fast-moving disk and, the scientists think, it’s the emissions from these hotspots that appear to “blink” at us when they are moving toward us in their orbit of the black hole.

“Hot spots are sporadically formed in the disk and circle around the black hole, emitting strong millimeter waves,” the researchers explain in a press release. “According to Einstein’s special relativity theory, the emission is largely amplified when the source is moving toward the observer with a speed comparable to that of light.”

Source: Read Full Article

Why the coronavirus pandemic is leading so many couples to divorce

She called me from a one-bedroom apartment two weeks ago, her voice quiet and shaky.

“I just cannot take one more minute with him,” she said. “I have to get divorced. Why did I wait? Now I will never be able to get out!”

As a clinical psychologist specializing in divorce, I typically get three to five calls a week from people thinking about ending their marriage. But since the coronavirus pandemic first erupted in China and spread all over the world, including New York City where I live and work, I’m now getting these calls three to five times a day.

As The Post reported, divorce inquiries among top New York City matrimonial lawyers rose 50 percent during the first week of the “pause” order in New York — double the calls they typically receive. Even “Full House” star Mary-Kate Olsen filed for an emergency divorce from her husband Olivier Sarkozy on May 18, claiming she was afraid she’d lose all access to her belongings and her apartment during the pandemic.

This coronavirus divorce surge was first seen in China. Steve Li, a divorce lawyer in Shanghai, which went into lockdown on Jan. 23 after the virus emerged in Wuhan 430 miles away, told Bloomberg News that his caseload has increased 25 percent since his city eased restrictions in mid-March. Meanwhile, the central Chinese city of Xian, and Dazhou, in the Sichuan province, both reported a record number of divorce filings in early March, creating major backlogs at government offices.

Evidence from past pandemics shows that divorces increase even after a virus subsides. A study in Hong Kong found that a year after the 2002-03 SARS epidemic, 2004 divorces in that city were 21 percent higher than 2002 levels, Bloomberg News reported.

Why do pandemics lead to divorce? Because a lockdown means spending 24/7 together. On weekdays, the typical dual-income couple sees each other for 30 minutes in the morning and two to three hours in the evenings. Time spent together on weekends is greater, but usually diluted by errands, activities and visits from friends. Now many of these couples are at home all day long, watching each other all the time!

While the usual issues, including a lack of intimacy, affairs and disputes over parenting styles, are still leading to divorce during the pandemic, I’m getting lots of complaints about how differently people’s partners are responding to the COVID-19 crisis. One woman told me she is exasperated by how controlling her husband is about the cleanliness of their apartment. “He literally wipes up my sweat when I am working out!” she sighed. Another regular complaint I’m getting: “I cannot believe how irresponsible he is being about social distancing and not taking this seriously.”

Once people see they have fundamentally disjointed ways of handling this crisis, it underscores other differences in the marriage. “Joe” called me the other day and said he was furious at his wife when she came home with their two kids and his daughter told him, “Daddy, we had such a great time with Oliver and Jane at the park.” He could not believe his wife had allowed their kids to have physical contact with other children. “How can I trust her judgment?” he asked me.

Another client, who called 311 on the bar next door for not following social-distancing rules, told me she felt unsupported when her husband shrugged his shoulders over the event and said, “Everyone needs to let off some steam.” Another woman said her “paranoid” partner won’t allow her to go shopping without him and they have to be rigidly careful, including wiping down every box of food before placing it in their recyclable bags. She told me she feels trapped.

Divorce rates increase during other times of stress, of course. A chronic illness, the death of a child and deployment in a war are all factors. But lockdown puts what’s missing in a marriage on full display. Patience is short. In the past when you might have excused your partner’s behavior and said, “They did not mean it. They meant well,” it’s now harder to feel compassion for their mistakes.

Research shows that how partners communicate, work through arguments and problem-solve will allow a stressor to either wreck a marriage or sustain it.

For the most part, the pandemic is dragging all our issues out of our dusty closets and requiring couples to talk about their frustrations, desires and needs. The good news is: If you face this challenge and are willing to work through it with your partner, you will likely come out of this pandemic stronger than ever before. And the couples who break up during lockdown were likely headed that way anyway.

Dr. Elizabeth Cohen is a contributor to Psychology Today and the CEO and founder of “Afterglow: The Light at the Other Side of Divorce,” an online divorce course offering a free 14-day guide for couples who are facing tough decisions.

Source: Read Full Article

Why Maddie from Sweet Magnolias looks so familiar

Netflix’s latest drama Sweet Magnolias started streaming this month and if you were one of the many viewers who couldn’t help but starting watching it immediately, it’s likely you recognized JoAnna Garcia Swisher, who plays Maddie Townsend, almost straight away. According to Variety, the actor has been acting since she was 10. “It really felt like I was doing what I was meant to be doing,” she told the outlet about getting bitten by the acting bug young. Perhaps most notably, Swisher made a name for herself starring in the CW’s Reba as Reba’s daughter. If you didn’t watch that show, since the actress has an impressive list of movies and TV shows on her resume, you are sure to recognize her from another project.

As a teen, Swisher appeared in Nickelodeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark? as Sam, Party of Five as Hallie, and cult hit Freaks and Geeks as Vicki Appleby, before scoring her role on Reba (via IMDB). Despite not having a notable role, she also appeared in Clarissa Explains It All, and Dawson’s Creek in the early ’90s.

JoAnna Garcia Swisher has starred in Gossip Girl, How I Met Your Mother and The Mindy Project

The same year Swisher debuted on Reba (where she stayed for six years), she also starred in mega-hit movies Not Another Teen Movie and American Pie 2. By the end of her time on Reba, however, she had a long list of TV shows under her belt, like Welcome to the Captain, Privileged, and How I Met Your Mother. She also played Bree Buckley, in season three of Gossip Girl.

If none of these shows ring a bell, it’s likely you’ve seen Swisher more recently in ABC’s Once Upon a Time. However, she’s also had notable roles in Royal Pains, Animal Practice, The Astronaut Wives Club, and The Mindy Project. And with a track record of achieving bigger roles each year, we can’t wait to see what she stars in next. In the meantime, you can enjoy Swisher on Sweet Magnolias. 

About the show, which sees her as a mom of three attempting to reinvent herself after her hubby cheats on her, the star told My Central Oregon, “It’s about surviving, it’s about supporting each other. It’s about community. It’s about having faith.” According to the star, the timing couldn’t be better, given the current pandemic. “And we certainly weren’t predicting where we are right now when we started shooting the show [almost a year ago]. But we’re here now and it feels so of the moment,” Swisher added.

Source: Read Full Article