NOTHING CAN STOP BOY GEORGE

Here’s someone who always looks holiday festive! Boy George and Culture Club sold out a Birmingham Arena this weekend in spite of his voice problems. The 62 year old singer still gives his audience plenty to look at, with numerous costume changes, but he struggles with a gravelly voice these days. Other singers on stage fill in the high notes when he can’t. Nevertheless, he is booked to return to Moulin Rouge on Broadway early in 2025, AND a movie about his life is in the works. George wants Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner to play him in the biopic. Why NOT? he insists…

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THE EMELIA PEREZ BACKSTORY IS FASCINATING

We just walked out of a screening of Netflix movie Emelia Perez, and we couldn’t wait to google the leading actress Karla Sofia Gascon. The story is about a rough Mexican gangster (married with children) who secretly transforms into a woman. He fakes his own death and reappears a few years later pretending to be his estranged sister Emelia Perez.  Zoe Saldana plays his legal advisor who knows about the change, and Selena Gomez plays his wife, who assumes her husband is dead and doesn’t recognize the “sister.” All THIS and the movie is a musical! Emelia Perez is played by trans actress Karla Sofia Gascon, who until around 10 years ago was handsome actor Carlos Gascon. Trans actress Karla played herself as the rough gangster AND the trans woman. (fake sister) The female ensemble cast of Emelia Perez has already won a Best Actress award in Cannes – will Karla get an Oscar too?

Above: Carlos and Karla

 

HERE’S WHAT WE KNOW

The Malibu fire was one of the biggest stories coming out of Hollywood this week and here’s what we know. While it was reported that Cher had to evacuate her beachfront mansion, what WASN’T reported was that she picked up the tab for some less affluent residents to stay at a hotel a few miles down from the evacuation zone in nearby Santa Monica. My source says that when Cher heard through the grapevine that a few older residents were being brought to shelter, she arranged to pick up their tab for a hotel until the area was safe to return to and insisted on doing her good deed anonymously.

Selena Gomez had an especially good week, getting engaged and getting a Golden Globe nomination for Only Murders in the Building. While she posted a massive diamond engagement ring from new fiance Benny Blanco, we just heard that this wasn’t the first ring he used to pop the question. Benny actually proposed weeks before, but the ring he had custom made wasn’t ready, so he used a lab created diamond ring and explained that her actual ring was on the way. My source says that Benny wanted to propose on a specific day and time since he’s big into numerology, so that’s why he was forced to use a substitute ring when he asked Selena to marry him.

Donald Trump Jr. made the news after he ended his engagement to Kimberly Guilfoyle and went public with Palm Beach socialite Bettina Anderson. While this is hardly news to our loyal readers (since we wrote up this months ago) we just heard this: No sooner did Junior officially dump Kim, but he’s now planning to propose to Bettina and he wants a White House wedding in 2025! My inside source reveals that Donald Sr. LOVES the idea of having his son marry in the White House.

Taylor Swift was talked about this week since her highly successful Eras tour just ended. We just heard that while Taylor is taking some time off from performing her hiatus won’t be that long. She’s working on a pay per view live concert from Las Vegas which will likely take place in mid 2025 if all of the arrangements can be worked out.

Another huge story of the week was Megan Fox dumping her boyfriend Machine Gun Kelly even though she’s nearly in her third trimester of pregnancy with his baby. We had the scoop that she was pregnant and we also had the scoop she was having a girl. Here’s what we know. While we also previously reported that the couple were still having some issues we just heard that Megan is planning to sue for full custody and child support and my source says she’s confident she will get it because she allegedly has some very unflattering information on MGK. My source adds that this split was a long time coming and that Megan and MGK are now only communicating through their respective attorneys.

Finally, Donald Trump made headlines for so many reasons including being named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. Here’s the latest on Donald. He’s always been like a month to a flame when it comes to people who have more money and social standing than he does, and now he’s finally being welcomed into their social circles. My source says that behind the scenes, a campaign is being conducted to butter him. up. Donald was even invited to become a member of The Union Club, one of the oldest and most exclusive social clubs in NYC. Ironically, Donald is the only Republican president whose portrait isn’t hanging in the club, but all of that is about to change since people have seemed to finally figure out the easiest way to manipulate narcissist Donald is to shower him with compliments.

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MARK ZUCKERBERG DOESN’T WANT TO GO TO PRISON

According to Vanity Fair, American billionaires are falling all over themselves, buttering up Donald Trump with fistfuls of money. It seems like the logical way to deal with someone who could be a threat to their companies. Elon Musk was first in line and has so far donated 277 million to the new President. (He’s now considered “family”) Recently, tech CEO Mark Zuckerberg (who is mighty fussy about Facebook posts) donated a million dollars to Trump’s inauguration fund, in spite of the fact that Trump had threatened to toss Zuckerberg into prison “for life” for banning him from Facebook. Jeff Bezos loudly congratulated Trump on his win and says he feels “optimistic.” Who will be next to buddy up to our president?

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ANGELINA JOLIE SHOPS TILL SHE DROPS

We can tell by the number of paparazzi photos we see of Angelina Jolie and her kids shopping that the family really loves to shop. Angelina and the kids are in Paris this week and she coaxed a large consumer electronics store called Darty (like our Best Buy?) to stay open from 10 to midnight so that she and Pax could browse alone with no other customers. Darty specializes in household appliances,TVs, home goods, etc at reasonable prices. One person who cannot anticipate a Christmas gift from Darty is, of course, Brad Pitt.

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ELLE FANNING: INSPIRED BY BARDOT?

We did a doubletake over this photo of Elle Fanning at the premier of A Complete Unknown. Elle is 26, but usually looks like a sweet high school girl, and in THIS photo Elle looks like a va va voom sexy Brigitte Bardot. In the film Timothee Chalamet plays Bob Dylan and she plays his girlfriend in the early 60’s, and it appears that Elle was inspired by the era…

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THE LUIGI MANGIONE STORY IS NOT OVER

Well THAT was fast! No sooner was Luigi Mangione arrested for allegedly murdering United Health CEO Brian Thompson on December 9, than half of Hollywood is clamoring for the rights to his story! According to my source, Brad Pitt and his Plan B production company are already trying to secure the rights, but they’re up against many OTHER celebrities who produce – including Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Reynolds. Regardless of WHO secures the rights, you can expect a movie in 2025.

JENNIFER LOPEZ IS WASHING THAT MAN RIGHT OUT OF HER HAIR

Although they’re trying to keep their spilt friendly, Jennifer Lopez is hoping to wash the bad aura OUT of her life now that she’s divorcing Ben Affleck. According to my source, J.Lo recently had a spiritual advisor/psychic perform a sage cleansing ceremony at her Los Angeles home. The ritual involves placing specially blessed crystals in various places around the home as well as in the pockets of certain garments. Since money isn’t an issue for Jennifer she gladly shelled out the $5,000 for the two hour cleansing in hopes of breaking what she feels is an “unlucky in love” curse on her.

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GIGI HADID EXPANDED HER CLOTHING BUSINESS

Model Gigi Hadid celebrated the opening of her pop-up store called Guest in Residence on Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills this weekend. She already has a store in New York that features lots of cashmere and knit sweaters along with quilted puffers and warm winter clothing. LA is an odd choice for a winter clothing store- fortunately the shop is temporary. Bradley Cooper flew in for the opening and took Gigi out to dinner at Giorgio Baldi with her dad, so their relationship is still going strong…

Photo: Instagram

TOM CRUISE HAS BEEN THINKING ABOUT ESTRANGED DAUGHTER SURI

Katie Holmes recently denied a report in a UK tabloid that her daughter Suri recently inherited millions of dollars from a trust fund set up by her father Tom Cruise. As part of her divorce settlement from Tom, Katie insisted he set up a trust fund for Suri and while there are conflicting reports over whether Suri cashed out, a more interesting angle is that after years of no communication, Tom is itching to get Suri back in his life. According to our inside source, Tom knows Suri is interested in acting and fashion, so behind-the-scenes he’s let it be known that there’s a job for her on any of his next movies if she’s interested. My source adds that Tom will either give his daughter a small part in a movie or a job in the wardrobe department. We can’t help but wonder what Tom thinks about Suri changing her last name from Cruise to Noelle (mom’s middle name) before she went off to college…

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