Dear Gossips,
So many people are getting dragged into this Jeffrey Epstein grossness – politicians, media, royals, it could eventually be its very own ecosystem. The Hollywood Reporter published an article yesterday about how Jeffrey Epstein “moved freely in Hollywood circles” even after he was convicted in 2008 for “soliciting prostitution from girls as young as 14” and serving over a year in prison. That’s where this story intersects with celebrity. Apparently he was at the March 2016 premiere of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in New York, escorted by power publicist Peggy Siegel who the New York Times at the time called “Hollywood’s secret weapon”.
Then there was that party Epstein hosted at his NY mansion in 2010, after serving his sentence. Woody Allen (shocker), Charlie Rose, Chelsea Handler, and George Stephanopoulos were there, and Katie Couric too, and now she’s had to get a source close to her to tell THR that that was her “first and last encounter” with him. That party, by the way, was in honour of none other than Prince Andrew. As we know, the British royals are all about propriety and protocol, supposedly. Not sure why he’d still be hanging out with a dude who’d just been sprung after being convicted of soliciting sex from underage girls – and that was only after a “sweetheart” deal was negotiated.
Buckingham Palace has repeatedly and vehemently denied that Prince Andrew was involved in any way in Jeffrey Epstein’s vile dealings but given the latest developments and the details that are slowly starting to emerge about Epstein’s alleged crimes, those courtiers for sure are keeping a close eye on this situation. I mean, even Graydon Carter and Vanity Fair’s reputation under his editorship is being called into question as people are looking back on a 2015 Daily Beast article written by former Vanity Fair contributing editor Vicky Ward where she reveals that details about Epstein’s behaviour with young women were ordered by Graydon to be cut from a piece she’d worked on for months for the magazine in 2003. Graydon denies that he was pressured by Jeffrey Epstein and/or his associates to excise those details but now The Hollywood Reporter’s editor-at-large, Kim Masters, is weighing in with a piece of her own about how Graydon would do the same with her stories if they offended some of his powerful celebrity friends. Graydon has since released a statement to THR defending his journalistic principle, insisting that he stands by his editorial process and that he never made decisions in service of his famous connections.
It’s a mess with so many tentacles. How many anxious phone calls and texts are being exchanged right now? Who’s trying to cover whose ass?
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
