Dear Gossips,
We are not talking today about Meghan Markle’s father. Because there’s nothing new to say. It’s the same, my views on it have not changed: there is nothing loving about repeatedly harassing your child in the media. Did you know there was actually a contact sheet sent out from a photo shoot he did – they’re calling it a “portrait session” – to accompany his latest interview? I also don’t see the point of addressing all the articles from the British tabloids about how the palace has mishandled the situation. Any “handling” of the situation is him getting his way. It means a bully gets his way.
Let’s put the attention instead on another parent, someone whose daughters are also very, very famous – one of them is the greatest entertainer of these times. That would be Miss Tina, mother of Beyoncé and Solange Knowles, who is featured in this month’s Vanity Fair in an interview with Kimberly Drew, curator and social media manager for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a young black woman who has built her online presence and career by championing black art and artists.
Miss Tina tells Kimberly about her own relationship with art, how it triggered her imagination, how it opened her world, and how she made it a part of her home, so that her daughters grew up always surrounded by black excellence and creativity. This, then, is a companion piece to Beyoncé’s September Issue and connects to both Beyoncé and Solange’s artistic contributions over the last few months. Which means that Miss Tina’s personal publicity, even though her daughters, obviously, are consistently namechecked in her press, is collaborative. She takes nothing from her children… but for the clothing. Apparently, for this photo shoot, she went over to Beyoncé’s the night before to borrow outfits. Which is not new for. She’s told us before that she shops in her daughters’ closets:
You know what still kills me about Miss Tina though? How her social media skills – or lack thereof – so frustrate her children…and grandchildren. We’ve heard the Blue Ivy Carter telling her off for filming at the opera. We already know B and Solange can’t anymore with Miss Tina’s corny jokes. And here’s how she promoted this Vanity Fair piece on her Instagram:
A screen cap with the subscription pop-in still included in the photo, hoarding her monthly free article count, just like us. (To be fair though, I’m now a proper VF subscriber. The articles since Radhika Jones took over are really, really great. I actually subscribe to a number of other publications supporting the work of really talented writers.) Blue’s next assignment is to teach grandma how to crop a photo.
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
