Henry Fuseli’s “Odysseus In Front of Scylla and Charybdis” (1794-96) depicts the Homeric hero navigating between the proverbial rock and the hard place — kind of like the Republicans wanting to oppose former President Donald J. Trump yet retain popu… — Henry Fuseli’s “Odysseus In Front of Scylla and Charybdis” (1794-96) depicts the Homeric hero navigating between the proverbial rock and the hard place — kind of like the Republicans wanting to oppose former President Donald J. Trump yet retain popularity with Republican voters, who still support the former president.

Between a rock and a hard place: From Mitch (McConnell) to Meghan

February 19, 2021

We’ve moved on from the trial of the century — involving former President Donald J. Trump’s second impeachment— but the fallout continues. The “magnificent seven” Republican senators who voted with the 50 Democratic senators to convict have faced blowback at home. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, the Illinois Republican who voted to impeach Trump and is crusading for a Republican Party devoid of him, has been shunned by family members, one of whom, a literal Karen, sent his father a $7 certified letter in which she stated that Kinzinger was “a disappointment to God.” (Does she have him on speed dial?)

Perhaps most interesting is the clash of those Homeric heroes (not), Trump and Mitch McConnell, a face-off four years in the making that began when the Senate Minority Leader, like Odysseus, tried to navigate between the proverbial rock and a hard place, voting not to convict to try to appease the Republican base but then offering a blistering rebuke of Trump’s behavior before, during and after the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol to try to woo back skittish Republican donors.

Chinese one-child policy propaganda from 1982. Photograph by Robert Schedwy.

Sex and the determinedly single girl

February 19, 2020

I have to laugh at the Chinese government pressuring unmarried women to get hitched. A little background: In 1979, the government instituted a one-child policy to curb the population. Because Chinese tradition dictates that the oldest son cares for the parents in old age — and we wouldn’t want to mess with tradition, now would we? — couples opted to abort girl babies or put them up for overseas adoption. And now the policy, which ended in 2015, has bitten the government in its considerable butt. The gender selection chicken has come home to roost as the fewer females of marriageable age have the pick of the crop.

She will “always love” them: Meghan and Harry, the Duchess and Duke of Sussex at Sandringham for Christmas 2017, five months before they married. It was unusual for Queen Elizabeth II to invite someone who was not yet part of the royal family for Ch… — She will “always love” them: Meghan and Harry, the Duchess and Duke of Sussex at Sandringham for Christmas 2017, five months before they married. It was unusual for Queen Elizabeth II to invite someone who was not yet part of the royal family for Christmas, yet she made an exception for Meghan. You have to think those days are over. Photograph by Mark Jones.

A hard Megxit

January 22, 2020

Mike Bartlett’s 2017 play “King Charles III,” Queen Elizabeth II has died and Prince Charles succeeds her and immediately precipitates a constitutional crisis that has Prince William and wife Catherine looking to wrest the crown away from him. In the midst of rioting in the streets, Prince Harry falls in love with a black woman and decides to abandon royal life for her but in the end, acquiesces to remain in the fold and support the new king and queen.

Truth, of course, has a way of being stranger than fiction, for the real Prince Harry has gone further and farther than the fictional one ever does — all the way to Canada but stripped of His Royal Highness status and any state funding and required to repay the $3.1 million that British taxpayers shelled out to refurbish Frogmore Cottage, which was, is, his and wife Meghan’s home.

Meghan and Harry, the Duchess and Duke of Sussex, take part in a welcoming ceremony in New Zealand in October, 2018. It was clear early on that the ribbon-cutting lifestyle of the royals would not be for them. Courtesy Office of the Governor-General… — Meghan and Harry, the Duchess and Duke of Sussex, take part in a welcoming ceremony in New Zealand in October, 2018. It was clear early on that the ribbon-cutting lifestyle of the royals would not be for them. Courtesy Office of the Governor-General of New Zealand.

The woman he loves

January 8, 2020

Amid the throes of Brexit, Harry and Meghan have staged what the media is calling a Megxit. The couple is stepping back as senior royals to divide their time between Great Britain and the continent the British lost — that would be North America — while somehow still remaining in the royal family.

Wow. Just wow.

More thoughts on the royal wedding

May 20, 2018

More thoughts on the royal wedding

Clothing is a powerful symbol. Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’s modern, romantic wedding dress by Givenchy was a nod to the goddesses he dressed – Princess Grace of Monaco, Audrey Hepburn and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, among them – as well as to the woman who now heads the house, Clare Waight Keller, its first female artistic director. The columnar effect of that simply elegant dress …

A world lit by fire in a reverse fairy tale

May 19, 2018

In the end – after all the melodrama about in-laws and outlaws, race and clashing cultures – it was both a deeply personal moment and a global event brimming with cultural meaning.

A justifiably proud, almost wistful mother seeing her daughter off into a new life; a father-in-law stepping in to escort a bride who might’ve represented the daughter he never had; a self-possessed scion supporting his adored, rougher-around-the-edges kid brother on his big day; and oh, that kid brother – like a hero out of Jane Austen – waiting, craning his neck, hoping almost against hope, as it were, for “her” to appear. Then, finally, yes, it was she, of course, poised at the entrance of the church, but then, who else would it, could it, be? Looking like a goddess …

Royal fever

May 12, 2018

I have a confession to make: I am in love with a much younger man – Prince Louis.

OK, so he’s only 3 weeks old but he has stolen my heart. Prince Louis is already a star — thanks to his shutterbug of a mother, Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge — but even he will have to take a backseat this week as we get set for the Olympics of romance. I am talking, of course, about the wedding of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry May 19 at 7 a.m. (EDT).

As with any such event, this is not a sprint for the press but a marathon. In my guise as editor of WAG magazine, I have been among those whetting the appetite with wedding previews …