So, here it is…the final installment of the Royal Olympic Watch (aka pictures of Duchess Kate).

Here she is with David Cameron and Prince Harry (among others) at last night’s Closing Ceremony. Chic to the very last.

So, People is reporting that Taylor Swift has bought a house ACROSS THE STREET from the Kennedys in Hyannis Port, Mass.

She’s 22. Conor Kennedy, whom she’s been dating for a few months at the most, is 18. He just endured a major trauma with the suicide of his mother. Does any of this sound like the makings of a long term, stable relationship?

Apparently, she loves the area after spending time there with Conor. Ok. But, the house could have been in a nearby town, even a couple of miles away would have been better than this, “It’s in a beautiful location and right across the street from Conor and the Kennedys“.

Oh, Taylor…you’re young, but not young enough to be this naive. Come ON now.

Jennifer Aniston is engaged to Justin Theroux. Happy news for all involved. Except the tabloids, that is. Can they sell magazines with a happy Jen? Or, is the long running narrative of her being the wronged woman in the Brad-Jen-Angie triangle just too compelling (and profitable) to resist continuing?

After all, since 2005–when Brad and Jen first separated–millions of magazines have been sold telling the story of “sad Jen” left all alone with no one but her dogs and Courtney Cox to comfort her, while evil, selfish, possibly adulterous Brad went off and cold-heartedly frolicked and played happy families with Angelina in the pages of W.

Of course, Brad then had the nerve to actually go and create a seemingly happy family life with Angelina, which obviously devasted a helpless, pathetic Jen who was apparently further wronged with the addition of every new child to their (enormous) brood, every house purchased, every almost-wedding that Brad and Angie had. Jen couldn’t win. And they liked it that way.

Now, with an official announcement of an engagement to People, she seems to be winning again, or at the very least not constantly losing to Brad. Will she be allowed to live out this story? Or, will a new narrative be invented–one where Jen is only marrying Justin because she couldn’t find anyone better/is desperate for a family/is threatened by Brad and Angelina’s engagement?

Throughout the Olympics the twitterverse was consistently on fire with posts bearing the hashtag “NBCFail”. Whether it was complaints about Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera’s commentary during the Opening Ceremony or the network’s failure to show something deemed critical in their primetime coverage, very little escaped notice or commentary.

But, despite the voices crying out from twitter–no matter how loudly–NOTHING changed. We hear about the power of social media to effect change on a daily basis but against NBC it seemed almost powerless. Has twitter finally met its’ match?

People magazine might have had the ultimate point when it came to the clash between social media and its’ denizens and the corporate behemoth that is NBC, “it’s exciting to see Twitter flexing its muscle – and having a lot of rambunctious fun doing it – but the fact remains that NBC’s ratings were through the roof. A reminder that, although the dinosaurs died out, while they lived they ate whatever, whenever and wherever they liked.”

And that, my friends, may just be the final word. For now. My money is on Rio 2016 being a very different story.

So, the Olympics are over. I’m already suffering from withdrawal and it’s only been a matter of hours. Thanks to NBC’s boneheaded move to delay the end of the Closing Ceremony and the performance by the Who until after the premiere of “Animal Practice” I won’t be missing NBC’s coverage all that much. Did anyone else find that to be incredibly manipulative? I understand the ratings game and the need to get the right viewers at the right time, but throughout the two-week period it seemed to me like NBC’s tape-delayed coverage was so heavily weighted towards keeping the viewer in the dark about what would be on when and therefore forcing you to watch from 8 until midnight–a feat not possible for most working adults. In short, I felt like I was being toyed with. And, the stunt with the Who last night was the most flagrant of the many violations over the course of the Games. It just seemed cheap and if there is something I associate with the Olympics it is a certain level of class–a sublimation of the purely commercial concerns of every day TV to the ideals of the Games. Perhaps, I am still a bit naive.

Kate was seen today at the woman’s boxing final at the ExCel center. Team GB member Nicola Adams was crowned as the first women’s boxing Olympic champ!

She may be approaching her due date any day now, but Reese is still looking as chic as ever — even if she might feel like she’s the size of a house, you wouldn’t know it from her adorable and super-stylish parade of outfits. Here is just a sampling from the past week or so…how cute is she?!?!

Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn directed Blake in her first ad for Gucci Premiere fragrance. Given the director’s pedigree the ad is somewhat underwhelming–showing Blake in all her glorious blondness standing in front of the lights of LA and walking in the desert–it’s not that exciting. Sure, she looks gorgeous–that’s her brand, all blond and breasty–but there’s just not that much to get excited about here. See the ad below…

How adorable are Prince William and his Duchess Catherine here? They came out to support Team GB again today and were all flirty and affectionate–a rare display of PDA.

Daily Royal Watch continues as the Games go on…

If, like me, you’ve been suffering through the early episodes of The Newsroom and occasionally finding yourself entertained but more often bemused, know that you are not alone. There are a lot of us out there. Enough, in fact, that New York magazine’s Vulture reports that HBO brought Sorkin in to this summer’s Television Critics Association press tour to try and address the flak the show has been getting from critics and recappers alike. Sorkin’s portrayal of the women on the show, in particular, has come under fire. A highlight from the Vulture piece and analysis below.

“Asked about the charges of sexism against the show, Sorkin says he respects that opinion, “but I 100 percent disagree with it.” The women are “every bit the equals of the men, I think they are not just talked about as being good at their job, they are plainly good at their job.” He then rattles off examples of this: News Night is better only after MacKenzie arrives declaring, “we are going to do better,” Maggie is a beacon of loyalty and Sloan is so serious-minded about economics she’s turned down higher-paying jobs on Wall Street.”

I’ll concede that in large part the women are shown to be competent. I don’t think that’s the issue. What’s more concerning is that the show seems to treat women in general and the women characters on the show with a hostility that is reserved for them and not the men. For starters there’s the sexual subtext of both MacKenzie and Will’s relationship and Maggie’s relationships with her boyfriend Don and boy-who-wants-to-be-her-boyfriend, Jim. Both MacKenzie’s and Maggie’s behavior is colored by these relationships much more so than that of their male counterparts. Maggie is portrayed as extremely good at her job, but her personal life dominates her storylines and she is shown in a way that makes her seem like a little girl, like someone who needs protection or coddling (see almost every scene between her and Don, the scene where she is talked out of a panic attack by Jim). Whereas the men are adult, competent, independent, and even a tad misanthropic in the case of Will. They stand on their own and are not defined in opposition to a woman.

MacKenzie and Will’s personal history plays into her storyline much more significantly than it does his–in respect to how it affects the way that they treat each other. MacKenzie is forever apologetic and deferential to Will–and not just in a you’re-the-talent-and-I-must-treat-you-with-kid-gloves sort of way. Yes, she’s the one who screwed up their relationship so some amount of regret should be allowed, but it infuses every interaction they have. She’ll always be the “silly little girl” who didn’t know a good thing when she had it and because of this she’s always ready and willing to be put down, to be put in her place. Will, on the other hand, despite how unpleasant and rude he can be, is depicted as someone to be reckoned with, someone to be taken seriously.

The women who pass in and out of The Newsroom world arguably have it the worst. Will’s parade of dates are more concerned with the Real Housewives of New Jersey than the “serious” topics he’d prefer to talk about. Maggie’s roommate worries that Jim will think she’s stupid because she only went to Parsons and works in fashion–frivolous worlds compared to his serious and important one. So, are the women of The Newsroom just comic relief for the serious-minded men on the show? Sorkin has a few more weeks this season to argue otherwise…after all, they can only go up from here.