Content Consumed: Kate Middleton’s Photoshop skills, the Oscars, Dune II, and more

Oh my goodness it’s been a crazy couple of weeks for content.
Here’s what we’re chatting about today:

❗️ Buckingham Palace’s Photoshop skills
🎬 Notes on the Oscars and the winners
💔 No chemistry in One Day
🪱 Dune II rocked, of course
👑 The Regime: Episode 1

The Katespiracy is real!

Kate Middleton has not been seen for months, as mentioned in the most recent edition of Content Consumed. Internet speculation has begun to run amuck—and the royals aren’t helping themselves!!!

Let me try and order this chronologically:

• The palace said she was recovering from abdominal surgery, but suddenly things seem much darker than that.
• The palace pretended that this was Kate Middleton in a car, but it looks strangely… different. Honestly, it looks more like Pippa.
• THEN—and this is arguably the craziest thing that’s happened—the palace released this photo of Kate and her kids, supposedly after her abdominal surgery. Look very closely at things like fingers, sleeves, sweaters, and reflections. Some may call it… a Katespiracy.
• On another note, please notice the lack of a wedding ring.
• Now, several major news agencies including the AP and Reuters have retracted the shared photo due to inconsistencies indicating digital alterations by Kensington Palace, requesting its removal.
• And then… the palace shared an apology supposedly directly from Kate.

Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day. C

• Sorry??? You’re telling me that a royal monarch who certainly hasn’t needed to know her own computer passwords for 15+ years is fooling around with layered vectors and editing her kids’ hands and her sweater color in Adobe Suite?! Then sending it to international news agencies?! Come on. Are you kidding me? For real?
• By the way… a royal relative has died in a suspicious suicide.
• Prince William’s supposed affair with Lady Rose Hanbury has been resurfaced. Great timing.
• Another photo of “Kate” in a car came out yesterday and… it looks a lot more like the woman that Prince William has had/is having an affair with. In any case, none of the photos show Kate’s full face still.

What a shitshow. Queen Liz dies and the whole monarchy starts falling apart…

Notes on the 2024 Oscars

Alright, let’s recap the big winners:
- Oppenheimer for Best Picture
- Cillian Murphy for Best Actor
- Emma Stone for Best Actress
- Robert Downey Jr. for Best Supporting Actor
- Da’Vine Joy Randolph for Best Supporting Actress

Other wins that got me excited were Christopher Nolan earning Best Director for Oppenheimer, Billie Eilish getting her SECOND Oscar, and Poor Things receiving Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling.

I’m really glad I watched Poor Things on Sunday, finally, ahead of the awards show. Otherwise, I probably would’ve been more upset about Lily Gladstone missing the Best Actress win for Killers of the Flower Moon. But Emma Stone was so good. It was drama and comedy; it was physical and mental; it was one of the best performances of her career (which has been stacked with many incredible performances).

Honestly, RDJ was my last pick for Supporting Actor. I would’ve chosen ten other Oppenheimer side characters above him. Mark Ruffalo (Poor Things) and Robert DeNiro (Killers) were both more deserving in this category, IMO.

EDIT: I forgot to say!!! Ryan Gosling nailed his “I’m Just Ken” performance. You’d think we’d be tired of it by now… but his talent is impeccable.

‘One Day’ didn’t hook me

Yes, Leo Woodall is gorgeous. No, that doesn’t mean he could have chemistry with anyone. And I don’t think it’s Ambika Mod’s fault either!

I think their characters must’ve been poorly adapted from the novel. That’s the conclusion I’m coming to. (Note: I have read exactly three chapters of One Day.)

Because he is so pathetic. And she is so bitchy. And it’s never clear what they see in each other. The miscommunication tropes rule every episode, and the show’s desire to make you feel uncomfortable isn’t effective.

Is it the dialogue? Is it the plot? What’s the issue here?

I don’t know. But considering how much this show was hyped up… I’m disappointed.

Dune II rocked

Not much more to say!!!

Just kidding. I have some things to say.

First of all, I’m not sure the last time I saw this much star power in one cast. Yes, that includes Barbie, Oppie, and Marvel movies. Because I’m talking about lasting star power in young Hollywood.

Timothee Chalamet. Zendaya. Austin Butler. Florence Pugh. We should be grateful to be alive during a time when these four are starring in movies together.

The slightly older members of the cast, like Leá Seydoux and Rebecca Ferguson, also made jaws drop with their performances.

If you’re debating seeing Dune II, do NOT wait until it hits streaming. This is a movie for movie theaters!!! The sound, the visuals, all of it… mindblowing.

Reminder: I’m saying all of this as someone who doesn’t love sci-fi and wasn’t a huge Dune I girlie.

So, see it. Now. Quick. While it’s in theaters. Experience this cultural event.

Kate Winslet and ‘The Regime’

Let me put you onto the least-talked-about, most interesting show on streaming right now: The Regime.

The premise:
“A year within the palace of a modern European authoritarian regime as it unravels.”

The show stars Kate Winslet as a dictator in Middle Europe, as paranoid and sociopathic as one might expect of such a character. And she nails it—at least in the first episode, the only one I’ve watched so far. The relationships between the characters are strange, the setting is fascinating, and the plot is compelling.

It feels like a cross between VEEP and The Great, two of my favorite shows. I’ll definitely keep watching.

And that’s it from me today! Enjoy your content consumption. Send me your Kate Middleton theories, please…

Cheers,
Casey

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I’m Casey and I’m a writer based in Portland, Oregon. My day job is writing at an ad agency, my primary hobby is novel writing, and I publish this column about once a week.

In every edition of Content Consumed, I’ll catch you up on the culture of the moment. Mostly entertainment — television, movies, music, podcasts, books, sports.