Was It Just a Cracker Jacks Prize Ring? - or When Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani Took a Pap Walk And Gossip Ensued

 

 

 

 

⬅⬅ This is Narnia today!!!  It's Friday Eve!!  That's the next best thing to Friday and the weekends!

It's going to be downhill from here.  Ha ha, I just noticed the little turtle in the bottom left corner roller skating.  😂

Well, as stated in the last post, there were a few topics that did not make the cut due to space and time length issues.  We did not want to detract from special subject matter with too many topics.

 

So just a few matters of note, first of which is an entry in our ongoing updates and look-back's on "Resurrecting Shevine".  Whether or not Adam Levine and Blake Shelton are still an item behind the scenes, Narnia has no doubt there was a lot of heat going on during Adam's tenure on The Voice and well, one has to wonder why the OTT bearding particularly for Blake and an underwhelming Levine return to the show finale at the end of May, after all of the promo hype.  Not to mention Adam allegedly jet-setting to Hawaii immediately afterward with all of the continued coiffure changes and shirtless public walks with television actors.  ✂ 🌊 😉  After all, Blake had his cover - Gwennie "Gwen" Stefani was the lousy opening act.  Apparently, The Voice felt her presence wasn't enough. 

I realize I'm a day late and a dollar short regarding Shevine.  While everyone else was enjoying their televised couple-dom in real time, I had my head buried in Jaustin (Jake Gyllenhaal and Austin Nichols) starting in 2008 and then beginning in 2014, J2 (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles).  Regardless.  Couples as electric as Adam and Blake, who were both on The Voice at the height of its popularity, deserve more attention, especially since their chemistry was so often dismissed as simply a wonderful "stage and red carpet bromance" and "Nothing to see here, ok? They're both married or engaged so it's just two guys comfortable in their own skin being best friends and who can deny they're just too cute together".   Well.... Narnia says Not-So-Fast...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We will continue to point out the hinky, the eye catching and the wonder that was Shevine.

 

🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸

 

Blake Shelton is returning to The Ellen DeGeneres Show today.

 

 

This could be an interesting appearance, couldn't it?  Whenever Blake is on her show, Ellen doesn't miss an opportunity to shoehorn in Gwennie Stefani, then shoehorn her in again and again, and then again again.  Reportedly, Ellen is even supposed to be Stefani's maid of honor, if you are to believe the glut of tabloid fodder:

Keeping the Publicity Admin busy

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whatever angle there has been to cover for this wedding-to-be, Stefani's (and Blake's to a certain extent) people have got it covered.  They milked the are-they-or-aren't-they-rumors starting in 2015, milked the "dating and courtship period" once the rumors were confirmed, milked the engagement, milked the upcoming wedding ceremony delay due to the "lack of an annulment from the Catholic church" excuse, and received and milked a delay reprieve due to the pandemic because Stefani just did not want to have a wedding without all the paps, I mean family and friends being able to attend as every website told us.  And now?  

Well, everyone is still waiting for this "wedding" to happen with all its following excruciatingly publicized details.

So what will Ellen DeGeneres have to say on her show with Blake as her guest?  Will he break the news that they really have gotten married?  Or will we hear about the yet latest "wedding" delay?  I think I can hear the first notes of The Weeknd and Daft Punk's "I Feel It Coming" already.

Never mind that Stefani gaslit everybody with this ridiculous charade.  This is prime, Grade-A Azoff gaslighting (Stefani signed with Azoff MSG in 2014).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That story comes after this multi-film-roll pap outing on June 12 by Stefani, Blake and her youngest Rossdale child (from the Stefani/Gavin Rossdale "marriage"):

 

Courtesy Page Six - OTT doesn't even begin to cover this one

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And yes, Stefani is all about exploiting the Rossdale children.  This author thought the Padalecki and Ackles were child exploiters, but they have nothing on Gwen Stefani.  She has set a standard that Narnia was totally unaware of but did not take long to realize after a few study sessions via Google Images.  (Perhaps she and Jennifer Garner could have had a pap call competition back in Garner's hey day.)

This "outing" followed Stefani's Instagram post on June 11 where she informed everyone she had had a bridal shower (even though this is going to be her second "marriage" and well, guess there was a hopeful need to receive the latest indoor grill from the bridal registry!) 😏

 

 

And so following the bridal shower post, came the park outing on June 12 which included video and Blake playing tag-and-run with little Apollo to show he's a good prospective step-dad.

 

It was strategic, I mean nice of Stefani to move out of the way just before this planned playfulness was organically inspired.

 

And then some PDA as well, this one of the podiatry fashion 🦶

source: Page Six, who is becoming a more frequently used reservoir

Even this On-Stage, Shevine Schtick-PDA looked more enjoyable for both parties involved than Shefani's and there was no pulling out of the cell phone for self-occupation either!

Awww, Adam and Blake in another fierce clench

 

 

What followed this basically simple outing was some of the most befuddling non-news (?), that they had gotten secretly married due to a new, added ring to her finger.  We're not showing it; anyone can go to The Daily Fail and see the massive zoom shot.  Following this taunting outing and ensuing speculation was the seemingly denial of having done the "deed" already:

 

Shutting down the rumors! It was only another ring.

 

 

 

Ohhhhhh, because the word "fiance" was still used in her Instagram post and not "hubby", that means nothing to see here.   Everyone is just jumping the gun, see?  You silly people!  

 

 

Indeed, Brad, indeed.

And so this brings us to where we are - June 24 and Blake about to make an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and we'll see what direction this mega-show takes.

 

🚨🚨 June 24, 2021  16:30 CST 🚨🚨 

Well....in my particular time zone, Ellen's telecast was interrupted for a news report, but the game scene was watched and Blake was just about to come on to perform "Minimum Wage".  An interview was done instead with actress Minnie Driver and since there doesn't seem to be any late breaking updates, it would seem there are no "nuptial" announcements to be made nor was there any opportunity for questioning about the awaiting when and where.  Fascinating.

Author's Note:  Narnia wishes to extend our sorrow over the terrible condo collapse in Florida today and we hope that as many survivors as possible can be retrieved. 

pic sources:  Daily Fail, Just Jared, Blakesheltonworld, Purrtacular, PageSix, Pinterest

our playlist:  Ring of Fire - Johnny Cash

                     Something to Talk About - Bonnie Raitt

                     Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds - Elton John

 

Sunday Musings: Don't Argue With Siri and PR Team Alpha-Bits

Right?  lol.  Definitely has been me too many times to count!   Look at that guy at the end after he closes the lid - no biggie!  Never saw anything!  Well, it's been an interesting week and just a few little observations and discoveries.  Let's start off with this one.



• In this commercial from AT&T about boy bands, take a look:

 

 

Notice anything?  First of all, it puts down boy bands who don't dance.  Who was known for not dancing?  One Direction, right?
 
Notice anything something else?  There are five members of the band, yes.

And then, what?

Oh look, a fan in the commercial's audience just happens to have a, what is that?  A stuffed bear? 

Hmmmm...what is all that about, in addition to being a commercial about a Sp*tify package?   Interesting, isn't it?  Somehow, we don't think the stuffed bear is for promotion of vendor souvenir stands either...

We see you Rainbow Bondage and Sugar Baby Bears!


Then there was this crazy "coincidence" involving Siri Apple's virtual assistant that appeared on August 20th. 1D fans noticed when asking the virtual assistant to respond to a generic question about Harry Styles' debut album, the answer generated was quite intriguing. 

Eponymous debut studio album by Harry Styles  

Written for Louis Tomlinson.

That's right. Siri is a virtual assistant that is part of Apple Incorporated's operating systems and evidently is a Larrie. Essentially, the assistant uses voice queries and a natural-language user interface to respond to questions learned from the Internet. Long story short, Antis (those "fans" who despise Larries) were outraged and tried to change the response. When they found out they couldn't they wrote to Apple directly. It appears Antis have no sense of humor.

 
Shhhhh. Don't tell anyone, but we happen to know a Larry who might have some connection with Mr. Cook.

And another Larry who just might have had a hand in drafting Siri's response:

    "What? I just wanted to make sure that Siri didn't give the wrong answer. Mr. Cook will thank me. Am I right?"

• On that smile-inducing note, we interrupt this Sunday Musings with a Classic Jakers "Mr. Grimace" moment.  The whole irony of this policing-the-paps moment is that Jake has been photoed and videoed in New York City more than any celeb we have seen since, well - since he was allegedly "hounded" in 2012.  But for some reason, he wasn't feeling too friendly on this day.

 

Well now, looks like Jake's people had that video taken down, isn't that just something?   Well, here's another video of miffed Jake and we'll used this one instead.

 

 

 

[I think maybe Jake really thought he was Louis Bloom for a moment with the video cam on his shoulder. Wonder what he did with that picture of the pap's license plate? Framed it maybe? Or, did he text it to his publicist, Mara?  Maybe publicist, Alla?  After all, they are paid to take care of his annoyances and whisk them away.  ;-)   This video appears old and was kind of tickling so we thought we would share. 🠈 these comments were regarding the first video, which was taken down from You Tube]  I know this author is never going to turn down the opportunity to see Jake's jaw clenched & lips pursed in irritation! 

• Fast forward to August 15, and Austin posted this throwback pic.  Buddy, you are not a d-bag. Just stop it.  In fact, we here at Narnia thought it was River Phoenix for a moment. Check it out!

 

 

Jake even sported a similar kind of style back in the day.   Must have been the cool coif!

Kind of a halo-kind of haircut, although without the angel's wings.  LOL!

Now it's also amazing what can be discovered when perusing the internet with no particular objective in mind, and thanks to the brief return of our old Instagram friend, one starts noticing other curiosities as well. For instance, it was interesting to learn a few things that some Jake fans already knew, but Narnia never really paid close attention to before.  Just a couple of six degree moments that were found to be interesting.

As can be seen below, Jake has a couple of publicists by the names of Mara Buxbaum and Alla Plotkin.  

Wheweee, doesn't Jake look great there?  If a viewer takes a look at the Instagram caption, jakebullshittingovereverybody provides  a rare date stamp, indicating that the chummy photo was taken during SXSW 2016.  Isn't that interesting, considering what happened during that momentous Film Festival and how we were able to see Jake and Austin in the same cell phone picture together. In other words, #allhandsondeck to pull that one off.

Anyhoo, these two ladies are in the public relations firm by the name of ID, lead by Kelly Bush Novak.  Mara Buxbaum is president, having joined ID in 1999 from PMK Public Relations when the LA-based ID wanted to establish an office in NYC.  She was Heath Ledger's U.S. publicist (since at least 2005), as well as Robin Williams', and therefore presumably involved with the press releases (and journalistic suppression?) surrounding Heath's death and memorial services.  Many quotes from Buxbaum are available from that time.  She also currently represents Michelle Williams' public image, and has done so since at least February 2007.

Alla Plotkin represents celebrities like Chris Colfer, Sarah Paulson, and...Margot Robbie.

Before publicists Mara and Alla, there was Carrie Byalick for Jake's PR.  Carrie had joined ID-PR in 1999 as an account executive, having worked at E! and The Howie Mandel Show.  In an impressive career move after establishing herself in her own right, Carrie left ID in 2016 and formed her own talent company called "B".  Her first client was America Ferrera. She also represents, are you ready?  Amy Schumer.  Stephen Colbert, Vera Farmiga, and John Krasinki.  These are all actors who have appeared in photo ops with Jake, filmed movies with Jake, or, in Krasinki's case, had their name meme robot'ed with Jake's name. 

The people Jake is seen with, makes more sense now, doesn't it?  And so back in October of last year, because of all the Amy Schumer/Chris Fischer nonsense, this little "gold nugget" popped up and was covered in our post, "Six Degrees, Two + Two, They All Connect to Jake and Maggie G".   Jake's former publicist, Carrie Byalick is supposed to have "dated" his Martha's Vineyard/cooking friend Chris.  Good times.

Isn't it interesting that around the time in 2012 when Jake's career path took its big turn, this commenter had come on Oh My Godot.com (when others were commenting about Byalick) and said:

orly said...

Agencies, websites, celebrity blogs are for the most part PR approved. Just Jared, People, Zap2it, DailyMail, Us Weekly, etc. You ignorance is either faked or you really are stupid

Have you read Carrie's twitter lately? Don't think Jake is high on her list of clients at the moment. Matter of fact I don't think Carrie is even doing publicity for him anymore. Perhaps someone else at the company is, but it's not Carrie.

So all those websites you listed...what do they have to do with the average New Yorker who is spotting, tweeting and taking pics of Jake on the sly?

March 16, 2012 at 12:26 PM

Somewhere during Jake's transition from CAA to WME/IMG/Endeavor in 2012, it looks like this was also when he changed publicists to become coddled by, I mean represented by the turbo-powered Mara Buxbaum.


Just a little 101 today on Jake's "Beware of" protectors and who knows, could be a few of the "Anon's" some of us have tangled words with in the past on OMG.  ;-)


• Let's transition to Jared Padalecki on stage with his signature beanie, which basically means it must be Supernatural convention time. Here he is at Van Con today.

In case you've been living on a deserted island with Gilligan, Skipper and the Gang, this is the final season for the show that's really been running on fumes for the past several years.  


• A few random parting bits worth mentioning just for fun:


We wonder if Liam is still doing his own ironing? Particularly, given all those clothes left on "his bedroom floor" these days.
;D

"One Direction have to do their own ironing and you don't see Take That doing their own ironing!" - Liam Payne

Although we've heard in One Direction interviews that Louis used to bring his own washing machine on tour. We'll let you guess who that might have been, but his name begins with an "H".

 

• By the way, has anyone ever heard actor/director Austin Nichols speaking fluent Spanish?  Seen him rollerblading?   We at Narnia are on the lookout for proof of these two wild claims discovered via an undisclosed source.  ;-)

• Jake will be appearing at the ACE Comic Con in Rosemont IL on October 12, 2019 (yes, 5 days before BT #1 Son's birthday):

No more mystery here! Our next guest for #ACEcomiccon Midwest is none other than Mysterio, Jake Gyllenhaal! Sign up now for Jake's autograph lottery here: https://t.co/AFnlrvF3ne. VIP Pre-Sale opens Thursday, General On Sale is Friday at 10am CT! Check your email for details. pic.twitter.com/WoUQFP8iJN

— ACEcomiccon (@ACEcomiccon) August 13, 2019

 
The autographs and photo op cash will bring a nice, tidy bit of Friday Night Ice Cream money for Jake and the fam.  While we're accustomed already to seeing photo ops from the likes of Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, and Austin Nichols, this will be a whole other kettle of fish with Jakers, who will find he'll need to get all kinds of close and snuggly, hold signs, and be posed like a Gumby doll with lots of strange fans.  LOL!  His sidecar Tom Holland has been at the D23 Expo this past weekend promoting his movie Onward with Chris Pratt and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, shoehorning Jake into comments like:

Oh, and this will be a sample of what's to come when Jake appears at the ACE Comic Con, don't say we didn't warn you.  This is what they do:

Noticing how many times this particular photo has been "circulated" already tells us this was specifically "strategized".  Not to mention the fact this account only had 64 posts prior to this one and in none of them did she ever show an interest in Marvel, Tom Holland or "Jakey".  Not to mention the account name and we're going to leave that one at that and give Management a wave. ;-)

via GIPHY 


Just a brief bit of this 'n that while a prior post is completed. Hope everyone had a lovely weekend as we all look forward to a wondrous return to our places of work,

and prepare for a goodbye to summer (and hello to Labor Day weekend).

collaboration: Prairie Girl, Methodical Muser
pic sources:  cheezburger, Page Six, giphy
our playlist:  Shine - Take That
                     Patience - Take That
                     Rule the World - Take That