The daily gossip: Borat's daughter somehow got into the White House, Robert Pattinson reprised his role as an 'emotional vampire,' and more

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1. Borat's daughter apparently got into the White House
2. Robert Pattinson plays an 'emotional vampire' in the new Haim music video
3. Meghan Markle's former Suits costar has avoided talking to her out of 'pure fear'
4. Serena Williams signed her daughter up for tennis lessons, but didn't tell the instructor who she was
5. Blake Lively badly photoshopped her shoes and apparently thought nobody would notice

published 23 October 2020

1. Borat's daughter apparently got into the White House

As if this saga could get any more embarrassing! On Friday, Sacha Baron Cohen shared that the Bulgarian actress Maria Bakalova, who plays Borat's "daughter" in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, managed to get into the White House by job-shadowing a reporter for the Trump-friendly network OAN. The deleted scene, shared on Twitter, shows Bakalova (in the guise of Borat's daughter Tutar) somehow getting past White House security and into the White House Press Briefing Room. "Trump very careful who he let into his events and house," the Borat Twitter account quipped. "No COVID test necessary — High 5!"

When Robert Pattinson isn't casually stealing movies out from under the feet of the "lead actors," he's usually mocking his role as the vampire Edward Cullen in the Twilight movies. Still, Pattinson was game to reprise his part as an "emotional vampire" in the new video for Haim's song "3 A.M.," which premiered on Late Night With Seth Meyers on Thursday. The video starts with the vampire character making a late-night booty call, and "we needed someone to do this cameo that had game," Este Haim explained. Tom Hardy and Benedict Cumberbatch "didn't get back" to the sisters, but Pattinson was down. "He's the best. He's like — We love him. He really did us a solid by doing this," Este said.

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Meghan Markle's Suits costar and former on-screen love interest Patrick J. Adams said "pure fear" has made him lose touch with the Duchess of Sussex. "Quite frankly, I think I'm intimidated," he told the Radio Times this month, admitting he's had little contact with Markle since he was invited to her wedding to Prince Harry in May 2018. Adams elaborated, "I guess I'm a little scared … about the idea of breaking through whatever walls exist to have that conversation." As Celebitchy observes, "The story of Meghan's life is so improbable, and it's funny that the people who were once in Meghan's life are still making adjustments. What DO you say to your former coworker after the craziness of her life the past three years?"

Serena Williams signed up her 3-year-old daughter, Olympia, for tennis lessons — but "the lady has no idea that it's my daughter so we'll see how that goes," Williams joked on Instagram. The 23-time Grand Slam champion added, "I'm not a pushy mom, but I know how I like techniques so I'm gonna make sure she's good and teaching them some techniques." The adorable series of Instagram Stories also showed Serena trying to prepare Olympia by watching tennis tournaments, and getting her daughter a cute kid-sized tennis outfit. But while Williams might be the greatest of all time, she warned her fans "don't even start with me" about signing Olympia up for the classes "because I'm not giving her tennis lessons."

Blake Lively admitted to drawing shoes on her feet after she posted a photo of herself casting her ballot by mail on Thursday alongside her husband, first-time voter and Canadian dual-citizen Ryan Reynolds. "It was Ryan's first time," Lively captioned the photo. "He ... wept. I pretended to weep." But fans were far more distracted by the clearly drawn-on shoes on her otherwise bare feet. Lively took it all in stride, poking fun at herself later in Instagram Stories by further drawing herself a new pair of Louboutins and tagging the designer: "Are you hiring?" she joked. "Barefoot iPhone doodler with vast experience avail."

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.