Chrissy Teigen, Michael Costello, and Leona Lewis Are Now Ensconced in a Bullying Triangle

Pull up a chair and put on your thinking caps, for Leona Lewis has entered the Michael Costello-Chrissy Teigen bullying fray, complicating what was relatively simple into something that will soon require a whiteboard, some Post-it flags, and yards of red string.

Yesterday, Project Runway designer Costello accused Teigen of bullying him in 2014, providing screenshots that showed Teigen allegedly telling him to die, related to a brief scandal involving racism that was, according to Costello, debunked and proven false. Today, Leona Lewis, the “Bleeding Love” gal, has entered the chat, with some bullying accusations of her very own. In an incredible game of Bullying Hot Potato, Lewis claims that Costello actually bullied her —or made her feel “awkward and uncomfortable” in her own words, sure—because of an incident that occurred during a fitting in 2014 for a charity fashion show.

Lewis fired up Instagram and did a big story, saying that Costello made her feel bad because she wasn’t sample size, and the dress at her fitting was. According to Lewis, Costello and his team were not interested in altering the dress to fit her. Reportedly, Lewis had been told that the dress would be made to fit her, and so Costello’s behavior made her upset. I guess she never ended up walking the show because of it. Here’s Ms. Lewis:

“At the next fitting, the night before the show, with no explanation at all, Michael refused to turn up. He no longer wanted to dress me and he abandoned his commitments to me and the show which made me well aware that I wasn’t the body type required.”

“Because I didn’t look like a model size, I was not permitted to walk in his dress. I had to sit in the audience and was asked by press why I didn’t walk in the show,” she continued, adding that she had to “come up with excuses as I was so humiliated by it all.”

“I feel like I was made to look as though I pulled out and was being difficult and as an affect [sic] of those actions I suffered a lot, both personally and professionally,” she continued. “The most hurtful thing is that it was to raise money for charity, and this went against everything we were trying to do.”

Additionally, Lewis said that this incident left her with years of “trauma” and that even though we celebrate curves now, we did not in 2014, I guess. “We all make mistakes, I know I have, but at this time I feel that when people apologize (Chrissy) and show sincere remorse and rehabilitation for their actions, we should embrace them and not try and kick them when they’re down,” she wrote, seemingly taking Teigen’s side.

Okay! Not to be outdone, Costello pulled up some receipts of his own.

“@LeonaLewis No dis no shade no hate, I love you and your music I still follow you but not sure what [happened],” he wrote. “I’ve reached out to you personally and I have 7 emails from the last 4 years and these past 9 weeks from your team and stylist still requesting looks last email 05/17/21.”

“Leona I am still a fan and I am not coming for you. But let’s talk about what you were feeling about this dress I thought you were happy,” he continued.

After reading this story through and through, many times, I still cannot figure out who is right or wrong, but I suppose that’s the point. This is precisely the kind of low-stakes, D-list drama that I crave, but I’m also already tired of the bullying discourse. Props to Leona for inserting herself into a situation that is already a bit of a mess, and I guess props to both of them for taking the heat off Teigen, who is surely feeling something akin to relief that the bullying onus is off her for the moment and instead, on Costello. What I wish for most sincerely is that everyone involved take a nap. [People]

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Thanks to Who? Weekly, I am now aware of this sultry video of Catherine Zeta-Jones bragging about the size of her courgettes.

To be fair, they are quite large. “Stupendous,” even. “Extra large organics” sounds like a creative way to describe big boobs, and while I’m sure that was at least part of her intention (?), because I think she’s a cheeky broad, I’m delighted just the same. [Instagram]

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• Laganja Estranja of RuPaul’s Drag Race has come out as trans and Paul Wall, my white rapper of choice, offered his support and a grill with the trans flags colors. [Twitter]
• Gisele and her family saved a hummingbird. [People]
• These two are at it again. [Hollywood Life]