A Pop Culture Playlist of Various Things I Thought About This Week
Football. Taylor. Bad fashion. Good Fashion. Lady Gaga. The Loewe-fication of Drew Starkey. Katy Perry's flop era. Movie trailers. TV shows, returning and new. Kacey's Chappell Roan cover + more.
Hi hi hi.
Okay, so given the insanity (in a good way) of my current schedule/workload, we’re1 going to attempt each week to get this bad boy out on Fridays, with the caveat that it might be the weekend edition. Like today.
Cool? Cool.
And there will ABSOLUTELY be a paid subscriber post this week too. It’s already in the works + it’s giving fall shoppppppping.
My fabulous students are currently working on a listicle about WHN + I also needed a quick way to package everything up this week. Hence, the below, which is not a cohesive version of the format from a thematic standpoint. But that’s just where we’re at this week.
Let’s just get this out of the way. AGAIN. Because, America. Yes, it’s the fucking guns. It’s always been the fucking guns.
The Perfect Couple is out on Netflix and I’m trying to avoid the discussions until I can watch, but it would seem I might end up with some notes for Ms. Nicole Kidman’s accent. Nic + accents gives me flashbacks to her weird choices in Nine Perfect Strangers. Remember how bad that whole endeavor was?!? Anyway, I do appreciate that that woman is never not working. It’s actually quite something. (Ugh, I just saw that Nicole’s mom died, apparently suddenly, and she had to leave Venice to get home to her family. I hate this.)
I am very excited to dive into this and we will def discuss further soon. Also, Sutton Brady2 hive forever. I love Meghann Fahy (she’s in this too!) so much and this outfit is absolute fall perfection.
Tell Me Lies is also back on Hulu for its second season and I’ve been saving the first two episodes they’ve released so far for a treat this weekend if I get enough stuff done. It’s such a fantastic soapy, sexy mess with many a twist and turn.
And I will never not be surprised that Dick Van Patten’s niece3 is not Shailene Woodley when I catch just a glance of her. I will also never pass up an opportunity to reference one of the greatest TV theme songs of all time that can legit make me cry. We might need to add Eight Is Enough to the drinking game.
It almost feels like old school fall with a bunch of shows returning. I really, really miss the old cadence of television sometimes. (But I’ll see you soon, Grey’s S214!) Anyway, Selling Sunset is back with its ridiculous clothes and expensive houses that all sorta look the same and I don’t believe anyone on this show actually sells, which matters not to my enjoyment.
Update: I’m already on ep 7. Nothing goes down as smoothly as these fools. I just earnestly love Chrishell, though.
When I was in LA for work in June, my place was right by the offices that the tiny twins keep renovating in garish fashion to try to make us believe they aren’t packing equally tiny Ds.
Um, the chimp show5 somehow got EVEN DARKER. I am available to discuss at length if anyone else is on this journey with me.
American Vogue dropped a good cover shoot. Rejoice! Lady Gaga is always going to give us a Press Tour™ and I am grateful for it. I hated Joker and don’t really want anything to do with this new one, but I will always be here for Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta.
I truly enjoy Gaga so much—as an artist, of course, but also as a celebrity. We don’t have enough of them like her these days. She has always been able to fangirl, too, which I think is dope.
At one point, we get into a conversation about her own recent fanaticism. She rattles off a list: Charli XCX, Chappell Roan, Billie Eilish. “I mean, I really love them. I go on the internet and, like, cry. And I love Taylor Swift too. And Kesha. I watch it all, and I’m like: Yup. Go! Just Go.” Here, her voice cracks and her eyes well up with tears. “I’m not only cheering them on, I want them to know that my heart is in it with them. And I want them all to feel really happy.” I am strangely moved. “Sorry!” she shouts through a laugh as I hand her a tissue. I get it, I say. She stares at me for a second, blinks a couple of times, and says, “You and I getting together is really important.”
She pulls her legs up under herself and I notice that there is a sizable hole in the crotch of her gray leggings. “Being vulnerable is something that has changed, right?” she says. “Well, on the way over here I rushed home to change out of some of my gym clothes.” It is exactly one week before her performance at the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Paris and she has just come from rehearsal. “But I was on the phone with the guy who’s mixing my new project and I was giving him notes and then I noticed that there’s a hole in my pants, but I ran over here anyway because I didn’t want to be late. Back in the day, I would have felt a ton of pressure to be in full glam for you and be prepared to…perform.”
PLUS, SHE IS MAKING POP MUSIC AGAIN. I AM SO EXCITED. It would seem we have her rich normie fiancé to thank (in part) for that. I’m not super into the song she just did with Bruno Mars, but this all sounds extremely promising in terms of the type of Gaga music I loooooove.
She queues up a song from her new pop record. It’s intense and ominous—an old-school Gaga banger, unsettling but also buoyant. She does not want to say too much about the new record other than to tell me that it was her fiancé’s idea. “Michael is the person who told me to make a new pop record. He was like, ‘Babe. I love you. You need to make pop music.’” Says Polansky: “Like anyone would do for the person they love, I encouraged her to lean in to the joy of it. On the Chromatica tour, I saw a fire in her; I wanted to help her keep that alive all the time and just start making music that made her happy.”
I have always and will always love a trailer. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it here before, but I fully used to watch that cable channel that just showed movie trailers + I used to check the Apple trailers site (when that was a thing) on the regular. Of course, now they’re all on YouTube—but there’s nothing like seeing one in the theater that’s new to you.
These got me good when I went to Blink Twice.
Speak No Evil
We know I love dark, horrifying mind-fucks and that’s what we look to be getting here—including an insanely creepy James McAvoy. Holy shit.
It co-stars Mackenzie Davis, from “San Junipero” which I like to call “that one happy Black Mirror ep” and Station Eleven, one of the best shows I’ve ever seen that got missed by SO many people. If you skipped it because you couldn’t deal with a show that felt too close to your pandemic life at the time, I understand. But please go back. It’s so GD brilliant. I did a pod ep with one of the show’s producers that has some good nuggets in it, too.
Or maybe you caught her in Happiest Season, the queer rom-com with Kristen Stewart? She’s excellent in everything and we need a cool indie film with her and Evan Rachel Wood as estranged sisters who come back to their hometown to deal with some tragic event or wedding or both.
Anyway, I can’t wait to see this movie and tense my body up the entire time. It comes out next week—on Friday the 13th, natch.
My Old Ass
Well, this trailer sure hit me right in the gut. I’m very annoyed I didn’t write this film, even though I’ve never written a proper screenplay.
The description:
In this fresh coming-of-age story, an 18th birthday mushroom trip brings free-spirited Elliott (Maisy Stella) face-to-face with her wisecracking 39-year-old self (Aubrey Plaza). But when Elliott’s “old ass” starts handing out warnings about what her younger self should and shouldn’t do, Elliott realizes she has to rethink everything about family, love, and what’s becoming a transformative summer.
Yes, that would be the Maisy Stella. The little girl from Nashville (the show) and half of Lennon & Maisy. In case your ass wasn’t feeling old enough.
Smile 2
God I love spooky season. And no the weird smiling has not gotten less disturbing since the first film. It’s out October 18th.
Will & Harper
I didn’t see this one in the theater, but it does look like it’s going to make me all sorts of weepy. It’s a doc about Will Ferrell and one of his dear friends who came out as transgender later in life and the road trip they take to try to sort through all kinds of feelings. The trailer also comforts me in this very ‘90s indie film movie sort of way that I can’t quite explain, but is just true.
I love these glasses so much. That’s all. I will surely buy whatever variation my main shade provider, Target, decides to create.
I guess we’re moving into the sartorial section now…
This is simply a revenge dress gone wrong.
This look is wildly more successful.
Wowowowowowowowowowowowowow, Taylor Russell in Schiaparelli at Venice.
Speaking of outfits on women named Taylor who used to date Harry Styles…Siri, play “I Hate It Here” from TTPD.
Over the years, there have been a gazillion occasions I’ve found Blondie’s fashion choices to be sus. Our personal aesthetics do cross paths at times. But one of my fashion icons, she is not. It’s not what I come for in my love of her. But even when it’s not my thing, I usually understand what’s happening. For example, I personally hate twee clothing for myself, but it all made sense during that period of her life and in fashion. What went down this week is not one of those cases—and don’t even get me started on the tight end and his absolutely abhorrent haircut du jour.
Hunter Harris described Taylor’s game day look as a “high school senior overdressed for a dive bar with her big sister’s ID” and I absolutely concur.
I hate this corset/bustier top situation that’s happening all over the place right now and long for it to end soon. The tall blonde woman LOVES them. I can work with it in the context of Tortured Poets, but otherwise it’s got me thinking about jumping off of very tall somethings. The shorts are cute, if they were styled in about 1300 ways that are not this. And the boots could be excellent in a different scenario, though they are not my personal vibe.
I recognize that many people loved this ‘fit. I hold that they are wrong.
(And of course she still looks gorgeous because she is gorgeous. Same goes for Jenny from the Block in that silver bowed sitch above.)
I do love all the jewelry, so there’s that! If anyone would like to buy me a $12K vintage necklace, I will accept it.
Another friend referred to last night’s NYC dinner look as “NJ high school in 1992” and she also nailed it. I’m legit terrified about what the VMAs are about to bring us.
Oops, looks like I”m about to get started on the boyfriend ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
The below is what he chose to wear for the opening night of the NFL season, so…yeah. Congrats to the internet on some excellent work though.
Listen, go forth and be happy, sis. But it couldn’t be me.
I would absolutely love for Taylor to switch things up in terms of who’s styling her. I would keep Joseph for all things performance and get cooler, as it were, for the carpet, street style, and game days.
My suggestions: Danielle Goldberg, Dani Michelle, Kate Young, Andrew Mukamal, or Petra Flannery.
Meanwhile, it gives me no pleasure to report (unsurprisingly) that outlets, brands, networks, commentators, and the like continue to be wildly embarrassing in covering a woman attending her boyfriend’s football game—and their relationship, in general. The coverage remains breathless, nonstop, awkward, cringe (in a deeply uncool way), and on the very opposite end of the spectrum from clever.
Editor’s Note: In case you’re new to WHN, I am a lifelong NFL fan—often in spite of myself and my feminist core because the league does a lot of garbage things. I just can’t quit it. I’m extremely fine if one judges me for that.
I bleed blue for my Colts. I’m a “broke my foot watching a playoff loss, requiring surgery” level of psychotic fan.
My disdain for Travis and the entire (thirsty) Kelce family long predates him meeting the tall blonde woman or me learning that he can’t spell “squirrel” and that he thought it was “Alison Wonderland” not “Alice in Wonderland”. I fully recognize how excellent he is at his job, but I will not ever be swayed on the rest of it. I also don’t think anybody outside of those who know her needs Mama Kelce’s *insert massive eye roll here* recipes or her takes on, well, anything. Same goes for Kylie Kelce, who seems like a nice enough lady that morning television segments can absolutely survive without. I would also be super happy if Trav’s dad would stop giving interviews to anyone who rings him up. It’s giving Justin Timberlake’s grandma back in the day.
Simultaneously (and parasocially), I also wish Taylor nothing but happiness.
We all contain multitudes and hold many truths.
I have not a singular issue with the very normal behavior of attending one’s boyfriend’s games or getting super hype at said games. Same goes for him hitting up Eras shows. I take mad issue with how this is all covered (and how the fandom is being used + co-opted) in the media, both social and traditional. Or the clout-chasing brands shoehorning lyrics into posts, etc etc etc. See also: the trad wife-coded corners of my own fandom, which I find super toxic. Have you all not listened to “Lavender Haze” and the lyric, “The only kind of girl they see is a one-night or a wife”? Settle down, wine moms, in your Sunday best or otherwise.
Much of this is due to the broken media business model and it’s wildly infuriating, especially as someone who wanted that space to be the place she spent her entire career. Alas, it has forced so many talented people out.
It all seriously fucks with two other things I love so much: Taylor Swift + football. As my friends well know, I could go on for about 13 years about all of this.
It makes me very STABBY.
Thank you for coming to my mid-post Ted Talk.
In order to deal with the above last season, I started to dissociate by creating a ranking system of my irritation levels about particular pieces of content using an old ‘90s photo of Sofia Coppola that I lovingly refer to as Disgusted Sofia™. I have now decided to bring one of my other favorite ’90s queens into the mix this year with Side-Eye Gwyneth™.
It is Unhinged and On Brand, as my general lunacy was coined a while back by my friend Allie. She gets me. I love it.
I am still working out my extremely scientific ratings system, but all suggestions are welcome.
Also, duh…it’s Stabby Abby™. Where is my mind?6
Thank you to the handful of people who get a kick out of this form of self-care (Abby’s Version). Everyone else, just keep clicking through those IG Stories and go about your days while deeply sighing (“The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived”-style) over a grown woman’s absurd behavior.
For the record, I don’t hate all Taylor content from less expected accounts, like my beloved Children’s Museum here in Indy. I can’t wait to see what they’ve got planned to welcome The Eras Tour and Swifties to town in November.
I pray the Colts will give me something fun to focus on this football season. It is time for the boys in blue to enter their “young rising star returns the team to its former glory” era, joining their brother and sister—the Pacers and the Fever.
I’m doing a doubleheader on Sunday—straight from Lucas Oil where the Colts play the Houston Texans at 1 PM to Gainbridge Fieldhouse to watch my playoff-bound Fever take on Atlanta Dream afterward.
LFGGGGGGG!
Wow, that was a real ADHD meandering….but I still have more fashion-adjacent content to discuss.
The Loewe-fication of Drew Starkey is in full swing and I AM HERE FOR IT. Drew co-stars with Daniel Craig in Queer, the new Luca Guadagnino film that just premiered in Venice. As with Challengers, his bestie Jonathan Anderson (of Loewe + JW Anderson) did the costume design and is dressing much of the cast during some press tour appearances.
I’ve long been in the bag for the creations of both of these men, so I’m just generally super excited for the film.
Drew is someone you may know if you, too, have enjoyed the ridiculousness that is the Netflix teen drama Outer Banks7 where he plays rich dickhead, Rafe Cameron, the older brother of our main girlie Sarah (Madelyn Cline, a woman who looks like a Hadid was put in the blender with teenage Ivanka Trump).
Now he’s in a prestige film and getting the full fashion boy treatment.
I’m v. much digging his vibe. (He is 30 IRL. This is allowed. There is no need to call Benson, Stabler, or Fin Tutuola.)
Yum to this Interview shoot + accompanying chat with his another co-star/Loewe boy, Omar Apollo. We know I love a man who can wear the fuck out of a pair of pants. Especially great cords.
Or track pants. Really just any great pants.
He’s gonna be a big internet boyfriend this fall, that seems fairly certain. A24 acquired the US distribution rights for Queer, but has not yet set a release date. But along with Venice, it will be screened at TIFF and the NY Film Festival. I’d assume there will at least be a limited release before the end of the year in order to make an awards run.
All hail the return of the J. Crew catalog.
If you haven’t read my old friend Maggie Bullock’s book, The Kingdom of Prep: The Inside Story of the Rise and (Near) Fall of J. Crew, I very much recommend it.
We also did a pod ep when it came out. I really do miss doing the pod and I do want to bring it back at some point when I can give it the proper creative focus it deserves. Until then, it shall remain on a One Direction-style hiatus, with a better chance of returning.
I often take issue with the copywriting at Pleasing and I actually detest the body copy here. But I will give a tip of the Haylor cap to that headline, which I can only hear in “Out of the Woods” cadence and tone.
I both love Jamie Lee Curtis and find her wildly exhausting. This Instagram post really captures both sides of that fence. I also love the return of Lindsay Lohan I will be supporting the Freakier Friday in the theaters—honestly, in spite of JLC’s IG caption.
Kacey Musgraves kicked off the North American leg of her Deeper Well tour this week and it looks absolutely gorgeous. I have tickets for Brooklyn and Nashville, but those aren’t until November and December, respetively, so I’ll be counting the minutes until then and watching clips because I’m incapable of not doing so/trying to remain surprised about such things.
I love the “Pink Pony Club” cover so much. I wonder if she’s going to swap out covers throughout the tour or keep this one. We shall see…
I’ve been wanting to spill the beans on Audre and Bash Are Just Friends for so long, especially to all of you who looooooooved Seven Days in June. Yep, Tia’s written a YA spinoff centered around Eva’s daughter Audre. YAY!
Man, Katy Perry’s flop era is really still going strong, isn’t it? She was on Call Her Daddy this week and while I have not listened to the whole episode8, the clips I’ve heard are generally giving dumb girlboss word salad, with a side of obnoxious and delusion (derogatory)9. And how on earth did she and her team not have a prepared answer about Dr. Luke? I would love to see a real journalist10 try to get her to actually address the situation instead of dancing around it with some absolute bullshit sound like the nonsense it is even if it was about something innocuous.
Oh, and…
Um, is anyone still watching The Handmaid’s Tale? I quit so long ago, but apparently they’re shooting a new season … I continue to seriously love all things Gracie Abrams and am very excited to see her at The Ryman in a few weeks … I would move some things around on this Vulture ranking of Winona Ryder’s 20 best performances, but it’s not as rage-baity as some of these things are … Dakota Johnson continues to be perfect to me … People are very upset about this article article on The Cut titled, “Why Did I Stop Loving My Cat When I Had a Baby?” They’re flooding every IG post comments section, regardless of topic.
Until next week, a TikTok that is not far off from what is happening in my head at any given moment. Though, I’d have to swap out the “Florida!” intrusive thought with the current rotation of “fuck ‘em, it’s over,” “my name is Taylor and I was born in 1989,” and “BUT WHAT IF IT IS?”
xA
Main me + all the other voices in my head, of course.
Her character on the delightful The Bold Type, which I watched in real time from the moment it premiered.
Grace Van Patten, aka the lead of the show. This means she is a cousin of Eileen Davidson’s husband and thus tangential to the RHOBH-verse. Grace also dates the male lead, Jackson White, whose mom is Peg Bundy. NEPPPPPPPOOOOOOO MADNESS ABOUNDS.
It’s back on September 26th.
Don’t answer that.
I can’t wait for the new season, the first half of which drops on 10/13. This show makes no sense, but looks gorge. They for real shoot in the Outer Banks. Much like Emily in Paris, you shouldn’t try to apply any form of logic to the happenings. Just let the Hot Goonies, aka Pogues, do their thing. The one person who is not hot (to my eyes) is actually the lead dude. It does not help that his IRL name is Chase Stokes and his character’s is John B. I wonder if Chase is jealous that Drew is looking like the big breakout from the show, aside from Madelyn. Though I’m gonna need her to show up in some more projects soon.
I think maybe the only full eps I’ve done of this show are Gwyneth’s and Zayn’s, which totally tracks for me.
We, of course, LOVE myriad types of delusion around here. Just not this brand.
I actually like Alex Cooper at this point in life and am obviously impressed by what she’s built. But she is able to book a lot of people who might otherwise be hesitant because she’s never going to push hard on a celebrity’s pain point.
Oh did that Will & Harper trailer come for my feelings!
Also wondering about the uncivilized unrest that Pleasing image triggered with their very LHH & Louis coded models… 🤔🫥
I do feel there’s a curious level of various fan service in their promos. Unchecked… orrrr isss it??
I will say that I don't get Taylor's fashion choices. She seems... all over the place? Not cohesive? I mean, most regular people's wardrobe don't necessarily tell a story, but Taylor is always so precise in her messaging that it seems out of step. Frankly, sometimes it reminds me of Blake Lively, who famously doesn't use a stylist (but clearly has help pulling looks because she wouldn't have the time to do it on her own), and not in a good way.
Taylor's face, however, is so gorgeous in the denim shot I thought it was AI ;) And is that an LV bag in the back mesh-club girl pic? Kind of old school and clunky with a 'hot girl' outfit imo.