Content Consumed: Met Gala and Hollywood on strike
Hello! I hope you’re having a great Tuesday morning. In today’s edition of Content Consumed, we’re chatting about the Met Gala and the WGA strike.
Inside the 2023 Met Gala
This year’s Met Gala celebrating “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line Of Beauty” was, as expected, underwhelming. This was expected specifically because of the theme, which celebrates one very controversial man and his career, which aligned with a very specific (and rather boring, as far costumes go) style and aesthetic.
So, yes, there was lots of black and white. Plenty of bows. Suits for men and women. And… that’s about it.
Some standout looks of the night that I must give credit to:
First, Doja Cat. The only person who was (a) on-theme and (b) in a costume. She only meowed in interviews. I respect the bit.
Second, Nicole Kidman. She wore the same dress that she did almost two decades ago for that iconic Chanel No. 5 commercial.
Michaela Coel, one of this year’s Met Gala co-chairs, nailed it in Schiaparelli. Which was a… funny brand to pick.
Bad Bunny is the only man deserving of a spot on this list. The open back on his custom Jacquemus suit was perfection.
Let’s not forget Anne Hathaway, style icon. Her bouffant and pinned-together tweed Versace gown made my jaw drop.
Last, credit to Sydney Sweeney, who did something semi-unique with bows and obviously looked good doing it.
Notable moments:
- Gisele Bündchen gave divorced-and-finally-free energy. A beautiful thing!
- Ice Spice made her debut. She and her team played it safe. Fair enough.
- Olivia Wilde and Margaret Zhang wore the same dress (albeit in two different colors): the ultimate Met Gala faux pas.
Questions answered:
Will Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny make their Met Gala couple debut?
In short, no, they didn’t. They arrived at similar times to the Gala and left their hotel for the after-party together, but never posed together.
Will anyone dress as Karl Lagerfeld’s famous cat, Choupette?
Yes. Doja Cat obviously nailed it and Jared Leto should be banned from this event and all other events.
What did you think of the whole event? Personally, I’m hoping for a more intriguing theme next year.
We also didn’t see the usual standouts of Zendaya, Bella Hadid, and others. Rihanna was obviously insanely beautiful as usual, but her get-up didn’t blow my mind like in past years.
Next year…
Understanding the WGA strike
The Writers Guild of America is on strike for the first time in 15 years.
Talks on a new contract broke down just before 8 p.m. on Monday night, as the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers remained far apart on a host of key issues.
The guild has said that writers are facing an existential crisis brought about by the shift to streaming, with fewer TV episodes and lower residuals.
As a creative writer (both career and hobby) myself, I can clearly see the threat. It’s something that people in my adjacent industry (advertising) have been speaking about since long before ChatGPT. Writing is becoming undervalued in an industry that (a) can lean more heavily on tech and AI and (b) runs through TV shows and movies so quickly. Compensation for writers isn’t matching the rapid speed of growth for the shows and films they work on.
Some more information:
- Late-night shows will be the first to feel the impact, as Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Late Show, Tonight and Late Night are all going into reruns. Conan was notably the only one to really keep his show afloat during the last writers’ strike in 2007-8. There could be another late night brawl…
- Depending on how long the strike goes, we could notice a dip in new TV series—but we wouldn’t actually notice until the end of the year. Reality series as well as international shows could begin playing in heavy rotation.
- The movie pipeline won’t be affected immediately, but could if the strike goes on for more than a month or two. Film studios work about a year in advance anyways.
- Okay but… how long will it last? Historically: the 2007 strike lasted 100 days. The longest one, in 1988, lasted 153 days.
- The top three things writers are fighting for:
(1) Overall compensation
(2) AI guardrails
(3) Better residual pay for streaming
Stand with the strikers, folks. Content Consumed supports it.
And that’s it for today! Thanks for reading. Love ya!
Cheers,
Casey
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