Content Consumed: Recessions, Jen Aniston and Britney Spears

Howdy! How’s your Wednesday going? Mine’s pretty damn chaotic (hence this column coming out five hours later than usual) but good.

In today’s edition of Content Consumed…
💸 Ah, my first recession!
📸 Jennifer Aniston’s complicated cover
⭐️ Britney’s not dead yet, Millie
🏈 Sean McVay’s Sundae Conversation

Baby’s first recession

The content I’m consuming? Mostly a Twitter doomscroll at the moment. Sure, most of the ballot items I care about ended as I hoped—we’ve got a lesbian Dem governing and important bills about gun laws passed in my state of Oregon. Nationally, plenty of voters showed up for reproductive rights. Unfortch, the people of Texas and Florida are still voting without brains (really? Greg Abbott was voted for overwhelmingly by Uvalde citizens? Really, after all that?) and Congress is very split, nearly exactly down the middle.

And we haven’t even talked about the economy yet.

My friends are getting laid off from their jobs (especially tech). Gas hasn’t really dropped below $5/gallon since… God, I don’t even know. I’m even noticing inflation in the cost of a dozen eggs. I can’t even look at Robinhood right now. Buying a house any time in the near future? Ha! I’m fortunately pretty securely *knocks on wood* employed. But damn, it’s looking tough out there.

During our last big recession of the late aughts, I remember all the layoffs. Obama on TV. The foreclosures next door. Headlines on the grocery store magazines. It felt… awkward. I think that’s the word for it.

Because no one wants to talk about it and everyone wants to talk about it.

The good and the bad: Jennifer Aniston’s Allure cover

I’m a Jen Aniston stan and I will be ’til the day I die. This Allure cover story had me excited to hear from one of the most popular actresses of the past three decades.

Somehow, Allure screwed the pooch and nailed it all at the same time.

The bad: Why did they Kardashian-ify her for this shoot? The flat straight hair with overdone extensions, the outfit with a Chanel micro bikini top and visible G-string… and that was just the cover.

The good: The actual content of the interview, which has been overshadowed by the ridiculous cover. Aniston explains how she actually spent years trying to get pregnant, from natural conception to IVF to “Chinese teas”. It’s really, honestly devastating.

“I would’ve given anything if someone had said to me, ‘Freeze your eggs. Do yourself a favor.’ You just don’t think it. So here I am today. The ship has sailed.”

Aniston deserved better. Better than Brad Pitt cheating on her, better than the media hounding her with every relationship and every “Is Jen pregnant?!” story.

Don’t play Britney Spears—yet(?)

Millie Bobby Brown, star of Stranger Things and that sister-of-Sherlock-Holmes show on Netflix, expressed earlier last week that she’d love to play Britney Spears in a biopic.

“I see the scramble for words [in her interviews] and I don’t know her but when I look at pictures of her, I feel like I could tell her story in the right way and hers only,” Millie said.

To which Britney said: “I hear about people wanting to do movies about my life … dude I’m not dead !!!”

Fair enough! It must be wild to be famous enough that other very famous people say they want to “play you” in a show or movie. And, like Britney alluded to in her post, it’s a bit disrespectful. I think Millie phrased it pretty poorly too by judging Britney’s interview and life from a distance.

When is it okay to play a celebrity in a movie? Blonde, starring Ana de Armas, got a ton of flack for its extreme inaccuracies and vulgarity in relation to Marilyn Monroe’s life. Elvis, starring Austin Butler, got significantly less of that criticism, maybe because it was less aggressive and graphic in its portrayal.

Is it okay if the celebrity is dead? When Britney passes decades from now, then will it be okay? Britney seemed to imply that.

Sundae Conversation with Sean McVay

In this week’s Sundae Conversation, Barstool’s Caleb Pressley asks LA Rams head coach Sean McVay (I’ll never stop comparing him to Reggie Belafonte) the important questions.

Like, do you believe in concussions?

I’m a fan of Sean McVay ever since his starring role in 2020’s season of Hard Knocks. I think he’s a silly goofy guy who is somehow tough enough as a coach to have won a Super Bowl last year. He’s goofy enough to somewhat participate in this interview, at least until the last question (f*ck, marry, kill: his wife, Osama Bin Laden, and Aaron Donald).

I love these Sundae Conversation interviews because they really test how much a public figure will say without literally risking their image and reputation. I kinda thought Sean McVay would go further, but it’s entertaining nonetheless.

And that’s it for today! Kinda short, I know. Blame my real 9-to-5, which, alas, I prioritize.

Lots of love!
Casey

👉🏼 Interested in more long-form pieces? Check out my extended columns:

• On the Dimming of the Eiffel Tower
• Special Edition: Oaxaca Consumed
• Opinion Round-Up: Student Loan Forgiveness
• Book Review — Original Sins: A Memoir
• I Finally Read a Colleen Hoover Book
• Amazon’s Push Into Healthcare is Painfully American

👉🏼 Get more content over on the Content Consumed Instagram.