Pop Culture Mondays/1.4.21
The “Duke of Hastings AND Harry Styles” Edition (Don’t @ Me)
Happy Monday my darling pop culture junkies. WE DID IT. 2020 is now behind us….now of course not everything will magically get better but there is light at the end of the tunnel. We are here NOT to talk politics or recorded phone calls of our President breaking laws or to ponder that people are partying their asses off in Miami and so forth while others are staying home and away from friends and loved ones and while many others still fight the virus or help people fight the virus. Confusing times.
BUT nope…we are here to talk about ALL the pop culture-y things that have dominated the socials and chatter this past week. To bring you up to speed in case you missed some of it or need a deep dive explanation into what your friends…or kids…are talking about. This is a special week as well as we have a CARRY OVER from last week as the Grift That Keeps on Giving has more….Enjoy, my darlings….
I TRIED TO AVOID THIS. I COULD NOT:
🚨 SPOILER ALERT🚨
So, when I first started seeing ads for this I thought to myself, “this will be everything”. A “Gossip Girl” type show produced by Shonda Rhimes set in 19th century England (please remember I am an Anglophile thru and thru) with a multiracial cast and amaze costumes NARRATED BY JULIE ANDREWS??? Need you say more? I was HERE FOR THIS.
Then I watched some of the 1st episode and while it was like candy visually and I especially liked the detail of having Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift songs playing in the show but in classical concerto way or whatever it is. You’re like wait…that music is oddly appealing and familiar before you realize why…OK, I digress.
But I was just not IN IT. Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy had me within the first few minutes…I was hooked. The characters in THIS show just sort of weren’t there for me initially and frankly all of the guys looked exactly the same to me and I could not distinguish which brother was which from the main family of characters. So I hit pause. But then a few days later, I was bored with other content I decided to give it another go and then OMG…THE DUKE ENTERED THE PICTURE.
This is not about me so let me get to the point. Let me introduce you to Regé-Jean Page the English/Zimbabwean actor who has maybe broken the socials and now when you search him the first thing that appears is “IS HE SINGLE”. Bridgerton definitely improved a lot with him…he brings a little Christian Grey of “50 Shades of Grey” with him and I am here for it. And bajillions of others are across the socials. For example:
There is a lot of talk about the DUKE and this show. There is a whole SPOON meme going around about people wanting to be the spoon the Duke uses in this scene:
ANYWAY…the show is being criticized for some of its portrayals and sex scenes aka MALE RAPE (when a girl who weighs all of 95 lbs gets on top…of her husband during consensual sex but um….he doesn’t want to impregnate her so he wants to, how do I say this elegantly,…he wants to ENSURE he does not impregnate her so he tries with allllll his might to not let that happen but his teeny little wife ensures that he cannot “leave” the situation. How was that?)
But as many friends have pointed out…there is a lot more naughty in shows like Outlander and remember The Tudors? But the YOUNGS are watching this show too and there was definitely no sex like this in Shonda’s other shows because…NETFLIX. Anyway, the show is based on romance novels which are now selling like hotcakes again and the cast of relative unknowns are now SUPER known and signed up for Season 2. But the Duke has won the hearts and minds of many and everyone deep diving on who he is and studying his Wiki and Insta and a STAR IS BORN.
My FAVE montage made by a fan is here:
PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY. BERT AND ERNIE. HAN SOLO AND CHEWBACCA. HARRY STYLES AND PHOEBE WALLER-BRIDGE:
SO, at first, as I was staring at these NOW ICONIC images which were blowing up my phone the early hours of New Years Day, I thought these two were starring in a new GUCCI ad campaign. And trust me. I was here for it. Harry Styles, who is moving far away from his boy band legacy, had actually procured the most incredible Phoebe Waller-Bridge of Fleabag fame to be in his new music video. FUN STORY — I once got an Uber in LA that she was getting out of (pre-pandemic) and she smiled as she got out and kept the door open and said “here you go” or something like that and I just said with conviction, “I love you”.
Which it turns out is AS creepy as it sounds.
She was embarrassed. I was embarrassed. The Uber driver was embarrassed.
But I just had no other words. ANYWAY, before I go on…I assume most of you have not watched the video and ALL I can say is WATCH THE VIDEO please for the love of all that is good and holy (more on that in a minute) but watch this video and if it doesn’t change your mood or brain or blood pressure then nothing will TBH:
I HONESTLY do not know if there is anything that has brought me more joy than this music video. I really mean this. I mean the song is a weird one…is it pop? Is it Partridge Family? LIKE WHAT IS IT? But I cannot stop watching this video. I mean I literally cannot stop. It brings immense pleasure. It also makes me need nothing more than a white suit, argyle sweater vest, a HUGE ASS martini and a nightclub for which I will DANCE ALL NIGHT in → for those who know me know this to be true.
Never in my life did I think I needed Harry Styles and Phoebe Waller-Bridge to do a dance routine but it turns out I have NEVER NEEDED ANYTHING MORE.
TBH, the only thing that would have made it a TEEENY tiny bit better is if HOT PRIEST (I DID SAY all that was good and HOLY) was spotted in the club…I mean if you know, you know…I mean..COME ON.
So they broke the Internet the first day of 2021 which I HAVE to believe is a good sign. AND BREAKING NEWS…HARRY has a new woman in his life, and that is OLIVIA WILDE who is ten years older than him and further evidence these One Direction boys love the older ladies.
HILARIA-ous:
Guys…we are still here. This story still has um….legs. Sorry not sorry. Whatever it is about this story…people cannot get enough of it. This has lasted more than the standard ONE week cycle due to all the juicy storylines. And honestly, I don’t hate it. I mean it MIGHT have gone away if not for the remarkable New York Times reporter Katie Rosman (more on this wonder in a minute) who RIGHT in the middle of the drama managed to get Hillary Baldwin to speak to her for 80 minutes….EIGHTY MINUTES!!! If I speak to anyone for 80 minutes I SURELY WILL SAY some incredibly dumb things I regret, I assure you. We all would. 80 MINUTES. I am still stunned by that but ok…let’s dig in. But first really you must must must read this article:
There are so many things about this interview that I could write an entire essay just on this alone. Like here is a woman who was on primetime morning shows (right after she married Alec Baldwin and had no children yet) seemingly just there BECAUSE, to talk about being married. All she wanted was to be famous. And there is nothing wrong with that TBH…just own it…don’t try to gaslight us and say that in fact is NOT the case:
“My intention is not to be an American TV personality. My intention is not to be a Spanish TV personality. My intention is to talk about health and fitness and being a mom.”
And in trying to explain how she took on this Spanish persona due to her love of the culture, she explains:
When the family visited Spain, they spent much of their time in Madrid, Seville and Valencia, she said.
When they were at home in Boston, Ms. Baldwin said, the family spoke Spanish and cooked Spanish food.
Look, my parents had a passion for Puerto Rico. My grandparents, Mama and Papa Hammerling retired there, from NY. This brought my family there and over the years we spent LOADS of time all over Puerto Rico from San Juan to Mayagüez to Dorado. My sister spoke fluent Spanish, still does. I lost my SHIT when I was told I could not have my ears pierced when I was 5, like all my friends had in Puerto Rico. I remember this meltdown like it was yesterday where I cried so much I had to sprawl out on the cold tile floor in the air conditioned living room to calm down and refused to go to the beach because I wanted pierced ears so much I could not breathe. Side bar, my parents DID NOT give in and I didn’t get pieced ears til I was a teen. But I digress.
OMG my parents loved it there. We all did. The crickets at night. The sound of the frogs. The music. The food. We loved it so much.
NEVER ONCE DID WE THINK WE WERE Puerto Rican. I mean we would have loved to have been and if my parents had moved there full time and embraced it even more, even SO I would never say I am from Puerto Rico and allude to the fact that I was from a culture I was not from.
ANYWAY, the article kicked off another news cycle and everyone who has ever ever met Hillary and her family has now spoken out. Most hilariously, the neighbor of her family’s $4 million Beacon Hill home who said the family was there for 28 years and she was there her entire childhood.
But the story keeps going…I do think I am finally exhausted by it and don’t care anymore but the story has legs. And a big part of that was this NYT story written by one of my favorite humans, Katie Rosman. Every story Katie writes just hits different. She has a way of writing that brings new dimensions to people that you don’s always get these days. Like THE profile this Sunday on, Jeanie Buss, the owner of the LA Lakers, the NBA team and the FIRST FEMALE OWNER IN THE NBA. Think about that. THE FIRST ONE.
I have never been a big basketball fan…sorry but it just never connected with me. But I am now a Lakers fan and I would be if I lived anywhere after reading this profile and all I want is for Jeanie Buss to be my BFF. Wow I loved this profile so much. It is touching and inspiring and thoughtful and just go read it.
AND FOR SOME OF MY FAVORITE THINGS (OR THINGS THAT ANNOYED ME BUT I HAVE TO SHOW):
There were other things believe it or not that consumed people this week. Some of which I really don’t even want to give oxygen to but FOR MY READERS I WILL do it…
- BEAN DAD. FFS. So Twitter LIT up this weekend due to a thread from a father explaining how his 9 year old daughter didn’t know how to use a can opener and rather than SHOWING her how in 5 seconds he gave her the task to try to figure it out herself in order to open a CAN OF BEANS which took 6 hours. He walked thru the whole process and people went nuts. Some applauded him. Some believed this was a TRUE SIGN of the patriarchy at work. Others just thought he was an asshole. You decide. He apparently deleted his account due to the drama but here you go:
- All hail BUCATINI and this absolutely perfect piece on the great Bucatini shortage!! Rachel Handler, the writer, deserves a PULITZER for this:
- Behold our new leaders.
WOO boy that is it. THE FIRST PCM of 2021. It took a while today I mean we have been off for like weeks and weeks and getting back into the jam of work and reality is going to be hard for us. I knowI went on a bit down some rabbit holes this week so thanks for indulging me. I decided to not talk about Soho Karen because I wanted FUN this week, but here is a link if you must know but she is the worst.
Be safe, BE KIND LIKE HARRY STYLES TELLS US, be smart.
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