Hello! Finally a Culture over Coffee ready to be enjoyed on Sunday with your coffee like Mother Monster intended. If you are on the East Coast, you’re probably enjoying a very soggy Memorial Day weekend, and if you’re on vacation, in the wise words of Olivia Rodrigo, good for you 💙.
Everything is happening everywhere all at once, and time feels like it’s blurring together. I just saw yesterday that Peacock is flying the all-civilian cast of the new Traitors season as we speak to Scotland - reminding me that I didn’t get chosen, or even responded to on my audition tape. Sigh. Luckily we have PopCrave to remind us of the passage of time:
this feels like a cannon song for millennial women. turns out, as a big girl i cry a LOT.
Top 4 Niche Cultural Moments of the Week that you may have missed:
We have to talk about John Travolta. He’s currently living rent free on my timelines every time he attends a new event in a new beret. It’s so clear to me he’s gotten a hair transplant (hidden by the hat), and a face lift (hidden by the beard), but he’s trying to play it off as if he’s really embodying the essence of a director (his directorial debut premiered this week in NYC and will be featured this week at Cannes Film Festival). Because you know, directors famously wear berets and glasses. He’s also 72 years old, this is not the same kind of 72 that is currently taking up dozens of seats in Congress, so my take is he definitely got a little nip and tuck.
Speaking of Cannes: Beautiful, gorgeous queen Ciara Miller of Summer House made her Cannes debut attending several events and galas, while her ex-best friend and ex-situationship continue to embarrass themselves all over NYC. If you remember back to an April issue of Culture over Coffee, I gave you a run down of all the drama happening over on this Bravo show. Though I don’t watch the show, after the trailer for the reunion aired this week (in which a grown man named Jesse who I believe to be West’s best friend is seen crying hard over West for some reason, and West gets yelled at by the cast to “go after his girl” when Amanda leaves the set crying while he just sat there in silence), I will be seated for the reunion drama. It’s just so gratifying to see Ciara, who was victimized and betrayed by two people she considered close friends, glowingly standing in the spotlight while the aforementioned people look like the just rolled out of bed and are headed to the campus dining hall for hungover brunch. It’s my personal belief that West will leave Amanda in the dust after this reunion is over, because also he apparently has had a secret girlfriend who’s not a part of Summer House this whole time, and he’s maybe still on Raya, but I digress.
If you care, the reunion will be in 3 parts starting Tuesday, May 26 at 8 p.m ET/PT and continuing on Tues. June 2nd and Tues. June 9th on Bravo.
karma is a bitch, they say
For my fellow women in their 30s, fear not about the possibility of having kids as we age, because Tobey MacGuire’s ex wife is a 49-year-old pregnant lady and glowing. Jewelry designer Jennifer Meyer, is pregnant with her third child and due soon, as she announced her pregnancy in December. She was seen recently out and about in Los Angeles with her baby bump and her 17 year old son, and is apparently over a week past her due date. Poor woman! She’s currently engaged to a 34-year-old Geoffrey Ogunlesi, the son of a Nigerian billionaire, and says she’s the happiest she’s ever been, according to The Daily Mail. She’s also co-parenting her two kids with Tobey, original Spiderman (to millennials), having also been spotted this week at dinner together as one big blended family. I honestly love this for her, she seems to be living her best life, and one can only hope for an easy pregnancy at any age, so kudos to her!
Also related, I was at the NY Liberty game (women’s basketball) on Thursday and Liberty super-fan and very pregnant Aubry Plaza was there. Reminder she’s 41-years-old and having her first baby. There’s hope!
Love Rihanna for normalizing the bare baby bump. Jennifer looks incredible.
Political Corner - I know, I’m sorry!!!
Trump Slush Fund: Now this one is creative (though if you’re a lawyer or finance person you probably could’ve come up with this too) Trump, his sons, the Trump Organization, and the Department of Justice sued the IRS for $10B for “leaking tax returns,” which then Trump decides to drop the suit with prejudice (I think essentially his demands) before it gets to court, which resulted in a $1.776 Billion “anti weaponization fund” to be handed out to anyone who was unfairly prosecuted in relation to things they were doing to support Trump (think January 6ers). Yay. This lovely human explains it all on Tiktok, and don’t worry, the Senate is so mad at Trump for this, they fled Washington so they aren’t forced to vote to instate this fund. Woo! 🫠
So remember when Trump destroyed the East Wing of the White House to build a ballroom that would be funded by private donors and no taxpayer money? Well the cost of this ballroom has gone up steadily from $250M to $500M to now $1B according to Demential Don’s latest ramblings. And, he’s actually asking Congress to fund that $1B price tag now, because of course. What makes a ballroom cost a billion dollars you may ask? Well, this week reporters had the displeasure of listening to Trump describe all the plans while standing in front of the demolished East Wing: military-grade medical facilities, impenetrable steel roofs, and lots of space for a drone base. Did I mention the ballroom is also comprised of a 6 story subterranean complex? Let’s face it, Trump is building a new bunker under the White House, with a ballroom as the cherry on top. Sounds like another insane man and his ballroom/bunker we know…
One funny one (because if you don’t laugh you’ll cry), when asked on Thursday if he planned to attend his son Don Jr.’s wedding, Trump said, ““You know, this is not good timing for me. I have a thing called Iran and other things.”” And, “but he’s, uh, got a very, uh, person who I’ve known for a long time.” Imagine your father, a) being surprised the press asked him if he was going to attend his own son’s wedding b) calling you “someone he’s known for a long time,” and c) allegedly fake another assassination attempt to justify not going to your wedding (allegedly!! there were in fact shots fired outside the White House on Saturday night however).
welp, seems like my corner of the internet isn’t buying it.
Honorable mentions from the week, extra long edition:
Olivia Rodrigo released a new single off called “The Cure” off her upcoming album You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love and as someone who’s been exclusively listening to disco and EDM recently, the guitar vibe is a welcome change. Jacob Elordi and Kendall Jenner are apparently dating, and he’s getting smoke because he skipped out on being a judge at the Cannes Film Festival due to a foot injury, but then was seen driving around LA with the Jenners. Miley Cyrus accepted her Hollywood Walk of Fame star this week in a Versace gown accompanied by Donatella Versace herself (and Miley’s mom and older sister). Harry Styles had to change the stage of his much hyped (and very expensive) tour after the first few shows in Amsterdam resulted in people with the most expensive tickets having a very obstructed view. I also just still very much feel like he lost his spark somewhere, and I really hope he finds it before I see him in October. Police found $9.3 million worth of cocaine being smuggled into England in a Skims truck (you know, billionaire Kim Kardashian’s underwear brand), LOL. Call Her Daddy podcast host Alex Cooper is pregnant with her first baby. Taylor Swift’s bangs: I’m not a Taylor Swift fan, gasp, but she appears to have fixed her bangs after being seen with what appears to my eyes as a mismatched clip on hair piece last week, PHEW (money can’t buy you the right color clip in I guess). She was in attendance at the Knicks vs. Cavs basketball game on Saturday night sitting next to her fiancé, Travis Kelce who was wearing a Cleveland hat - when Taylor is famously NYC’s tourism ambassador. Quinta Brunson will star in a movie adaptation of Betty Boop in the most incredible casting ever. Lastly, Beyoncé still hasn’t hinted at any music since the Met Gala and I’m starting to think we’re not getting Act III next week 😭.
Best Tiktoks of the Week:
One dog one: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8ppbsjy/
One cat one: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8pptD4k/
Funny in a America’s Funniest Home Videos cringe kinda way: Girl swept away by NYC floods, we don’t know if she’s okay yet and god I hope she is! https://www.instagram.com/p/DYp6R-0mKtM/?img_index=2
Astrology/Energy for the week ahead…
It’s officially Gemini season! Taurus season treated me well, personally, but Gemini season appears to be another good one (though always look into specifics for your sign). Gemini is the sign of external communication, so we can expect a lot of social connection, learning, and possibly travel. Astrology by Alice Bell has a great summary of the entire month if you’re curious, but I will call out she and other astrologers do see this coming week as a period of frustration, especially when communicating with others. So maybe just take a beat if you find yourself annoyed at someone in the next week and think before you act. And otherwise, if you find yourself called to try lots of different things this month, that seems to be the way of Gemini, so lean in!
What’s New on the Blog this Week:
Who is Ashley St. Clair & Is She Lying? Of course I had to write about the girl going viral for insinuating Elon Musk affected the outcome of the 2024 Presidential Election with his Starlink satellites. If we forget we live in America for a moment, this story has all my favorite things - an exposé of horrible men, an attempted takedown of a AI Tech Billionaire CEO, and piping hot tea. Ashley St. Clair herself called it a “fair take” and “enjoyable read” on her Tiktok and IG stories, so shout out to her for wanting to read something I never in a million years thought would reach the subject. Lol the internet is a wild place sometimes.
For those of us existing in the rain right now, take these words from the Weather Channel as permission to have a me-day today:
that’s my plan 100%
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