I really liked the internet this week! Highlights: Megan Thee Stallion, rural girls, the prince, food waste, a Goop cruise, Love is Blind, BuzzFeed News, Fox News, Jonathan Majors, and Tiffany Haddish.
Elle: ‘Nobody Can Take Your Power’: Megan Thee Stallion in Her Own Words
On July 12, 2020, Megan Thee Stallion was shot by rapper Tory Lanez. Many people—even after Lanez was convicted of the crime in December—still do not believe Megan. In her own words, Megan tells about her experience over the past three years, and how, sadly, it isn’t uncommon for Black women.
The Atlantic: How Rural America Steals Girls’ Futures
Over the past year, I’ve spent more time visiting the interior of the country—the so-called “flyover states,” areas associated with rural life. In her forthcoming book, The Forgotten Girls: A Memoir of Friendship and Lost Promise in Rural America, Monica Potts explores smalltown America, focusing on her own upbringing in Arkansas and the relationship women have to class, sex, and gender. The specificity of these excerpts makes it incredibly personal, yet relatable.
In many ways, this piece reads similarly to Kit Chellel How to Beat Roulette, which was included in my column last week. For years, Stefano Cernetic moved as a prince in elite European social scenes “until the question of his identity became the eye of a storm,” and he was suspected of fraud. People from his former PR manager, to “police, diplomats, royalologists, aristocrats, journalists” tried to uncover the truth, making the prince, whoever he is, to stay one step ahead.
Eater: Can Cookbooks Teach Us to Waste Less Food?
One of my friends, a food and cooking person, is always making “pantry pasta.” The dish is as simple as it sounds, and is pasta with a sauce made from anything she has laying around. It is the first dish she tells me to make when I call her asking for dinner suggestions. So often, cookbooks notate recipes, with specific ingredients that must be purchased. A shift might be starting to take place for cookbooks, however, with less emphasis on “learning specific recipes” and more how “how to shift your lifestyle.” Bettina Makalintal reviews Tamar Adler’s The Everlasting Meal and Margaret and Irene Li’s Perfectly Good Food, exploring how the cooking theories in both books could help reduce food waste.
Harper’s Bazaar: I Really Didn’t Want to Go
A Goop cruise sounds like an absolute nightmare. Lauren Oyler went on one determined not to like it and succeeded—which given this comical account–doesn’t seem that hard. Apart from Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop’s obvious extravagance, cruises are more akin to “carbon-intensive hotels” than modes of transportation, and they absolutely pollute and decimate port cities. Gwyneth Paltrow needs to sit down and I definitely don’t want to go on a cruise.
BuzzFeed: The “Love Is Blind” Live Reunion Was An Unnecessary Hot Mess
I really enjoy watching Netflix’s Love is Blind. As a viewer, it is messy and fun and I don’t have to think about what I’m watching—although I do agree with Vanessa Wong that reality TV “is too willing to put its participants through a strange and potentially traumatizing experience for entertainment.“ The reunion episode was supposed to be streamed live—a second for the streamer, however due to technical difficulties, the show was taped and released the following day. The chaotic episode left a lot to be desired from its delay, to missing castmates, to cringeworthy moments from the hosts Nick and Vanessa Lachey.
CNN: BuzzFeed News will shut down
On Thursday, it was announced that “BuzzFeed News, the Pulitzer Prize-winning digital news website that took the internet by storm roughly a decade ago and inspired jealousy from legacy media organizations, will shutter.” This comes as the company is also laying off roughly 15% of its staff due the budgetary concerns. It truly is the end of an era.
NPR: Fox News settles blockbuster defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems
Fox News has settled a “blockbuster defamation suit filed by the election tech company Dominion Voting Systems over spurious claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential race.” In the suit, Dominion claimed Fox hurt the company by spreading false information about their products. The settlement was for “$787,500,000 — about half of Dominion’s original $1.6 billion ask.” It is widely speculated that Fox settled so they would not have to testify and some redacted documents made in discovery would not be made public.
Jonathan Majors has been dropped by his former talent manager Entertainment 360, and the PR firm Lede Company as he faces charges for a March 25th domestic violence incident. This come “amid what has been a bountiful 2023 with Creed III and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania having grossed a combined $745 million at the box office, in addition to rave reviews out of Sundance for his turn as a mentally disturbed amateur bodybuilder in Magazine Dreams.” In addition to being dropped by his manager and PR firm, “Majors and fashion house Valentino ‘mutually agreed’ that the actor would not be attending this year’s Met Gala as one of its guests,” however, “Deadline hears there’s been zero conversations in the Marvel camp to drop Majors from the MCU.”
YouTube: Tiffany Haddish is Weird
Tiffany Haddish is facing renewed backlash after deleting a tweet that seemingly supported Jonathan Majors. The backlash is renewed as in the past Haddish has been accused of being sexually inappropriate, harassment, and abuse amongst other things. This video goes over the major allegations the actor and comedian is facing.
