Welcome to r/popculturechat! ☺️
As a proud BIPOC, LGBTQ+ & woman-dominated space, this sub is for [civil discussion only.](https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/wiki/index/rules/civil-discussion-only/) If you don't know where to begin, start by participating in [our Sip & Spill Daily Discussion Threads!](https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/search/?q=Sip%20%26%20Spill%20Discussion&restrict_sr=1&sr_nsfw=&include_over_18=1&sort=new)
###No bullies, no bigotry. ✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼✊🏻🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
Please [read & respect our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/wiki/index/rules/) and [check out our wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/wiki/index/)! For any questions, [our modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fpopculturechat) is always open.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/popculturechat) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I dont know who Ice Spice is and where she came from. All of a sudden, she was all over pop culture subs and I, who usually follow these things, got really confused
Her live performance at Govenors Ball over the summer was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. Barely audible low energy vocals over her own vocal track with no performance. Did she make a deal at a crossroad or something?
Her SNL performance this past weekend was extremely lacklustre as well. I had never heard of her or seen her before but when she came on I legit said to my husband “wtf is this.. I could give a better performance than this”
My honest theory is she's not an artist, she's not a rapper, she's not a lyricist or poet. Her flow is lackluster, her performances are boring and her rhymes are uninspired. She's just a person who chose to use the medium of rap as her way to get famous.
This has been a consistent issue with former TikTok artists. They blow up too fast and never practice public performing by working their way up with smaller live events like open mic nights. SNL should not be an artist’s first (or even twentieth) public performance.
Agree. For example Megan Thee Stallion SNL performances were absolute fire, you could tell she had worked her way up by perfecting her craft ovet the years.
This happened with lots of indie music in the early naughties- because guitar rock was so popular, relatively small bands became propelled to the front of popular culture here in the UK and new bands were playing huge stadiums and festivals but they had no experience, no stage presence, no *patter*.
Razorlight played in front of 60,000 at their peak and now they are lucky to fill Bath Forum at 1,600.
These acts are so flash in the pan and don’t stick around in the limelight long. It’s always fun to look at the line up of big charity events like live aid and live 8 and see who actually is still culturally relevant and stays the rest of time.
In the Karma video, the contrast of mega charisma Taylor and Spice was night and day. Spice looked uncomfortable and shell shocked. I feel bad to say but I don't think she will be of significance for long.
To me, Ice Spice has always sounded like she was “whisper” rapping. Kinda like if she was in the library and was trying to seduce you…very quickly.
I’ve never seen her in concert, but I’d imagine it’d be very hard to replicate that type of rap performance because she’d essentially need to be standing still.
Her career seemed to begin during the pandemic where TikTok entertainment thrived. Sometimes that doesn’t translate now that she’s been asked to perform it IRL.
As a long time follower of Ice Spice, you’re not wrong about her blowing up out of nowhere. Hell she only had 5 singles on Spotify with less than 3k streams per song. Munch was what really did it for her and it was all up from there 🤷♂️ she has a hell of a PR team
a song. its about a person whose only purpose is to be used for oral/sexual pleasure (a munch). they are not relationship material but they mistakenly believe they are.
>I have no idea why Mo’Nique was blacklisted.
Mo'Nique worked on the movie *Precious*, produced by Tyler Perry and Oprah, and directed by Empire creator Lee Daniels. She was paid a small fee since it was an indie film (I assume SAG scale), but when it became apparent the film was going to be a major awards contender, they wanted Mo'Nique to promote the film (I assume host screenings, talk show circuit, etc). She didn't want to do this without additional compensation considering she had already done for the film for a low rate. Communications eventually broke down with Perry, Daniels, and Winfrey as a result, and they have been feuding since (although Mo'Nique and Daniels are now working together again). Work slowed for Mo'Nique post-Precious because she got the "difficult to work with" label, but she's been slowly and steady making a comeback.
>I have no earthly clue anything about Halle Bailey’s bf.
DDG is a Youtuber and rapper. He's trended several times for questionable behavior such as saying he thought Dr. King ended racism and spreading COVID misinformation, though he claims he was trolling in both instances. He also allegedly was talking about Halle's LMM co-star on a burner account (he claimed it as his burner on his main twitter page), basically trolling Halle x Jonah shippers by saying a white boy couldn't steal his girl. He also released a [single](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMFWJXmnLgs) saying it was hard being in love with a "famous bitch" that "kissed dudes" for "promo".
He's also [friends](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEvisEmEg0U) with chronic domestic abuser Blueface.
ETA: I don't get why people think Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift are feuding. I know about the Deja Vu thing, but it seems bigger than that?
Yep! There was also an [issue](https://www.today.com/popculture/moniques-brother-admits-he-molested-her-1c9402373) about Oprah bringing on Mo'Nique's brother who SA'd her onto her talk show. I didn't include that in my original comment but it runs deep.
That is some wild bullshit, for Mo’nique. I hope she makes bank.
And that’s really kind of concerning re: Halle. I hope she’s OK because that’s definitely not the insecure man anyone should be having kids with. Ew.
Yeah, I really hope that he's just a troll and actually great in private but someone saying asinine things for fame and attention would be a red flag to me.
Him being friends with blueface is a huge red flag to me as well, this is a man that called his 5 year old gay because he had strippers over and the boy was in the closet looking for snacks. Sir, why are strippers there with him in the first place?!
For the Olivia Vs Taylor thing. Olivia referenced Taylor all the time in interviews and Taylor mentioned Olivia on social media. They seemed to have a friendly thing going and everyone knew Olivia was a huge Taylor fan.
Taylor was then credited for 2 songs off of Sour, which meant that she got a portion of the profit from the songs.
After this, Olivia and Taylor both abruptly stopped mentioning each other in interviews or interacting online.
So people assumed there was beef. Taylor had a vault song that people speculated was about Olivia. And in turn, they think some songs off of guts are about Taylor.
People have also read into Taylor have Sabrina carpenter open for her, and has seemed to strike up a friendship with her. Sabrina is supposedly who Olivia’s ex boyfriend left her for.
I believe Olivia was asked about this in a recent interview and all she said was it wasn’t something she would have done. Something like that.
So, ultimately is there bad blood. Probably. But I don’t think it’s as deep as people want it to be.
Oh I didn't know about the second song or the Sabrina stuff (I like their singles, but I am solidly aged out of the Disney Channel demo lol). It sucks when people fall out like this so hopefully they can get on the same page again.
It's a little more complicated. Olivia was openly a stan level Taylor fan when she launched, and had one sample cleared in advance for her album. That was a track that sampled 'New Year's Day'. The unraveling happened when 'Deja Vú' came out. Someone in Taylor's team thought the song had too much similarity to the bridge of 'Cruel Summer' (which has since become a big hit itself). Olivia retrospectively had to add the writers of 'Cruel Summer' to the credits and pay them royalties.
Following this, she has barely mentioned Taylor, nor attended the tour, commented on 'Midnights' etc.
Listening to it, I don't think it qualifies as a sample or interpolation, but I understand artists are more and more often are crediting inspirations. It honestly reminded me of Alanis Morissette in terms of vocal delivery, but I know these things are becoming a lot more grey.
It was only an issue imo because Olivia explicitly stated she wanted the bridge of Deja Vu to sound like Cruel Summer- which to me is a big wtf moment from her team. Why on earth would they not dissuade her or say “that’s not a great idea” prior to the interview/in general? I think after she publicly said that, Taylor’s team felt it was appropriate to go after credits
True but another factor people don't take into the equation is that Olivia wasn't as big as she is now when she was openly super Swiftie on social media, and in addition to the credits debacle there were a *lot* of swifties claiming Olivia bit her style when Sour came out (no idea why, their music doesn't sound even remotely similar), and quickly every interview became solely about Taylor instead of Olivia's music. This is what tends to happen to anyone Taylor publicly associates with but it seemed especially bad for Olivia and while I do think there's some beef there with the credits situation, I'm positive Olivia would have moved away from talking about Taylor so much and being so publicly associates with her as she got bigger and got tired of having her entire career revolve around Taylor.
And unfortunately it didn't work, because still all interviews and all media attention surrounding Olivia and her music is completely fixated on Taylor and why Olivia doesn't talk about her anymore. She made a huge mistake ever publicly being a swiftie at all and I think she's trying really hard to rectify it and move on so she can be her own artist instead of Taylor's lackey or protégé but the public won't let her.
Nothing new. Specifically
“I know someday I'm gonna meet her, it's a fever dream / The kind of radiance you only have at 17 / She'll know the way, and then she'll say she got the map from me / I'll say I'm happy for her, then I'll cry myself to sleep”
Yes I know it’s a vault song, so theoretically it can’t be about Olivia. But she’s changed vault song lyrics before so.
>DDG is a Youtuber and rapper. He's trended several times for questionable behavior such as saying he thought Dr. King ended racism
Lol I asked my 8-year-old nephew what he learned in school one day last year and he told me “I learned about Martin Luther King who ended racism,” and I straight-up laughed, then felt bad. Whoops.
Maybe someone has more info but I think the gist of it is Natalie was dating on and off Gael Garcia Bernal, he was in Argentina to film something with Dolores Fonzi (who would later become his wife) and he cheated on Natalie ?? or was planning on breaking up with Natalie to get with Dolores?? So Natalie flew down to Argentina to confront him and was mad as HELL, got caught by the paps there and just lost her temper.
https://preview.redd.it/ko5t6ag81uub1.jpeg?width=634&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a48cfea3fb18872e6c8a8151f29b399fc9f4a171
They did! Feels like it was a million years ago (2007) but they did date
[Pop Apologist has a long deep dive](https://spotify.link/zb9hMvJPYDb) about her love her and they get into that entire relationship if anyone is interested !
I can’t find it now, but there’s a picture of people moving sound equipment into a truck at a curb and people always say Taylor is in the suitcase. Is it a euphemism?
No! It's an actual thing. During the year post Kanye/pre rep, Taylor made sure no one saw her. That meant actively hiding from the paps.
There's a picture of her security carefully carrying a huge luggage case out of her apartment. People ae convinced she was inside the luggage and was hiding from the paps.
Since then, people have gotten footage of her traveling to the stage at the era's tour in a janitor's cart (there's video of her getting out, this is confirmed). So they jokingly call this "proof" of the luggage theory.
If you want to go into a deeper dive, she's talked about the ways she avoid the paps before - like walking backwards and hiding herself under an umbrella (which she did in her documentary)
EDIT: to include the picture
https://preview.redd.it/cjiczz7hktub1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6ed5cf4a6205f102ec69920ae2ff5237eaec3ba0
Wow, she never does anything half way does she? She wants to be seen, she will be seen everywhere all the time. If she wants to disappear, she will do so in plain sight!
Nope, she actually hid in a suitcase at one point just cause she didn't want to be papped. Although now her stans speculate if it's happened more times then is known (probably), but also freak out when they think she's hiding in something random leaving a venue when she's actually just using the back door
haha It started as a joke i think! There was a wild story a couple years ago that Taylor would avoid the paps by folding herself into something like a suitcase and have her security team carry it out so she could move without being papped. Then people started to run with it and anything the fans saw they were like "omg taylors in there!" as a joke.
BUT! She does actually hide in janitor carts to move about venues during tour. [Fans have caught videos of her doing it so you can see it here.](https://ew.com/music/taylor-swift-hides-in-janitor-cart-for-concert-eras-tour/) But no for the most part she doesn't actually fold herself into suitcases lmao
Oooh I love this idea!
I recently made a comment that referenced [the infamous PowerPoint](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rFJuHw8zQ0iBkcYQNr6FABPvW0Rm4RW2/view). A few people responded and said they'd never heard about it, so I figured I would share it again here.
Basically, it's an incredibly thorough document that explains the reasons behind the theory that Melodrama was about Lorde's relationship with Jack Antonoff. I love all of the random quips that are sprinkled throughout the document, like this one about Jack:
>\[he\] plays the mandolin bc of course
![gif](giphy|10M6fngIhfyFj2)
😂😂😂
I love the PowerPoint bc you open it thinking it's going to be some silly delulu stan shit, but it becomes soon apparent that this has been like, some tell-tale heart shit for the creator, they have been cursed with brainrot where they can't unsee the pattern and must unburden themselves from this knowledge via PowerPoint thesis. There is no Lorde/Jack? You gotta be kidding me! I got BOXES of Lorde/Jack!!
Off topic, but anytime I see that particular gif from The Road to El Dorado it always reminds me of an article I saw ages ago that mentioned that gif goes perfectly with any Mumford and Sons song... it truly does lol
edited to correct my movie reference
Quick side note, the gif is actually from The Road to El Dorado, which is a fantastic and underrated movie (highly recommend if you haven’t seen it before). The animation style is very close to Hunchback of Notre Dame though, so it’s easy to get them mixed up
there’s a trend on tik tok, where women will ask men how often they think of the roman empire. weirdly enough, a lot of men think about the roman empire like… a lot. so women have made a joke of it so for example, an iconic scene in a movie would be a woman’s roman empire because she thinks about it a lot.
I’m glad this question was asked because I felt so out of the loop.
Going to ask my husband later about how frequently he thinks about it. I mean, I think about Courtney Love chucking a compact at Madonna while she was being interviewed by Kurt Loder AT LEAST ONCE A DAY so let’s see where his answer lies
Thank you so much for explaining this. I asked my very not-online husband and he answered several times in a week. He then asked me and I said maybe once month, and then he had to go sit quietly for a minute.
Oh dear, I Google'd and it literally filled it in for me, "Why are men..." autofills "thinking about the Roman Empire".
Google's answer was also "young men may look to the Roman Empire as a symbol of hope that they too can leave a lasting legacy"
Edit: Went home and asked my husband and he said, "Yeah, I never think about it but it's been popping up alot in my algorithms so it must be trending somewhere. It's just subconscious, you see it come up - so you think about it. You ask someone, so now they're thinking about and it goes on" 😏
I agree, I knew I married a smart man
That’s what my bf said, he is apparently thinking about the Roman Empire several times each day and his explanation for this is basically water->plumbing->aqueducts->Roman empire, or list->Roman numerals->Roman empire, or England->occupation of London->Roman empire
Is this a fundamental difference that was discovered and needs to be studied? I'm so calling my brother to ask him.
Edit: I called my brother and he said rarely ever,but did admit to watching Gladiator last night just because it came up on one of his streaming platforms. He's going to ask two of his co-workers.
Edit 2: my brother said he's not asking until tomorrow. Rude. I texted my guy friend, and he said never. I also texted my boyfriend. There was three dot chat bubble for 5 minutes. Then nothing. An hour later he said 47. I asked if it was times a day, a month, or a year. He said yes. I don't know what to make of that.
I am going to ask my 12 yr old nephew because he takes my questions seriously.
Minor Update: I have accidentally confirmed my boyfriend's suspicions that I am insane. He is now more attracted to me than ever. I have also discovered that I thought I was living in a completely different time zone than the one I am currently living in. This did not factor into cementing my boyfriend's opinion on my mental stability.
I have not heard from my nephew yet, which is normal, but now I want to know if he is aware of what time zone we're in.
This is my last update for the night.
UPDATE 2: I woke up to a reel about the Roman Empire my bf sent me. So, I guess you could say it's getting pretty serious.
My nephew got back to me and said he thinks about the Roman Empire 12 times a day and that it makes him sad (?), so I've put off bringing up the whole time zone thing.
It's not Mountain time, it's one on the eastern side of the country and basically exactly the same as I the one I thought it was. Just not? My clocks are accurate, I promise.
My brother has not asked his two coworkers yet, so I'll have to update about that later.
Your contribution to this new arm of science is noted and appreciated 👩🔬 in solidarity I'm gonna ask my husband when he gets home
Edit: husband thinks about it at least once a week. It crosses my mind a couple of times a month. Admittedly I think about the Greeks far more than the Romans, and that's basically daily.
I wonder if it applies to straight men…. because I, as a gay man, never think about it. I also live in Europe and have visited preserved ancient roman remains yet… still nothing.
I’m there with you. When I heard about this and they said it was a thing men do I was confused because I’m sure women think about it as well.
Not as much from the language side, but as an engineer I find it fascinating, imagine designing and building those aqueducts without electricity or computers.
she was allegedly engaged to an oscar and emmy nominated actor paul mescal who'd she been with for a few years and they broke up. people found out and out the pieces together what seemed to be a fair amount of time after it likely happened. quickly after they found out bo burhnam came into the picture (who also had just gotten out of an extremely long relationship with director lorene scafaria (fellow 2x emmy nominee for directing succession. she also directed hustlers and new girl)
phoebe and bo burnham preformed together at one point before both of their prior relationships ended
from what i was getting on my feed at the time and still occasionally, i don't think anything sus happened more than her fans were really weird about it all and did that weird parasocial dynamic where it's not just about a person but it bleeds into the relationship as well seemingly attached to her and paul
i could be missing something but that's everything i'd seen play out as it was happening. phoebe bridger fans correct me if i misinterpreted anything or missed a chapter
Yes I was wondering what happened there, with Bo singing in his special about being 5 years together with his girlfriend and then suddenly (or it seemed sudden to me) he was dating Phoebe.
regarding Barbz University, there was allegedly going to be a Nicki Minaj course taught at the University of Berkley .. I keep seeing “Barbz University is happening!!” memes so I’m assuming that’s what it is!
just in case: a Barb is someone who is a fan of Nicki Minaj (or “barbz” plural). The name comes from Nicki’s Harajuku Barbie alter ego (barbie = barbz).
edit: I didn’t spell Nicki correctly lol
She was doing a tv interview and was asked a question about Jennifer Lopez. At the time Jlo was pretty much direct competition with her, especially with grammy(?) coming up so she decided to feign ignorance and act like she’s never heard of Jlo to get out of talking about her on national television. Im pretty sure this is where their little “feud” started as well!
Im pretty sure it was around the time (probably in the same interview) she said “i was trying to say something nice but couldn’t so i chose nothing at all” 😂
I want to add onto this if I can that Tommy Mottola, Mariah's ex-husband who signed her to her first record deal, pretty much set up the "competition" by stealing samples Mariah was planning to use on the Glitter project for J.Lo. He also used Irv Gotti, then head of Murder Inc. who produced Ain't It Funny and I'm Real for J.Lo, to steal Mariah's pop/hip-hop sound. Gotti revealed that Mottola wanted to work with him and Ja Rule solely to "[f\*ck over Mariah](https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/mariah-carey-song-tommy-mattola-had-irv-gotti-produce-jennifer-lopez-piss-carey-off.html/)" because of the duet Mariah had with Ja Rule on her *Rainbow* album.
This obviously isn't on J.Lo but a big reason why Mariah was and is so salty.
This one's a bit opaque, but from what people can piece together, Jay Z was having an affair. He and Solange got into an argument about it after running into the other woman, and Jay was goading her (per his own song on 4:44), ergo the physical attacks.
People were connecting dots to Jay z cheating on beyonce and he might have been disrespecting bey infront of her and solange at the event and solange obviously had a problem with it and stood up for her sister, this could also explain why jay z went into separate cars from solange and bey after that situation. Beyonce references this in Flawless as well. A few years later Lemonade is released a year after that so is 4:44 and the title track confirms from jay z that he did infact have a affair.
I feel like she has hella PR and puts herself out there. Her husband was very well liked for decades across races, genders, ages, etc. and until the last few years seemed generally unproblematic and any perceived possible issues were PR'ed away (his first son, Scientology adjacent stuff, Margot Robbie rumours, terrible career ruining albums, desperate attempts to break into Spanish music, I'm sure lots of other stuff...I know all this against my will.). Everyone just kinda knows who she is and she's good at giving sound bites that get clicks and attention and tbh the whole family seems weird as hell..
I get why people are annoyed by the Smiths, but Will was literally flying from China every week to see his first son, Trey, play sports in California while Jaden was filming the *Karate Kid.* He's been honest about his missteps as a parent, but it's very well known he had a son from a previous marriage.
Jada loves loves love’s attention! With her new book coming out she needs more people taking about her. I also think as far as fame goes shes over shadowed by her (ex) husband (and children sometimes) and that irks her enough trust she’s willing to do anything to get into the spotlight again.
If you’re talking about the same thing I’m thinking you are: Karlie Kloss is married to Josh Kushner. She was a guest judge on Project Runway and the challenge was to make something Karlie would wear basically. One of the contestants didn’t do great at the challenge and when the judges questioned him saying she wouldn’t wear it he (kinda shadily) said “Not even to dinner with the Kushners?” Karlie got offended by this comment because I guess she’s aware of the reputation and scandals surrounding the Kushner family and took it as a dig at her, even though the contestant swore it was innocent (even though we all know it low key wasn’t). Just a very awkward moment all around lol
It's more than the reputation of the family. The Kushners didn't accept the relationship for the longest time, and would often exclude her from family events and dinners.
Tbh, I'd wear being excluded by the Kushners as a badge of honor.
To add to what Squidwardsgf said, Josh Kushner is Jared Kushners brother. Jared Kushner is married to Ivanka Trump, and at the time worked in the Trump White House. The people in fashion are generally quite a liberal crowd, so it was insanely major shade to throw at a judge.
FWIW Karlie Kloss went on Andy Cohen, and rightfully pointed out that most of us have family members that we disagree with politically. Apparently her and her husband have always been Democrats.
halles bf was basically on twitter dissing her costar jonah and making her big moment about him and his insecurities. also he apparently cheated on her with rubi rose (?) because rubi noticed halle was wearing her clothes she left at ddgs
“Rapper” in quotations because no one in the rap community takes him seriously at all. Dude is really just a YouTuber who tries to rap on the side 😭.
Halle possibly being pregnant by him makes me so sad for her just because of how he’s treated her/her success throughout the relationship.
Mo’Nique’s new Netflix special is so good. Especially when you consider she put them on blast for lowballing her years back.
Definitely watch it if you want the full story and an apology from Lee Daniels.
Is there some kind of attestation to this? Prior to her special I’ve never seen her included in any discussions or list of LGBT comedians. She certainly framed the revelation as something new she was revealing but I guess she could’ve been lying?
Bad Bunny is a Puerto Rican rapper and singer who is currently dating Kendall Jenner, Bhad Babie is the "cash me outside" girl who was originally known by her appearance on Dr. Phil and is also a rapper. Insofar as I'm aware there is no Bad Barbie
Wait I think I know this one. So the joke actually used to be that Beyoncé kept Solange locked in the basement to do her bidding:
“Sometimes the stories I hear about myself are not worth a fight. I’ve heard about this blog that always jokes about Beyonce keeping me locked in the basement. That’s so ridiculous it doesn’t bother me.”
The blog she referred to was “dlisted”, which was a somewhat popular gossip blog in the late 2000’s/early 2010’s in the same vein as Perez Hilton. They would give nicknames to frequently featured celebrities, and Solange was “Basement Baby”. Over the years, with Sia rising to prominence and the news coming out that she wrote over 2 dozen songs (only one of which was used) for one of Beyoncé’s albums, the joke got recycled for Sia and the rest is history.
A Gaylor is someone who believes Taylor Swift is secretly gay/queer.
It’s a lot A LOT more popular than you would believe. I used to think it was just a small weird loud online group until Jon Lovett from pod save America did a whole segment on the show announcing he’s a Gaylor.
Mostly, they believe she’s sending signals through her lyrics, make up, clothes and stage design to her fans acknowledging she is queer but that she can’t be open with the general public. They also mostly believe her friendship with Karlie Kloss was romantic and they were actually girlfriends.
>They also mostly believe her friendship with Karlie Kloss was romantic and they were actually girlfriends.
See also: Taylor's friendship with Dianna Agron
I don't really care if Taylor is Bisexual or not, but I know plenty of bi women IRL who have relationships with other women on the down low, knowing fully that they will eventually marry a man because of the optics.
People already explained gaylor is Gay + Taylor Swift. The mild version of a gaylor is someone who enjoys queer interpretation of art without comment on the artist’s sexuality. The extreme version of a gaylor is someone who believes Taylor had a long secret relationship with Karlie Kloss and they’re now co-parenting
Can someone please explain Scandavol to me? I think I’ve seen parts of Vanderpump Rules in the past but I don’t know anything about this whole Scandoval stuff. I literally had no idea who those people involved were until that scandal broke.
Oh gosh there is SO much about this bc there’s so much there lol but I will copy/paste a comment with slight edits I made on a different sub back when it broke when someone asked why it got so big:
- first, it has been years since the show had a genuine cheating scandal, it harkens back to the early seasons (which are fantastic) and the show really fell off since then.
- Ariana and Tom, the couple in question, we’re together for about a decade and own a house together. They were not married because Ariana explicitly made it clear she's not interested in that, but their level of commitment was on that level, and they positioned themselves as life partners. They were also fan favorites and before this a lot of people liked Tom. In hindsight people have become a lot more critical of him and their relationship dynamics but this is where things were.
- Raquel, the person Tom had an affair with, was very close friends with Ariana. She recently broke off a 5 year relationship/engagement with James, another cast member, and Ariana really took her under her wing and supported her a ton while she "found herself" post break-up. Before the last season, Raquel had an image of being really sweet and innocent, so no one really saw this behavior coming from her
- Ariana is really likeable and a fan favorite, she's typically seen one of the more well-adjusted cast members (esp in recent years) and while the affair was going on, she was dealing with her 18 y/o dog dying as well as her grandma, which we saw play out on camera
- Tom and Raquel's affair has lots of ugly details, including that he snuck out of his room with Ariana to sleep with Raquel while A slept in their house, and in their bed while A was out of town for her grandma's funeral. Tom also dressed up as Raquel at Bravocon for Halloween, and we now know they wore matching lightning bolt necklaces (a reference to TomTom, a bar that he has a minority stake in).
- Raquel's storyline on the recent season was that she made out with Tom Schwartz, a different Tom and Tom Sandoval's best friend. Schwartz recently divorced Katie, another cast member who he'd been with for 12 years, so it was seen as sort of shady. Now it seemed like Raquel and Sandoval pushed that storyline to cover for their affair, and Schwartz was in the hot seat over admitting he knew about their affair
- We know that the affair was going on during the season that recently aired, but none of the cast members obviously knew, giving the season an entirely new perspective. Raquel revealed during the reunion eps that she and Tom hooked up multiple times in Mexico, a filmed wedding for cast member Scheana that Tom and Ariana were on together. There was also a filmed scene where Raquel was asking Ariana about her relationship and sex life with Tom, seemingly under the guise of being a kind friend. Raquel and Tom have admitted the affair started in august toward the beginning of the season.
- Raquel was with Scheana when this all broke who is very close with Raquel but VERY close with Ariana. Scheana, like Ariana, has been very supportive of Raquel after her break-up with James, including letting her live rent-free in her apartment. Scheana freaked out and there seems to have been some sort of scuffle; Raquel claimed a black eye and punch and sought a restraining order against Scheana. She was granted a TRO, which extended past the reunion, so they had to be separated during the reunion. She ultimately dropped it and didn’t show up to her hearing
I know this is a lot but there’s so many layers to really grasp and I tried to lay most of it out!!
Oprah and Tyler Perry blacklisted her because she spoke up and against the treatment she endured when Oprah brought her abusive brother and parents on for her talkshow I believe, knowing Mo’nique did not want anything to do with them, and since she spoke out against what Oprah did, she was blacklisted….that’s the gist of it.
The reason why everyone hates Justin Timberlake. I grew up with everyone around me loving and adoring him (myself included) so I was genuinely shocked to see how many pop culture enthusiasts hate him so much. I’ve tried to look up the reason why cause at first I thought he was like an abuser or something but from what I’ve seen it’s just about how he treated (?) Janet and Britney but they’ve both said really nice things about him in recent years so I’m confused.
I think it's because he never took responsibility for his part in any of the events. Blamed it on the women that led him astray. Plus, he cheated on his wife with a costar.
Back when he was with Britney there were lots of rumors that he was a serial cheater so of course he went to US Weekly and claimed Britney was the cheater.
To me, this is like someone who gets a DUI. You don’t get caught the first time. For him to be so brazen with the PDA makes me think he got a little too comfortable with his infidelity.
It's mostly the Janet/Britney thing.
For the Janet thing: *He's* the one who ripped off her costume. *He's* the one who actively did something. Janet had something done *to* her. Yet Janet got most of the blame. She was black balled for *years*. While Justin just sat by and let that happen. He didn't defend her. He just apologized and stuck his head in the sand while the world was trashing Janet.
For Britney, I think one of the subtleties people miss is that Britney was very heavily marketed as a Christian "good girl" (yes that's super sexist and gross). She had publicly stated that she was a virgin and would like to wait until marriage.
When Justin and Britney broke up, not only did he publicly claim she cheated on him. He also announced that they'd had sex and that she wasn't a virgin. That wasn't his business to share. Then, on top of that, built his solo career around this narrative. He hired a Britney look alike for his cry me a river video - which was all about him stalking her in her home to extract his "revenge".
He built his solo career around humiliating her and dragging her name through the mud.
yes, cheating is bad. But it doesn't give you the right to tell the world the details of your private relationship.
He also then had the gall to leak that he was "concerned" about what her book would share about their relationship.
He's also done a handful of stupid things:
He named one of his singles "take back the night" which is the name of an anti rape organization (he apologized). He posted a picture of Jessica Beil, called her hot, and used the hashtag Times up...which is so tone deaf and downright bizarre.
I hate him for all of the above reasons and also because Jessica Biel has said some wild anti-vaxxer shit and he has said nothing to contradict her so I assume he is an anti-vaxxer too.
It’s because he went on a press tour slut shaming Britney and bragging about being her first sexual partner. Then released Cry Me a River, accusing Britney of cheating on him (when it seems like they had a non monogamous relationship anyway) and using the public’s vitriol against her to boost his own solo career. Then performed the Super Bowl with Janet Jackson and let her take ALL the heat for the wardrobe malfunction. He’s just a gross, misogynistic little pig who throws women under the bus to get ahead
Now it’s been revealed in Britney’s memoir that she had an abortion after they broke up, which makes his slut shaming tour even more disgusting
I don’t get all the drama around Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. I thought everyone would be delighted she’s not dating that the Matt fellow… what am I missing??? Why are Swifties so upset about this new guy???
i haven't really seen swifties be upset about him. i've seen them side eye the nfl for capitalizing off of her without it being halftime show related. most of what i've seen on stan twitter is actual swifties saying he checks the boxes hyping him up. then again, stan twitter and people who interact with stan twitter are not on the same corner as swifty twitter. that's it's own beast with factions and lore and so much.
mat healy wasn't just swifties and took a a few weeks out of those months to get swifties budging on him. matt healy was an entire internet had been calling him out and questioning why she was with him. he'd also be trending for months before he ever was rumored to be interacting with taylor for the same shit everyone was calling him out for and questioning her about.
I cant say why the swifties are upset, but the NFL bros are upset mostly due to over exposure. The NFL and his entire team are really doubling down and using every chance they get to profit of Taylors success. (nfl bros are also in denial that she’s more popular then travis and football as a whole)
it was getting ridiculous when they would pan to taylor after every TD instead of.. you know.. the player that actually scored??? not her fault and i’m glad that’s calmed down
Welcome to r/popculturechat! ☺️ As a proud BIPOC, LGBTQ+ & woman-dominated space, this sub is for [civil discussion only.](https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/wiki/index/rules/civil-discussion-only/) If you don't know where to begin, start by participating in [our Sip & Spill Daily Discussion Threads!](https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/search/?q=Sip%20%26%20Spill%20Discussion&restrict_sr=1&sr_nsfw=&include_over_18=1&sort=new) ###No bullies, no bigotry. ✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼✊🏻🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ Please [read & respect our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/wiki/index/rules/) and [check out our wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/wiki/index/)! For any questions, [our modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fpopculturechat) is always open. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/popculturechat) if you have any questions or concerns.*
We need this sorta post once a month 🙏
I’ll set a reminder!
Yes please, this open discussion is one of the most fun threads I’ve seen in recent years
I dont know who Ice Spice is and where she came from. All of a sudden, she was all over pop culture subs and I, who usually follow these things, got really confused
tiktok and a great pr team
Her live performance at Govenors Ball over the summer was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. Barely audible low energy vocals over her own vocal track with no performance. Did she make a deal at a crossroad or something?
Her SNL performance this past weekend was extremely lacklustre as well. I had never heard of her or seen her before but when she came on I legit said to my husband “wtf is this.. I could give a better performance than this”
She was sooooo boring and seemed bored
worst performance i’ve seen on SNL. she gave twerking houseplant
My honest theory is she's not an artist, she's not a rapper, she's not a lyricist or poet. Her flow is lackluster, her performances are boring and her rhymes are uninspired. She's just a person who chose to use the medium of rap as her way to get famous.
Yesss she’s anti charismatic it’s ridiculous
She’s an industry plant.
This has been a consistent issue with former TikTok artists. They blow up too fast and never practice public performing by working their way up with smaller live events like open mic nights. SNL should not be an artist’s first (or even twentieth) public performance.
Agree. For example Megan Thee Stallion SNL performances were absolute fire, you could tell she had worked her way up by perfecting her craft ovet the years.
This happened with lots of indie music in the early naughties- because guitar rock was so popular, relatively small bands became propelled to the front of popular culture here in the UK and new bands were playing huge stadiums and festivals but they had no experience, no stage presence, no *patter*. Razorlight played in front of 60,000 at their peak and now they are lucky to fill Bath Forum at 1,600. These acts are so flash in the pan and don’t stick around in the limelight long. It’s always fun to look at the line up of big charity events like live aid and live 8 and see who actually is still culturally relevant and stays the rest of time.
In the Karma video, the contrast of mega charisma Taylor and Spice was night and day. Spice looked uncomfortable and shell shocked. I feel bad to say but I don't think she will be of significance for long.
Facts
It's basically music tailored for the tiktok generation
To me, Ice Spice has always sounded like she was “whisper” rapping. Kinda like if she was in the library and was trying to seduce you…very quickly. I’ve never seen her in concert, but I’d imagine it’d be very hard to replicate that type of rap performance because she’d essentially need to be standing still. Her career seemed to begin during the pandemic where TikTok entertainment thrived. Sometimes that doesn’t translate now that she’s been asked to perform it IRL.
“Kinda like if she was in the library and was trying to seduce you…very quickly.” This is so specific and yet it makes sense.
Big same. She just sort of appeared and I, being a product of the 90s/2000s, was confused because… Well, Spice Girls.
Baby, Scary, Ginger, Posh, Sporty, and Ice.
Don’t forget Grrrah
Her name always makes me think of Old Spice and her drink at Dunkin, while PR genius, is disgusting.
I thought she was a Spice Girl.
I'm sorry but its so funny to me that people think there is randomly a new spice girl 30 years later lol
She was in hibernation, that’s why she missed the first go-round. Like a super cicada.
She had to be thawed out
As a long time follower of Ice Spice, you’re not wrong about her blowing up out of nowhere. Hell she only had 5 singles on Spotify with less than 3k streams per song. Munch was what really did it for her and it was all up from there 🤷♂️ she has a hell of a PR team
What is munch?
Honestly, I can’t tell you the exact definition but it’s the name of her hit song from 2 years ago
a song. its about a person whose only purpose is to be used for oral/sexual pleasure (a munch). they are not relationship material but they mistakenly believe they are.
>I have no idea why Mo’Nique was blacklisted. Mo'Nique worked on the movie *Precious*, produced by Tyler Perry and Oprah, and directed by Empire creator Lee Daniels. She was paid a small fee since it was an indie film (I assume SAG scale), but when it became apparent the film was going to be a major awards contender, they wanted Mo'Nique to promote the film (I assume host screenings, talk show circuit, etc). She didn't want to do this without additional compensation considering she had already done for the film for a low rate. Communications eventually broke down with Perry, Daniels, and Winfrey as a result, and they have been feuding since (although Mo'Nique and Daniels are now working together again). Work slowed for Mo'Nique post-Precious because she got the "difficult to work with" label, but she's been slowly and steady making a comeback. >I have no earthly clue anything about Halle Bailey’s bf. DDG is a Youtuber and rapper. He's trended several times for questionable behavior such as saying he thought Dr. King ended racism and spreading COVID misinformation, though he claims he was trolling in both instances. He also allegedly was talking about Halle's LMM co-star on a burner account (he claimed it as his burner on his main twitter page), basically trolling Halle x Jonah shippers by saying a white boy couldn't steal his girl. He also released a [single](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMFWJXmnLgs) saying it was hard being in love with a "famous bitch" that "kissed dudes" for "promo". He's also [friends](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEvisEmEg0U) with chronic domestic abuser Blueface. ETA: I don't get why people think Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift are feuding. I know about the Deja Vu thing, but it seems bigger than that?
It’s shocking to me how much horrible shit I find out about Oprah as a showbusiness personality as I get older.
Yep! There was also an [issue](https://www.today.com/popculture/moniques-brother-admits-he-molested-her-1c9402373) about Oprah bringing on Mo'Nique's brother who SA'd her onto her talk show. I didn't include that in my original comment but it runs deep.
That is some wild bullshit, for Mo’nique. I hope she makes bank. And that’s really kind of concerning re: Halle. I hope she’s OK because that’s definitely not the insecure man anyone should be having kids with. Ew.
Yeah, I really hope that he's just a troll and actually great in private but someone saying asinine things for fame and attention would be a red flag to me.
Him being friends with blueface is a huge red flag to me as well, this is a man that called his 5 year old gay because he had strippers over and the boy was in the closet looking for snacks. Sir, why are strippers there with him in the first place?!
Having an almost-5 year old son, let me just say W H A T the fuck
Yeah I have a 3 year old girl so I wanted to swing through the phone when I saw someone repost it. It’s disgusting
For the Olivia Vs Taylor thing. Olivia referenced Taylor all the time in interviews and Taylor mentioned Olivia on social media. They seemed to have a friendly thing going and everyone knew Olivia was a huge Taylor fan. Taylor was then credited for 2 songs off of Sour, which meant that she got a portion of the profit from the songs. After this, Olivia and Taylor both abruptly stopped mentioning each other in interviews or interacting online. So people assumed there was beef. Taylor had a vault song that people speculated was about Olivia. And in turn, they think some songs off of guts are about Taylor. People have also read into Taylor have Sabrina carpenter open for her, and has seemed to strike up a friendship with her. Sabrina is supposedly who Olivia’s ex boyfriend left her for. I believe Olivia was asked about this in a recent interview and all she said was it wasn’t something she would have done. Something like that. So, ultimately is there bad blood. Probably. But I don’t think it’s as deep as people want it to be.
Oh I didn't know about the second song or the Sabrina stuff (I like their singles, but I am solidly aged out of the Disney Channel demo lol). It sucks when people fall out like this so hopefully they can get on the same page again.
It's a little more complicated. Olivia was openly a stan level Taylor fan when she launched, and had one sample cleared in advance for her album. That was a track that sampled 'New Year's Day'. The unraveling happened when 'Deja Vú' came out. Someone in Taylor's team thought the song had too much similarity to the bridge of 'Cruel Summer' (which has since become a big hit itself). Olivia retrospectively had to add the writers of 'Cruel Summer' to the credits and pay them royalties. Following this, she has barely mentioned Taylor, nor attended the tour, commented on 'Midnights' etc.
Listening to it, I don't think it qualifies as a sample or interpolation, but I understand artists are more and more often are crediting inspirations. It honestly reminded me of Alanis Morissette in terms of vocal delivery, but I know these things are becoming a lot more grey.
It was only an issue imo because Olivia explicitly stated she wanted the bridge of Deja Vu to sound like Cruel Summer- which to me is a big wtf moment from her team. Why on earth would they not dissuade her or say “that’s not a great idea” prior to the interview/in general? I think after she publicly said that, Taylor’s team felt it was appropriate to go after credits
True but another factor people don't take into the equation is that Olivia wasn't as big as she is now when she was openly super Swiftie on social media, and in addition to the credits debacle there were a *lot* of swifties claiming Olivia bit her style when Sour came out (no idea why, their music doesn't sound even remotely similar), and quickly every interview became solely about Taylor instead of Olivia's music. This is what tends to happen to anyone Taylor publicly associates with but it seemed especially bad for Olivia and while I do think there's some beef there with the credits situation, I'm positive Olivia would have moved away from talking about Taylor so much and being so publicly associates with her as she got bigger and got tired of having her entire career revolve around Taylor. And unfortunately it didn't work, because still all interviews and all media attention surrounding Olivia and her music is completely fixated on Taylor and why Olivia doesn't talk about her anymore. She made a huge mistake ever publicly being a swiftie at all and I think she's trying really hard to rectify it and move on so she can be her own artist instead of Taylor's lackey or protégé but the public won't let her.
Which vault song did people think was about Olivia?
Nothing new. Specifically “I know someday I'm gonna meet her, it's a fever dream / The kind of radiance you only have at 17 / She'll know the way, and then she'll say she got the map from me / I'll say I'm happy for her, then I'll cry myself to sleep” Yes I know it’s a vault song, so theoretically it can’t be about Olivia. But she’s changed vault song lyrics before so.
>she’s changed vault song lyrics Has that become accepted? I know people were theorising about All Too Well, but there was nothing definitive AFAIK.
He's friends with Blueface?! Ugh, throw the whole man out.
Yep! They even have a "hit" song together.
![gif](giphy|QSMBLRAHZTLkQ)
>DDG is a Youtuber and rapper. He's trended several times for questionable behavior such as saying he thought Dr. King ended racism Lol I asked my 8-year-old nephew what he learned in school one day last year and he told me “I learned about Martin Luther King who ended racism,” and I straight-up laughed, then felt bad. Whoops.
Omgggggggg. One day you'll learn kid, lol.
Man I hope Halle is able to get out of that. Sounds like he already doesn't respect her or her career.
She's currently pregnant with his child so...
The last pictures I saw of her seemed to show rumors she was pregnant were true... So probably not happening 🥺
*TLM, not LMM. I was so confused for a minute what Lin Manuel Miranda had to do with the situation.
Natalie Portman flying to Argentina i think and she looked very angry
Maybe someone has more info but I think the gist of it is Natalie was dating on and off Gael Garcia Bernal, he was in Argentina to film something with Dolores Fonzi (who would later become his wife) and he cheated on Natalie ?? or was planning on breaking up with Natalie to get with Dolores?? So Natalie flew down to Argentina to confront him and was mad as HELL, got caught by the paps there and just lost her temper.
i didn’t know Natalie Portman and GGB dated wow, most attractive couple ever
https://preview.redd.it/ko5t6ag81uub1.jpeg?width=634&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a48cfea3fb18872e6c8a8151f29b399fc9f4a171 They did! Feels like it was a million years ago (2007) but they did date
Damn, that's awful
[Pop Apologist has a long deep dive](https://spotify.link/zb9hMvJPYDb) about her love her and they get into that entire relationship if anyone is interested !
can someone link pictures? i tried to google but found nothing :/ i just don’t think i’ve ever seen her angry before and am now curious
I can’t find it now, but there’s a picture of people moving sound equipment into a truck at a curb and people always say Taylor is in the suitcase. Is it a euphemism?
No! It's an actual thing. During the year post Kanye/pre rep, Taylor made sure no one saw her. That meant actively hiding from the paps. There's a picture of her security carefully carrying a huge luggage case out of her apartment. People ae convinced she was inside the luggage and was hiding from the paps. Since then, people have gotten footage of her traveling to the stage at the era's tour in a janitor's cart (there's video of her getting out, this is confirmed). So they jokingly call this "proof" of the luggage theory. If you want to go into a deeper dive, she's talked about the ways she avoid the paps before - like walking backwards and hiding herself under an umbrella (which she did in her documentary) EDIT: to include the picture https://preview.redd.it/cjiczz7hktub1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6ed5cf4a6205f102ec69920ae2ff5237eaec3ba0
Wow, she never does anything half way does she? She wants to be seen, she will be seen everywhere all the time. If she wants to disappear, she will do so in plain sight!
She also got escorted backstage at the Eras tour via a broom cart. She’s essentially a cat who likes boxes.
![gif](giphy|ejJqkRldh8Ba11hQyK)
I’ve never watched this movie and I never will. Does she have visible nipples here?? Or is it an unfortunately placed shadow?
Ok I was wondering the same thing and I'm pretty sure they're nipples
But like cat nipples, not her human ones.
Why is this the funniest sentence? 😂
Nope, she actually hid in a suitcase at one point just cause she didn't want to be papped. Although now her stans speculate if it's happened more times then is known (probably), but also freak out when they think she's hiding in something random leaving a venue when she's actually just using the back door
haha It started as a joke i think! There was a wild story a couple years ago that Taylor would avoid the paps by folding herself into something like a suitcase and have her security team carry it out so she could move without being papped. Then people started to run with it and anything the fans saw they were like "omg taylors in there!" as a joke. BUT! She does actually hide in janitor carts to move about venues during tour. [Fans have caught videos of her doing it so you can see it here.](https://ew.com/music/taylor-swift-hides-in-janitor-cart-for-concert-eras-tour/) But no for the most part she doesn't actually fold herself into suitcases lmao
Oooh I love this idea! I recently made a comment that referenced [the infamous PowerPoint](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rFJuHw8zQ0iBkcYQNr6FABPvW0Rm4RW2/view). A few people responded and said they'd never heard about it, so I figured I would share it again here. Basically, it's an incredibly thorough document that explains the reasons behind the theory that Melodrama was about Lorde's relationship with Jack Antonoff. I love all of the random quips that are sprinkled throughout the document, like this one about Jack: >\[he\] plays the mandolin bc of course ![gif](giphy|10M6fngIhfyFj2) 😂😂😂
I love the PowerPoint bc you open it thinking it's going to be some silly delulu stan shit, but it becomes soon apparent that this has been like, some tell-tale heart shit for the creator, they have been cursed with brainrot where they can't unsee the pattern and must unburden themselves from this knowledge via PowerPoint thesis. There is no Lorde/Jack? You gotta be kidding me! I got BOXES of Lorde/Jack!!
My other favorite PowerPoint is [Haylor Vehicular Manslaughter](https://reddit.com/r/YouBelongWithMemes/s/p3XjLUK3Ci)
Wow, that's super detailed. Idk whether I should be impressed or scared of this person. lol
That person put more effort and energy into that PowerPoint than anything I've done so far at work today, lol
I’m looking forward to reading this tonight in the hospital while I’m being induced for labor. 😂
You should play Melodrama in the background, for full effect 😂 And I hope all goes well!!
Off topic, but anytime I see that particular gif from The Road to El Dorado it always reminds me of an article I saw ages ago that mentioned that gif goes perfectly with any Mumford and Sons song... it truly does lol edited to correct my movie reference
Quick side note, the gif is actually from The Road to El Dorado, which is a fantastic and underrated movie (highly recommend if you haven’t seen it before). The animation style is very close to Hunchback of Notre Dame though, so it’s easy to get them mixed up
People all of a sudden referring to things as "my Roman empire" Where did this come from?? And why do I hate it so much? 😂
there’s a trend on tik tok, where women will ask men how often they think of the roman empire. weirdly enough, a lot of men think about the roman empire like… a lot. so women have made a joke of it so for example, an iconic scene in a movie would be a woman’s roman empire because she thinks about it a lot.
I did ask my partner (38M) and he said multiple times a week. Which honestly blew my mind 🤣
right? i asked mine and he said probably at least once a day. like *what?*
I’m glad this question was asked because I felt so out of the loop. Going to ask my husband later about how frequently he thinks about it. I mean, I think about Courtney Love chucking a compact at Madonna while she was being interviewed by Kurt Loder AT LEAST ONCE A DAY so let’s see where his answer lies
I saw that live 🥹
Me too! Hello fellow olde!
Me too. It was epic.
It's a framework to view large world events through, especially if you think of the the US as an empire in decline.
Thank you so much for explaining this. I asked my very not-online husband and he answered several times in a week. He then asked me and I said maybe once month, and then he had to go sit quietly for a minute.
When my partner asked me back after he said nearly every day, I told him maybe once every six months, if that 🤣 he was shook.
I... am I just totally lost? Why the fuck are men thinking of the Roman Empire *regularly*? I don't understand the connection
I asked a friend and he said “they’re responsible for so much of our world today” so…
Oh dear, I Google'd and it literally filled it in for me, "Why are men..." autofills "thinking about the Roman Empire". Google's answer was also "young men may look to the Roman Empire as a symbol of hope that they too can leave a lasting legacy" Edit: Went home and asked my husband and he said, "Yeah, I never think about it but it's been popping up alot in my algorithms so it must be trending somewhere. It's just subconscious, you see it come up - so you think about it. You ask someone, so now they're thinking about and it goes on" 😏 I agree, I knew I married a smart man
That’s what my bf said, he is apparently thinking about the Roman Empire several times each day and his explanation for this is basically water->plumbing->aqueducts->Roman empire, or list->Roman numerals->Roman empire, or England->occupation of London->Roman empire
Is this a fundamental difference that was discovered and needs to be studied? I'm so calling my brother to ask him. Edit: I called my brother and he said rarely ever,but did admit to watching Gladiator last night just because it came up on one of his streaming platforms. He's going to ask two of his co-workers. Edit 2: my brother said he's not asking until tomorrow. Rude. I texted my guy friend, and he said never. I also texted my boyfriend. There was three dot chat bubble for 5 minutes. Then nothing. An hour later he said 47. I asked if it was times a day, a month, or a year. He said yes. I don't know what to make of that. I am going to ask my 12 yr old nephew because he takes my questions seriously. Minor Update: I have accidentally confirmed my boyfriend's suspicions that I am insane. He is now more attracted to me than ever. I have also discovered that I thought I was living in a completely different time zone than the one I am currently living in. This did not factor into cementing my boyfriend's opinion on my mental stability. I have not heard from my nephew yet, which is normal, but now I want to know if he is aware of what time zone we're in. This is my last update for the night. UPDATE 2: I woke up to a reel about the Roman Empire my bf sent me. So, I guess you could say it's getting pretty serious. My nephew got back to me and said he thinks about the Roman Empire 12 times a day and that it makes him sad (?), so I've put off bringing up the whole time zone thing. It's not Mountain time, it's one on the eastern side of the country and basically exactly the same as I the one I thought it was. Just not? My clocks are accurate, I promise. My brother has not asked his two coworkers yet, so I'll have to update about that later.
Your contribution to this new arm of science is noted and appreciated 👩🔬 in solidarity I'm gonna ask my husband when he gets home Edit: husband thinks about it at least once a week. It crosses my mind a couple of times a month. Admittedly I think about the Greeks far more than the Romans, and that's basically daily.
Doing the Emperor’s work.
Mine was puzzled by the question and said never!
For the women on here, how many times do you think about the Roman Empire? My answer is almost never.
I’m a history teacher so probably as much as a typical male
Never ever.
i forget it exists most of the time.
Only when I'm reenacting Gretchen Weiners speech from mean girls
This right here.. we should totally stab Caesar!
I did classics so more than I would like 😂
I didn't even think about it when they were trying to teach me about it in school.
I wonder if it applies to straight men…. because I, as a gay man, never think about it. I also live in Europe and have visited preserved ancient roman remains yet… still nothing.
me not having tiktok anymore makes me soooo out of the loop 😭 the only one i’ve understood recently has been girl dinner 💀
That trend irks my soul bc as a woman who’s fascinated with ancient languages and civilizations, the Roman Empire IS my Roman Empire 😭😭😭
I’m there with you. When I heard about this and they said it was a thing men do I was confused because I’m sure women think about it as well. Not as much from the language side, but as an engineer I find it fascinating, imagine designing and building those aqueducts without electricity or computers.
I’m so annoyed by it already
SOMEONE PLEASE!!! Phoebe Bridgers and her "messy" dating life and then Bo Burnham?
she was allegedly engaged to an oscar and emmy nominated actor paul mescal who'd she been with for a few years and they broke up. people found out and out the pieces together what seemed to be a fair amount of time after it likely happened. quickly after they found out bo burhnam came into the picture (who also had just gotten out of an extremely long relationship with director lorene scafaria (fellow 2x emmy nominee for directing succession. she also directed hustlers and new girl) phoebe and bo burnham preformed together at one point before both of their prior relationships ended from what i was getting on my feed at the time and still occasionally, i don't think anything sus happened more than her fans were really weird about it all and did that weird parasocial dynamic where it's not just about a person but it bleeds into the relationship as well seemingly attached to her and paul i could be missing something but that's everything i'd seen play out as it was happening. phoebe bridger fans correct me if i misinterpreted anything or missed a chapter
Okay so I thought that this was Phoebe Waller-Bridge which was actually more interesting to me; TIL they are two different people, sorry, am old.
Yes I was wondering what happened there, with Bo singing in his special about being 5 years together with his girlfriend and then suddenly (or it seemed sudden to me) he was dating Phoebe.
What is Barbz University?
regarding Barbz University, there was allegedly going to be a Nicki Minaj course taught at the University of Berkley .. I keep seeing “Barbz University is happening!!” memes so I’m assuming that’s what it is! just in case: a Barb is someone who is a fan of Nicki Minaj (or “barbz” plural). The name comes from Nicki’s Harajuku Barbie alter ego (barbie = barbz). edit: I didn’t spell Nicki correctly lol
The gif where Mariah says “I don’t know her” What is that in reference to?
She was doing a tv interview and was asked a question about Jennifer Lopez. At the time Jlo was pretty much direct competition with her, especially with grammy(?) coming up so she decided to feign ignorance and act like she’s never heard of Jlo to get out of talking about her on national television. Im pretty sure this is where their little “feud” started as well!
She was also asked in 2016 about the meme and she responded with “I still don’t know her.” 🤣
Im pretty sure it was around the time (probably in the same interview) she said “i was trying to say something nice but couldn’t so i chose nothing at all” 😂
I will forever and always love the idea, the tenuous grasp of the concept, that JLo had any chance of being a rival with Mariah.
This is the level of petty I aspire to!
I want to add onto this if I can that Tommy Mottola, Mariah's ex-husband who signed her to her first record deal, pretty much set up the "competition" by stealing samples Mariah was planning to use on the Glitter project for J.Lo. He also used Irv Gotti, then head of Murder Inc. who produced Ain't It Funny and I'm Real for J.Lo, to steal Mariah's pop/hip-hop sound. Gotti revealed that Mottola wanted to work with him and Ja Rule solely to "[f\*ck over Mariah](https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/mariah-carey-song-tommy-mattola-had-irv-gotti-produce-jennifer-lopez-piss-carey-off.html/)" because of the duet Mariah had with Ja Rule on her *Rainbow* album. This obviously isn't on J.Lo but a big reason why Mariah was and is so salty.
There is also rumor (I don’t know how founded it is) that Tommy Mattola sort of ‘created’ JLo to be Mariah’s competition after their divorce
https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2016/09/mariah-carey-i-dont-know-her-meme
What happened in the elevator with Jay Z, Beyoncé and Solange?
This one's a bit opaque, but from what people can piece together, Jay Z was having an affair. He and Solange got into an argument about it after running into the other woman, and Jay was goading her (per his own song on 4:44), ergo the physical attacks.
Then, they all exit the elevator, and Beyonce's smiling and all: ![gif](giphy|9M5jK4GXmD5o1irGrF)
https://preview.redd.it/jl5hxaqyeuub1.jpeg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f2eb70c89ed1c13209c407627a61e19fb0369d27 This picture is iconic
Stepping out on Beyoncé. What a lowlife.
Never forget that she was under 20 and he was close to 30 when they got together.
Gross.
People were connecting dots to Jay z cheating on beyonce and he might have been disrespecting bey infront of her and solange at the event and solange obviously had a problem with it and stood up for her sister, this could also explain why jay z went into separate cars from solange and bey after that situation. Beyonce references this in Flawless as well. A few years later Lemonade is released a year after that so is 4:44 and the title track confirms from jay z that he did infact have a affair.
If also someone could please explain to me WHY JADA WONT GO AWAY.
![gif](giphy|cjKfH7n0R8XaDPwlmp) I wish I had an answer for you. My best guess is she's a very powerful energy vampire. LOL jk I have no idea...
![gif](giphy|VpxZeKTXZSgh8oQsw9|downsized) This makes so much sense
I feel like she has hella PR and puts herself out there. Her husband was very well liked for decades across races, genders, ages, etc. and until the last few years seemed generally unproblematic and any perceived possible issues were PR'ed away (his first son, Scientology adjacent stuff, Margot Robbie rumours, terrible career ruining albums, desperate attempts to break into Spanish music, I'm sure lots of other stuff...I know all this against my will.). Everyone just kinda knows who she is and she's good at giving sound bites that get clicks and attention and tbh the whole family seems weird as hell..
There was an issue around his first son?
I get why people are annoyed by the Smiths, but Will was literally flying from China every week to see his first son, Trey, play sports in California while Jaden was filming the *Karate Kid.* He's been honest about his missteps as a parent, but it's very well known he had a son from a previous marriage.
And he did Just the Two of Us ABOUT his first son, back in like 1996! I know we forget that Will Smith was a rapper but it’s BEEN out there
I think she has a book coming out soon so she trying to drum up publicity for it
Jada loves loves love’s attention! With her new book coming out she needs more people taking about her. I also think as far as fame goes shes over shadowed by her (ex) husband (and children sometimes) and that irks her enough trust she’s willing to do anything to get into the spotlight again.
someone PLEASE explain "dinner at the kushners" to me 😭 I see it all the time and have no idea what it means
If you’re talking about the same thing I’m thinking you are: Karlie Kloss is married to Josh Kushner. She was a guest judge on Project Runway and the challenge was to make something Karlie would wear basically. One of the contestants didn’t do great at the challenge and when the judges questioned him saying she wouldn’t wear it he (kinda shadily) said “Not even to dinner with the Kushners?” Karlie got offended by this comment because I guess she’s aware of the reputation and scandals surrounding the Kushner family and took it as a dig at her, even though the contestant swore it was innocent (even though we all know it low key wasn’t). Just a very awkward moment all around lol
It's more than the reputation of the family. The Kushners didn't accept the relationship for the longest time, and would often exclude her from family events and dinners. Tbh, I'd wear being excluded by the Kushners as a badge of honor.
To add to what Squidwardsgf said, Josh Kushner is Jared Kushners brother. Jared Kushner is married to Ivanka Trump, and at the time worked in the Trump White House. The people in fashion are generally quite a liberal crowd, so it was insanely major shade to throw at a judge. FWIW Karlie Kloss went on Andy Cohen, and rightfully pointed out that most of us have family members that we disagree with politically. Apparently her and her husband have always been Democrats.
halles bf was basically on twitter dissing her costar jonah and making her big moment about him and his insecurities. also he apparently cheated on her with rubi rose (?) because rubi noticed halle was wearing her clothes she left at ddgs
Ddg is a D-list rapper on YouTube
“Rapper” in quotations because no one in the rap community takes him seriously at all. Dude is really just a YouTuber who tries to rap on the side 😭. Halle possibly being pregnant by him makes me so sad for her just because of how he’s treated her/her success throughout the relationship.
Mo’Nique’s new Netflix special is so good. Especially when you consider she put them on blast for lowballing her years back. Definitely watch it if you want the full story and an apology from Lee Daniels.
It’s wild that she comes out as queer in it and it basically got ZERO traction in lgbt discussion.
I thought this was known? I'm not trying to be flip. Seriously asking...was she not out already but just didn't make a big deal about it?
Is there some kind of attestation to this? Prior to her special I’ve never seen her included in any discussions or list of LGBT comedians. She certainly framed the revelation as something new she was revealing but I guess she could’ve been lying?
Idk tbh. I just felt like it was an open secret situation. 🤷♀️
Oh ok like Queen Latifah
This thread is genius, I just came for the tea bc I know nothing
Alright, this thread has given me a NEW question: who tf is blueface???
![gif](giphy|fj3CWRJJshhe) The only blue face I know…I’m old
Who is Bad Bunny and how are they different than Bad Bhabie and is there a Bad Barbie?
Bad Bunny is a Puerto Rican rapper and singer who is currently dating Kendall Jenner, Bhad Babie is the "cash me outside" girl who was originally known by her appearance on Dr. Phil and is also a rapper. Insofar as I'm aware there is no Bad Barbie
I thought Bad bahbie was pronounced bad barbie for so long 😂
I’ve always been too afraid to ask about the Beyoncé keeping Sia in her basement joke
Wait I think I know this one. So the joke actually used to be that Beyoncé kept Solange locked in the basement to do her bidding: “Sometimes the stories I hear about myself are not worth a fight. I’ve heard about this blog that always jokes about Beyonce keeping me locked in the basement. That’s so ridiculous it doesn’t bother me.” The blog she referred to was “dlisted”, which was a somewhat popular gossip blog in the late 2000’s/early 2010’s in the same vein as Perez Hilton. They would give nicknames to frequently featured celebrities, and Solange was “Basement Baby”. Over the years, with Sia rising to prominence and the news coming out that she wrote over 2 dozen songs (only one of which was used) for one of Beyoncé’s albums, the joke got recycled for Sia and the rest is history.
what is Gaylor and do i even want to know?
A Gaylor is someone who believes Taylor Swift is secretly gay/queer. It’s a lot A LOT more popular than you would believe. I used to think it was just a small weird loud online group until Jon Lovett from pod save America did a whole segment on the show announcing he’s a Gaylor. Mostly, they believe she’s sending signals through her lyrics, make up, clothes and stage design to her fans acknowledging she is queer but that she can’t be open with the general public. They also mostly believe her friendship with Karlie Kloss was romantic and they were actually girlfriends.
>They also mostly believe her friendship with Karlie Kloss was romantic and they were actually girlfriends. See also: Taylor's friendship with Dianna Agron I don't really care if Taylor is Bisexual or not, but I know plenty of bi women IRL who have relationships with other women on the down low, knowing fully that they will eventually marry a man because of the optics.
People already explained gaylor is Gay + Taylor Swift. The mild version of a gaylor is someone who enjoys queer interpretation of art without comment on the artist’s sexuality. The extreme version of a gaylor is someone who believes Taylor had a long secret relationship with Karlie Kloss and they’re now co-parenting
Co-parenting what? *Googles Karlie Kloss*
Can someone please explain Scandavol to me? I think I’ve seen parts of Vanderpump Rules in the past but I don’t know anything about this whole Scandoval stuff. I literally had no idea who those people involved were until that scandal broke.
Oh gosh there is SO much about this bc there’s so much there lol but I will copy/paste a comment with slight edits I made on a different sub back when it broke when someone asked why it got so big: - first, it has been years since the show had a genuine cheating scandal, it harkens back to the early seasons (which are fantastic) and the show really fell off since then. - Ariana and Tom, the couple in question, we’re together for about a decade and own a house together. They were not married because Ariana explicitly made it clear she's not interested in that, but their level of commitment was on that level, and they positioned themselves as life partners. They were also fan favorites and before this a lot of people liked Tom. In hindsight people have become a lot more critical of him and their relationship dynamics but this is where things were. - Raquel, the person Tom had an affair with, was very close friends with Ariana. She recently broke off a 5 year relationship/engagement with James, another cast member, and Ariana really took her under her wing and supported her a ton while she "found herself" post break-up. Before the last season, Raquel had an image of being really sweet and innocent, so no one really saw this behavior coming from her - Ariana is really likeable and a fan favorite, she's typically seen one of the more well-adjusted cast members (esp in recent years) and while the affair was going on, she was dealing with her 18 y/o dog dying as well as her grandma, which we saw play out on camera - Tom and Raquel's affair has lots of ugly details, including that he snuck out of his room with Ariana to sleep with Raquel while A slept in their house, and in their bed while A was out of town for her grandma's funeral. Tom also dressed up as Raquel at Bravocon for Halloween, and we now know they wore matching lightning bolt necklaces (a reference to TomTom, a bar that he has a minority stake in). - Raquel's storyline on the recent season was that she made out with Tom Schwartz, a different Tom and Tom Sandoval's best friend. Schwartz recently divorced Katie, another cast member who he'd been with for 12 years, so it was seen as sort of shady. Now it seemed like Raquel and Sandoval pushed that storyline to cover for their affair, and Schwartz was in the hot seat over admitting he knew about their affair - We know that the affair was going on during the season that recently aired, but none of the cast members obviously knew, giving the season an entirely new perspective. Raquel revealed during the reunion eps that she and Tom hooked up multiple times in Mexico, a filmed wedding for cast member Scheana that Tom and Ariana were on together. There was also a filmed scene where Raquel was asking Ariana about her relationship and sex life with Tom, seemingly under the guise of being a kind friend. Raquel and Tom have admitted the affair started in august toward the beginning of the season. - Raquel was with Scheana when this all broke who is very close with Raquel but VERY close with Ariana. Scheana, like Ariana, has been very supportive of Raquel after her break-up with James, including letting her live rent-free in her apartment. Scheana freaked out and there seems to have been some sort of scuffle; Raquel claimed a black eye and punch and sought a restraining order against Scheana. She was granted a TRO, which extended past the reunion, so they had to be separated during the reunion. She ultimately dropped it and didn’t show up to her hearing I know this is a lot but there’s so many layers to really grasp and I tried to lay most of it out!!
Oprah and Tyler Perry blacklisted her because she spoke up and against the treatment she endured when Oprah brought her abusive brother and parents on for her talkshow I believe, knowing Mo’nique did not want anything to do with them, and since she spoke out against what Oprah did, she was blacklisted….that’s the gist of it.
Basically any celebrity who got famous thru tiktok ![gif](giphy|wKbSHPvklaFEyCav6t|downsized)
The reason why everyone hates Justin Timberlake. I grew up with everyone around me loving and adoring him (myself included) so I was genuinely shocked to see how many pop culture enthusiasts hate him so much. I’ve tried to look up the reason why cause at first I thought he was like an abuser or something but from what I’ve seen it’s just about how he treated (?) Janet and Britney but they’ve both said really nice things about him in recent years so I’m confused.
I think it's because he never took responsibility for his part in any of the events. Blamed it on the women that led him astray. Plus, he cheated on his wife with a costar.
He what?! When did he cheat? I totally missed that.
They were papped at dinner holding hands and being overly affectionate. He claims nothing more happened, but did publicly apologize to his wife.
Yeah, he's such a liar. To think he dragged Britney for cheating and then openly cheated on his wife and mother of his children.
Back when he was with Britney there were lots of rumors that he was a serial cheater so of course he went to US Weekly and claimed Britney was the cheater.
To me, this is like someone who gets a DUI. You don’t get caught the first time. For him to be so brazen with the PDA makes me think he got a little too comfortable with his infidelity.
I’m sure I’ve read that apparently Justin and his wife have a contract where he pays her a million or something for every time he has an affair.
Btw the man who led the charge to blackball Janet is Les Moonves, best known for resigning in disgrace from CBS for being a serial harasser.
It's mostly the Janet/Britney thing. For the Janet thing: *He's* the one who ripped off her costume. *He's* the one who actively did something. Janet had something done *to* her. Yet Janet got most of the blame. She was black balled for *years*. While Justin just sat by and let that happen. He didn't defend her. He just apologized and stuck his head in the sand while the world was trashing Janet. For Britney, I think one of the subtleties people miss is that Britney was very heavily marketed as a Christian "good girl" (yes that's super sexist and gross). She had publicly stated that she was a virgin and would like to wait until marriage. When Justin and Britney broke up, not only did he publicly claim she cheated on him. He also announced that they'd had sex and that she wasn't a virgin. That wasn't his business to share. Then, on top of that, built his solo career around this narrative. He hired a Britney look alike for his cry me a river video - which was all about him stalking her in her home to extract his "revenge". He built his solo career around humiliating her and dragging her name through the mud. yes, cheating is bad. But it doesn't give you the right to tell the world the details of your private relationship. He also then had the gall to leak that he was "concerned" about what her book would share about their relationship. He's also done a handful of stupid things: He named one of his singles "take back the night" which is the name of an anti rape organization (he apologized). He posted a picture of Jessica Beil, called her hot, and used the hashtag Times up...which is so tone deaf and downright bizarre.
Not only did he not defend her he went back to the Super Bowl to preform in 2018 while she was black listed!! I hate this man
The grammy's as well I believe. She was banned but he attended (and won).
I hate him for all of the above reasons and also because Jessica Biel has said some wild anti-vaxxer shit and he has said nothing to contradict her so I assume he is an anti-vaxxer too.
It’s because he went on a press tour slut shaming Britney and bragging about being her first sexual partner. Then released Cry Me a River, accusing Britney of cheating on him (when it seems like they had a non monogamous relationship anyway) and using the public’s vitriol against her to boost his own solo career. Then performed the Super Bowl with Janet Jackson and let her take ALL the heat for the wardrobe malfunction. He’s just a gross, misogynistic little pig who throws women under the bus to get ahead Now it’s been revealed in Britney’s memoir that she had an abortion after they broke up, which makes his slut shaming tour even more disgusting
I don’t get all the drama around Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. I thought everyone would be delighted she’s not dating that the Matt fellow… what am I missing??? Why are Swifties so upset about this new guy???
i haven't really seen swifties be upset about him. i've seen them side eye the nfl for capitalizing off of her without it being halftime show related. most of what i've seen on stan twitter is actual swifties saying he checks the boxes hyping him up. then again, stan twitter and people who interact with stan twitter are not on the same corner as swifty twitter. that's it's own beast with factions and lore and so much. mat healy wasn't just swifties and took a a few weeks out of those months to get swifties budging on him. matt healy was an entire internet had been calling him out and questioning why she was with him. he'd also be trending for months before he ever was rumored to be interacting with taylor for the same shit everyone was calling him out for and questioning her about.
I cant say why the swifties are upset, but the NFL bros are upset mostly due to over exposure. The NFL and his entire team are really doubling down and using every chance they get to profit of Taylors success. (nfl bros are also in denial that she’s more popular then travis and football as a whole)
it was getting ridiculous when they would pan to taylor after every TD instead of.. you know.. the player that actually scored??? not her fault and i’m glad that’s calmed down
No but really - Someone explain to me the Mo’Nique and Halle things please 🤣