Dear Gossips,

The Grammy Awards are happening on Sunday and Alex Cooper has released a special two-hour podcast episode, “Alex Cooper Presents: A Grammys Special (ft. Rosé)”, that just dropped today.

Rosie takes Alex to several places in Asia, from Tokyo to Seoul, where her recording studio was turned into the Call Her Daddy set. At one point Rosie introduces Alex to a Korean cocktail – Somaek, or a soju bomb, is what you get when you add a shot of soju to a beer. And there’s an art to it, it’s so much fun watching someone do it when you’re out in Korea and it goes great with Korean fried chicken.

Rosé is nominated for three Grammys on Sunday for her song “APT.” with Bruno Mars, including two out of the four majors, song of the year and record of the year. It’s a huge achievement and she tells Alex that the experience of being nominated reminded her of when she was invited to go to Korea and train to be a K-pop idol which, of course, led her to joining Jennie, Jisoo, and Lisa, and together becoming BLACKPINK.

For me, as someone who has followed K-pop for so long, what’s remarkable about Rosie’s interview is how candid she is, forthcoming with details she’s been keeping secret for years about her personal life and romantic relationships. Korean idols do not typically do this, they pretty much pretend they don’t have love lives which, of course, is absurd. But the worry is that if they’re not “available” to the fans, or at least aren’t perceived to be, then they won’t be as successful. And BLACKPINK certainly subscribed to that at the start of their careers, but the more popular they became, the more they gradually started breaking whatever rules they weren’t supposed to break. Which brings us to Rosé’s revelations on Call Her Daddy. 

She talked about an ex-boyfriend who was more paranoid than she was about being seen in public, even though he was a civilian, and how that felt right to her until it didn’t, when she realised it wasn’t actually normal for him to never want her to be around his friends, or her friends, or anyone, really. She also talks about the lengths she would go to when she was dating, in order to avoid being photographed, not just by paparazzi but anyone with a phone who could post on social media. There was an elaborate disguise.

Rosie cosplaying a halmeoni in order to go on dates is wild. That part is kind of funny – what’s not funny is the emotional toll, even now that she’s older, so much more independent and successful, her reaction when she’s asked if she’s dating is… well… as she puts it, it’s sad.

This goes back to the parasocial relationships, to the online judgement, and how clearly shaped and scarred popstars and other celebrities can be in the digital era, worrying that one answer about a perfectly normal and human experience – meeting people, falling in love – can follow them for what feels like forever.

But this is how it works now. If Rosie was like, yeah, I’m kinda into someone right now, we’re talking… the online CSI would mobilise and probably find that person within the hour.

And it’s not just Korean idols. Anyone that Harry Styles is dating would be the same. We’ve already seen what happens around Taylor Swift’s romances. People are unhinged when it comes to Justin and Hailey Bieber…etc, etc, etc.

“But they’re celebrities, I don’t feel sorry for them” is thrown around a lot and I’ve done some of the throwing. And yet, there are ways in which certain parts of their lives kinda suck, especially now in the age of social media.

Yours in gossip,

Lainey

Photo credits: Jeremy Smith/imageSPACE/Shutterstock

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