After meeting as teens in an In-N-Out parking lot, Riley Keough and Dakota Johnson formed a band called Funky Porn that sang Bob Dylan covers (they were staying in New York, running away from boys and in a “depressive state”). Dakota has talked about this time in her life, how they would smoke cigarettes with their moms and date musicians.
This is top-tier nepo baby behaviour, these kinds of anecdotes are great. I absolutely want to hear about Melanie Griffith and Lisa Marie arranging week-long sleepovers.
Julianne Hough co-wrote a book and it’s not a memoir or personal essays (the preferred genre of celebrities). She describes it as supernatural fiction with lots of personal details, so not quite “based on a true story.” What’s interesting is she said she wrote it in 2020 and its being published now, and I’m wondering if that’s where the co-writing credit came in for Ellen Goodlett. I’d love to hear about how this relationship formed; did Julianne have the story and need structure? What part of the process did Ellen come in? Usually, celebrity ghostwriters are not acknowledged (although it’s common knowledge every single celebrity author uses one and there are even some “famous” ghostwriters in the literary community). Highlighting that it’s a shared piece of work is cool, it tips me into wanting to read it more.
Babe, babe, wake up. A new Courtney Love interview has dropped. This conversation is classic Courtney – she and Madonna have been tit-for-tat for years now (and I firmly believe there’s a begrudging layer of respect there). Courtney thrives on being disagreeable, which she is the first to tell you. She sours on people quickly too (like Lana Del Rey) and if you read her past interviews closely, has spilled some dark secrets about others.
The new interview in The Standard is making headlines because of the Taylor Swift comments (“Taylor is not important. She might be a safe space for girls, and she’s probably the Madonna of now, but she’s not interesting as an artist.”) Now usually when an artist utters a not-completely-effusive comment about Taylor Swift, I would say they are in danger. But the Swifties have nothing on Courtney Love. She would eat them right up. This is a woman who has, for years, been accused of killing her husband who died by suicide. She’s not scared of accounts named after Taylor’s cats. And even Taylor, who loves a fight, will let this slide. Taylor doesn’t want this smoke. You can’t go after someone as internally complex as Courtney; Instagram comments will not permeate her hard shell.
Keith McNally is a restaurateur in New York (he owns hotspots like Balthazar, Pastis, Morandi and Minetta Tavern) with a lot of spicy opinions and he posted this about Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez. Chrissy Teigen and Jessica Seinfeld jumped into the comments to defend her, as did many others, who called Lauren accomplished and kind. This shows an interesting dynamic because Lauren is a real person and being a billionaire (or married to one) doesn’t mean she has no feelings. She’s human and so is Jeff. But many people find their obscene wealth immoral, harmful, and obscene; “eat the rich” and “first to the guillotine” come to mind. So why does calling them smug and ugly inspire such defense, particularly of Lauren? There’s a debate in the comments and Keith is doubling down, asserting that they are ugly on the inside. I still don’t understand why Chrissy Teigen feels compelled to get involved in these situations.
