Zac Posen had to fold his fashion line in 2019 after an unsuccessful attempt to secure an investor group (the big names that come to mind are Kering and LVMH). There are very few independent fashion houses left: Chanel, Prada, Etro and Ferragamo are still standing without being swallowed by a conglomerate. But back to Zac: he’s engaged to Harrison Ball (a designer and a principal dancer for the New York City Ballet, very chic) and it dovetails nicely with Zac’s line of gender-inclusive wedding rings. 

 

He used to design wedding dresses but his main focus was the red carpet and his strongest relationship was with Katie Holmes. Right now, his career is a question mark as the license to his name was secured in 2020 by a company called Centric Brands and is now being developed for Neiman Marcus, but he has no involvement. How does that happen? My guess is that he lost control of the original holding company, Z Spoke, LLC and it was sold off to the highest bidder. Which means this company can now slap his name on products that fall within the category license (shoes, handbags, sunglasses). For such a fastidious and talented designer, that must be hard. 

Peacock’s streaming service still confuses me but a “dark comedic thriller” and Kaley Cuoco makes sense. I wonder if this means The Flight Attendant is done? Season two was really muddled and it could also be a casualty of the HBO Max cuts.

 

Taylor Kitsch is in The Terminal List and because Chris Pratt gets so much attention, I missed it until I saw a press junket interview on Twitter. He’s working, which is great, but it’s an interesting career path. Not everyone can be a movie star but what exactly happened with Taylor Kitsch? I guess the same thing that happened to Kit Harrington or Aaron Paul. A hit TV show (FNL was a hit with critics but not as widely watched as Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad) and a push as a “leading man” in a big budget film (John Carter for Kitsch, Pompeii for Harrington, Need for Speed for Paul). Everyone wants to be the next George Clooney but it’s still very rare to make that jump successfully.

 

And the “leading man” lessons are never really learned and we can see the cycle starting again with a new generation of actors. Jacob Elordi is a leading man? Where is this lead? Euphoria is an ensemble show and Zendaya is the star. Most of the cast has had breakout moments. He is part of that, but Gen Z’s leading man? That’s what people said about Noah Centineo two years ago. And in six months they’ll be saying it about someone we haven’t even heard of yet. Welcome to Hollywood. 

 

There are so many great tributes to Olivia Newton-John and the one that really got me is the sign-off from John Travolta.