There’s a new story by Tavi Gevinson in The Cut that goes deep on the Britney Spears pre-conservatorship era and image. Tavi’s essay is complex and uncomfortable and doesn’t let the audience off the hook, it doesn’t place blame squarely at the feet of one person or one industry. This section, in which Tavi asks her friend about the early Britney era, particularly struck me: “Laia was a teenager in the “Baby One More Time” era and said she didn’t understand why the doc was rewriting Spears as a feminist icon. “She was the Establishment! She was what we were supposed to be: sexy and young. Not a paragon of independence.” I was 19 when “…Baby One More Time” came out and I remember it more like Laia does. I don’t ever remember the criticism around her being that she was too independent or too empowered.

 

One more thing on it, because it’s such an interesting piece. Tavi deconstructs Britney’s Rolling Stone shoot by David LaChapelle. It reminded me that Britney and Beyoncé are the same age and when Beyoncé was 21, she walked out on a shoot with Dave (this is well documented – there is still a story up on PEOPLE from 2003). What made Beyonce able to walk away from set? As a Black woman, she probably had to be very protective of her image, and was well aware of that. And I wonder if the support of the people around her, like her parents, helped her feel confident in following her gut. At the time, Beyoncé still gave interviews and she said this was a common practice, male photographers testing her boundaries. Of course we will probably never know, but how did she prepare for that? Because David LaChapelle was a famous photographer and saying no to him, with a bunch of people standing around ready to shoot, would take a lot of strength. She went in knowing what she wasn’t willing to do for a cover. That kind of preparation is so important, as is the support afterwards of the team. If Britney had said no to Rolling Stone in 1999, who would have backed her up?

 

Lainey and I both hate raisins and gin-soaked raisins sound terrible to me, but a 105-year-old woman credits them for helping her survive COVID. (My mom used to eat them, I’m going to tell her to start doing it again.) Ryan Reynolds is definitely sending Lucia a case of Aviation Gin. 

Elle King is Rob Schneider’s daughter and I can’t believe we don’t talk about this more. 

 

An OC reunion. This show is ripe for a reboot I think. 

Yesterday Lainey posted a story from Pajiba about the You’ve Got Mail ending and it has f-cked me up. I clearly remember Meg Ryan reading a story at the end in corner of Fox Books made to look like The Shop Around The Corner. I’ve spoken to several people who remember it the same way, both in person and on Twitter. I also read the Reddit threads. Are we all wrong? I’m so confused!

 

George Clooney’s 2013 W Magazine art issue cover was an instant classic (you know the one, the black-and-white polka dot suit against the polka dot background) and in 2021, they’ve done it again. This time it’s Clooney as the quintessential dad.