Doja Cat is having a not-great time on tour in South America as her concert in Paraguay was cancelled because of terrible storms and flooding and then she went on to Brazil and wasn’t happy with her performance, which she tweeted about. That made her fans in Paraguay feel unacknowledged and a Twitter back-and-forth ensued, with accusations of her not showing enough care and consideration for her fans (ie: not greeting them outside the hotel) and Doja saying she was in a rushed, difficult situation. The fandom is demanding an apology and comparing Doja to artists like Miley Cyrus, while Doja is digging in and tweeted (then deleted) being done with the industry. 

 

Madonna is a fascinating pop culture figure because she’s a mix of trailblazer, nostalgia (the soundtrack to Gen X youth as much as Nirvana, Prince, Tupac and Biggie) but unlike most performers from the 90s/early 2000s, she is still actively working on music and fighting against what she sees as misogyny in the way she is viewed as an artist. There’s a lot to say about Madonna but there’s nothing to say about NFTs: they are a scammy and disreputable and the fact that she’s getting into them now is cringe. 

 

As Lainey has said, celebrity friendships are just as interesting as romantic relationships, sometimes even more so. SJP’s birthday got me thinking about her famous friendships – she and Amy Sedaris go way back (and I hope they find room for Amy in the second season of And Just Like That… as she played Carrie’s book publicist on Sex and the City). They are also tight with Justin Theroux, and were close with Philip Seymour Hoffman. SJP and Matthew are also longtime friends of J. Cameron Smith and Kenneth Lonergan, hang with GP in the Hamptons, vacation with John Benjamin Hinckey, mix with the Seinfelds. She could probably write a great memoir about her career and life in NYC but that doesn’t seem her speed. She’s not super private (and actually quite open in interviews) but she doesn’t dish. She’s far too polite for that. Or she saves it for Andy Cohen. 

 

This Carolina Herrera dress has made two appearances this week on Drew Barrymore and Shonda Rhimes. It’s a very distinct dress and I can see why stylists would pull this for a red carpet, so I wonder if it will make a three-peat at the Oscars.

 

Adrien Brody told an interesting anecdote about Jack Nicholson asking the 2003 Best Actor nominees to boycott the ceremony because of the invasion of Iraq. Adrien declined and as a young actor, that makes sense: it’s a monumental thing to be a nominated and it was a very weird, tense time. Jack showed up too. As for Adrien today: it feels like he’s on a bit of comeback streak. He had lull in his career but his appearance on Succession was pretty invigorating for him and he’s currently on Winning Time as Pat Riley. (He also did a season of Peaky Blinders.) The way the industry is set up right now, one good episode on a hit TV show is just as helpful to one’s profile as a buzzy movie.