As I not-so-patiently wait for Never Have I Ever’s third season (or at least a trailer!), I am following Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, glowing at the Vanity Fair party, and the rest of the cast movements like it’s my job. 

 

It feels like I haven’t written one of these columns in weeks but really it’s only been a few days. But A LOT has happened in a few days. I’m not here to analyse The Slap. Obviously this whole thing has taken over social media and the best of the tweets were right after it happened and since then, things have devolved. It’s like the comments section of an article – the best got there early and the rest are bad-faith hot takes and a lot of whataboutism. (Sarah’s nuanced and mature analysis is here.) So with that, here's Patton Oswalt with possibly the most innocent take of all on Sunday night. It’s a solid joke structure. 

 

But I will be messy for one minute and bring up Jon Bernthal, who co-starred in King Richard and did quite a bit of press for the film, including some extensive print interviews. He was not at the Oscars (not invited, I’m assuming) and I haven’t seen any photos of him at the pre- or post-Oscar parties. I’ve read a few of his interviews (like this one in THR) and Jon speaks very highly of the Williams family, the real-life character he played, the director, and his co-stars Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton but he doesn’t mention Will. At all. Just an interesting thing to not mention the star of the film who was (at the time) campaigning for an Oscar. 

 

One thing I do want to take ABC/the Oscars to task for is who they didn’t invite – the cast of Abbott Elementary! ABC usually has some of its top stars present (Sofia Vergara in previous years comes to mind) so where was the breakout cast of the best new sitcom on TV? Quinta Brunson was at the Vanity Fair party, as she should be. 

Nick Lachey is lucky the Oscars were so chaotic because he also had a bizarre physical interaction with a photographer and has issued an apology. Oh and I guess he and Vanessa are now the Netflix dating show go-to hosts? Not knocking them, that seems like a very sweet gig. (Vanessa also stars on NCIS: Hawai’i.)

 

There’s something else I did want to talk about and that’s Taylor Hawkins, a legendary and much-loved rock star. It’s a tragedy for his family, friends, band, and team and the coverage has been bringing me back to early-2000s media in the worst way – and we are supposed to be doing better, aren’t we? It’s been pretty gross as many outlets (not just the UK tabloids, but US publications like PEOPLE) have been reporting on stuff they usually would at least pretend to have some tact about. (First responder accounts were tipped to a journalist, who tweeted about the cause of death very quickly.) The whole thing seems much more sensationalized and exploitive than usual, without even the veil of pretending his family and friends deserve privacy. Showing up at the airport to see Dave Grohl and Pat Smear and the rest of the band getting off the airplane? I can’t fathom who wants to see those photos.