Celebrity Social Media, October 7, 2024

Pickles are the new “it” food, we have talked about this. Who is going to be the first celebrity to start a pickle line? Here’s Dua Lipa with a Diet Coke/pickle juice/jalapeno mixer I would absolutely try. 

@dualipaofficial

What do we call her?

♬ original sound - Dua Lipa

Since reaching a plea deal in his DWI case, Justin Timberlake has continued with the tour (what tour? The world tour) and it’s been pretty quiet, which is the best he could hope for. There’s been another serious celebrity case that has pushed him out of the spotlight. Page Six is still pounding the pavement, writing up an odd story about interior designer Estee Stanley being with Justin the night he was arrested. The story really leans into their relationship (she’s a longtime friend of their family) and reading it, it seems like they are implying something. But then it is briefly noted that Estee’s husband was also there. So it’s nothing trying to be turned into something.

In 2021, journalist Tressie McMillan Cottom profiled Sean Combs for his Love rebrand and the story was a little padded because there was no cracking the veneer – the shallowness then became the story. Who was Diddy, beyond the platitudes? There’s no answer beyond his ego. 

I thought about that story recently and was interested to see Cottom’s interview with The Independent in which she talks about her impression of him, revealing that his team was “aggressive” (and remember, she is a veteran reporter working with legacy media, they deal with celebrity teams all the time) and describing his self-image as “bizarre”.

With cases like Diddy, we do need to put our pop culture thinking caps on because on social media, people cannot wait to exploit this kind of story to drum up attention for themselves. It’s crass and victim-shaming, like a particular lawyer who is jumping around to any “media” outlet that will have her talking about screenshot and videos being shopped around of “A-listers.” But she has admitted she hasn’t seen much of anything herself. What kind of lawyer trades in hearsay and admits to viewing explicit content of a possible child? Diddy is being charged by the US Attorney for SDNY, which has enormous resources and a conviction rate that is over 95%. They are not leaking evidence to an ambulance chaser. Craig Jenkins covers this in a much smarter way in Diddy Conspiracy Theories Have Lost the Plot in Vulture.

In last Friday’s The Squawk, Lainey had a great answer to the question of Beyoncé’s brand building: her launches are exciting, but not everything she touches is instantly successful. She has had a few that haven’t amounted to a hit that we probably don’t remember, including 22 Days Nutrition and Saint Supply oil. Ivy Park switched from Topshop to Adidas and the buzz subsided very quickly; it is nowhere near athleisure lines like Alo Yoga or SKIMS (love it or hate it, that is the truth). The Tiffany campaign had a mixed reception, too. In terms of business, I’d actually relate Beyonce to JLo as they both work on a lot of products but not everything lands. But the volume and execution is impressive: Cécred, Levi’s and SirDavis just this year, each with a very specific brand aesthetic.