I follow Laura Prepon on Instagram and vaguely knew she was married to Ben Foster, but now they are getting divorced. And her Instagram keeps on ticking. 

 

The benefit of never really saying you’re married online is that you don’t need to acknowledge a divorce. 

 

When SMA was revealed last night I chuckled because I knew social media would be in shambles today. That’s great for me. So far, this is my favourite tweet. Simple. Elegant, really. 

 

I might have missed this last week, if so apologies to Lainey and Sarah. But WOWZA. This is a Vogue cover. Kaia Gerber’s career evolution is interesting as she transitions to acting, something her mom couldn’t do (and many of the supers tried!). Kaia is gaining momentum in that area. But you know what my favourite thing about her is? The way she’s run with the joke where she begs to be Ayo Edebiri’s friend. They are really good friends but I appreciate her commitment to the bit.

 

Here’s a little tidbit from the podcast world:  Monica Padma (who cohosts Armchair Experts) and Liz Plank (who cohosted a podcast with Justin Baldoni, then supported Blake Lively during the It Ends With Us press cycle, but also has a clip with Justin pinned to the top of her feed) had a podcast called Synced, which they abruptly ended. After skipping episodes, they released a generic Instagram statement and turned off comments, which is the antithesis of the podcast community they built. This is what pinged me – if the brand is all about openness and dialogue, why are you turning off comments? They have a left a lot of very loyal fans wondering what happened. 

Am I the only one agog at the news that Hugh Jackman left his wife for Sutton Foster? It’s very different from Hugh’s stellar reputation as a movie star (apparently he’s a delight to work with) and as someone in a solid marriage. And I think the source is interesting as well; as Lainey has pointed out, US Weekly has made moves to re-legitimize its reporting (read the details here) and the way they reported this story rings true to me. It’s not wildly salacious, but it’s been a slow and steady build, which makes me think they held this cover until their sources were rock solid. It’s also a story that PEOPLE would not run, lest they piss off his team. 

 

In the gossip system, we need something like US Weekly to run the stories that PEOPLE won’t, but with the standards of reporting that TikTok doesn’t have. It’s a piece that’s been missing for a long time. 

 

You know who has had a surge of popularity on Instagram? The Food Babe. And she’s well-supported by Will Cole, a doctor… of chiropractic. He has a lot of letters after his name, but no medical degree. He’s Gwyneth Paltrow’s go-to for medical information on Goop. The Food Babe is an RFK Jr. fan and appears on Newsmax. Personalities like this thrive with the help of celebrities; look at her likes and comments, it’s full of blue checks. And this isn’t just about cereal, but that is an effective, no-brainer cause to hook people. This is about people who define themselves as medical experts with no medical degrees. In her feed, she posted a headline from the Epoch Times, which is defined as a far-right publication and also posted a video of Will Cole lambasting journalists for being untrustworthy. This is who celebrities are gassing up and I suspect that as disinformation and distrust continue to grow, it will create an even bigger space for these wellness types. It’s not exactly a new phenomenon – NPR wrote about her 10 years ago.

Photo credits: BauerGriffin/ INSTARimages.com/ Cover Images/ Instar Images

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