Madonna is always going to see herself as an underdog because for many years she was, and maybe that never goes away. She’s working on a new photo book and some people are upset with the second picture in which Steven Klein is holding a knife to her. That’s Madonna being a provocateur (even though Lindsay Lohan and Vanessa Minnillo did it first) but what I’m finding egregious is the caption – people worked on this project for free???? To “support Madame X.” No, Madame X is a character that Madonna, a very wealthy woman, created. Her projects should always have budget and people should be paid in actual dollars, not exposure or prestige. An Instagram photo isn’t paying anyone’s rent.
Jean Smart has just started posting on Instagram this week and she understands the medium because she’s already posted about Harry Styles. Where are the meet and greet photos.
Andrew Garfield’s absolute delight over the Cobra Kai cast is very cute. This is why Cameo is such a successful business model – who doesn’t want a video shoutout from their favourite TV actor? Even A-listers love it.
Dua Lipa is launching a lifestyle brand called Service95 (she was born in 1995) that will be a podcast and newsletter. She tells Vogue it’s “style, culture and society concierge service” because she likes to compile lists of where she likes to stay, eat, visit etc. Celebrities have long positioned themselves as lifestyle experts because they conflate access with good taste. Making recommendations is only one slice of lifestyle. Good taste is important, but so is the nitty gritty stuff like creating consistent content, following an editorial calendar, and building a voice and audience trust. It takes patience and money to do it properly. She’s also in a good position to start building that: not many people launch a company with 75 million followers.
This is something I meant to write about earlier in the week but held off to see if anything more developed: Christina Aguilera was at the Latin Grammys and was asked about Britney Spears and she made a sympathetic face and was pulled away by her team as she said, “But I’m happy for her.” Britney took to Instagram and seemed fired up about Christina not answering the question. Christina supported Britney on Twitter in July of 2021, so I’m very confused as to why – now that she’s free – Christina shied away from the question. Why? I suspect it was a team decision and she didn’t want to get into it on the red carpet and her team had a plan to shut it down but the shutting it down is way more of a story than her saying, “I’m thrilled for her and wish her all the best.” That seems like an easier solution than whatever happened here.