We know Sydney Sweeney is not a nepo baby and Maude Apatow is a classic nepo baby (she told Net-a-Porter that the label makes her “sad” but she realizes how lucky she is). Do you think that conversation ever comes up, maybe not on set but on a work trip? Or is it just an underlying thing no one talks about? I saw a tweet on nepo babies that I think hit the nail on the head and of course I can’t find it now, but the gist is that we actually love nepo babies who lean into the family business side, like Liza Minelli, Jamie Lee Curtis and Drew Barrymore. The performers view themselves as part of a legacy that they are privileged to continue. It’s the ones who say they have to “work harder” that make us eye roll.

 

Even those of us who don’t follow the British royals closely can’t escape the big news. The somberness of what is being shown on TV and more old-school media sites is, um, not what’s happening on Twitter.  

Lainey posted about Brad Pitt and Ana de Armas today and Daily Mail wrote about them together – how long until a tabloid tries to float this pairing? Ana de Armas was one of the best gossip stories of COVID lockdown, not just because of Ben Affleck but because she blocked her fan account, Ana de Armas Updates. But there’s an update on Updates!

 

Kate Hudson, who vacationed with a capital V this summer, jokes that she almost ended her engagement over a hike. Kate Hudson is super fit and seems game for anything, so I can’t imagine how hard this hike was. And they got lost. “Honey the hike was on another level” in the post-rage calm voice is very relatable.

 

Another summer nearly gone, another year of celebrities returning from their vacations in Italy and posting “take me back” photos. (Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel are the outliers still in Tuscany). 

The Vanity Fair profile on Olivia Wilde is a lot to unpack no matter which side you fall on the Don’t Worry Darling feud (which is clearly happening, despite Olivia’s insistence that it is not happening). What I find semi-insulting about her press run is that she insists that the “baseless rumours” about the film boil down to sexism, which is a tidy narrative. But it is quite obvious something went down on a personal and professional level. And the denial of what is clearly a Cold War makes me think Olivia is an unreliable narrator (at best) or manipulating the situation by using feminism and “women supporting women” as a shield against criticism of her work (at worst). 

 

Directors and actors sometimes clash and have conflict, that can be part of the process and sometimes it makes for a great (or greatly regarded) film like Mad Max: Fury Road and The Revenant. Creating something can get messy and complicated. It’s Olivia’s insistence that the collective “we” (everyone talking about this on the Internet) is the problem that feels very condescending. On the flip side, she’s trying to protect her reputation and her project, which is exactly what any director in her position would do. No one want to see months of their work to become a Twitter punchline.