Dear Gossips,   

Have you seen Fire Island yet? It’s my current favourite rom-com, the one I’ve been watching on repeat for days. And it’s exactly the kind of story that proves the point that what’s specific is universal. Romantic tropes will work no matter if they’re set in Hertfordshire or on Fire Island. Adversaries to lovers is always going to work for me whether it’s Lizzie and Darcy or Noah and Will. And when the Mr Wickham character shows up, you’ll always know exactly who he’s supposed to be. The minute Dex was onscreen, played by Zane Phillips, there was no question he’d be the Wickham. He had the Wickham look about him. 

 

And one of the most relatable scenes in the film, no matter who you love and who loves you back? For those of us who play Heads Up, it’s this one, a total screamer: 

LOL forever. In my life, Jacek is the one being yelled at by anyone with the misfortune of being on his team. Especially Duana! 

So much admiration and gratitude to Joel Kim Booster for conceiving of this idea, writing the script, producing the movie, and playing Noah aka Lizzie. He was recently on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and talked about the genesis of the film – it was actually when he went to Fire Island with Bowen Yang and brought Pride & Prejudice with him and from there, over a period of a few years, he ended up developing the story into what we’re watching now (in my case repeatedly). 

 

To be clear, Fire Island, both the place and the movie, is not for me. But it doesn’t have to be for me to appreciate it, be entertained by it, and add to my list of rom-coms that I will come back to over and over again. Fire Island is an instant classic. 

As for Bowen, he was on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon the other night talking about how Dua Lipa owes him a matching tattoo, starting his story by saying that dark-haired women with middle parts are always drawn to him. CONFIRMED. I have dark hair and exclusively wear it in a middle part and if I ran into Bowen Yang I would lose my f-cking sh-t. 

Here he is at the Tony Awards on Sunday night. 

Yours in gossip,

Lainey