It’s a holiday for my people so we’re keeping it light today but not light in this post because here’s where I’m also including quick hits on some of the gossip from the long weekend. We call it Asian efficiency.

Efficient, however, is not how I would describe Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc trying to speak Mandarin and offer Lunar New Year well wishes. China is one of the fastest growing markets for F1, audience interest is exploding, so it makes sense that the teams and drivers are catering to that demo. 

I can see why Ferrari is particularly invested this year though because their logo is a horse. And it’s the Year of the Horse. Fire Horse, actually. Ferrari Red and a Fire Horse… will it be lucky or will it overheat? The prognosticators are cautioning that Horses don’t want to dial it up too much this year. When will professional sports teams start bringing in proper feng shui masters to help them with their strategies and team designs?

Actually, I’ve been wondering whether or not Ferrari’s already done that because you’ll note, this year’s car design has more white… almost as if to balance all that red. And that’s an exclusive, original LaineyGossip analysis! Check back in nine months to see if it worked.

Lunar New Year is a time for family reunions, and the Kpop Demon Hunters family gathered to celebrate – and campaign for Oscars. All six Huntr/x voices have been brought together for a special Variety feature: EJAE, Arden Cho, Audrey Nuna, May Hong, Rei Ami, and Ji-young Yoo. I just cried seeing this. They look like angels on the cover.

And then there’s Yerin Ha, Bridgerton’s current leading lady, who started promotion for the first half of season four and is still on promotion for the second half, dropping on Netflix next Thursday. Here she is teaching her co-stars how to say Happy Lunar New Year in Korean.

As expected, the new season of Bridgerton is performing well for Netflix but, right now, the Winter Olympics are doing huge numbers for Peacock. And women’s figure skating, traditionally one of the most popular events, starts today. Taylor Swift has made a cameo.

Speaking of Olympics though… could anyone have predicted that the biggest beef and scandal of these Winter Games would have come from curling? I’m Canadian but I’m not sorry about the comedy that the finger-poking controversy has inspired. This went viral the other day, credit to the original creator because the IOC pulled down the video, although it lives on everywhere else. LOL FOREVER.

It was announced late last week that Ryan Gosling will be hosting Saturday Night Live for the fourth time on March 7. Ryan has become an SNL favourite, every time he shows up at 8H it results in a classic sketch. Here’s an incomplete list: “Papyrus”, “Close Encounter”, “Santa and the Elves”, and of course most recently, “Beavis and Butt-Head”. It was Ryan and Mikey Day in that sketch and, already, he and Mikey have filmed a promo, which feels like one of the earliest promos ever for an SNL host – three weeks!

I like the creativity we’re seeing from the marketing team behind Project Hail Mary. And I like too that Ryan Gosling in his 40s is having so fun – and being so silly – while promoting his movies. Also, just a note on Mikey Day, I interviewed him last summer in Montreal at Just For Laughs and he was lovely and humble and nice, SO nice. So I’m rooting for him, always…although remembering that Beavis and Butt-Head sketch really makes me miss Heidi Gardner. Let’s watch it again.

Because it’s already tomorrow in Korea…

Happy Birthday j-hope! Hobi is now 32 years old and he’s celebrating with his BTS bandmates since, as we know, the comeback is imminent. BTS’s official IG posted this to stories…

Big Hit's birthday post for j-hope

ARMY is now locked onto this in the corner:

Does it mean something or are we clowning?

And finally, even though I typically end on BTS when I take over Celebrity Social Media, there’s a video that showed up in my feed today that I’ve never actually seen before. This is for all the olds out there who remember Teresa Teng and … John Ritter?

A crossover I did not know I needed today.

Photo credits: Dan Doperalski for Variety

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