Zendaya is in the midst of a busy year. She has nothing slated to be released in 2025, but she’s working non-stop, which means 2026 will be busy, too, as she has to do press for everything she’s making this year (same goes for Tom Holland). Here she is on set for Euphoria season three, which is one of the projects slated for next year. I am not as big on Euphoria as some—it’s adult panic about The Kids, who are probably doing better than us as a cohort, frankly—but I am curious to see what shape season three takes after the long hiatus.
But this is not my only question for Zendaya. Law Roach recently said she’ll probably wear a wedding dress “nobody will ever see”. Zendaya (and Tom Holland) lives enough of her life in the public eye that I genuinely hope she can keep her wedding to herself. I like to look at celebrity weddings the same way I like to look at regular rich people weddings—when you have an unlimited budget, what choices do you make? How many flowers and what type? Do you do multiple dress changes? Did you splurge on food? It’s amazing how many people don’t spend on food!
Anyway, I hope Zendaya can have a private wedding, but…I’d still like to see her dress. Come on, she’s one of the most stylish young women in the world right now, we ALL want to see the dress. My hope is she has a private wedding and then the dress pops up in a museum somewhere. Sort of like how Nicole Kidman put her wedding dress on display in a museum in Australia a few years ago. Although, and I am still mad about this, good photos of the dress never emerged. How! It’s one of the BEST celebrity wedding dresses of all time and no one bothered to put hi-res images online! I will die mad.
What else happened today…
Is the Daily Mail using the same playbook against Nicola Peltz-Beckham that they run against Meghan Sussex? They’re definitely vilifying her in the Beckham family drama. (Celebitchy)
As the host of The Traitors, Alan Cumming is having a moment. He also just hosted the BAFTA TV Awards, which means multiple outfit changes. Behold, a man of style and taste. I have always loved Alan Cumming because of Romy & Michele, I am so glad to see him thriving. (Go Fug Yourself)
The final episodes of Andor drop tonight. I’m writing about it, but so far my draft hasn’t taken me into this territory—a certain kind of Star Wars fan is having a really hard time parsing Andor because they simply will not accept what it is about and the real-world situations it directly addresses. Chiefly, Andor is anti-fascist, pro-refugee, and through the character of imperial wanna-be Syril Karn, it depicts the downward spiral of a power-hungry twerp who can’t see the forest for the trees when it comes to his space Nazi overlords, which includes his space Nazi girlfriend (the forest: fascists doing fascism, the trees: Cassian Andor).
Season one Syril was laughingly called an incel, but in season two, those fans who cannot get a grip on this show are cheering Syril on through an episode of domestic violence. Some spoilers here, but Mike Redmond gets into Syril and his breakdown and how male fans are misreading Syril’s motivations and actions, all because they refuse to see that Syril’s power fantasies led him down a dark path that directly resulted in his failure and death. Syril isn’t misunderstood, he’s not an anti-hero, he’s a cautionary tale, but the people who most need his warning message refuse to hear it. (Pajiba)
Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal is back for season two, which features a fake singing competition designed to allow aviators to work on their communication skills. The singing show is called “Wings of Voice”, and there’s just one problem: the contestants didn’t know it was fake. They thought they were getting a real opportunity to audition for a real singing competition, which could lead to a real break in the music industry. One such contestant, Lana Love, broke her NDA to talk to Variety about the experience, which cost her thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket expenses and lost revenue.
Nathan Fielder is a very cerebral comedian, The Rehearsal is funny, but Love’s story shows the cost of Fielder’s elaborate bits. It would be one thing if the participants on “Wings of Voice” were told it was fake, but that probably would have meant paying them as actors on the show. By staging a fake competition, they were able to use non-union contracts, common for singing competition shows, and avoid paying participants. Instead, people spent a ton of money flying to multiple rounds of auditions for a show people wanted to believe in so badly that even when Love started spreading the word it was fake, many people didn’t care, still hoping someone might see them in the background of The Rehearsal and that would be their break.
It's predatory. It’s taking advantage of people’s dreams to do a bit. I generally like Nathan Fielder but in this, he owes everyone an apology. (Variety)
