Mailbag for September 20, 2024
Sabrina Carpenter is not TikTok, Katy Perry advice, Joshua Jackson is a network lead, Oscar real estate, why the sparkly leotard, from Covenant House to gossip, Kaia Gerber in person, and more...
Dear Squawkers,
If you had asked me a year ago what I thought of Sabrina Carpenter, I would have said… I don’t, not really. There was no shade to my lack of interest, I just hadn’t yet seen the full range of her potential as a Celebrity and a Popstar.
But what a difference a year makes. And I’m not just talking about the music, the hit songs (they are very good), or the way she’s played the gossip ecosystem to her advantage. This is about overall brand strategy, how she has and is continuing to manage her celebrity brand so that it feels fresh, unique, and distinguishable at time when so many pop girlies are ruling the world.
For starters, there’s her look. Though her marketing methods are modern, and her lyrics, too, Sabrina has intentionally styled herself in this phase of her career as a throwback, a pinup bombshell from five or six decades ago, closer to Dolly Parton than Dua Lipa. Which, by the way, makes her look older than she is – and that, too, is smart. Because even though she’s Gen Z, in her image she’s not instantly identifiable to that demographic, so in that sense, she’s more tangible to Millennials and even Gen X bitches like me.
But there are layers and layers to how her appearance is an asset. Sabrina and Netflix made this announcement yesterday:
A Christmas variety special?! Variety specials are… not TikTok. The holiday variety show is the ghost of television’s Christmas past. They’re from her parents’ time, and before. And yet, here she is, all of 25 years old, putting together “A Nonsense Christmas” – a clever title, playing off her own song, “Nonsense”, which was a viral hit on TikTok two years ago, and the whole idea of a variety show in the first place, the silliness that often characterises this television tradition, and the fact that two days ago it was nonsense to even think that a person of her generation would be into a Christmas variety special… but here we are! And it’s actually not nonsense at all because it totally fits into the brand that she’s been building. Sabrina comes from Disney TV, from a world where television professionals made television specials. There is pedigree here. But also make it young and irreverent. I love this for her. And I fucking respect this from her. To go back to my earlier point, this is exactly the kind of project that distinguishes her from her peers.
Sabrina Carpenter is showing her work. Unlike, um, Katy Perry. On that note…
Time for questions!
Question from Julieta:
I would love to hear what Lainey thinks Katy Perry’s next move should be! I feel like the classic advice would be something like “be a judge on American Idol” or “Vegas residency,” but she’s already done both of those. Can she recover from her flop era, assuming she still wants to be a pop star? If you were on her team, what would you suggest?
Lainey’s Answer:
In the August 16 mailbag Sarah’s answer to this question was “go back to American Idol” and “stay on vacation”. A month later, does that still hold? Or… like… should we get rid of the “go back to American Idol” part and just stick with the vacation? Would anyone even want her on American Idol anymore after all this flopping?!
Even her Video Vanguard Award moment at the VMAs last week was a bust – and you know why? Because they also gave out an award that night for the “VMAs Most Iconic Performance”. Like of all time, all the VMAs ever. And the nominees were:
-Beyoncé, “Love On Top”, performing with Blue Ivy in her womb
-Lady Gaga, “Paparazzi”
-Madonna, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Missy Elliott, “Like A Virgin/Hollywood”
-Madonna, “Like A Virgin”
Plus, two other performances… but I’ve just listed FOUR ALL TIME POP CULTURE MUSEUM MOMENTS that are seared into your brain. Madonna in a fucking wedding dress writhing around on that stage, it basically MADE the fucking VMAs into what they would become…
But do you remember Katy Perry doing “Roar” at the VMAs?! I don’t and it’s my goddamn job. So how in fuck did she end up winning that award?!
Fraud.
It was a fraud. The viewers all knew it was a fraud. Her own fans probably thought it was a fraud. And it was called out online – because it just made the VMAs even more of a joke and, worse for Katy, it made HER more of a joke. Just before the release of her album.
Was it entirely her fault? Not entirely. Could she have done anything about it? Well, if she was already getting the Vanguard, she could have told MTV to stand down with the other award – for self preservation, if not integrity. Because if she or the people around her knew what they were doing and made decisions with any shred of awareness, they would have seen what everyone else saw, which is that Katy was well behind in the voting… and this is not a surprise! There are TWO Madonnas, a Beyoncé, and a Lady Gaga on that list. In what fucking world would Katy Perry even register?!
So it was yet another bad look, after a whole summer of bad looks, which took away from what actually isn’t a bad song. Have you heard “I’M HIS, HE’S MINE” feat Doechii? I mean, it’s Doechii who makes it better and it’s not like it’s a banger but it’s definitely better than the trash that had been out up to that point from her album. But it didn’t make much of an impression because nobody wants to fuck with Katy right now.
And that’s my next and final question…
The track with Doechii is far superior to “Woman’s World”. And that could mean that there might be a couple of other tracks on the album that are far superior. Who are the geniuses who decided that “Woman’s World” should be the lead single to define the album? There are other artists who’ve done this, of course, the biggest being Taylor Swift, who often kicks off an album cycle with the worst song on the album (“Shake It Off”, “Look What You Made Me Do”, “ME!”, you get the idea) but, LOL, let’s not pretend Taylor Swift and Katy Perry are on the same level.
What we’ve just seen, then, is Katy’s overestimation of herself. And I’m not trying to say that a person shouldn’t believe in her own work, but that belief should also be accompanied by awareness – not unlike what Katy saw for years as a judge on American Idol. Not everyone who believes they’re a singer is aware that they in fact will never be a singer. And not every popstar who believes she’s still at the top of her game is aware that, in fact, she left the top of the game a while ago.
So to go back to your question, if I were on her team, what would I suggest? I would suggest that they fire themselves. Seeing as that won’t happen, I would suggest a reset for everyone. Do some reading. Do a lot more listening. To people who’ll actually tell you what’s real.
Question from Pankie:
Has Joshua Jackson entered the chat for the next Sexiest Man Alive? His choice to do Dr Odyssey is a move to network TV, he's beloved, he has the name recognition, he's done prestige, and he seems like he'd go all in and be game for the crown and sash. (P.S. I hope the show is as delightfully cheesy 80s throwback nighttime soap-y as it looks like. (Which I think ABC basically invented, no?))
Related question from Sara S:
I’m a Joshua Jackson stan! I want better for him than Dr. Odyssey. I also think he doesn’t get enough credit for playing supporting characters who let women shine. I loved Anne Helen Peterson’s breakdown of actors who love women in her Glen Powell piece, and I think he checks that box. I was so sad things didn’t work out with Jodie. ABC only wants to make procedurals now. It feels like they’re chasing a CBS audience and abandoning the types of shows that made them (Grey’s, Desperate Housewives). I heard the reason for the creative overhaul on High Potential was because they wanted less serialized storytelling/less humor and more of a straight procedural. For Joshua Jackson’s sake, I hope Dr. O (which is what I’m going to call it from now on) is good :) Also, is he still with Lupita?
Lainey’s Answer:
Last time I checked, yes, he and Lupita were still together. That was at the beginning of September so it’s possible things could have changed.
As for High Potential, that show actually has some potential, on the strength of Kaitlin Olson. Pilots are always bumpy and new series need a few episodes to find their footing. I wouldn’t write it off just yet. And I wouldn’t write off ABC either. Remember, ABC gave us Abbott Elementary, so I don’t know that they’re chasing the CBS audience. I think they’re trying to do with Odyssey what they did with Grey’s – which is SEXY. And by sexy, I mean network television sexy and not HBO sexy, although HBO sexy is becoming darker and sadder and actually kinda mean. As Pankie said in her question, there is a “delightfully cheesy” tone about Odyssey in the promo spots we’ve seen, and I’m kinda of into it. Love Boat and Fantasy Island vibes. If everyone buys into the fact that that’s the sort of show they’re making, I think it could work. Because I think people miss that kind of TV! It’s all so… doomsy gloomsy these days. This might also be why people love to hate to love Emily in Paris. And now, also, The Perfect Couple.
Does this mean that Joshua Jackson’s in the running for Sexiest Man Alive? Sure. I think his chances now are better than they’ve ever been. But Sara brought up Grey’s Anatomy, and you remember what happened to Patrick Dempsey aka Dr McDreamy, right? They made him wait 20 years! He’s the reigning SMA! So if history teaches us anything… Joshua might have to wait, too. And Glen Powell is probably the more obvious candidate right now.
To Sara’s point about wanting better for Josh than Odyssey? Someone in the chat mentioned that he did an interview recently and talked about how this was a parenting choice because being on this show means he doesn’t have to travel much. But also, I think we all need to refresh our attitudes about network television and what it means in terms of success or prestige.
I haven’t listened to Smartless in a while but during the first two seasons of that podcast, Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett talked wistfully all the time about network jobs. That’s the fucking dream for so many actors. Even though it’s not like it was two decades ago, network shows still have a larger episode order. More episodes, more money. Network pays more than streaming. And a regular schedule and a regular set (presumably). And the summer off. I don’t want to relitigate all the issues from the strikes last year, but you’ll recall, the streaming revenue was a major sticking point. For the actors it was the money but also the commitment, or lack thereof. You do eight episodes, and you don’t know what happens next. I’m not saying network TV shows can’t be cancelled, of course they can. But on network TV, at least you know that the network has a timeslot to fill. Every Thursday, 9pm. No matter what, they have to program something in that slot. Which in theory means the network has more of an investment in supporting the show, because then they know that next season, they’ll have a show in that slot. Netflix doesn’t have to worry about that so for the people connected to the show, there’s that much more insecurity.
But also… there is no actor in the business who wants to see network television go away. The streamers are dictating the industry right now, yes, but it doesn’t mean they should become the entire industry. Actors like Josh *should* want to work in network. None of them are or should be looking down on network.
Narrowing the conversation down to just Josh, though, and wanting better for him? Sara, as you said in your comment, he deserves credit for playing supporting characters. But … he’s almost only played supporting characters. The shows where we know him best? He’s never been the lead.
Up until very, very recently, Joshua Jackson was cast in supporting roles, especially on the shows that have the most acclaim or popularity: The Affair, Little Fires, Dawson’s. This is his first big time network LEAD opportunity. He’s playing the title character. You say you want better for him…
This is better!
Question from Patty:
How can people be predicting Oscar favorites for movies that have not come out yet? Ie. Timothee Chalamet for his Bob Dylan movie.
Sarah’s answer:
Hollywood is like real estate—it’s all about comps. Personally, I don’t love early Oscar predictions because no one has seen the movie, you don’t know how good it really is. Maybe it sucks! Maybe it’s even better than expected! But in the case of Timothée Chalamet, I am comfortable calling him an early Best Actor contender for the following reasons:
· He’s already an Oscar nominee. As much as the Academy loves ingenues, they’re stingy with young men, especially the pretty ones. But Timmy has already been accepted into the fold. Another nomination before 30 is not impossible.
· He’s playing an iconic figure. Oscar voters fucking love it when actors play real people. Talking to an actor about this, his theory is that it makes acting tangible, because viewers have something to compare the performance to. And remember, Oscar voters are people who make movies. They know exactly how an editor can improve or even “save” a performance. But if you’re playing a real person, they have a point of comparison. That’s why they fall for good impressions over real acting, though, because they’re looking for a level of mimicry that says, “This person did the research and nailed the mannerisms.” They’re trying to conceptualize a deeply interior process as paint by numbers, and playing a real person makes that easier.
· Elvis. This is where comps really matter. Elvis is the reason we’re getting A Complete Unknown, it’s the reason there’s a Bruce Springsteen biopic in the works, and no matter how torturous she makes the process for herself and everyone else, it’s a huge boost to Madonna’s autobiographical film, too. That movie’s success paves the way for everyone else, and Austin Butler’s Oscar nomination makes the odds more favorable that the Academy will look kindly on Timmy-Bob, too. We know they’re amenable to a pretty young guy playing an iconic music figure. If Timmy is even halfway decent in the role, he’s virtually a lock for a nomination.
· Especially because, so far, the Best Actor race is looking rather weak (weaker than the actress race, for sure). Never underestimate the power of a weak year for rubber-stamping actors the Academy already likes.
Question from Jill:
Random one I’ve been thinking about for a long time: when did the female pop star stage uniform become sparkly leotard? Why? and are we bored with it?
Lainey’s Answer:
Thank you for your random question, it made me laugh.
There are probably a lot of reasons why the sparkly leotard became the popstar’s stage uniform but one of them is… The Stadium Tour. I’m speaking in general, but the stadium tour now is not what it was when The Beatles invented it in the 1960s. For a long time though, again generally speaking, stadium tours were for bands. Only the most successful, mega mega superstar solo artists could pull off stadium tours.
It’s the sheer number of tickets you have to sell on one night, right? You have to be at a certain level to get to those numbers. For example, Charli XCX just stopped in Toronto the other night. Her show was at Scotiabank, an arena. About 18,000 or so seats. As popular as she is, Charli’s not a stadium tour artist at the moment. She might be in a couple of years but she’s not there yet.
I actually prefer an arena show over a stadium show for practicality: you can see so much more in an arena because it’s smaller. Stadiums are so huge, there are only a few sections where you can actually appreciate what’s happening on stage without having to look at the screen. If you’ve experienced both, I know you know what I’m talking about. Artists at Beyoncé’s and Taylor Swift’s level, though, have so much demand, the arenas almost aren’t even an option for them anymore because otherwise their tours would be five years long for the number of shows they’d have to do to accommodate how many people want to go to them. And, of course, there’s the money. Stadium tours are that much more lucrative, and artists make more money touring these days than from album sales.
What does this have to do with the sparkly leo?
The shows are getting more and more produced. Between the pyro and the LED screens and the dancers and the lighting and every person in the audience holding up a phone, on that huge stage, if you’re not in a sparkly leo that allows you to dance and do choreo, how will they even see you?
One of the exceptions to this is, of course, Adele. Adele doesn’t need to be in a leotard because she doesn’t do choreo. But Adele’s recent stadium shows in Germany were specifically designed for a one-woman performance, and they paid extra attention to the lighting so that you could see her, and besides, Adele’s stage isn’t full of dancers and whatever to distract from the main character anyway. If you’re an artist who’s out there with a whole dance crew and you’re throwing your body around, the sparkly leo is a necessity.
Question from Laura:
TV work is now one of your mainstays, but that is a long way from Covenant House. I'm sure you shared some of the detail at the time, but this perimenopausal brain is Swiss cheese. How did the transition from Blog writing hobby to Oscar reporting happen?
Lainey’s Answer:
I was doing my blog and Covenant House for two years before ETALK called. They invited me to report on the show once a week from Vancouver – a two-minute gossip hit every Monday. This is how I met Duana. She was my first regular producer. We would talk every Sunday night on the phone, decide on three stories for the show, I wrote the script the next morning, she would vet, then I’d memorise it in the car, because they didn’t give me a prompter in those days, and I’d have a 15-minute window. Back then they’d “open the line” between Toronto and Vancouver; Duana was in the control room in Toronto, watching my takes, and once I’d delivered the whole thing smoothly, they’d close the window. I’ve always been great at memorising (my entire TEDx talk was memorised, 3700 words, 18 minutes!) and I still have to memorise copy now on TV but the most is 15 seconds, not the two straight minutes I was doing back then.
After several months of that, the ETALK senior team decided I was ready to become a full-time reporter and offered me a job. That was the summer of 2006 and at that point I couldn’t do the blog and Covenant House and ETALK at the same time, so I had to give up Covenant House and continue with my weekly hits on ETALK but also that was when I started getting sent to junkets and interviews. Two months after I became a full-time reporter, I covered my first TIFF, right into the fire. I flew out to Toronto for ten days, my producers put me through a quick bootcamp, and before I knew it was covering premieres and party carpets. It was one of the hardest weeks of my life, I was overwhelmed. I made some rookie mistakes, like complaining during a radio interview about how tired I was. Nobody wants to listen to a bitch who was just on a red carpet with Penelope Cruz say that her life is hard. That learned me real fast.
Six months after that there was another challenge. February 2007, Anna Nicole Smith died in Florida. ETALK sent me there for a week, reporting from outside of the morgue, chasing information from any local sources I could connect with. I remember being on the phone with my ma every night getting her to spiritually cleanse me of all the death and darkness that I was exposed to on that assignment. But that was an invaluable experience. Because I was on my own, no producer. So I was coordinating myself with a local camera person, figuring out my timing, picking my locations, writing my own scripts, and also doing my own hair and makeup. All while writing LaineyGossip.
With every junket and carpet and news assignment, I was building my skillset. To the point where I proved to ETALK that I was reliable and cared about the work, and was diligent about getting better on television, and I earned my way to the Oscars with the team. I had sources at the parties so I could add context to our stories about the stars on the red carpet, I was gaining more and more insight about the industry from the connections I was making. I would also, on occasion, help out in the control room with chyron (captioning) and watching the feeds. I was and still am interested in more than just the on-camera parts of television. The learning curve was and continues to be steep, but that’s also what makes it fun. I’m fortunate enough to still be doing it – especially since our industry is contracting – but I also still really like doing it, it’s still interesting to me every day. And yet, it’s not the only thing I still like doing. I don’t want to just do TV. I would never, ever voluntarily give up writing at LaineyGossip and The Squawk to focus only on TV. The way I see it, television is the bonus that LaineyGossip brought into my life. But LaineyGossip is always the main event.
Question from Kathleen:
I would love to know what Lainey thought about interviewing Kaia Gerber on the red carpet after seeing a clip from her Saturday Night interview. I swear, every video I see of her, I am blown away by 1) her spectacular face, and 2) how much she looks, sounds and moves like her mom. Those Crawford-Gerber genes are unreal!
Related question from Sherry:
I remember many years ago Lainey did a piece about seeing Madonna in person--with Zachary Quinto in the vicinity. At the time whatever Madonna was doing to her face was widely ridiculed on the interwebs but Lainey said that the face was fine and beautiful in person. I kind of want to know if that's still the case when she sees high-profile people in person. That their face might photograph weirdly but in person it's all kinds of fantastic. (This is related to my question about the LA face that Lainey occasionally mentions. Is the LA face fine in person?)
Lainey’s Answer:
I was right up in Kaia Gerber’s face at the Saturday Night premiere at TIFF. Or, rather, she was right up in my face because we had a cute kiki over hair and makeup. Anyway, yes, in person she is…it’s almost fucked up how beautiful she is. And in person it’s wild how much she looks like her mother. She looks more like her mother in real life than she does in photos.
The difference though between Kaia and Cindy is that Cindy’s face is… softer? Kaia has a different body type. Cindy is more athletic, Kaia is really slim, so her face is all angles, an actual sculpture. I’ve also, by the way, interviewed Cindy. This was six or seven years ago and Cindy’s face, from when she was Kaia’s age and also now, takes in more light.
As for personality, the impression I got after speaking to Kaia is that she’s thoughtful. And she’s personable. I’m not saying this just because she complimented me either, LOL. But I’ve been doing this long enough to know that there are celebrities who do not engage first, who wait for you to ask them a question because they’re not there to get to know you. That’s not Kaia. She was not standoffish, she wasn’t detached, she was warm and open. And we were impressed at ETALK because two days after I interviewed her, my colleague Shannon interviewed Kaia at another premiere and she remembered our mic flash and our show, she had seen us on social media, and came right over to continue the conversation. As a Canadian outlet that has to compete on these red carpets with big American media, we definitely appreciated her recall.
Sherry’s question about in person vs photo weirdness and Madonna? My most recent addition to this is Demi Moore. I just posted photos of her from The Substance premiere and the camera kinda … I dunno… distorts her features a bit? In person, she looks great, and not exaggerated in any areas of her face. So this is adds to my theory that sometimes whatever work is done looks fine to the naked eye… but the camera, ultimately, can layer an effect on things. Which I find happens even in selfies. Have you ever looked at the screen on your phone and you think you look good and then you take the shot and in the photo you look fucked up? Shaby, our makeup artist, says that it’s because the human eye isn’t meant to be a magnifying glass the way a lens is. I’m not sure if that makes sense because I don’t know science. But there is definitely a thing that happens when you put a camera on a face that is different from what your eyes are processing.
And that’s a wrap on this week’s mailbag.
But before we go, congratulations to Doreen S. of Ottawa, Ontario, the winner of the TIFF Swag that we gave away a couple weeks ago! Enjoy your bounty, Doreen! And to the rest of your Squawkers, don’t worry, more chances to come because we won’t stop trying to buy your love!
Thank you so much for showing us so much love…and giving us so much inspiration. The chats are popping off lately and every week these questions are keeping us alert, getting us thinking, and thinking back in some cases, and it’s also really helping us with our writing. Please don’t stop!
Keep squawking and keep gossiping,
Lainey and Sarah
Let's give some love to Fringe (aired on FOX). One of the best sci-fi shows that does not get a lot of love. Joshua Jackson also played a supporting role to a badass female character in that one!
Another great mailbag, loved all these questions and answers! Inside baseball of LG and gossip/entertainment in general is always so intriguing to me. Having been reading for the past 2 decades, it’s really cool to hear Lainey’s perspective now about her transition from being a normie in the nonprofit world to drinking from the TV/entertainment fire hose while keeping all of us fed at LaineyGossip! Thank you for your service. 🫡 (You can complain to us anytime!)
These red carpet throwback pics are so great, too! Stacey Kiebler and Clooney—what a gem!