Mailbag for January 23, 2026
“Wuthering Heights” and the full yearn experience, on celebrity leaks and counter-articles, on Brooklyn's name rights, Oscars and Kpop Demon Hunters, impact of a nomination, and the Blake Lively case
Dear Squawkers,
I guess we can’t complain about a lack of gossip so far in 2026, but it is messy as fuck out there. And there’s been so much mess that I realised I haven’t had a chance to talk about something that was on my mind a few days ago and got pushed back because…all the other things.
Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” is opening soon, on February 13, just in time for Valentine’s Day which, I mean if we’re talking about the book, is kinda apt, in the sense that Valentine’s Day has dark and violent origins and the romance in Emily Brontë’s novel is dark and violent and emotionally abusive.
Promotion for the film is underway, the junket is happening soon, and Emerald’s already done a few interviews, including this one that was viral last week in which she explained the quotation marks around the title in all the marketing.
She’s talking here like she’s trying not to give anything away, and I don’t blame her. Obviously why tell everyone about a movie that you want people to go see. But then social media started trying to interpret what she was saying without saying and called back to a theory that was shared several months ago when the trailer was released.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
Basically, this was never intended to be a faithful adaptation but rather what those of us who watch a lot of Chinese and Korean dramas call “transmigration”. Within the transmigration trope, there are sub-genres and, related to the discussion about “Wuthering Heights”, the kind of hypothesised transmigration that that content creator posted is quite common in C-dramas. It started in the late 80s and 90s from novels and they’ve evolved, have become pretty popular over the last few years but there are a number of well-known C-dramas involving usually a woman who’s reading a book and wakes up inside the book. Recent examples include Story of Kunning Palace, Love Game in Eastern Fantasy, and A Dream Within a Dream, all of them major hits. If you’re interested in learning more about the origins of transmigration in East Asian drama series, here’s a piece from 2022.
As a pop culture student who is familiar with stories from both the east and the west, it’s been interesting for me to see the crossover, especially as it relates to how romance is portrayed in film and television. We’ve heard a lot in the last year about “yearning” and how popular it’s been with shows like The Summer I Turned Pretty and Heated Rivalry and before them and soon to be again Bridgerton. It’s not that we ever stopped yearning, no matter where we are from, it just seemed that yearning, openly, in 2025 became…acceptable. More acceptable? At least in entertainment.
Which has not been the case over in East Asia. Yearning, in my experience, has never been out of style there. And if it was ever out of style, it came back into style wayyyyy earlier than in the west. So when I see lingering glances, long and patient camera holds on romantic leads standing on opposite sides of a room, and it’s nothing but eye contact but explosively horny; when a finger graze feels almost pornographic; when chasing after someone after a misunderstanding is the best foreplay, and there’s happily more and more of this in western romances, and people obviously love it, I’m once again compelled to tell you that…well…there’s a huuuuuge library of this coming from the other side of the world, and most of them are dubbed now so you don’t even have to read the subtitles if you don’t want to, although sometimes the subtitles actually add to the yearning. There was a line of dialogue in a C-drama that I finished a couple of weeks ago – it wasn’t the greatest, not my favourite, but there was one scene that killed me.
Our lovers were apart for six years because of the noble idiocy trope, he broke up with her because he didn’t want her to have to deal with his struggles, but of course she couldn’t forget him and when she found out his secret and insisted she still wanted to be with him, he tried to resist, shut down and wouldn’t talk to her. So she finally gave up and walked away, crying, but then he chased her into the elevator, kissed her (very passionately – this man is gorgeous), and then wiped her tears and said, “Don’t cry…when you cry, I am completely defenceless”.
It’s one thing to hear it, but hearing it and reading it at the same time? Girl. That is the shit I’m talking about! That is the full yearn experience!
Anyway, we’ll find out soon enough, but if Emerald Fennell really is doing transmigration in “Wuthering Heights” and you dig it, please know that East Asian dramas are right there.
To your questions…
Question from Patty:
With the Beckham family in the news, it made me think that it seems that every time there is an article about one of them there is a counter article representing the other. Similar to every time Gisele is written about, there is an article about how Tom Brady is doing, also true of Angelina Jolie and how happy Brad is in his current relationship. When a couple gets engaged or married, there seems to be ‘let’s ask the ex their opinion (which I think is tacky as hell). Is this an unwritten rule to earn clicks or is this some type of agreement with publicists?
Lainey’s Answer:
More and more, and in the most high-profile cases, the “let’s ask the ex their opinion”, as you call it, is from what I’ve observed definitely about click; and it also depends on the fame and status level of the celebrity or celebrities in question. Anything can be made into a headline now – and the British tabloids are especially good at it – but American entertainment outlets are also picking up on the same patterns in order to generate more likes and clicks. Also, headlines can be deliberately misleading. There’s an article over at TMZ right now, here’s what it looks like:
But the first thing you read underneath the photo is this:
If you can’t see that screencap, the text is as follows:
“10:10 AM PT -- A source connected to Justin’s legal team tells TMZ ... it would be next to impossible to serve Taylor with a summons, and the text messages speak for themselves, so they won’t need her as a witness.”
The first sentence in the article contradicts the title of the article…so what is the fucking point of the headline and, really, the article? This infuriates me, but I feel like I belong to a shrinking minority because it’s clearly not a problem for the majority of social media.
I know that wasn’t necessarily what your question was about but it’s all related to nothingburger stories and the proliferation of them. Do we need to know what an ex thinks of a celebrity’s current relationship? Do we need to know what someone who wrote a cookbook thinks of Meghan Sussex’s recipes? I mean…it depends on the celebrity. What’s more telling, though, is if all three people involved are celebrities, it’s one thing for a tabloid to ask for comment, it’s another to say yes. In order for them to agree to go on the record and give their thoughts, their publicist would have to be involved, which means there’s a whole machinery behind the story, people co-signing this move – and most respectable publicists I know would try to talk their clients out of this, so does that mean we can assume that the celebrity wanted to force their way into the chat? It’s not a good look.
They know it’s not a good look, though, so that’s why it’s often couched in language like “a source close to x says that…” but that’s how it used to work in the old days. In this bleakest of timelines, the outlets are straight up just making shit up. I had a conversation with a publicist late last year, works with a few moderately successful actors who do both film and television. She said to me, and I’m paraphrasing, Lainey I get it, back when you were starting, we were feeding a lot of it from the inside, so I understand why there’s the perception that every story out there is being leaked by us. But this has boomeranged against that whole practice because it’s become indistinguishable now, the stories we place and the ones that are just fabricated. I swear, I’ve seen source quotes about my clients that sound like they’re coming from me, but I’ve said nothing of the sort.
Kind of like A.I., lol, and that’s happening with celebrity leaks, too.
Question from SoniaW:
In Brooklyn’s post he said that his parents tried to bribe him into signing away the rights to his name. Can Lainey or Sarah explain what impact signing away the rights to his name would have on Brooklyn professionally and how Brand Beckham would benefit if he did sign?
Sarah’s answer:
Think of Brooklyn’s hot sauce, officially called Cloud23 (terrible name for a hot sauce! Sounds like perfume!). In this case, he used word salad for a brand name, but what if he wants to put his name on his next venture? What if he wants to launch Brooklyn’s Dream Parade, which would for sure be a line of premium sundae toppings, but he couldn’t because his parents owned the rights to his name?
From the Beckhams’ perspective, I get asking for the rights to his name. We don’t call them “Brand Beckham” for nothing, they are all about the Grand Unifying Theory of Beckham that ties all their various ventures together. But I also understand Brooklyn not wanting to sign his name rights over to anyone, parents or otherwise. If Brooklyn signed his name rights away, he couldn’t brand any of his ventures with his own name, which is limiting. Even if you don’t want to trade on your famous name, you at least want it in your back pocket, right?
Not owning his own name rights would limit Brooklyn professionally. But for the Beckhams, it would mean being able to quality control anything done under Brooklyn’s name. Having a Beckham out there doing whatever without their own quality control must drive David and Victoria nuts. But while I think the family matters are an “everyone sucks here” mess, in this I think Brooklyn was right to keep his name rights. He’s halfheartedly trying to find a profession, eventually he’ll want to use his name under some professional banner. Never let go of your name, it’s the one thing that IS you!
Question from Leah:
pls tell me that the academy is not going to fuck over KPDH on best animated feature?! And do they have a chance at song? I feel like no other song has had such an impact, but the academy isn’t likely to award songs on animated movies...
Lainey’s Answer:
Kpop Demon Hunters was nominated for two Oscars this week: Best Animated Feature and Best Original song for “Golden”. While it is a frontrunner in both categories now, earlier in the award season, Best Animated Feature wasn’t a guarantee and at one point, the nomination in Best Animated Feature would have been seen as the win. It’s important to remember this because initially it was looking like the song category would be their strongest chance. The fact that KPDH has become a legitimate contender is not how we were talking in the summer.
Yes, KPDH has an excellent chance at both. Probably it’s most formidable challenger in the film category is Zootopia 2, which has demolished the box office, now the highest-grossing Hollywood animated film of all time, and was the film predicted a year ago to be the favourite in this category. In recent history though, animated films that dominate the box office do not win Oscars. Last year was a good example with Inside Out 2 (which also made so much money) losing to Flow…which is kinda like a blockbuster losing out to an indie film.
This year, it’s an interesting situation. Because we have two blockbusters – a traditional theatrical blockbuster in Zootopia 2 and a streaming blockbuster in Netflix. And given that KPDH has been winning at so many events over Zootopia 2, the Disney movie almost seems like the “underdog”, if that’s even possible, to call a Disney movie an “underdog”. It’ll be interesting if the Disney campaign over the next few weeks positions the movie like this.
As for “Golden”, it’s not that rare for a song from an animated movie to win Best Original Song, especially if the song is written by Randy Newman. And Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez (“Let It Go”). “Golden” is the overwhelming favourite right now, and it is not unlike “Let It Go” in that alllll the kids know it – and more. I underestimated “Let It Go” the year it won, I thought it would be Pharrell’s “Happy”, but it I wasn’t tapped into how the voters would be affected by their children and grandchildren. “Golden”, I think, is tracking the same way.
If it does have any competition, it would be “I Lied to You” from Sinners. And while of course I love KPDH and “Golden”, I also wouldn’t be mad if “I Lied to You” takes the Oscar. First of all, it’s a great song. But also, there is a really compelling case to made for its cinematic value. The Oscars are film awards, every category is ostensibly considered on its value to the film it represents. As Sarah has said before, there have been many Best Original Song winners are songs that are just, like, tacked onto the end of movie, without any true narrative connection.
“I Lied to You” is the opposite of that. The scene in Sinners featuring “I Lied to You” is the fulcrum of the film. Everything that happens in those three minutes is built around that song but also organically connected to it. Sammie is singing from his lived experience, about his relationship to his father, so the song is character development. But Sammie singing from a place of pain is what makes his music universal, and thematically, this is what the film is about: the power of music, particularly the Blues, the Delta Blues, where music was both a document of hardship but also a testament to Black resilience. When Sammie sings, everybody feels something, everybody is in community…even the outsiders, the vampires, who crave his gift, which is life. And that’s why they try to infiltrate the club. The song in that scene, then, propels the film’s plot.
Every detail in that scene goes back to the song, from its cohesion with the script, to the set design to the choreography to the seamless cinematography, all of these are critical components of the cinematic artform, brought together to create four minutes of movie magic. It is STUNNING in its execution, and it is, quite frankly, one of the purest examples of what a Best Original Song Oscar winner should be. It checks every box, it might even create new boxes of criteria in how next level it is as an achievement. “I Lied to You” exemplifies the original intention of the Best Original Song category. And if it wins over “Golden”, we should also celebrate.
Question from Elizabeth:
How much impact do awards and nominations have on the presence of films in the theaters? (Why yes, I AM hoping for a Sinners re-release!)
But, for example, I live in a suburb of the San Francisco Bay Area with three theaters within 20 min of my house. Hamnet was only playing 45-60 min away until Jessie Buckley started winning. Now it’s playing at my local theater - only one showing a day but I’m sure that will change, too. Are theaters more inclined to show nominated films or just anything that gets butts in seats (looking at you, Avatar).
Sarah’s answer:
I’m glad you asked this, Elizabeth, because Oscar season inevitably brings out boring people saying boring things like “the Oscars don’t even matter”, but while we can argue the cultural relevance of the Oscars telecast, there is still an appreciable financial benefit to Oscar nominations and wins. Pre-COVID, there was good financial data showing that even through 2010s as TV ratings cratered for the telecast, an Oscar nomination could tack $5 million onto a film’s bottom line, and a win could add upwards of $13 million. Post-COVID I don’t think we have as clean of a data set, but nominations and wins still provide box office bumps.
We see it in real time as films are re-released into theaters to take advantage of marketing trumpeting Oscar nominations, and as films released at the end of the year expand into more theaters on the back of the new publicity. Hamnet is a perfect example of this. In the streaming era, the benefit isn’t just limited to box office, we’ll see films spike on streaming charts, too. Maybe not so much Sinners, simply because it has been constantly trending on HBO Max and/or Prime Video—they’ve both been streaming it—since it hit streaming last year, but smaller films and foreign films benefit from the additional press, too. My parents just asked me about The Secret Agent! So yes, awards and nominations have a significant impact on films in theaters, and on streaming, too. Hardware gets views and puts butts in seats. The Oscars don’t matter, except for all the ways they do.
Question from Emily:
I know a lot of people are over it, but would love a little bit more about the new info in the Blake Lively case…is anyone in Hollywood paying attention? What is the impact on the various players’ careers?
Sarah’s answer:
People are definitely watching, because this case could contribute to legal precedent regarding sexual harassment, retaliation, and overall workplace harassment issues in the film (and television) industry. This all started with Blake Lively filing a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department, after all. People—lawyers—will be watching to see how the rulings contribute to case law.
As for careers, well, we’ve seen Blake take a serious reputation hit, and it’s not like she had a sterling rep with the public to begin with. As Taylor Swift says in “CANCELLED!”: You thought that it would be okay, at first/The situation could be saved, of course/But they’d already picked out your grave and hearse
People were ready and willing to hate Blake Lively, which also goes to the initial texts released about this case from publicist Melissa Nathan: “actually sad because it just shows you have people really want to hate on women”.
She’ll be fine, she’s rich and connected, and she has multiple projects in pre-production, at least one of them will probably get made in the next couple years. Film moves slowly, but she’ll work again, hopefully with some space between this mess and her next professional project.
Justin Baldoni, on the other hand, could be toast if he loses in court because he’ll become an insurance liability, the truth death knell of Hollywood. I’ve said all along eventually they’ll have to start putting people on record, through depositions and discovery, and that would be when the truth begins to emerge from all the media manipulation. And, well, Jenny Slate’s deposition certainly didn’t help Baldoni. He, and Wayfarer Studios, could be in a lot of trouble. Baldoni has his own billionaire connections but he, himself, isn’t that rich. And his career wasn’t that exceptional before this, so he doesn’t have the same foundation to stand on as Blake, who is, at the very least, extremely famous, which is its own form of protection.
Blake will probably never win a Miss Congeniality contest, but then, no one was looking to her to be Miss Friendly Hollywood before all this. Justin Baldoni, though, might never work again, at least not outside the right-wing/manosphere industrial complaining complex. I’m sure he can pivot to aggrieved podcasting and find some chuds to buy overpriced coffee from his ads, but that’s a far cry from the Hollywood life he had before—and the one he thought It Ends With Us would buy him, as a viable director.
All men have to do is be normal and everything is set up for them to succeed but so many of them have such a hard time being normal!
Question from Jenn H:
I’m wondering about the logistics of this crazy unexpected gossip week and the impact it has had on the LG & Squawk team. Do y’all have a plan for these types of unexpected situations where you know there will be lots more web & substack traffic? Do you have to pay your writers extra/overtime for last-minute or sudden stories that drop? Does it affect your mental health or stress levels or do you basically just stay ready for anything? In any case, thanks for all your work this week. I really appreciate the distraction from world news and it truly helps me live a calmer life.
Lainey’s Answer:
Thank you for this question, it is so thoughtful and I’m in an emotionally heightened place right now so it almost made me cry that you would think of us this week after an epic week of gossip.
Honestly, we don’t really plan ahead of these kinds of weeks because…it’s impossible to plan. I’m always on standby, of course, but some stories aren’t right for me. Take for example the Beckham scandal that broke this week – Maria is usually our Beckham expert, and it’s not like I could give her a heads up that Brooklyn was about to tell his parents about themselves. Both Sarah and I have work outside of LaineyGossip and The Squawk that is more rigid in terms of schedule so that’s part of the trickiness, too. This week I had several early shoots for ETALK which means early makeup, etc etc, so I was already operating under pressure and when you throw curveball gossip into the mix, it becomes a scramble. We’re a small publisher, we don’t have the resources of the outlets that can push out a story in half an hour. But also, articles at LaineyGossip – in our opinion – require more nuance, more time to write. We have never been a website that’s just like, this is what happened, three paragraphs of summary, the end. We’re more interested in the conversation, the analysis, so it’s impossible for us to turn shit around quickly.
Which is why I decided a while ago that we weren’t going to chase the immediacy. If we have to wait a day or two for writers to be able to say what they want/need to say about a certain celebrity development, so be it.
But, yes, it does affect stress levels. There is always, in the back of my head, the pressure of keeping up. And on those days, I try to remember something a friend told me a long time ago when I was overwhelmed by the relentless pace. She said, “It’s better to be right than first”. And I can say, honestly, that whenever I am guided by that principle, I never have regrets.
That’s a wrap on the week. Thanks for blowing up the chats with your thoughts on what’s already been a chaotic year in gossip and we’re not even through January yet. That is, in part, why we started this community – but you are the ones who truly make it.
Keep squawking and keep gossiping,
Lainey and Sarah
Just want to say that I appreciate that you take your time before you post, to get it right or to do a proper analysis. It's just one of many reasons I'm still reading your site all these years later. And it's so appreciated in this current media landscape. So, big thanks to you and your team for that.
"All men have to do is be normal and everything is set up for them to succeed but so many of them have such a hard time being normal!"
SO TRUE and really should not be so hard!!! I said this to my husband recently (who is himself a nice, normal guy, and understood).