Ivanka Trump and her supporters make me so angry. We’re facing the death of democracy thanks to her dad and his lunatics. But since she’s friends with the Kardashians and is a mom let’s forget the permanent harm she willingly participated in. Fuck that. I hope karma waits around every corner for her and her evil family.
I haven’t even finished reading the mailbag yet but the way my BLOOD BOILED reading “she wants to think of nothing but her family”!!!!!!!!! MUST BE FUCKING NICE NOT TO HAVE TO CARE ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE BECAUSE YOU’VE CREATED A WORLD WHERE THEY CAN BE TRAMPLED SO YOU GET TO LIVE ON THE BEACH.
I feel like the two leads of Gossip Girl (the OG!) are a good case study of FQ and IT. To my eye, Leighton Meester was the star of the show--punchy, funny, sincere, a weirdly good performance in a hilariously dumb show. But the breakout star was Blake Lively, who is not a great actress but is *excellent* at being famous. Meester's career has sort of gone nowhere and it seems to me that she was not great at navigating the actual strategic/FQ side of her job, despite having real talent and spark onscreen. Lively is the opposite--not much onscreen but excellent at managing her job.
So I have a story about the It Factor and how sometimes there are people you may not like, but you can't deny they have "It."
Back in the day, I used to go to a yearly convention of political and social activists. It was always a good place to learn how to practically apply methods and lessons of big scale activism to local and regional work. And I had activist friends, we'd meet up there and catch up and relax and party. A good, educational time was generally had by all.
Anyway, politicians were invited to these things, generally Democrats, but sometimes Independents and the occasional rightwing Republican. They would give political speeches and have q & a's and the like. I listened to Al Gore talk about climate change and Nancy Pelosi dissemble about the Patriot Act, etc And one year, Bill Clinton showed up.
This was well after he was president, and I didn't like him, didn't like most of his politics and REALLY didn't like how he used women and then discarded them or threw them under the bus. He is just not my cup of tea, such a sleazebag. But he was going to give a talk, and before the talk, as we filed into this auditorium, he was standing at the door, surrounded by secret service agents, and shaking hands and talking to everyone who came through that door.
As I said, I didn't like him. But before you could even see him through the crowd, you could feel something, a strange kind of energy, like it was pulsating around him and through and beyond the crowd. Upon arriving at the point where I was going to shake his hand, he took my hand and looked deep in my eyes, and it was like being held by a tractor beam in Star Trek. I couldn't pull away, I couldn't look away until he released me. He stared directly into my eyes and I could not pull my gaze away, I was trapped there. I don't know how to explain what was happening. There was a flood of pheromones coming off of him, and a crazy kind of charm, and he gave the impression that he was hanging on your every word, asking followup questions, just intensely interested in you and your meaningless peon life. It was fascinating, both engulfing attraction and repellent at the same time. When he let go of my hand to move on to the next person, my hand was tingling. And remember, I don't even like the man. 20 minutes later I got to see him have a major meltdown in front of several thousand people because someone had the temerity to question his moral compass. It was one of the most intense evenings of my activist life. Good times, good times....
At that same convention in a different year, Andrew Breitbart showed up. He came to cause trouble, and while he did make things interesting, he wasn't the thorn in the side of those leftie snowflakes he'd hoped to be. But he also had that same kind of repellent charisma that Bill Clinton had. He was intelligent, and obnoxious about it, the attraction was great and upsetting, and it wasn't staunched by the fact that he appeared to be either drunk or high every time I saw him. He, too, was a sea of pheromones and such, and the young women, women who were enraged by his political views and behavior, were nevertheless drawn to him like moths to a flame. I spent 20 minutes in conversation with him sitting outside in the sunshine one afternoon, a rather good-natured argument actually, and I was left with the same feelings I had after the Clinton encounter. It wasn't long after that that he died.
So yeah, some people have a thing, an inexplicable thing, and even when you actively dislike them, you can't deny that the thing exists.
Dylan was trying it with the locs, but I have noticed that East Asians I'm familiar with have an affinity for Black hair styles that are not created for their hair. There's absolutely no reason to sit for that long and get braids. It's perplexing. I've had the "you definitely can't wear that in America because xyz" conversations. Dylan needs someone on his team to research, but I think that's an across the board mistake. In South Africa, as an African American, there's still a line. The scarves are imprinted with meaningful designs that I shouldn't wear because it's that specific. Not everything we enjoy is to be consumed into the cultural zeitgeist because we decide we like it. Cultural gentrification happens. It's disrespectful when intentional. How are you going to consume my cultural vernacular and then make it where I have to delineate that I'm using MY CULTURAL VERNACULAR? Why do I have to make the adjustment, when you can use more words and stay in your lane respectfully??? My favorite example is that as much as I read the use of "the culture" by black writers ABOUT black people, or when black artists are talking about a black part of their fandom...I hardly read it used in mainstream publications because that particular usage is very specific to African American people (+ diaspora). It's irksome that it can be diminished as context because someone decided that they don't have to respect the culture. Maybe that's why there's "bruh vs bro" (JT saying bruh would be worse than fo shizz). There's a line. It's probably most irksome because nonmelanated people have an expected grating dismissive tone when they are told they've crossed a line. It's like those reductive conversations Ta-Nahesi Coates had with white people who can't comprehend being told the n-word should be fine because it's in a song. He understood their point because everything has belonged to them for centuries. Why should this be different? I've had to explain why the n-word is off limits to a pale male. It's draining to have to explain that it's not a group activity for everyone. The bigger question is WHY do you want to? Or why do you deserve said explanation? Black people are tired. Our culture is embracing, but is EVERYTHING on the table? If it's obvious we have a specific phrase, then why does it need to be spread to the whole? As much as JT is a punchline, he's not different from the Dylan's who think Black people stuff is fun for everyone. Hopefully, Dylan understands it's not just a fun style. There's meaning, and Black people don't have to keep reasserting their right to not be treated as a costume and phrase factory. I think we can enjoy a variety of things from everyone and leave certain things for those that made it their own.
Oh yes, FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK Ivanka, Jared and their whole terrible, horrible, no good very BAD FAMILY. I wish only the worst things for those monsters for eternity.
Another Peacock subscriber! I have it solely for SNL. Does that make me a dinosaur?
I apologize if I’ve posted this here before but I’ve seen Angelina Jolie in person and can attest to the truth of that description. It was soon after she adopted Maddox. I was walking to work down W 57th Street in NY and she was walking the opposite direction, towards me, while carrying him. It was early in the morning and she looked incandescently happy, cradling him to her chest and walking along. Like even if she wasn’t famous, you would see her and think “holy shit, who is that woman?” Drop dead beautiful. I’ve always regretted not congratulating her on becoming a mom. (It was embarrassment over my dumb outfit that held me back.)
So I want to feel the same rage as Lainey or Sarah (sorry, who wrote the open?) but I can’t seem to because:
1 - the People readers who have ANY empathy for female Cheeto are going to be the ones who also can stand her father, so I could care less about their sympathies
2 - whether she’s buddying up with Oldest KK or Rupert’s last co-conspirator, she is not welcome in the circles that she wants to be in, so jokes on her
Schadenfreude except !bonus! she brought it on her own little self.
Thank you, Lainey, for the analysis of Chinese fandoms and the podcast recommendation. I am craving for this kind of information because it is so difficult to understand why East Asian celebrities behave so very differently from Western celebrities, especially if it comes to protecting their dating life. What I am still wondering about is, how it is even possible to shield information about a celebritie‘s dating life so effectively. There must be paparazzi around in China or South Korea, as well. Or are paparazzi a Western celebrity phenomenon?
Anyway, my comment comes with a protection spell to protect you and your work from crazy fans. I hope it works 😊
Also, between this Ivanka Tr*mp story and the Sara Evans one yesterday, they are really going all in on dangerous and irresponsible reporting this week.
If I could get rid of one streaming platform (based on how little I watch its content), it would be Amazon Prime. But I still have it because I love that free shipping. So it seems hard to compare Prime to the other streaming services because I suspect most people are not subscribers to Prime for the streaming content only but it comes bundled with other attractive services. It has the worst user interface and I can never find what I'm looking for on there. Plus I hate that they don't really separate what is free to watch through Prime vs. what you have to rent/buy.
We get Netflix through our phone company and HBO Max through our internet provider. We have Disney+ because we have kids (though my husband would keep it just for the Marvel content) and we pay for Hulu but I don't think I'd miss it too much if we didn't have it. Isn't Hulu owned by ABC which is owned by Disney? It feels like they should all just be rolled up into one streaming service. I have no bandwidth for yet another streaming platform. I already scroll and scroll through all the platforms looking for something to watch and then end up watching nothing. It's all too much.
Such great questions and thoughtful answers! Lolll about Sydney Sweeney’s low BP energy. Hihi!!! Mr. And Mrs. Smith reboot is SO FUCKING GOOD! I am having withdrawals now that it’s over. Please tell me they’re making a S2! John and Jane 4eva!
What a great mailbag this week!!! Kudos to all the fabulous questions and responses from LG. The FQ vs It factor descriptions made perfect perfect sense to me. Who do you think has both high FQ and high It Factor? I would imagine BTS does. Rihanna. Jullianne Moore (my fave). And maybe...Tom Cruise?? Can you have high It factor and low FQ? Thinking about this way too hard now.
Okay, I had a short post yesteerday as I was attending NCAA games.
But there is so much to unpack here!
1- Skipping Ivanka. But I appreciate the work done here ;
2- Near and Far: For those outside of CA, is youtube our only option?
3- I have been postponing read the crazy rich Asians books forever. I was waiting for the confirmation of the sequels. For those of you who read the books, do you recommend the read regardless of sequels?
4- I love how Lainey described JLO It Factor: "And with JLo it’s not necessarily how she looks, it’s more her energy. She really does have a glow about her, it’s like everything seems brighter. " It is like as if she is giving/spreading the energy and not sucking it from others. I like that!
5- Dylan Wang... I want to reiterate here: I am praying for you Lainey!
Thank you for covering him with so much info on Chinese fandom. I had absolutely no clue it was this big!
a) The dreadlocks are a No for me!
b) yes, he did really well at the celebrity game. Even when I was nit oaying attention at the game, I knew he was doing well. How did I know? The screams!!! He touched the ball: *screams* He was on camera: *screams* He scored: more screams! His team won (if I remember well): *celebratory screams*
c) "I’ve heard that sometimes the “head” fans are recruited by the stars’ management." This is wild and dangerous!!! What IF a "head" fan is an insane like a stalker... *shivers*
d) Are the Chinese pop stars/celebrities supposed to stay single forever? How do they handle their private life? Do they slowly introduce their partners in social media or events or candid pap strolls? This is fascinating!
e) I have not seen Love Between Fairy and Devil. But it is on my watch list now. We might be here for a lot of Dylan Wang in the future.
Ps: Praying for you Lainey and thanks again for covering him on the Squawk!
Ivanka Trump and her supporters make me so angry. We’re facing the death of democracy thanks to her dad and his lunatics. But since she’s friends with the Kardashians and is a mom let’s forget the permanent harm she willingly participated in. Fuck that. I hope karma waits around every corner for her and her evil family.
I haven’t even finished reading the mailbag yet but the way my BLOOD BOILED reading “she wants to think of nothing but her family”!!!!!!!!! MUST BE FUCKING NICE NOT TO HAVE TO CARE ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE BECAUSE YOU’VE CREATED A WORLD WHERE THEY CAN BE TRAMPLED SO YOU GET TO LIVE ON THE BEACH.
I feel like the two leads of Gossip Girl (the OG!) are a good case study of FQ and IT. To my eye, Leighton Meester was the star of the show--punchy, funny, sincere, a weirdly good performance in a hilariously dumb show. But the breakout star was Blake Lively, who is not a great actress but is *excellent* at being famous. Meester's career has sort of gone nowhere and it seems to me that she was not great at navigating the actual strategic/FQ side of her job, despite having real talent and spark onscreen. Lively is the opposite--not much onscreen but excellent at managing her job.
So I have a story about the It Factor and how sometimes there are people you may not like, but you can't deny they have "It."
Back in the day, I used to go to a yearly convention of political and social activists. It was always a good place to learn how to practically apply methods and lessons of big scale activism to local and regional work. And I had activist friends, we'd meet up there and catch up and relax and party. A good, educational time was generally had by all.
Anyway, politicians were invited to these things, generally Democrats, but sometimes Independents and the occasional rightwing Republican. They would give political speeches and have q & a's and the like. I listened to Al Gore talk about climate change and Nancy Pelosi dissemble about the Patriot Act, etc And one year, Bill Clinton showed up.
This was well after he was president, and I didn't like him, didn't like most of his politics and REALLY didn't like how he used women and then discarded them or threw them under the bus. He is just not my cup of tea, such a sleazebag. But he was going to give a talk, and before the talk, as we filed into this auditorium, he was standing at the door, surrounded by secret service agents, and shaking hands and talking to everyone who came through that door.
As I said, I didn't like him. But before you could even see him through the crowd, you could feel something, a strange kind of energy, like it was pulsating around him and through and beyond the crowd. Upon arriving at the point where I was going to shake his hand, he took my hand and looked deep in my eyes, and it was like being held by a tractor beam in Star Trek. I couldn't pull away, I couldn't look away until he released me. He stared directly into my eyes and I could not pull my gaze away, I was trapped there. I don't know how to explain what was happening. There was a flood of pheromones coming off of him, and a crazy kind of charm, and he gave the impression that he was hanging on your every word, asking followup questions, just intensely interested in you and your meaningless peon life. It was fascinating, both engulfing attraction and repellent at the same time. When he let go of my hand to move on to the next person, my hand was tingling. And remember, I don't even like the man. 20 minutes later I got to see him have a major meltdown in front of several thousand people because someone had the temerity to question his moral compass. It was one of the most intense evenings of my activist life. Good times, good times....
At that same convention in a different year, Andrew Breitbart showed up. He came to cause trouble, and while he did make things interesting, he wasn't the thorn in the side of those leftie snowflakes he'd hoped to be. But he also had that same kind of repellent charisma that Bill Clinton had. He was intelligent, and obnoxious about it, the attraction was great and upsetting, and it wasn't staunched by the fact that he appeared to be either drunk or high every time I saw him. He, too, was a sea of pheromones and such, and the young women, women who were enraged by his political views and behavior, were nevertheless drawn to him like moths to a flame. I spent 20 minutes in conversation with him sitting outside in the sunshine one afternoon, a rather good-natured argument actually, and I was left with the same feelings I had after the Clinton encounter. It wasn't long after that that he died.
So yeah, some people have a thing, an inexplicable thing, and even when you actively dislike them, you can't deny that the thing exists.
Dylan was trying it with the locs, but I have noticed that East Asians I'm familiar with have an affinity for Black hair styles that are not created for their hair. There's absolutely no reason to sit for that long and get braids. It's perplexing. I've had the "you definitely can't wear that in America because xyz" conversations. Dylan needs someone on his team to research, but I think that's an across the board mistake. In South Africa, as an African American, there's still a line. The scarves are imprinted with meaningful designs that I shouldn't wear because it's that specific. Not everything we enjoy is to be consumed into the cultural zeitgeist because we decide we like it. Cultural gentrification happens. It's disrespectful when intentional. How are you going to consume my cultural vernacular and then make it where I have to delineate that I'm using MY CULTURAL VERNACULAR? Why do I have to make the adjustment, when you can use more words and stay in your lane respectfully??? My favorite example is that as much as I read the use of "the culture" by black writers ABOUT black people, or when black artists are talking about a black part of their fandom...I hardly read it used in mainstream publications because that particular usage is very specific to African American people (+ diaspora). It's irksome that it can be diminished as context because someone decided that they don't have to respect the culture. Maybe that's why there's "bruh vs bro" (JT saying bruh would be worse than fo shizz). There's a line. It's probably most irksome because nonmelanated people have an expected grating dismissive tone when they are told they've crossed a line. It's like those reductive conversations Ta-Nahesi Coates had with white people who can't comprehend being told the n-word should be fine because it's in a song. He understood their point because everything has belonged to them for centuries. Why should this be different? I've had to explain why the n-word is off limits to a pale male. It's draining to have to explain that it's not a group activity for everyone. The bigger question is WHY do you want to? Or why do you deserve said explanation? Black people are tired. Our culture is embracing, but is EVERYTHING on the table? If it's obvious we have a specific phrase, then why does it need to be spread to the whole? As much as JT is a punchline, he's not different from the Dylan's who think Black people stuff is fun for everyone. Hopefully, Dylan understands it's not just a fun style. There's meaning, and Black people don't have to keep reasserting their right to not be treated as a costume and phrase factory. I think we can enjoy a variety of things from everyone and leave certain things for those that made it their own.
Oh yes, FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK Ivanka, Jared and their whole terrible, horrible, no good very BAD FAMILY. I wish only the worst things for those monsters for eternity.
Another Peacock subscriber! I have it solely for SNL. Does that make me a dinosaur?
I apologize if I’ve posted this here before but I’ve seen Angelina Jolie in person and can attest to the truth of that description. It was soon after she adopted Maddox. I was walking to work down W 57th Street in NY and she was walking the opposite direction, towards me, while carrying him. It was early in the morning and she looked incandescently happy, cradling him to her chest and walking along. Like even if she wasn’t famous, you would see her and think “holy shit, who is that woman?” Drop dead beautiful. I’ve always regretted not congratulating her on becoming a mom. (It was embarrassment over my dumb outfit that held me back.)
So I want to feel the same rage as Lainey or Sarah (sorry, who wrote the open?) but I can’t seem to because:
1 - the People readers who have ANY empathy for female Cheeto are going to be the ones who also can stand her father, so I could care less about their sympathies
2 - whether she’s buddying up with Oldest KK or Rupert’s last co-conspirator, she is not welcome in the circles that she wants to be in, so jokes on her
Schadenfreude except !bonus! she brought it on her own little self.
Thank you, Lainey, for the analysis of Chinese fandoms and the podcast recommendation. I am craving for this kind of information because it is so difficult to understand why East Asian celebrities behave so very differently from Western celebrities, especially if it comes to protecting their dating life. What I am still wondering about is, how it is even possible to shield information about a celebritie‘s dating life so effectively. There must be paparazzi around in China or South Korea, as well. Or are paparazzi a Western celebrity phenomenon?
Anyway, my comment comes with a protection spell to protect you and your work from crazy fans. I hope it works 😊
Also, between this Ivanka Tr*mp story and the Sara Evans one yesterday, they are really going all in on dangerous and irresponsible reporting this week.
Ahhhhhhh!!! I have mentioned I am a sport's fan. Yes, it is March Madness. Yes, I am texting from Gainbridge Fieldhouse...
No I am not going to comment on how my bracket is messed up... How this idiot missed the deadline to create the women's ncaa bracket... 🙄
All I want to say is that I appreciate the mailbag. Go Duana!!! I want to see her show!!!
Loved the FQ question!!!
Yes, Yes! Lainey commented on Dylan Wang and now I am scared, concerned, and guilty. Praying for your safety Lainey!!! 🙏🏻❤️
Thank you for all the details on the C-fandom. Loved it.
Off I go to get into the madness!!! 🎉🎉🎉🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🎉🎉🎉
I’m excited for Duana’s show! She’s showing her work!! Congratulations Duana
If I could get rid of one streaming platform (based on how little I watch its content), it would be Amazon Prime. But I still have it because I love that free shipping. So it seems hard to compare Prime to the other streaming services because I suspect most people are not subscribers to Prime for the streaming content only but it comes bundled with other attractive services. It has the worst user interface and I can never find what I'm looking for on there. Plus I hate that they don't really separate what is free to watch through Prime vs. what you have to rent/buy.
We get Netflix through our phone company and HBO Max through our internet provider. We have Disney+ because we have kids (though my husband would keep it just for the Marvel content) and we pay for Hulu but I don't think I'd miss it too much if we didn't have it. Isn't Hulu owned by ABC which is owned by Disney? It feels like they should all just be rolled up into one streaming service. I have no bandwidth for yet another streaming platform. I already scroll and scroll through all the platforms looking for something to watch and then end up watching nothing. It's all too much.
Such great questions and thoughtful answers! Lolll about Sydney Sweeney’s low BP energy. Hihi!!! Mr. And Mrs. Smith reboot is SO FUCKING GOOD! I am having withdrawals now that it’s over. Please tell me they’re making a S2! John and Jane 4eva!
What a great mailbag this week!!! Kudos to all the fabulous questions and responses from LG. The FQ vs It factor descriptions made perfect perfect sense to me. Who do you think has both high FQ and high It Factor? I would imagine BTS does. Rihanna. Jullianne Moore (my fave). And maybe...Tom Cruise?? Can you have high It factor and low FQ? Thinking about this way too hard now.
Okay, I had a short post yesteerday as I was attending NCAA games.
But there is so much to unpack here!
1- Skipping Ivanka. But I appreciate the work done here ;
2- Near and Far: For those outside of CA, is youtube our only option?
3- I have been postponing read the crazy rich Asians books forever. I was waiting for the confirmation of the sequels. For those of you who read the books, do you recommend the read regardless of sequels?
4- I love how Lainey described JLO It Factor: "And with JLo it’s not necessarily how she looks, it’s more her energy. She really does have a glow about her, it’s like everything seems brighter. " It is like as if she is giving/spreading the energy and not sucking it from others. I like that!
5- Dylan Wang... I want to reiterate here: I am praying for you Lainey!
Thank you for covering him with so much info on Chinese fandom. I had absolutely no clue it was this big!
a) The dreadlocks are a No for me!
b) yes, he did really well at the celebrity game. Even when I was nit oaying attention at the game, I knew he was doing well. How did I know? The screams!!! He touched the ball: *screams* He was on camera: *screams* He scored: more screams! His team won (if I remember well): *celebratory screams*
c) "I’ve heard that sometimes the “head” fans are recruited by the stars’ management." This is wild and dangerous!!! What IF a "head" fan is an insane like a stalker... *shivers*
d) Are the Chinese pop stars/celebrities supposed to stay single forever? How do they handle their private life? Do they slowly introduce their partners in social media or events or candid pap strolls? This is fascinating!
e) I have not seen Love Between Fairy and Devil. But it is on my watch list now. We might be here for a lot of Dylan Wang in the future.
Ps: Praying for you Lainey and thanks again for covering him on the Squawk!