Taylor mania in Toronto, Kate’s cancer sideshow, Trump's impact on Hollywood, PEOPLE's biggest SMA victory, on directorial control, levels of fame and sleeping on Canadians, and Gooping broth
i think the people who obsess and theorize over the british royal family sound as deranged as the maga whackos these days. i had to stop reading celebitchy bc of this. completely unhinged.
The main writer at Celebitchy DESPISES Kate, and I've never really understood why. Kvetching about the number of buttons on her coats? Her hair? Her speaking voice? Come on. Why pile on Kate when Andrew is RIGHT THERE?
Unhinged is an apt word. It feels like punting food at someone in a cafeteria. There's a reason why I've culled a lot of the sites I used to frequent, and I won't give the blatantly unkind ones any clicks.
Came to say exactly this! I appreciate the approach to the royals here at LG, try to not have it be personal and keep it to the media strategy public reaction. Celebitchy went so off the deep end, I can't read it.
"So the way I’m approaching the Kate coverage is: that she had cancer, which fucking sucks, she was treated, and she’s going to manage the recovery."
A perfect response to a weirdly hostile question.
Kate might be one of the world's most famous women, but she's still an emotional human being with three kids who surely need her, and it seems tacky and more than a little grotesque to gossip about her health and speculate about the info we've already been provided.
She owes the public zero updates or explanations, IMO.
It was a weirdly hostile question! And I agree, a perfect response. I don't understand the anti-Kate anger on this issue - it's not like any stage of cancerous cells are good news, and it clearly was something that needed to be taken seriously. I guess I understand side-eyeing any communication that comes from royal family given their track record, but on this particular issue - the health of someone who has young kids that someday might read some of this toxic negativity - the speculation is so far off-side.
I wonder if the "Kate doesn't have cancer" tinhatters realize how much they sound like every other conspiracy theorist. Probably not. I just read Doppelganger by Naomi Klein and her analysis of why so many people believe abject lies and delusions over the mundane truth was very revealing.
Krasinski was a dull choice (damn, I really thought I had it in the bag with my Joshua Jackson prediction) but he's 100% what the SMA issue wants and he gave it to them. Plus I'm sure he was happy to spin away a few not-great headlines of his own (everyone listen to The Town podcast!)
I don't think Zachary Levi is ready to commit himself totally to being another pro-Trump professional blowhard. That requires a way thicker skin and "no effs to give" mentality than he has. He doesn't strike me as someone who the MAGA crowd will welcome with open arms anyway.
One Trump-related Hollywood thing I am willing to make a call on - I think this more thoroughly guarantees Sebastian Stan an Oscar nomination for The Apprentice. He should get it for A Different Man but hey, the Academy loves to pretend it's politically vital and this seems like one obvious way to do it in a very dry year for Best Actor.
I don't know. There's a lot of fear about Trump's potential reprisals to people that he doesn't like. I sort of expect The Apprentice to disappear into a void and for everyone to pretend like it was never made.
I appreciate your take on the 'Goop broth' topic - the whitewashing and mis-characterization of non-western traditional medicine is part of the dangerous misinformation that is the basis of the 'wellness' world. The message we are getting is that it is an either/or situation - it's either 'big pharma' or 'natural.' Those soups look and sound amazing!
Thank you so much for your response to my question Lainey! I can only imagine how frustrating it would be to see your culture consistently appropriated and white washed. I used to live near San Francisco China town and am ashamed to say I did turn my nose up at much of what was sold there. Many years later, and I’m humbling learning more about all the amazing aspects of Chinese medicine.
I have the good fortune to have my stepmom's mom as an active figure in my life (I call her Grandma). She's Chinese and Vietnamese, and she's all about those soups that Lainey mentioned. The last time I was home she served a kind of *dessert* soup, which I didn't even know existed, honestly. And she is ALL about health - she'll ask me a billion questions about my bodily functions and has zero chill about privacy, LOL. I love her.
I went along on a business trip to San Francisco with my dad as a kid, and got a horrible cold shortly after arriving there, thanks to the weather. My dad bought some kind of Chinese medicine that did NOT taste great, but I remember that it blasted that cold right out of my body in a way that sugary Triaminic never could.
I live 2 blocks from an old school Chinese medicine practitioner (it’s why we bought this house!! What more could you ask for?) and have a special clay pot for my herbs and the family complains about all of it and IDGAF! This stuff works!!!
We are also very lucky in Denver to have several wholesale herbal places that get literally everything you need. I can’t recommend it highly enough- see a proper herbalist there has to be something near wherever you are! If not come visit!
I just thank the good lord that they saw fit to give us the resurgence of Adam Brody as Hot Rabbi this year so I could redirect my thirst for cute nerdy boys I loved in the early '00s from Zachary Levi to him.
The continuing conspiracy theories about Kate (her illness, the state of her marriage to Will) man, at a certain point you’ve got to admit that a) you’re never going to be able to prove that it’s true and b) if it IS true, then what? A member of the royal family had a troubled marriage—which of them DOESNT? Sometimes the easiest solution is the simplest, and I think here we just have to admit that Kate was ill and their PR people made that situation into the mess it was. End of.
I’m not Kate’s biggest fan, I dislike how for so long she was praised for doing the bare minimum, if that, but we don’t need to turn to misogynistic talking points to view her, or the royal family as a whole, with a critical eye.
As a historian, I am 100% confident that Trump will be absolutely EVISERATED by future historians and will top every "worst president" list for perpetuity. It's small comfort but history will not be kind to him, as is only right.
And as a former political reporter, I think the midterm elections are going to *very* interesting, because I think the buyer's remorse is going to kick in hard probably 6 months or so down the road, next summer. And eviscerated sounds about right, just like Joseph McCarthy.
In 2016, I thought "economic anxiety" was a very thin veil for pretty obvious bigoted reasons for supporting him. This time I do think the economy is a huge factor because people are really feeling the hurt from post-covid inflation (and price gouging!). But if he goes through with the tariffs it's only going to get worse and then the leopards will truly have eaten all the faces.
Deporting the immigrants who do the bulk of the hard work in the agriculture sector is also going to increase food prices in the states significantly. The dirty secret about illegal immigration is that it exists because there is a demand for it and the lower paid labour is baked in for the top to make more profit. But it is a lot easier to blame to non white immigrant for not having a long term steady job than the capitalist elite who moved the well paying jobs outside of the country.
Yes, and you can harvest wheat without immigrants but you can’t pick blueberries or peaches with giant machines. US fruit and veg farmers are in trouble.
I agree. So many people are about to be hurt by the economy (some voters for him, some none) and it makes me so upset. But we need SOMETHING to bring about a reckoning.
I am *praying* that it makes way for an FDR-like overhaul of our infrastructure and social safety nets.
There is enough with that documentary showing William and Charles to be slumlords. The Kate stuff is a distraction from the real issue of how the British taxpayers are getting screwed big time.
Omg THANK YOU. Stop shoveling this stupid conspiracy nonsense and let us get to the whole SLUMLORDS who don’t pay TAXES and charge the NHS and other public institutions for daring to use their buildings!!!!!
I don't like Kate much for the same reasons as you but to accuse someone of lying about cancer is heavy stuff. I don't believe it but if she did, she'd have to live with that because WHOA. (To be clear, I do not believe she's lying about her health.) The marriage stuff is also BORING. IMO, they will never separate.
Exactly! The Palace absolutely bungled the PR, and there is no reason to think the eventual reveal isn’t true. And I agree, I think whatever else, Kate went into this marriage with her eyes wide open about what it would mean, and I do not see them ever separating.
It doesn’t help that once the video where she literally stated she is now cancer free was aired, the PR following that was then “well ok that doesn’t exactly mean that”. It’s just been a whole massive mess when the way Charles has handled the same issue was far better.
Another Canadian who comes to mind is Jared Keeso (Letterkenny, Shoresy). I know he has a cult following in the US and he also has stated no desire to expand to Hollywood. But he's talent I think is under-known and underrated.
Until “ tradwives” dies off and poor infrastructure gets fixed by the government, we won’t be seeing the “minivan majority” completely vanish. In fact its multiplying. We saw this with elections. Places who were dem majority like New Jersey flipped RED and beat Bidens blue. As some one who lived in Kentucky for example, a big reason they are so inept at voting blue and being more open minded is A) Poor infrastructure. Majority of KY doesnt even have internet access and/or EMAIL. Like who the fuck doesnt have internet in AMERICA ?! so how can those types of people become minivan MINORITY?! As it stands, its not even possible until they atleast get internet access on their side lol and that requires government intervention which (Gov Beshear is doing a great job but still longgg way to go) Part of my life mission at this point is to talk some sense into these conservative clowns. I have gone as far as giving them examples on why theres more to life than just going to church and backing trump but they never want to accept it cause they have no internet, and/or can’t decipher between fact and fiction. And the storm that awaits is when all these millennial men get older they will just turn more red leaning and we will be even more doomed. We are already seeing the impacts of it. So long story short: “minivan majority” wont just disappear. I predict its gonna expand SORRY GUYS😫
I know more conservative millenials than liberal. Trust me, I get in arguments with them all the time lol
White working class resentment gets turned into conservative values because they don’t understand that their heroes like Elon have moved the jobs they used to have out of the country or replaced them with machines. The media letting the right use culture wars as a cover for the failure of capitalism for the majority is why this will always work. Too bad they elected someone who directly benefited from crony capitalism and will only make it worse.
Dems need to push left on labour issues in particular and while Biden and Harris did seek the union support, there are so many Americans in right to work states that don’t benefit from unions at all. From Gen x on (thanks Reagan) the middle class and working class has received less and started to shrink. But explaining this requires a complete discussion on how capitalism is not great, not in its current form anyway. Dems are too corporate to push where they need to go. The attraction to Bernie was because he was the only one speaking to those issues significantly. Schumer and Pelosi need to step out of the limelight because they are the problem here. They are corporate and not labour. Biden had more labour credentials. Harris might have been able to get there but she didn’t have time to make that link.
There will always be a section of white people who are just racist and want to blame immigrants but a lot of the resentment is more because the jobs their boomer parents had don’t exist anymore.
Would love if you and/or your Ma would/could share a template of one of her soups! I shop at Hmart irregularly (I would go all the time if it weren't so far from my house), and while I do make bone broth, I love using chicken feet because of all the collagen, so I'm not put off by Asian ingredients! Also, as someone who has treasured the BTS-kpop-drama pipeline in my life, I would love to expand my palette into more Chinese culture!
So happy to see The Beaches get a shout out! They were my first post covid gig (I loved their album Late Show) and they blew the doors off. Loads of great Vancouver bands right now too, Peach Pit, Babe Corner, & Bob Moses are faves of mine.
I'd absolutely kill for a recommendation on a Chinese soup focussed recipe book, that doesn't dumb down or whitewash the ingredients, and even touches on what certain ingredients target/or are good for.
One of the things I love about Najmieh Batmanglij's Persian cookbooks are that some of them have a section in the back explaining the theory of "hot" or "cold" ingredients, listing them out, and then noting throughout the book where something is supposed to be good for a cold or fever, etc. I remember my grandmother (Indian not Persian) also talking about hot and cold ingredients and when you should or shouldn't have them. I'm also a sucker for cookbooks that incorporate discussion of Ayurvedic properties of ingredients. All of this to say, I'd absolutely love any rec you might have!
Oh why would you ask for the next Schitt’s Creek??? Canada hides its treasures!!!!!!! THEY DONT SHARE!!! (I rant about this weekly in The Squawk!!!)
Go watch Single All the Way on Netflix, the GREATEST Holiday story ever told, then look up every single actor (ALL CANADIAN!!!) and what they are doing now and next. That’s your list of everything amazing Canada wants to keep for itself!!! 🇨🇦🍁
i think the people who obsess and theorize over the british royal family sound as deranged as the maga whackos these days. i had to stop reading celebitchy bc of this. completely unhinged.
The main writer at Celebitchy DESPISES Kate, and I've never really understood why. Kvetching about the number of buttons on her coats? Her hair? Her speaking voice? Come on. Why pile on Kate when Andrew is RIGHT THERE?
Unhinged is an apt word. It feels like punting food at someone in a cafeteria. There's a reason why I've culled a lot of the sites I used to frequent, and I won't give the blatantly unkind ones any clicks.
Celebitchy should be renamed to KateHate. I swear they hate Kate more than they love the suxxeses.
Came to say exactly this! I appreciate the approach to the royals here at LG, try to not have it be personal and keep it to the media strategy public reaction. Celebitchy went so off the deep end, I can't read it.
100%. The Pro-Sussex vs Pro-Wales fights are INSANE. Wondering if this thread will see some of that
The name calling on that site is very Trumpy.
"So the way I’m approaching the Kate coverage is: that she had cancer, which fucking sucks, she was treated, and she’s going to manage the recovery."
A perfect response to a weirdly hostile question.
Kate might be one of the world's most famous women, but she's still an emotional human being with three kids who surely need her, and it seems tacky and more than a little grotesque to gossip about her health and speculate about the info we've already been provided.
She owes the public zero updates or explanations, IMO.
It was a weirdly hostile question! And I agree, a perfect response. I don't understand the anti-Kate anger on this issue - it's not like any stage of cancerous cells are good news, and it clearly was something that needed to be taken seriously. I guess I understand side-eyeing any communication that comes from royal family given their track record, but on this particular issue - the health of someone who has young kids that someday might read some of this toxic negativity - the speculation is so far off-side.
I wonder if the "Kate doesn't have cancer" tinhatters realize how much they sound like every other conspiracy theorist. Probably not. I just read Doppelganger by Naomi Klein and her analysis of why so many people believe abject lies and delusions over the mundane truth was very revealing.
Krasinski was a dull choice (damn, I really thought I had it in the bag with my Joshua Jackson prediction) but he's 100% what the SMA issue wants and he gave it to them. Plus I'm sure he was happy to spin away a few not-great headlines of his own (everyone listen to The Town podcast!)
I don't think Zachary Levi is ready to commit himself totally to being another pro-Trump professional blowhard. That requires a way thicker skin and "no effs to give" mentality than he has. He doesn't strike me as someone who the MAGA crowd will welcome with open arms anyway.
One Trump-related Hollywood thing I am willing to make a call on - I think this more thoroughly guarantees Sebastian Stan an Oscar nomination for The Apprentice. He should get it for A Different Man but hey, the Academy loves to pretend it's politically vital and this seems like one obvious way to do it in a very dry year for Best Actor.
I don't know. There's a lot of fear about Trump's potential reprisals to people that he doesn't like. I sort of expect The Apprentice to disappear into a void and for everyone to pretend like it was never made.
As someone who loved the show Chuck back in college, it is SUCH a bummer to see how Zachary Levi has turned out. Good god.
Same for me. He seemed like this charismatic actor that could do it all (comedy, action, musical theatre, drama). UGH, what a colossal disappointment.
Yessssss.
Is the SMA usually married? I wonder his divorce is why Pacey didn’t get it.
I appreciate your take on the 'Goop broth' topic - the whitewashing and mis-characterization of non-western traditional medicine is part of the dangerous misinformation that is the basis of the 'wellness' world. The message we are getting is that it is an either/or situation - it's either 'big pharma' or 'natural.' Those soups look and sound amazing!
“It’s giving Goo broth” should be our new shorthand for stupid wellness quackery.
Ugh. “Goop broth”. Stupid autocorrect.
Thank you so much for your response to my question Lainey! I can only imagine how frustrating it would be to see your culture consistently appropriated and white washed. I used to live near San Francisco China town and am ashamed to say I did turn my nose up at much of what was sold there. Many years later, and I’m humbling learning more about all the amazing aspects of Chinese medicine.
Girl. We all have our learning to do. I’m right there with you. One day if you have the opportunity I hope you get some real soup!
(Sidebar: whyyyyy is Substack cutting off comments like this?!?)
I have the good fortune to have my stepmom's mom as an active figure in my life (I call her Grandma). She's Chinese and Vietnamese, and she's all about those soups that Lainey mentioned. The last time I was home she served a kind of *dessert* soup, which I didn't even know existed, honestly. And she is ALL about health - she'll ask me a billion questions about my bodily functions and has zero chill about privacy, LOL. I love her.
I went along on a business trip to San Francisco with my dad as a kid, and got a horrible cold shortly after arriving there, thanks to the weather. My dad bought some kind of Chinese medicine that did NOT taste great, but I remember that it blasted that cold right out of my body in a way that sugary Triaminic never could.
And you are SO LUCKY!!!!!!!! You don’t understand how badly I want a Cantonese grandma.
I live 2 blocks from an old school Chinese medicine practitioner (it’s why we bought this house!! What more could you ask for?) and have a special clay pot for my herbs and the family complains about all of it and IDGAF! This stuff works!!!
We are also very lucky in Denver to have several wholesale herbal places that get literally everything you need. I can’t recommend it highly enough- see a proper herbalist there has to be something near wherever you are! If not come visit!
I just thank the good lord that they saw fit to give us the resurgence of Adam Brody as Hot Rabbi this year so I could redirect my thirst for cute nerdy boys I loved in the early '00s from Zachary Levi to him.
“Joanne via email” called Lainey a coward. I dissent.
The continuing conspiracy theories about Kate (her illness, the state of her marriage to Will) man, at a certain point you’ve got to admit that a) you’re never going to be able to prove that it’s true and b) if it IS true, then what? A member of the royal family had a troubled marriage—which of them DOESNT? Sometimes the easiest solution is the simplest, and I think here we just have to admit that Kate was ill and their PR people made that situation into the mess it was. End of.
I’m not Kate’s biggest fan, I dislike how for so long she was praised for doing the bare minimum, if that, but we don’t need to turn to misogynistic talking points to view her, or the royal family as a whole, with a critical eye.
I also wanted to add that Sarah’s answer about how Trump and his supporters will age was the most comforting thing I’ve read in a while, fyi.
As a historian, I am 100% confident that Trump will be absolutely EVISERATED by future historians and will top every "worst president" list for perpetuity. It's small comfort but history will not be kind to him, as is only right.
And as a former political reporter, I think the midterm elections are going to *very* interesting, because I think the buyer's remorse is going to kick in hard probably 6 months or so down the road, next summer. And eviscerated sounds about right, just like Joseph McCarthy.
In 2016, I thought "economic anxiety" was a very thin veil for pretty obvious bigoted reasons for supporting him. This time I do think the economy is a huge factor because people are really feeling the hurt from post-covid inflation (and price gouging!). But if he goes through with the tariffs it's only going to get worse and then the leopards will truly have eaten all the faces.
Deporting the immigrants who do the bulk of the hard work in the agriculture sector is also going to increase food prices in the states significantly. The dirty secret about illegal immigration is that it exists because there is a demand for it and the lower paid labour is baked in for the top to make more profit. But it is a lot easier to blame to non white immigrant for not having a long term steady job than the capitalist elite who moved the well paying jobs outside of the country.
Yeah it's going to be a shitshow.
Yes, and you can harvest wheat without immigrants but you can’t pick blueberries or peaches with giant machines. US fruit and veg farmers are in trouble.
I agree. So many people are about to be hurt by the economy (some voters for him, some none) and it makes me so upset. But we need SOMETHING to bring about a reckoning.
I am *praying* that it makes way for an FDR-like overhaul of our infrastructure and social safety nets.
There is enough with that documentary showing William and Charles to be slumlords. The Kate stuff is a distraction from the real issue of how the British taxpayers are getting screwed big time.
Omg THANK YOU. Stop shoveling this stupid conspiracy nonsense and let us get to the whole SLUMLORDS who don’t pay TAXES and charge the NHS and other public institutions for daring to use their buildings!!!!!
THIS!!!
I don't like Kate much for the same reasons as you but to accuse someone of lying about cancer is heavy stuff. I don't believe it but if she did, she'd have to live with that because WHOA. (To be clear, I do not believe she's lying about her health.) The marriage stuff is also BORING. IMO, they will never separate.
Exactly! The Palace absolutely bungled the PR, and there is no reason to think the eventual reveal isn’t true. And I agree, I think whatever else, Kate went into this marriage with her eyes wide open about what it would mean, and I do not see them ever separating.
It doesn’t help that once the video where she literally stated she is now cancer free was aired, the PR following that was then “well ok that doesn’t exactly mean that”. It’s just been a whole massive mess when the way Charles has handled the same issue was far better.
Another Canadian who comes to mind is Jared Keeso (Letterkenny, Shoresy). I know he has a cult following in the US and he also has stated no desire to expand to Hollywood. But he's talent I think is under-known and underrated.
Until “ tradwives” dies off and poor infrastructure gets fixed by the government, we won’t be seeing the “minivan majority” completely vanish. In fact its multiplying. We saw this with elections. Places who were dem majority like New Jersey flipped RED and beat Bidens blue. As some one who lived in Kentucky for example, a big reason they are so inept at voting blue and being more open minded is A) Poor infrastructure. Majority of KY doesnt even have internet access and/or EMAIL. Like who the fuck doesnt have internet in AMERICA ?! so how can those types of people become minivan MINORITY?! As it stands, its not even possible until they atleast get internet access on their side lol and that requires government intervention which (Gov Beshear is doing a great job but still longgg way to go) Part of my life mission at this point is to talk some sense into these conservative clowns. I have gone as far as giving them examples on why theres more to life than just going to church and backing trump but they never want to accept it cause they have no internet, and/or can’t decipher between fact and fiction. And the storm that awaits is when all these millennial men get older they will just turn more red leaning and we will be even more doomed. We are already seeing the impacts of it. So long story short: “minivan majority” wont just disappear. I predict its gonna expand SORRY GUYS😫
I know more conservative millenials than liberal. Trust me, I get in arguments with them all the time lol
White working class resentment gets turned into conservative values because they don’t understand that their heroes like Elon have moved the jobs they used to have out of the country or replaced them with machines. The media letting the right use culture wars as a cover for the failure of capitalism for the majority is why this will always work. Too bad they elected someone who directly benefited from crony capitalism and will only make it worse.
Dems need to push left on labour issues in particular and while Biden and Harris did seek the union support, there are so many Americans in right to work states that don’t benefit from unions at all. From Gen x on (thanks Reagan) the middle class and working class has received less and started to shrink. But explaining this requires a complete discussion on how capitalism is not great, not in its current form anyway. Dems are too corporate to push where they need to go. The attraction to Bernie was because he was the only one speaking to those issues significantly. Schumer and Pelosi need to step out of the limelight because they are the problem here. They are corporate and not labour. Biden had more labour credentials. Harris might have been able to get there but she didn’t have time to make that link.
There will always be a section of white people who are just racist and want to blame immigrants but a lot of the resentment is more because the jobs their boomer parents had don’t exist anymore.
Would love if you and/or your Ma would/could share a template of one of her soups! I shop at Hmart irregularly (I would go all the time if it weren't so far from my house), and while I do make bone broth, I love using chicken feet because of all the collagen, so I'm not put off by Asian ingredients! Also, as someone who has treasured the BTS-kpop-drama pipeline in my life, I would love to expand my palette into more Chinese culture!
Trying to replicate Lainey’s ma’s soup recipes would be incredible.
The Beaches' lead singer looks so much like Britney to me! (Thx for the intro, Lainey!) Forever The Beaches, NOT The Beach!
So happy to see The Beaches get a shout out! They were my first post covid gig (I loved their album Late Show) and they blew the doors off. Loads of great Vancouver bands right now too, Peach Pit, Babe Corner, & Bob Moses are faves of mine.
The Beaches!! Blame My Ex is a killer album. Going to check out the other bands you've listed here - thanks for the recs.
If anyone is near a T&T grocery store, they have pre-portioned Chinese soup packages with the herbs, bones, vegetables, dried ingredients etc.
I'd absolutely kill for a recommendation on a Chinese soup focussed recipe book, that doesn't dumb down or whitewash the ingredients, and even touches on what certain ingredients target/or are good for.
One of the things I love about Najmieh Batmanglij's Persian cookbooks are that some of them have a section in the back explaining the theory of "hot" or "cold" ingredients, listing them out, and then noting throughout the book where something is supposed to be good for a cold or fever, etc. I remember my grandmother (Indian not Persian) also talking about hot and cold ingredients and when you should or shouldn't have them. I'm also a sucker for cookbooks that incorporate discussion of Ayurvedic properties of ingredients. All of this to say, I'd absolutely love any rec you might have!
Oh why would you ask for the next Schitt’s Creek??? Canada hides its treasures!!!!!!! THEY DONT SHARE!!! (I rant about this weekly in The Squawk!!!)
Go watch Single All the Way on Netflix, the GREATEST Holiday story ever told, then look up every single actor (ALL CANADIAN!!!) and what they are doing now and next. That’s your list of everything amazing Canada wants to keep for itself!!! 🇨🇦🍁
People magazine is gonna be making MONEY in a few decades. And if they roll out merch like Trump, they will get even richer😡
Gen z doesn’t read magazines. Millennials barely do. It will be social media where the minivan goes.