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If there is one thing that I most certainly am, it’s highly susceptible to celebrity endorsements and brand partnerships. I don’t mean in the hashtag #Ad on Instagram way, though, I mean that if a celebrity I like puts their face on a product or attaches their name to it, I’m probably going to be suckered into buying it if it aligns with my personal interests. So, when world-famous supermodel, philanthropist, and horse girl Bella Hadid announced last Wednesday that she was now the co-founder and COO of a health beverage called Kin Euphorics, the first thing I did upon seeing her three-part post spree was tip tap my hot little fingers over to their website’s store locator.

Hi, fellow clowns! Friday! How are you all doing? The cool thing about Friday mornings is that your brain already starts detaching from your job, and then you barely get anything done for the rest of the day. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anybody. Your secret is safe with me. Turns out a lot of people really liked reading about my foray into ketchup carbonara… ncG1vNJzZmien6Sxqr%2FSraypoZRjwLau0q2YnKNemLyue89oqq6ao5i%2Fqq7Eq6pmp56hxm61jK2pop2UYrimwMKhrKk%3D

As it got closer to 7pm on Saturday night, we'd start to slowly get ready. By summer 1992, we'd been doing this every weekend for 5 years. Our suitcases were already re-packed after the previous week's show. Costumes that needed mending had been mended. We didn't wash our costumes every week. We probably should have. About once a month we'd look them over to see if they needed new sequins, if our fishnets were too laddered to wear, if make-up needed replenishing.

Many of you know that, a few weeks ago, YouTube deleted my conversation with John McWhorter and Mark Goldblatt, claiming that it contained hate speech. We entered an appeal requesting that they review the decision and put the video back up, but the deletion was upheld. I think I know what section of the video YouTube believes to be hate speech. But it’s speculation on my part, since they offer no explanation whatsoever as to the specific reasoning behind their decision.

My review of Caroline Calloway’s Scammer. It actually arrived. For the better part of ten years I’ve been a Caroline Calloway watcher. I remember scrolling her Instagram on our trampoline in Summer 2014. I remember reading the infamous The Cut ‘I was Caroline Calloway’ essay by her bad art friend Natalie Beach, in the shared tutor office at my University job, in September 2019.  Caroline Calloway is part New York it-girl, part ‘Gatsby of Cambridge’, part internet problematic not-fave.

In late 2006, the now seemingly defunct websiteCHUD.com ran anarticle headlined “What if They Released a Movie and Nobody Came?” The movie in question was Zyzzyx Road and what was supposed to be an under-the-radar release to satisfy a SAG requirement quickly became a story picked upby Entertainment Weekly and other outlets. The reason: Zyzzyx Road earned a mere $30, making it the lowest-grossing film in history. There were a few other factors contributing to the surge in interest in a low-budget thriller, including the casting of Katherine Heigl, a magnet for schadenfreude in the high-Gawker ’00s.

You may recall that I wrote many months ago about the disinformation campaign being peddled by the film, Israelism.  Well, I invested the $5 to watch it so you do not have to waste your money, time, or energy trying not to hurl a glass at your tv screen in disgust. A brainchild of some the most virulently anti-Zionist activists on the scene today (think Noam Chomsky, Cornell West, Peter Beinart, and Jeremy Ben Ami, each of whom get a cameo), the film purports to tell the story of how American Jews are indoctrinated from childhood to believe in Israel’s centrality to their Jewish identity, its necessity for the security of the Jewish people, and its utter perfection and flawlessness.

Welcome to Gibson Johns’ pop culture newsletter — subscribe to get recommendations of what to watch, read and listen to in your inbox every week!Whew, where do we even begin? Yesterday, “America’s Got Talent” judge Howie Mandel revealed on something called the “H3 Podcast” that Tom Sandoval from “Vanderpump Rules” was doing his first tell-all interview about Scandoval on Howie’s podcast, to be released today. Other than his initial statements on Instagram, this would indeed be Sandoval’s first time publicly speaking about Scandoval (other than whatever he taped for “Pump Rules” that hasn’t aired yet).

Welcome readers, old and new! Please hit the ❤️ above to cook the turkey faster. As I write this, it’s my last week in Tokyo before heading back to New York. I’d planned to use my final days catching up on visits to a few museums and parks. But last night, right before my granddaughter, M, and her dad produced a luscious (if dented) strawberry shortcake and serenaded me with a heartfelt (if off-key) birthday song, I stubbed my pinky toe—hard.