Why is Avan Jogia thirst trapping so hard on TikTok?

Pop Cult is just one of the many (many) ideas in the Daysia/Hannah brain but this one came to be in this moment because it felt like the most lowkey, authentic version of us. The tone is conversational, silly, and a lil gossipy! We hope this newsletter can be a sort of brain break for you when everything else in the world is overwhelming.

Every week we’ll share what is occupying our brain space, keep you updated on if Lorde has dropped a new album (and provide other music news/recs until she does) and link the culture journalism that is taking up all the tabs in our browser. Plus, we’ll have other fun, deranged write ups for you to ponder.

This week Hannah questions where Justin Bieber’s team was when he bemoaned his pop Grammy noms, Daysia investigates if Avan Jogia and Cleopatra Coleman are no more, and we roast Daysia’s boyfriend for not knowing who Chris Evans is.

Welcome to Pop Cult... we’re so happy you joined us!

<3 Daysia & Hannah

P.S. We’d love to hear what you think, your latest obsessions, and pop culture conspiracy theories. Email us at [email protected] or tweet us @popcultletter.

This Week’s Fixations

The random junk we’re obsessed with right now.

Hannah: I can’t get over how good Yuri!!! On Ice is and have (re)watched it approximately 3 times in the past two weeks—ice skating, flirting, and a banging theme song make my heart happy. When I’m not rooting for Yuri to win gold at the Grand Prix Final, I have been listening to Good News, specifically “Sugar Baby” where I just laugh at the sheer genius of Meg’s lyrics. I mean “Buy me everything in my cart if you my boyfriend / Invest in this pussy, boy, support Black business” is some real hot girl shit. Plus I can’t get over 2 Phoebes and a Paul. I genuinely thought it was fake when I first read the news.

Finally, while I’m famously not on TikTok my friend Emma sends me stuff she thinks I’ll like (Timothée Chalamet, Pride & Prejudice, Twilight, and total reads) so that is how I became aware of thisprank (?) by the Kardashian family on all their celebrity friends. I’m amazed by the range of celebs (Justin Bieber, Tyler the Creator, James Charles, Jennifer Lawrence) who all answer their FaceTime so quickly and also how her contacts are saved in her phone (“James charles”, “Tyler”, “Hails B”). But I think the ultimate question is where are the outtakes of the people who didn’t answer—who is screening Kylie’s calls!

Daysia: Tara Reid tried courting Nicole Kidman into her new thriller project Masha’s Mushrooms via Instagram comments. It’s truly bizarre and cringe, and it reminded me of another cringey Tara Reid moment: her catty exchange with Jenny McCarthy on McCarthy’s radio show. The passive-aggressive white womanness of it all is *chef’s kiss* and McCarthy telling Reid “I hope you stay married” will absolutely wreck me for the rest of time.

Where was their team?

This week’s celebrity PR flop.

Justin Bieber complained in an IG post about not being nominated in the R&B category at the Grammys. Not going to waste a lot of words but I will just say that the post currently has a million likes. So I guess a million people don’t know what R&B is? Anyways a picture is worth a thousand words so…

Unhinged Truther Vibes

We’re unpacking celeb rumors, connections, and theories

Avan Jogia and Cleopatra Coleman Split?

You’re probably wondering how I came to this (possible) conclusion. Well, I have no hard evidence, just vibes.

I’m on Avan Jogia TikTok right now, meaning that Mr. Jogia has been very active on the app and I can’t escape him. Not that I’m complaining, I love to look at this man (who doesn’t?). But he’s been thirst trapping hard! In a way that feels like he’s really leaning into his fans’ lust for him. Which is not to say a taken man can’t thirst trap on main, but he’s kinda going in. He was a good sport when reacting to thirst tweets, but this… it hits different man:

In all of his TikToks he’s been solo, and I couldn’t help but wonder: where’s Miss Cleopatra Coleman? Aussie actress and his famously hot girlfriend? Are they even still together? So, I did some light digging on Instagram and here are my key findings:

1. They still follow each other (a good sign).

2. Cleo was in Bulgaria shooting a movie from September to November (she’s booked! she’s busy!) but she appears to have left. They were living together earlier this year, but it doesn’t seem like she’s with him right now. Maybe she’s in quarantine or went to visit her family, but she did post this carousel on Thanksgiving and there’s no trace of Avan in the post, the likes, or the comments.

3. It doesn’t appear that they’ve interacted with each other’s posts since mid-October (would give them the benefit of the doubt if they hadn’t previously been an online couple, but they usually are).

4. He didn’t engage with her birthday post on Oct. 29 (suspicious to me, personally, but perhaps there was an Instagram story I missed).

It is quite possibly just the distance and the time difference that temporarily halted Avan-Cleopatra content. I kind of hope that’s the case because I love this couple. They are gorgeous and sweet and match each other’s artsy actor vibes perfectly. And who could forget that iconic red carpet moment when they cosplayed as Billy Bob Thornton and Angelina Jolie at the premiere of Zombieland: Double Tap, of all places? However, I can’t help but think that Avan is going through a post-breakup thirst trap phase. And with that, I’ll leave you with some of his TikToks to see for yourself:

• “They say I only wanna do fashion. They say I only wanna fuck bitches… that’s true I only kind of wanna do that, but I do a lot of things in addition to that”

• Bunny Ears Avan

• Thirst Trap Billy Loomis Cosplay

• He’s writing a song about “relationships and how complicated they are” and is asking his followers to share their sad stories!!!! (He posted this in the eleventh hour, right before we published this… and now I’m 👀 👀 👀)

Head Empty

A weekly peek inside the mind of the pop culturally uninformed

During the most recent Chrises debate, I discovered that my boyfriend Jacob only knew who one of them was. It was Pratt (unfortunately) because of his roles in Parks and Rec and Guardians of the Galaxy (which he hasn’t even seen). I was shocked that he had no idea who Chris Evans was because, despite the fact that all four Chrises are A-List, Evans is probably the most famous. And of all people that occupied even a tiny bit of space in his head… Pratt is the one who holds that space? He knows that Pratt is in Guardians of the Galaxy (a personal favorite of mine, but an objectively B-tier Marvel movie) but does not know that Evans is Captain America (or that Hemsworth is Thor, but I digress)? Tragic. I asked Jacob a few questions about what else he knows about the Chrises.

Jacob: I know that three of them are in the Marvel franchise because I know Pratt is, and I know Captain America and Thor are played by men named Chris who are not the same man. That would make The Avengers really hard to cast. But I could not tell you which Chris plays who and I could not tell you the two out of [Evans, Hemsworth, and Pine] that play [Captain America and Thor]. I think one of them is in another movie that I like, but I couldn’t tell you what it is. There’s one that looks douchey, but that doesn’t help you.

Daysia: Let’s focus on Evans who I think is the most known Chris. Which of the roles that you mentioned do you think he plays?

J: When I think of Chris Evans, I think he’s the one I was thinking of when I think of this douchey character in a movie that I saw. He had a toothpick a lot, and he does have a beard and a really short haircut.

D: He’s a Massachusetts boi. He was in Knives Out last year. I don’t know if you’ve seen that?

J: Okay I think that’s the character that I have in my head actually. I didn’t see Knives Out. The director broke down some scene for [Vanity Fair]. Chris Evans is sitting in a chair very douchily and just being an asshole the whole time. That’s the character I have in my head when I think of Chris Evans. (Ed. note: yes, he eventually figured out that Evans is also Captain America. He ID’d Hemsworth as Thor but has never seen Pine in his life).

Has Lorde dropped a new album?

No! : (

But apparently “there’s a thing” and we just have to wait for Lorde to finish the process of figuring out “the whole cinematic universe” of what she’s making (Marvel called and said they trademarked that term).

Also, in a detailed and well-crafted email she informed us about her trip to Antarctica last year (??) and that she put together a book of images and writing from the trip. But bless the internet for taking these scraps and keeping us fed (see below) as we languish for the forthcoming (fingers crossed!) third album.

In the meantime, listen to Plastic Hearts—Miley has been telling us from the beginning that she might even be a rockstar but with this album she proves it. We love rock n roll Miley!! We’re also really obsessed with the album’s promo website. MILEYspace??? Her mind. Also, if anyone is dying to know what’s on Daysia’s Christmas list, it is THIS bikini t-shirt.

Too Many Tabs

Our fave reads of the week

Kerensa Cadenas’ Q&A with Billie Piper in The Cut might have just convinced us to splurge on an HBO Max subscription to watch the forthcoming I Hate Suzie.

Say what you will about the Cazzie David Discourse but one of the better things to come out of this period was Lorde interviewing Cazzie in Interview.

You’re a clown if you thought Rihanna was dating A$AP Rocky! Hunter Harris sets the record straight in Vulture.

Plus… Hugh Grant comes undone, what we learned from pop culture's department stores, and hyperpop is the queer, boundless future of music.