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Did Olivia Jade deserve to be healed on Red Table Talk?

December 11, 2020

There was so much pop culture mess this week that it was difficult to decide what to cover! In this week’s Pop Cult, Hannah investigates whether Rihanna and A$AP Rocky are actually an item and Daysia rants about the disgraceful Winx Club reboot. Plus, Hannah’s thoughts about the new Gossip Girl reboot and Daysia’s embarrassment over Olivia Jade’s Red Table Talk episode. Hope you enjoy!

<3 Hannah and Daysia

P.S. Thank you so much for the support and feedback on our first issue! It warmed our hearts (we have one brain but have separate hearts). Questions, tips, and rants can be shared with us at [email protected] or over on @popcultletter on Twitter. 

This Week’s Fixations

What’s taking up our brain space this week?

Hannah: I can’t stop thinking about the photos that have come out from the set of the Gossip Girl reboot. I’m both nervous and extremely excited. The 2020 take on prep school fashion! Tavi! Kristen Bell reviving her voiceover role! I love the OG Gossip Girl, like earlier this year when Chace Crawford and Penn Badgley did Actors on Actors and spent like 70% of the time talking about Gossip Girl I fully died. I feel like we don’t talk about Penn Badgley enough (as in we should be talking about him at least once a day). 

And speaking of photos I can’t get over these handsome portraits that Mr. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II shared on social (which Daysia shared with me). I just felt it was important that I bring this to everyone’s attention. We should be talking about Yahya Abdul-Mateen II at least twice a day btw. 

Rounding out my brain space is thinking about how perfect the movie Rock of Ages is (I watched it on Sunday). Casting? On point (and stacked!). Soundtrack? Impeccable. Diego Boneta pretending he wrote “Don’t Stop Believin’” after meeting Julianne Hough? Incredible! I dare you not to sing along to Tom Cruise as Stacee Jaxx belting “Pour Some Sugar On Me.”

Daysia: Let’s start with something good! Ariana Grande is releasing excuse me, i love you, a sweetener tour film, and I am very excited about it. Ari has been through it over the past few years and it looks like we’re going to see how it really affected her. A behind-the-scenes look at the tour backed by two of her most vulnerable and personal albums? It’s bound to be emotional. Plus we all know she’s a stellar live performer, so I’m ready to see it!

Next, why does Netflix have to Riverdale my favorite childhood fairies? Kinda rude! If you haven’t heard, Netflix is rebooting Winx Club into a dark, teen drama called Fate: The Winx Saga. I watched the trailer and was so bummed out! My initial gripes are as follows: 1) my favorite thing about the Winx fairies growing up was their incredible fits and they gave us none of that; 2) they fully got rid of two of the original fairies? Flora (my favorite) and Tecna are nowhere to be seen. Flora seems to be replaced by Terra (who??) and there is no one standing in for Tecna; 3) they seem to have whitewashed Musa (who is modeled after Lucy Liu) and replaced Flora (who is modeled after J-Lo) with a white fairy. I have so many questions, but my main one is why are they doing this? There was something else bothering me about the gloomy, colorless reboot of Winx Club and I couldn’t quite place it. After further scrolling on the internet, I found this tweet that summed it up perfectly:

Finally, did you watch the Olivia Jade Red Table Talk? I was so shy watching this, I couldn’t get through the whole thing. Her behavior is peak caucacity. Gammy basically laid out all of the arguments against hosting Olivia Jade at the top of the episode, and it basically just got cringier from there. It is such a hollow attempt at a redemption arc. Throughout the entire episode, Olivia Jade “acknowledges” her privilege then tries to excuse the ways she’s benefited from it by saying that she didn’t understand it. Huh? Is that supposed to make me feel more sympathetic toward her? Because it doesn’t.

I think her intentions were made very clear once she started talking about her volunteering efforts. She said she wanted to “work with something (read: underprivileged children) and feel good,” but her feeling better about herself is not really the point is it? The apologies are more for her conscience than anything else and as Gammy said, it’s exhausting. Also, I would fucking die if I came onto RTT and Gammy looked at me like this.

Bonus, I came across this terrible story! Matthew Morrison said that his Grinch performance was inspired by Joaquin Phoenix’s performance in Joker… filing that under toxic white man behavior! 

Unhinged Truther Vibes

Rihanna and A$AP Rocky official? As I see it, no. 

Okay, so after sharing this article in last week’s issue a few people wanted us to investigate whether Rihanna and A$AP Rocky are actually dating. (Fair, this article is from back in January but spoiler alert I still think it’s right as I’m skeptical of the evidence.) 

This all seems to track back to a couple of People articles (this one and this one) with exclusive sources which credits sightings of Rihanna and A$AP Rocky together around New York and the fact that “they have a lot in common” as evidence that they are in a relationship. Okaaaaay, sure. 

Some other context that people point out: 

  • Rumors have been swirling since January after Rihanna seemingly broke off her three-year relationship with Hassan Jameel (an actual billionaire!). 

  • Combine that with A$AP Rocky being featured in the Fenty skin campaign this summer and the subsequent cute promovideos. 

  • Plus a history of working together since 2012 (with the song “Cockiness (Love It)”) and then A$AP Rocky opening on tour for Rihanna a year later. 

With all the above I can see how fans have hoped Rihanna and A$AP Rocky have finally found love in the hopeless place that is 2020. However, this skeptic is going to need more concrete evidence before officially saying that they are an official item. Until then, I’m siding with Hunter Harris and considering you all clowns. 

Has Lorde dropped a new album? 

Nope and not even a hint of when we could possibly expect it. I’m manifesting a 2021 release (please join me). Meanwhile, Taylor is out here dropping a surprise second album. My inner Swiftie rejoices but I weep as a Lorde fan (I famously don’t know what any fans are called). 

I’ve been debating whether to get Melodrama on vinyl just to have the illusion of something new for myself. But that would also require me buying a record player to actually listen to the record. And while I love Lorde, I’m not sure if I love her that much. 

Until I really make up my mind about the vinyl (and record player) something that comforts me, personally, is reliving the magic of the Melodrama tour by listening to a playlist of the set list. (I took great care to write down the set list in my Notes app when I saw the show in Boston waaay back in 2018.) This even includes a YouTube to MP3 version of her cover of “Solo”by Frank Ocean (from the Vancouver show, alas). And then I’m always surprised when “Yellow Flicker Beat”comes on and even more surprised when I remember Miss Yelich-O’Connor wrote this song for the Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Pt. 1 soundtrack which she also curated waaaaay back in 2014! 

In the meantime, Troye Sivan (and his mullet) released a single with Kacey Musgraves and Mark Ronson— “Easy” makes for easy listening that perfectly blends Troye and Kacey’s voices. I think my favorite part is the music video which is gritty and reminds us of a world where we didn’t stress about being clean and isolated. Also, I can’t get this parallel imagery out of my head: 

If you’re looking for something completely different to listen to, Rico Nasty’s debut album “Nightmare Vacation” is so fucking gooooood. If you read the Noisey piece on hyperpop we linked last week, this album perfectly encapsulates the genreless, hodgepodge of internet-born music that defines the sound and it gives us a glimpse into the future of alternative rap and pop.

Too Many Tabs 

Rebecca Liu in Prospect outlines how Wild Child has become a cult hit nearly 12 years later and is finally getting some of the respect it (rightfully) deserves (h/t to The Dress Down by Sarah Manavis). 

We learned more than seven things about our favorite rockstar in this raw and honest Rolling Stone cover story of Miley by Brittany Spanosin.

For Bright Wall/Dark Room, Lainey Wood deep dives into what makes Mr. Darcy’s hand flex in Pride & Prejudice (2005) masterful cinema. 

Thoughtful analysis from Dejan Jotanovic in Bitch about what the reactions to Harry Styles in a dress on the cover of Vogue say about the world we live in.