Serena, Rings of Power, Princess Di, & Venice Film Fest Fashion
What I'm Watching, Reading, & Listening to This Week!
If you follow me on Instagram, you already know that this Friday, I was one of the fortunate 23,859 fans who had the privilege of being in the sold-out stadium to witness Serena Williams say farewell [maybe] to tennis.
My soul left my body. The energy in the room was physically moving.
Watching the Greatest Of All Time #GOAT go out with so much power and grace, at the age of 41!!?? Serena is a once-in-a-lifetime talent, an inspiration, and a world-changer. So many people were there, watching in awe. It felt like hallowed ground! She’ll keep on changing the world in her ways, in tennis and out.
My favorite non-tennis moment was when Spike Lee, who was sitting nine rows in front of us, got so excited he got out of his seat and started filming crouched down against the barrier between the seats and the court. Auteurs never sleep!
For all the curious people: We ended up with these absolutely insane seats because Ben [human hero] bought the tickets a long time ago for a “random” early round with no idea of who would be playing! They were prime tennis tickets, but we never in a million years guessed it would be Serena’s potentially final match!?? The tennis gods smiled upon us, Readers! We are grateful.
Anyhoo, as Shea Serrano put it:
If you’re up for it, I’d love to hear any Serena-centric memories you have. When was the first time you saw her? What does her powerful journey mean to you? What does this end of an era feel like?
My soul has yet to return to my body, but as they say, the show must go on!
In the News
Leonardo DiCaprio, who famously will turn into a pumpkin if he dates anyone older than 26, broke up with his 25-and-15-months-old girlfriend Camila Morrone. Leo is now presumably doomed to date women who are too young to remember his Titanic heartthrob era!
In my opinion, the curse is not on Leo’s girlfriends but on Leo himself, who clearly cannot keep a woman once her brain is fully developed! Tough stuff!
The Venice Film Festival is in full swing, which means peak red carpet fashion, standing ovations that last longer than Taylor Swift’s All Too Well (10 Minute Version), and Adam Driver returning as the king of the awards circuit! One movie humiliatingly got a standing ovation that only lasted for a “tepid” 150 seconds and, Reader, the ensuing silence was deafening!! [Ironically, the movie is called White Noise. I do not make this stuff up!]
I LIVE for Venice Film Festival fashion, as I have documented on This Blog. So without further ado, here are a few of my favorites thus far:
Our Victorian Invalid Prince, Timothée Chalamet, wore an outfit I would 10/10 wear to my next red carpet event!
Tessa Thompson, I hate/love to say it, vastly outdid Timotay’s “lady in red” vibe. King status.
Cate Blanchett as a flower box. She’s getting Oscar buzz for her performance in the extremely Oscar-buzzy movie Tár.
Jodie Turner-Smith has emerged as the undeniable red carpet queen this year. Slay.
Lea Michele has finally responded to the allegations that she cannot read—and also called everyone sexist! If you’re not aware, one of the funniest memes/jokes on the Internet is the “Lea Michele can’t read” meme. Nobody really believes it, but there are hilarious “proofs” that the former Glee star cannot, in fact, read. [Also there is real proof that she really has bullied real costars, so people kind of don’t mind joking about her.]
Anyhoo, now Lea Michele has RESPONDED, telling the actual NEW YORK TIMES: “I went to ‘Glee’ every single day; I knew my lines every single day. And then there’s a rumor online that I can’t read or write? It’s sad. It really is. I think often if I were a man, a lot of this wouldn’t be the case.”
Which…………!??!?? Also to which all of her former costars say, “lol she can read but she’s still an a**hole.” [I did an explainer recently about the drama around Lea Michele getting Funny Girl and why people don’t like her.]
ROYAL WATCH - The Princess on HBO
This past Wednesday marked the 25th year since the death of Princess Diana on August 31, 1997.
And when you want to feel super bummed out, there’s nothing like a Princess Diana documentary to do the trick. While there are seemingly THOUSANDS of documentaries about “the People’s Princess,” the newest one on HBO is one of the best I’ve seen. It’s entirely made of clips from her life edited together with no narration, no interviews, just Diana. Of course, a good documentarian can manipulate a story quite well with just “found footage” — but this feels like one of the most raw and realistic version of Diana I’ve seen?
It will certainly be my favorite until the next season of The Crown comes out, at which point the “real” version of events will leave my brain and The Crown version will become HISTORICAL CANON! #SorryNotSorry to the Royal Family!
In other royal news, Meghan Markle is on a press tour for her new podcast, Archetypes.
The Crown is, reportedly, not super happy about it! They think Meghan should stop talking about how mean they were to her and just be quiet and curtsy!
Not her vibe, y’all.
Meghan irritates me, and the podcast is kind of like not substantive at all yet [!?], but I am solidly on her side of this anyway.
Watching - The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
Welcome to the new world of Blockbuster Television! It’s a great time to be a former homeschooler! The slice of the population who spent all of their high school earnings to see The Fellowship of the Ring eight times in theaters [it me] has now grown into salaried adults with Amazon Prime subscriptions to burn! [We matter! We are a voting bloc!!]
I would never give up my amazing childhood where, instead of worrying about getting a push-up bra or having a boyfriend, I was learning Elvish, reenacting dramatic scenes between Frodo and Sam, and arguing in online forums about whether Shelob was Morgoth’s pawn or not. Truly if you want to keep your teens out of trouble, get them into Lord of the Rings! I highly recommend this lifesyle!
Anyhoo, last night we watched the first two episodes of Amazon’s “sprawling,” “ostentatious,” $475-million Lord of the Rings spectacle. It was—fine? Really nice to look at, not much plot, kind of boring—and yet I am undeniably IN for whatever this is. They clearly spent the money on cinematography and skimped on acting and plot, which is basically: “Galadriel wants to hunt some orcs.”
Which—fine! Not exactly Tolstoy, or even, dare I say it, Tolkien, but it is fine! Was it good? No. Was it good enough? YES!!!
*a personal complaint:
These Elves are out here being absolutely below average on hotness? They’re like a Who’s Who of pinch-nosed British Boarding School boys? I want hot Elves! I want Boys of Summer Elves singing and swinging from the trees! Where are the athletes!??? Where is Orlando Bloom!???
The two exceptions are Galadriel and the Elf who is in love with the human who dated Barney in How I Met Your Mother.
*an absolute win:
FINALLY, a non-white actor playing an Elf!! A diverse cast! It’s truly delightful to see.
I mention this particularly because there’s scary, gross backlash happening with alt-right types going, “Elves can’t be black!!” Which… What!?!?!?!? Boys, this is a MADE-UP WORLD. People can be purple, green, polka-dotted, or literally anything we want! Get OUT of here. So anyways, keep your eyes out for those creepers and shut that down!!!
*some nerdy things that happened while we watched:
episodes were paused and rewound several times to “get a better look at the map.”
various poems were recited from memory.
the Lord of the Rings box set was retrieved from a bookshelf to for fact-checking purposes.
someone said, “He must be a Silvan Elf because he has that Lothlorien brooch.” [It was me.]
Again, it’s not good. But we’re here for it.
Tessa Thompson wins the red carpet for me. I want Timothee’s shirt!!! Tell me why I should love Jodie Turner-Smith’s denim getup?? I’m struggling.
Just here to say I also just watched the first two episodes of The Rings of Power (also coming from a obsessively watching Lord of the Rings, homeschooled childhood) and I agree with most of your points. I’m honestly just going to watch it all to see how it connects to the characters we know and love and then when I understand the connections, I will rewatch the true masterpieces for the 100th time feeling like I now truly know the full story. Or something.