Pop Culture News Nuggets: Royal Family's Shady Photos, Oscars 2024 & Queer Eye Exposé

In this episode, your fave host Maddy McClain dishes the latest in pop culture news and the entertainment world.

We kick things off with a rundown of the Oscars - you know, who won what and all the juicy bits. Then, we dive into some intriguing gossip about Kate Middleton's mysterious "disappearance" and get into the nitty-gritty of the drama rocking Netflix's Queer Eye following a revealing article by The Rolling Stone. 

Don't think we forgot about Bravo - yep, there's lawsuit drama there too. Maddy also spills the beans on Ariana Grande's latest album drop and hints at some exciting new music on the horizon, including a surprise announcement from Kanye West's daughter! Plus, we chat about the SXSW festival and wrap up with some personal musings on getting older but staying cool. Stick around for some predictions on Love is Blind and The Bachelor to keep your reality TV needs satisfied. Hit follow and subscribe to keep up with all the pop culture chaos!

04:36 Oscars Recap: Highlights and Surprises

10:55 Queer Eye Drama Unveiled

17:53 The Mystery of Kate Middleton's Disappearance

29:46 Bravo's Reality TV Legal Battles

39:44 Ariana Grande's New Album and More Music News

47:33 Wrapping Up and What's Next

Resources / Sources Used:
- Oscars 2024 Best & Worst Moments (The New York Times)
- Oscars 1974 Streaker video (YouTube)
- Inside the Tensions & Tumult at Queer Eye (Rolling Stone)
- A Timeline of the Drama Surrounding the Princess of Wales (Vogue)
- Where is Kate Middleton? (Vox)
- Dark Secrets, Psychological Warefare & Others at Bravo... (The New York Times)
- Vanderpump Raquel Leviss Sues Costars Ariana Madix & Tom Sandoval (The Rolling Stone) 

Chapters

• 4:38 Oscars 2024 Coverage
• 10:56 Queer Eye Drama
• 17:55 Where TF is Kate Middleton?! And More Royal Family
• 29:43 Bravo Lawsuits
• 39:44 Music News

Transcript

Hello homies and welcome to another episode. of Easily Entertained with your host, your pop culture sherpa, your dutiful entertainment news bringer harbringer of entertainment news.  I'm your host Maddy McClain. Thank you so much for joining me this week. We've got a good episode today. We will be talking about the pop culture news that you need to know to stay In the know, including of course the Oscars that went down this past Sunday.

And then we will talk all about Kate Middleton. Where in the world is Kate Middleton and the Wal, where's Waldo game that the globe has been playing? It's very, it's very interesting talk about the conspiracy theories and all of that good shit. And don't worry. In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, you will.

by the end of this episode. Then we will also be talking about Queer Eye drama after a Rolling Stones article or really an expose came out late last week exposing the alleged bad behavior of one of the Fab Five. This is Netflix's Queer Eye, the reboot, so we'll talk all about that. And we also have some Bravo news for you.

Lawsuits have been flying around Lately throughout the network and  one including Vanderpump, Rachel Levis, who we've talked about a little bit in one of the, one of the recent episodes, briefly touched on this, but we'll dive in a little bit deeper behind that lawsuit. Another one from a former real housewife and the continuing of this reality reckoning that sweet, sweet Bethany Frankel, also a former real housewife of New York City.

And not to mention, we will also talk about Ariana Grande's new album and an upcoming album from a famous rapper's child. 

South by Southwest has been upon us here in Austin. And for those that don't know, don't worry, because most Austinites themselves don't really know either.  Truthfully, it's very difficult to describe, but essentially it's a two week festival. It takes place all over the city, where there are just a shitload of brands with PR activations, free stuff, more live music than usual, film screenings, conferences, speakers, just  everything.

It's just very active. So, people will buy badges for it. And most, like, of the top tier events or performances can be badge only. But Honestly, the majority allow general public and plebeians like myself on like a first come first served basis. Which made me realize how very much over the concept of first come first serve I am.

You know what I'm saying? It gives hunger games. It's giving try hard. It's It's giving just please don't make me stand in a long ass line to enjoy myself. You know what I'm saying? Fighting for our right to party. Does that make me old now? You know?  I don't know, cause here's the thing, I told myself that I would never become that person that hates their birthday or declares themselves a grandma, grandpa at the ripe age of 30, you know, and gripes about all the youngins and how things were so much better in the olden days. 

And I'm, I'm gonna keep that promise. I will. And I don't really have to try that hard, I suppose, because I've just always felt younger than my age. And sometimes it astounds me that I'm legally able to operate as an adult individual. You know what I mean? Like, paying taxes? Me? Renewing my license annually? 

I'm just a baby. The monthly laundry list of shit to do is out of control. Especially as women. I mean.  Anyways, I'm not even a homeowner yet, but that's kind of what keeps me away from it. But, neither here nor there, let's talk about This year's Oscars ceremony.  You know, I'm quite done  with these award shows and I think everybody is too, but Oscars are a big one.

So this year's Oscars ceremony also felt a bit like we were on a major tipping point. It's coming on the heels of the Hollywood protests from both the actors and writers alike. That would be SAG and WGA.  dwindling viewership numbers and ratings in the last few years post COVID or whatever the fuck we're defining this time frame as all culminating in a,  really a somewhat revived, pretty much the same award show.

This year they had the award show start a little bit earlier. It was 4 p. m. in LA when it began, the televised, you know, Walking down the carpet and sitting down starting the awards and shit. Another thing that they changed was that many of the major awards like best actor, supporting actor, what have you. 

Those were presented by five of previous or past Oscar winners and so that's pretty much the only major differences of this award show. So nothing to really write home about but then again here I am talking about it on the podcast. Yeah Barbenheimer, that era. can now be put to rest, you guys.  Yay. I think I'm just sick of hearing Barbenheimer.

So much, you know what I mean? But I mean, ultimately, as in many of the past awards ceremonies of this year, Oppenheimer proved to be the ever favored child, taking home seven awards total, while Barbie took home one for Best Original Song, which was the What Was I Made For by Billie Eilish and Finneas.

Which now means that Billie has won two Oscars for her two nominations.  Which is more than Martin Scorsese himself has won. So, that's pretty sick. I feel like she's going to definitely be an EGOT winner. For those that don't know, EGOT winners are when are ones  EGOT winners are people that have won an award from all of the major award shows.

So cross music like a Grammy Oscars T for Tony.  Tony is like Broadway kind of shit. EMEs  you got, is that, yeah, I got them all. Look at me go. The what really obviously stood out the most was Ryan Gosling's incredible Performance he performed. I'm just kin. It was amazing He gave us all out there on that dance flow And I think it gave the oscars the like levity that it needs, you know We don't need to be so friggin serious all the time, you know I'm, obviously a a champion of not taking ourselves too seriously here But another memorable moment was john cena.

He bared it all for best costume design So first of all, thank you for your service john he came out  Completely naked except for like the card with the winner announced on it and some  Birkenstocks and then while after he named the The nominees or they played a recording of it It is so like bit where Jimmy Kimmel like Puts clothes on him and puts on like this toga looking like dress thing on him when he announces  the winner Which I just have to add in a moment of I mean, I'll admit in a moment of misjudgment, I opened up I almost said Twix.

That's what we should call it, you guys. X or Twitter. Just Twix.  Because this shit's getting annoying. Still. We're still there in every, every single news article. 

I opened up Twitter and saw this post of John Cena and how who, I can't remember what the username was, maybe I'll find it, but said how this was a humiliation ceremony from the Illuminati. John Cena standing out there naked, like,  with a body like his, it's not that humiliating, you know what I'm saying?

So,  but like this wasn't also like a one off tweet, like this tweet had thousands of, of likes and comments and all that good shit, so. That tells you where Twitter is now these days, but we, that's something we all knew,  which also brought me to the OG historic 1974 Oscars streaker. This YouTube video will be included in the show notes.

You have to watch this video Mid, I don't know. I think he's giving his intro like opening kind of monologue right behind him a streaker with Long blonde hair comes running through and gives a peace sign to the camera and the entire audience and himself are just  Cracking up like they seem like a much more lively audience than we've had probably since then Anyways, it was just taken lightly and seemed like a fun innocent streaking going on bring back streaking Bring back streaking. 

Ah What else and of course there was time for little bit of political discourse between none other than Jimmy Kimmel and Trump. Trump made some sort of like all this Jimmy Kimmel character He's doing us all so bad. He's such a shitty host. I've never seen him do so You know what? I mean it's but in his Trumpy way and Jimmy Kimmel took the time at the end to say  to acknowledge it and say isn't it past your jail time in terms of the Actual winners Emma Stone took home Best Actress or Best Actress in a Leading Role, Killian Murphy took home Best Actor in a Leading Role, Supporting Actor went to Robert Downey Jr. And then Supporting Actress to Divine Joy Randolph, who was from the Holdovers. And of course, if you didn't guess it by now or see it by now,  Oppenheimer took home the best film, best movie.  For those that are fans of Netflix's Queer Eye, there has been a lot of drama surrounding the show and the Fab Five.

Queer Eye  Basically made the way for Netflix's unscripted series that we know and love, like Love is Blind, and Perfect Match, and all of those, Ultimatum, Selling Sunset,  Queer Eye kind of rolled out the red carpet for these shows. For Netflix, anyway, because Netflix, up until that point, at least hadn't had major success like they did and continue to with Queer Eye when it comes to reality TV and unscripted shows.

But a Rolling Stones article late last week exposed the alleged bad behavior of one of the fad five, the quintet from Netflix's  Queer Eye, the five being JVN or Jonathan Van Ness. Antony Porowski, Tan France, Karamo Brown, and Bobby Burke. So Queer Eye is a reboot of the original 2000s Bravo show, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, which was way ahead of its time.

That said, you can imagine how this was a little bit more groundbreaking back then in the 2000s. And then in 2018, the director from the OG series helped in casting and putting together Netflix's Queer Eye. And this, it premiered in 2018. They've had nearly, let's see, they've had eight seasons. And ultimately, if you haven't seen it, it is it's a feel good, tearjerker, kind of life makeover show where they go to cities, the five of them, and they focus on different aspects of the, what they call, the heroes.

Or the, the per the life they're the person that they're making over. And it all is based in one city per season. Ultimately, there's a lot of deeper moral morality lessons behind it. And people that wouldn't necessarily connect with a bunch of incredibly fabulous gay guys would have otherwise. So, that's kind of the basis.

So, Javian, he Focus on like hygiene and appearance and hair and stuff. You know what I mean? Antony, cooking and health. Tan, France, does fashion. Karamo Brown is more like a mental health life coach kind of thing. And Bobby is the home designer, interior decorator. And lovingly, everyone talks about how much work Bobby Burke does on the show, especially compared to the others.

But, taking from the article they wrote they say it best here, this will give you a better idea. They were beloved as a unit, but each was also focused on growing their own personal brand. And securing their own various deals, leaning into their areas of expertise. Burke is the level headed father figure with a solid design business.

Brown is smooth, wise, and can quickly establish a genuine connection with the hero. France is English, chic, and quick witted. And also good fashion sense, obviously. Prowski is the quirky, foodie heartthrob. And Van Ness, who uses they, he, she pronouns, is beloved for their silly quips and joyous, over the top personality.

That is the kind of background of the Fab Five in the show. And this expose ended up coming on the heels of Bobby Burke's announcement that he would no longer be on the show and be coming back. Which then, that was how we also learned that there are more seasons coming. And he put on his Instagram, although my journey with Queer Eye is over, my journey with you is not.

You will be seeing more of me very soon. And as this came out, this is before the article, but after his announcement that he's leaving. You know, none of us can fathom that one of the Fab Five wouldn't be there. Like that already was kind of a red flag, but there were also rumblings of drama and castmates, namely Tan and Antony, being sneaky and kind of campaigning for Burke's replacement, Jeremiah Brint, who has been confirmed to be replacing Bobby Burke.

So we get this,  Eventually, the illusion of a happy family ended with Burke's departure. Although Burke presented the decision of Partways as amicable, three sources with knowledge tell Rolling Stone there is more to Burke's departure.  Not only was he allegedly blindsided with how things played out, but talk has been circulating among those close to the show that another Fab Five member may have campaigned for Burke's replacement. 

It's not a news story that a boy band falls apart, says one Queer Eye production member who, like the others, requested an anonymity, citing NDAs and career repercussions. Essentially, they were a group of people put together in their mid 30s and told to be best friends. But people don't expect that Queer Eye could be that.

That's truly what it was. A manufactured boy band with big personalities that certain ones were favored and certain ones were not. And then eventually turned really toxic.  Sounds about right, and I, you know, whenever, I feel like oftentimes the public asks for these peek behind the curtains kind of things, behind the scenes, but a lot of time like it takes away from the allure of it.

I suppose like even myself, call me, call me naive, but  I guess they act really well because at least in the beginning they did all choose The producers chose them for a reason. They all got along. They're all homies and how adorable and they have great camaraderie between them. Great banter. My favorite thing to say but you can kind of sense the tension a little bit in the more recent seasons.

So, the article continues on to say, As Queer Eye got bigger, the quintet grew increasingly competitive over screen time, and who had the best soundbites, production sources say, as each jockeyed to be the show's biggest stars. Still, it was clear hair stylist Van Ness was the breakout personality.  That, however, brought another set of issues.

Four Queer Eye production sources and three sources who worked with Van Ness said the reality star was terrible to work with, using words like monster, nightmare, and demeaning. Never nice to say. To describe them, three people labeled Van Ness as emotionally abusive and having rage issues. And all seven sources said the star would lash out at crew and people who worked closely with Van Ness.

In deep contrast with who they portray themselves to be in the show and throughout public view.  So, learning this is definitely a huge bummer. It's sad.  You never want to, you never want that bubble to be popped. You know, when you have a favorite,  just a favorite celebrity, you follow, favorite author, whatever. 

And it turns out they're like quite opposite of who the public personality that they portray.  The world is now playing the game of where the F is Kate Middleton.  And why are we all screaming about it? Why are we all talking about it? Why are we all deep diving?  Kate Middleton, what's going on here? So,  well, let me preface this first  by saying that the royal family, Windsor Palace, I'll insert nicknames here, much like Bravo fans, the royal family aficionados out there  are experts in British royalty.

Like it requires studying it like a Like a college course, I would say. And  in all transparency, I myself am in no way an expert. Cause that shit really confuses me. Like I struggle to define exactly what a second cousin is in relation to myself and stuff. So figuring out how, how a Duke becomes a Prince or a Prince is named Prince of Wales versus just, just a Prince, you know what I'm saying?

Like, I don't, it's a lot.  So while after learning and doing some more research on all of this, it does indeed pique my interest.  I currently am not an expert, so, and I'm open to learning, so again, if you know far more than me and anything is off, holler at your girl, but be sweet, you know what I'm saying?

Be sweet. So, I do know enough to be slightly dangerous, but mostly that I feel very strongly, A, that Princess Diana was basically killed by the British paparazzi, and B I'm bitter that Camilla is a queen. Anyways, but that doesn't mean, I'm my kind of lack of full understanding of the royal family. It does not mean that I don't appreciate the place that it holds in global pop culture or just how the real life drama rivals that of probably like Gossip Girl, Ugly Betty, and Desperate Housewives combined.

Those are some incredible series. Highly recommend if you haven't already. So, anyways. Or, you know, The Crown on Netflix is probably one too. But I say all this to underscore how prior to reading more on this, I was actually cackling. I'm still kind of cackling. Just a little geek. A little giggle. A little hee hee.

At the absolute absurdity. of the media circus, media chaos that's been going on around Kate Middleton. The internet sleuths,  they're sleuthing. The way detectives,  just sitting at home, came out of the woodwork to determine the very, the many photo editing faux pas,  Of a photo that the royal family sent out in response to Kate Middleton's whereabouts is hilarious.

But before we dive into that, let me give you the quick rundown of why everyone is freaking out and why everyone's coming up with some truly, well, entertaining conspiracy theories. I'm going to say so myself as to why she has Kind of disappeared from the public eye.  So, let's, let's walk it on back. Let's go back in time, shall we?

The last time that Kate Middleton was seen publicly and documented by, you know, like, the paparazzi and stuff,  or at least on official business, was Christmas.  And prior to that,  You know, everything, it was normal business as usual, but on Christmas day, that was the last normal moment that princess Kate, princess Catherine would have.

It was her last Royal engagement. There we go. So few weeks later on January 17th, the Kensington palace announces Kate Middleton has a.  quote, abdominal surgery. That's as much information as we've been given. I mean,  it's like probably fine. It's someone's health we're talking about here, but still, which we'll get into later, the health of a royal, which has been historically treated way differently than like normal people or even celebrities.

And in this same statement, they ask for privacy so they can have as much normalcy as possible for her children. Okay, fair enough. Same day, Buckingham Palace also announces that King Charles is seeking treatment for an enlarged prostate.  Interesting that they're both released at the same day. This is a PR,  this is a PR 101.

Minimize kind of both topics, both pieces of news by announcing two things at once, right? Okay fair enough. Then January 29th is when news broke that allegedly Princess of Wales had returned home, Kate Middleton had returned home. But unlike Prince, or sorry, King Charles, unlike him whose departure was photographed, there were no photographs of her leaving the hospital.

Then we still don't see anything, no photoproof or whatever. February 5th, King Charles then announces that he does indeed have cancer. He is, they're going after treatment and he'll stay out of the public eye too. Pretty much, but they're, he feels confident that they caught it early and stuff.

We're getting all this detail about King Charles, but not so much about Kate. People start saying things. It's the end of February. No one's heard or seen from, from Kate Middleton and  the, basically the royal family comes out saying, we are very clear from the outset the Princess of Wales was out until after Easter and Kensington Palace would only be providing updates when something was significant.

They also added the princess was quote, doing well.  That wasn't enough for the internet to be satisfied, so,  you know, really kind of conveniently, later on March 4th, paparazzi capture Kate driving around Windsor with her mother. It's so grainy footage, but we see her. Okay, now that we're, people are freaking out, they're saying something. 

The internet is still not dying down. And so,  to allegedly help support their case, they release a photo of Kate Middleton and her three kids with a photo for the British or United, UK's  Mother's Day.  And The palace that was taken by William last week and at first we're like, okay, that'll probably, you know, that'll settle it.

We see this photo. That's when the detectives come out and they notice like five different, pretty obvious once zoomed in, photo editing faux pas.  Like a weird placed hand or like the walls are in a weird angle or look like the walls have like taken acid or something. You know what I mean? Just a little bit wonky.

Wonky tonky. Princesses, they're just like us. They use Facetune, I suppose. Once enough hoopla  was made over the photo. The Associated Press actually sent a kill notice, which in the journalism world It happens very rarely, but it's when these kind of accredited media sources want being Associated Press, a major one, when they release these photos, they take it back because there is either new information that doesn't, that substantiates that this is altered or it's not completely, something's iffy. 

So, the AP sends that out, and then finally, Kate  tweets out, mhm, she tweets, that she apologizes, that she too likes to be an amateur photo editor, and she messed around with it, and that's, you know, nothing nefarious, but that's what happened.  So,  So, now what was meant to really calm people down is just, now the internet's really going buckwild with, with ideas of conspiracies, what the royal family's hiding.

Allegedly, there was a royal engagement that William had cancelled late February. They were like, does this mean something? I mean, people are coming up with, of course, did Kate get a BBL?  Is Kate growing out bangs? The more, like, serious ones like, Are they getting a divorce? She didn't have her ring on in that photo.

Is that normal? All of this. And I think Vox kind of says this better, and this is what made me like, Realize like okay, this is why not only are we just being dramatic and the internet is dramatic all the time But that it's a little bit different when it's concerning a royal family member, especially one like Kate Middleton first of all that no one has so much caught a single photo of Kate slipping into a car or or being surrounded by security team getting her places like none of that has happened.

Under normal circumstances, this is Fox, the lack of photos of a woman recovering from a medical procedure would be recognized as a reasonable respect for someone's privacy. However, the life of a future queen of England is not normal circumstances. In a country with notoriously ruthless tabloid press Diana, royals are considered to be fair game as much as anyone.

Royals are expected to keep the public informed on their well being, to play the game with the media. The royal women, particularly, are expected to meet nearly impossible expectations, to be always beautifully groomed, always pleasant, always available to their public, no matter the circumstances.  Kate has traditionally done so with reliable goodwill.

After the birth of each of her three children, Kate appeared dutifully in front of the hospital in full hair and makeup for a photo op for the paparazzi within 24 hours, and she did it with a cheerful smile each time to boot.  What made this particular procedure different? What had What had kept Kate from wanting to show her face and kept the press from demanding it to show, demanding to show it anyway? 

Why did the palace eventually feel driven to release an apparently manipulated photo of her?  Yeah, and ultimately they go on, this is of course in the show notes too, but they go on to really explain, like, as we've seen, they use what's called a Royal Rota, which essentially is the group of publications that are, like, approved to handle certain areas of the, of coverage of the royal family.

That one  publication will in turn disperse this information to anyone and everyone who requests it. So it's a way of they have kind of more control over what's being said to them about them rather in the media. Obviously things  took a turn when Prince Harry married Meghan Markle  and kind of became each other's like foils.

Meghan being the more modern kind of rebel and obviously brought out a lot of particularly racist coverage of the British press. She was not granted that kind of privacy. If Megan was the one in surgery, they'd be, they wouldn't listen to that, I feel like.  So we'll see. We're still a ways out of Easter, when allegedly that's when she'll resume  her public royal engagements and appearances, but in the meantime, the manipulated photo, and they're kind of just, the royal family is insistence that nothing is wrong here, they're hiding nothing, is getting people to feel like they're all kind of gaslighting  us in public.

You know what I mean? 

Bravo, bravo, bravo. First of all,  Interesting fact. Whenever the cast members shout, Bravo, Bravo, Bravo, it's so that they break the fourth wall, and so that Bravo won't air whatever they're about to say. So, if you ever see that, that's the whole thing with Bravo, Bravo, Bravo.  Anyways,  lawsuits have been flying around lately.

Or at least, you know most of them have also been covered more in the media. Especially involving Bravo, NBCUniversal, and now, the beloved Andy Cohen, who is the daddy of the Housewives, Spillow, Deckers, and everything Bravo, reality TV. And hosts Watch What Happens Live, the after show.  Let's take a step back.

In a previous episode, we kind of talked about this a little bit, but there's what's been coined reality reckoning, thanks to Bethany Frankel, a former Real Housewife of New York, essentially calling out for more responsibility and on behalf of the network, really, to address the alleged toxic workplace culture that she and several other stars are  speaking out about. 

And really, it all started with Another expose type article with, you know, three or four kind of ex Bravo stars or whatever, detailing their experience. They're just not being a lot of delicate handling of mental health and drinking and this encouragement to kind of  sabotage your own life and others.

to make good TV in the name of good TV. And this kind of also came on the heels of post scandaval and seeing, you know, Rachel Levis and ending up going to a mental health facility and  taking time away from that. And it brought up all these discussions. So Bethany Frankel took Rachel under her wing. That's, yeah, so, we'll get to more Rachel a little bit later, but for those who don't know, she is the, she was on Vanderpump Rules, ended up having an affair with Tom Sandoval of Scandoval and her best friend was, said Tom Sandoval's girlfriend of 10 years, Arianna Maddox.

So,  but the first lawsuit that kind of swang down was from Leah McSweeney, former New York housewife for two seasons, just putting that out there, formerly sued Andy Cohen, Bravo and NBC universal, alleging the creation of a quote, rotted workplace culture that discriminated against tormented, demoralized, demeaned, harassed, and retaliated against Miss McSweeney because she is a woman with disabilities such as.

alcohol use disorder, and various mental health disorders, all in the name of selling drama. According to the complaint, which was reviewed by the New York Times, Ms. McSweeney, 41, joined the Housewives of New York City cast around the time she had relapsed after nine years of sorority. She became sober just before she started filming the show and has alleged that producers developed, quote, artificially close relationships with her, through which they cultivated a treasure trove of Ms.

Sweeney's Miss McSweeney's dark secrets with intent to place her in situations known to exacerbate her alcohol use disorder and mental health disabilities.  Because they thought that intentionally making these conditions worse would create good television.  The complaint goes on to allege that producers frequently undermine Ms.

McSweeny's sobriety, not only by encouraging her to outright, outright to drink, but by engaging in guerrilla type psychological warfare  intended to pressurize Ms. McSweeny into a psychological break and cause Ms. McSweeny to relapse.  It also claims that Mr. Coen, Andy Coen, frequently uses cocaine with other Housewives stars and that he rewards those cast members with favorable treatment.

The response from this was, I mean, an unequivocal denying of all of this especially from Andy Coen. In fact, Going so much as to say,  requesting that she directly remove that line, the disparaging line about him using coke or else, you know, he'll face legal action. And so now, both of their lawyers, Liam McSweeney and Andy Cohen's have been publicly making these statements back and forth.

Doesn't paint a great picture, but for me, honestly, when I read that, that is, talk about dramatics.  The drama is right there in that lawsuit. They used every word from the, the thesaurus for like, traumatize, really. I think that was pretty much what the lawyers did there.  I'm sure  there were probably some producers out there that were pushing things a bit. 

I'm sure. But to sue  an entire network blaming them for breaking for your relapse?  is kind of crazy to me. Kind of whack a doodle. Whack a doodle dandy. She, an adult, knowingly gave her consent to participate in this reality TV show. I just don't think that she can shift all of the blame and decide that the only reason that she relapsed was at the hands of the network and Andy Cohen and the show.

And then after these two seasons where she alleges that all, you know, Co stars were encouraging her to drink and such and all of that.  That then years later, recently actually, she did a, essentially another type of series. It's called like, Girls,  Girls Trip Reunion.  Reunion Girls Trip, where, you know, just kind of like a crossing of different seasons and different Real Housewives get together.

And they go on trips, like all stars essentially.  And she did one of those,  and based on Bravo's response, she had complained one of the co stars there in that season  was outright saying, just drink, whatever, is it really that bad if you drink? And they did address it, and that, that castmate was no longer a castmate, and they sent her home.

So,  it's not like they haven't at all taken any steps. As of right now, though,  that lawsuit is still out there and still pending, so we'll see what happens with that. Not too far after that, though, a second lawsuit was filed on behalf of Rachel Lovis. Rachel Lovis. She is suing Tom Sandoval, Ariana Maddox, and the production company.

So she's suing the best friend whose boyfriend she had an affair with. Interesting move. This all goes back to the notorious FaceTime call that is credited with launching Scandalball into the phenomenon, the craziness, the subject of every media, everywhere, alive based on How Ariana came to discover that they were cheating was when Tom Sandoval's phone fell from the floor as he, fell from his pocket as he was performing, I guess, and a fan picked it up and handed it to Ariana, and it was already unlocked, so she took a look and felt this sense, this, This woman's intuition, if you will, to take a little look see through his phone and she went to his photos, his photos,  she went to his photo album and saw a recording of a FaceTime with Raquel where she is intimately touching herself and Tom recorded this and allegedly this was without Raquel's knowledge that he recorded this.

And  she's saying, she's saying that Ariana Madix, it's really mostly pointed at Ariana, to be honest, that Ariana Madix is the one who dispersed the revenge corn and it also includes the charge of eavesdropping and invasion of privacy is, is what's included in the lawsuit filed by Raquel Levis  against Tom and Ariana  and also lots of damages to her mental health.

She brings that up and she's seeking financial and legal reciprocations, I suppose. This is just not the move. This is just not it. It's not it. I can understand.  suing Tom for taking it without her consent, if that is indeed what happened.  Ariana, like, can we just leave her out of the narrative? Like, what?

Even better, what's also alleged in her lawsuit is that Ariana and everybody else knew the whole time and she even, she brings up this scenario where she says that Ariana saw them cuddling or something and said,  Save that for season, was it season 9? Save that for season 9 or whatever. Like she knew and played along with it the whole time.

I personally do not think that is true. That's, that sounds like a reach to me. It sounds like a reach. And it sounds like, Again, and the most ultimate design that she hasn't really learned a lesson, you know, like she's out here now suing people and it's like,  I don't know, things got to be handled so differently.

Again, I think that charges against Tom,  if it is true with Revenge Korn, yeah, that makes total sense, girl. But otherwise, it's just, yeah, messy, messy, messy, messy. Who would think that reality TV would be messy?  Wait, that's why we all watch it.  Lastly, we got that new new. And one of the things that is new new would be Ariana Grande's album, Eternal Sunshine, which was released on March 8th. 

And came  at a time when people were very much still talking about her  as her very public divorce went through with Dalton Gomez, who she had a very quiet marriage to following years of obviously ups and downs. She had Pete Davidson, Mac Miller, who died. She broke up with Pete because she had to process the loss of Mac.

And then, skip forward a few years, we hadn't had  an Ariel Grande album since Positions, and that's been a long time. And she'd been doing other projects, including Wicked, where she met her co star Ethan Slater, AKA Spongebob Squarepants, because the man plays Spongebob  in Broadway. Yeah. And, well, the big deal there being that he had a wife and two kids.

Newborn baby, at the time baby on the way,  when rumors started to swirl that they were having an affair of types, but they allege it was not, it didn't overlap, and it was after a few months of separation from Ethan, and same with Ariana for Dalton. Yeah, so Ariana's kind of been known for messing around and having particularly questionable timelines of when she starts dating certain guys, and when those guys are or are not in a relationship.

That's just kind of been  something, a narrative that's followed her. All that to say, Ariana has very much been in the news lately, but it hasn't really been for her music. So everyone was very anxious for this album to drop, see what messages they can disperse. You know, internet detectives go in there, figure out why maybe her marriage with Dalton didn't work out and all of that.

And people are making those, those guesses. She makes it sound like maybe Dalton cheated on her. We don't know. And her response to this was her single from the album, Yes, And,  which is basically an FU to all of the internet naysayers and all of that. And  that was kind of our peak at the upcoming album.

And I've listened to most of it, most of the songs. It's, I mean, it's peak Ariana Grande. Like, it's good. It's, it's good. I, I wouldn't say I'm the huge, the biggest fan, but, you know, to like someone's music, I don't think you necessarily have to agree with everything that they are as a human being. There's a difference and there are lines.

Like, take Chris Brown, for example. I don't know why we're platforming that guy.  I don't know. He's a wife beater. But You know what I mean? Ariana Grande, we, we don't really know. It's this weird dichotomy of where we're in this era of social media, of, of, I mean, paparazzi, the things that we learn about celebrities, and just having this instant access to people, and where people are far more vulnerable these days on the internet than ever before,  that I feel like we almost assume we do have all of the information. 

And of course, this is generalized and like, high of mind, you know, just people in general behavior. But still, I think it's important to consider. And if you remove kind of that part of Ariana Grande,  the part that is particularly questionable  of possibly breaking up a marriage, if you remove that and take a listen, I actually think that we can't be friends.

Wait, in parenthesis, wait for your love,  is really beautiful, and it's really well done.  And the, particularly the music video. If you haven't seen the music video, highly recommend. So Eternal Sunshine is drawing inspiration from the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The main plot is that the characters, or the people in the movie, have the ability to undergo a procedure.

That removes painful or hard or really any memories of a human from your brain. And so, Ariana kind of uses this, depicts her going through the,  the procedure to remove memories from her brain. from a past breakup, but not wanting to remove the good ones. And it's really sad and really like heartfelt and her acting is quality.

I guess she's, she's done well. She's learned a lot in Broadway and it shows in this music video. It's essentially a song about  the difficulty and the dichotomy of, in order to move on from someone, in order to  move on and heal from a breakup, that it kind of requires you forgetting about their existence and all of the memories that you shared with them, for better and for worse.

And I personally really like it, and I'm down for it. And while I don't necessarily endorse all of Ariana Grande's songs Actions. I do think I endorse this album. I do. I do. So. Take that as you will.  Another, just a little, little rumor running around the mill is that there will be possibly a cover of Jolene on Beyoncé's upcoming country album. 

That sounds  That's something I can get behind. That is something I can get behind. So Ariana's album is the first of many powerhouse women albums coming down the block, including Kacey Musgraves, Beyonce,  I'm forgetting someone for sure.  Oh,  Taylor Swift. But there's one more female powerhouse coming around the bend. 

This last week, Kanye West's daughter, North West, announced on, during one of his live listening parties to Vultures, his album with Ty Dolla Sign,  North West, Northie came up on stage and as you may or may not know, she has a little speaking part on one of the tracks on Vultures.  So she was there, and she came up with the other two little babies, Psalm and Saint, between the kids, between Kanye and Kim, and announced that Northwest will be releasing her debut album called Elementary School Dropout. 

Oh  my god, I was hoping this was gonna happen. We had the teasing with like, Adonis has joined and now the internet's like, Drake's telling Adonis to get up and work, son. We got some work to do. But  I mean, for me personally, like, hell yeah, let's see how this goes. I'm here for it to play out, right? Of course, you've got the naysayers, like, this is clearly nepotism, yada yada.

And yeah, of course, of course it is. Of course it is. Like, yeah the sky's blue too. But It's, I'm excited for it. I don't know if we have a date yet, but given how Kanye is with his albums.  She's probably going to be pretty similar. At least in her TikToks that I've seen of her, she's a spitting image, just in in mannerisms of Kanye, but.

So that's something to look out for. That's exciting, and it's a cute little nod to Kanye's album, College Dropout.  That's all I've got for you today. I hope that you enjoyed this week's episode. Next week, we'll be covering the Love is Blind reunion, and probably up to where we're at at Bachelor with Joey.

We have three women still left, Rachel, Daisy, and Kelsey. And so next episode, we'll talk all about that. They're kind of both in similar stages getting to like reunion y esque  episodes. Get excited and we'll talk all about it. If you enjoyed this episode and are enjoying the podcast in general, please do your girl a favor.

And if you're not already following, you know what to do. And give me a rating, a review, subscribe. This is what helps me  continue to do what I love doing and keep you afloat the pop culture clusterfuck of the world we live in. Thanks y'all. You know what to do. Keep it classy. See you next week. Bye.