This newsy could have been written in 2008 🎸
Didn't think I'd be covering the Jonas Brothers and Selena Gomez in 2023 but... here we are 🌹
Good morning my angels, and happy Monday to all who celebrate! This weekend Hayden, Flo and I finally made it to Whitianga (four tries lucky!) and it was just the best. I’m saving the stories I got about a drunken night at ‘Smitty’s’ where we hung out with some VERY cool listeners of The Shit Show (thanks to Hayden for introducing us by handing out SYSCA stickers to everyone in the bar) for this week’s Diary Edish (for paid supporters on Friday’s) but my god, is there anything better than a spontaneous night with new friends in a local pub??
On that note - thank you for all the love/ sweet messages/ support after reading my diary entry last week!! It’s a life’s work having/ writing about all these weird experiences and then trying to make sense of them in this very newsy, and a job I’m honoured to do 🥺🥺
And also - thank you to everyone who’s taken our survey so far!!! It’s so important to us that we know as much about you as poss so we can make this thing the best it can be, so please, if you haven’t yet taken it, go & do it!! 📝
Selena Gomez deleted TikTok… and fair enough
The Jonas Brothers released a new song and it’s so Luce-coded it’s crazy
🗺 Around the world 🗺
A shipwreck in Italy, the end of the Dilbert cartoon, hostages freed in Papua New Guinea and more!
Did the sound of the bathtub (when you took the plug out) scare you as a kid?
Selena Gomez deleted TikTok… and fair enough
Over the weekend Flo has been drip-feeding me information about the latest in the Selena/ Hailey/ Kylie/ Taylor situashe (imagine being so famous that I could just write your first name yet you all know who I’m talking about???) It seems that the old flame (the Selena/ Hailey feud - if we wanna call it that) was reignited over some misinterpreted videos/ Instagram stories about Selena’s eyebrows:
Drama stirred up again this week when Jenner, a friend of Bieber’s, posted a video of the two showing off their eyebrows, which some interpreted as a dig at Gomez, who recently posted about her accidentally over-laminating her brows. TikToker Nuha, @devotedly.yours, broke down her interpretation of the “shade,” prompting both Jenner and Gomez to respond. “This is reaching,” Jenner wrote in the comments. “U guys are making something out of nothing. This is silly.” Gomez agreed, later commenting that she was a “fan” of Jenner’s.
For context, ever since Hailey Baldwin married Justin Bieber (Selena Gomez’s ex) the internet has taken great joy in assuming there’s a feud between the two and picking a side (making both these women’s lives hell.) So - any tiny thing (like them posting eyebrow content at the same time) gets seen as if it’s a planned dig, or a code, and the extremely online get to have their hand at cracking it (sounds an awful lot like what can happen with conspiracy thinking…) The ‘feud’ dates back to 2014, and has even required Hailey to specifically ask people to stop commenting about Selena on her social media pages.
Anyway - back to those ‘eyebrow’ posts - while Kylie and Selena both denied there were any hard feelings here, videos ‘unpacking’ what was going down started FLOODING my FYP - because the only thing the algorithm loves more than us fighting on their apps, are two of the most followed people in the world fighting on their apps (even if it’s reaching.) So, from then on my (and I’m sure Selena and Kylie’s) feed consisted of people dragging up old clips of them both, pitting them against each other, and at some stage, this clip - of Hailey ‘gagging’ when someone mentions Taylor Swift on the show ‘Drop the Mic’ in 2017 - was brought into the mix.
It seems that this was the final straw for Selena (who no doubt had logged on to TikTok and scrolled through video after video of people unpacking a ‘feud’ about her and feeling like she had no control over her own narrative) so she commented: “So sorry, my best friend [Taylor Swift] is and continues to be one of the best in the game.” People quickly came for Selena, asking why she would comment on a resurfaced old clip, to which she reportedly replied “I have every right to defend my friends. Say whatever you want about me but MY people, I’d die for. Thanks so much.”
Since then, Selena announced she’d be leaving the platform entirely. She jumped on a TikTok live and said: “I’m very happy, I’m so blessed. I have the best friends and the best fans in the whole world and I just couldn’t be happier. I’m gonna be taking a second from social media ‘cause this is a little silly and I’m 30. I’m too old for this.”
And honestly - I think we’re all a little old for this. The thing that Flo and I keep coming back to is the need for us all to put our critical-thinking hats on before we comment/ make videos about things like this online. When we see old clips resurfacing of someone, it’s about asking ourselves when they were made, what ‘society’ was talking about back then, what the context around the clip is etc. And then before we comment on things, asking ourselves why we’re weighing in, WHO is it actually benefitting and how we would feel if someone was sifting through every move you EVER made and trying to find meaning in it?
No final thought here, just… let’s all go touch some grass eh?
The Jonas Brothers released a new song and it’s so Luce-coded it’s crazy
Ever since I heard that Jon Bellion (my ALL TIME FAVE ARTIST) was producing the Jonas Brothers' latest album, it’s awakened the dormant Jonas Brothers volcano that lies within me. I was a HUGE Jonas Brothers stan when I was little - Camp Rock is legit my favourite move - blah blah blah you all KNOW this about me. So, you can imagine when the first song from the Jon Bellion era dropped (Wings) I ate that shit up. BUT it’s even better, because they put superfan Haley Lu Richardson (who we all love from The White Lotus) in the music vid!! For the uninitiated, Haley was on The Late Late Show With James Corden last year, and she got to FaceTime Nick and tell him what a fangirl she was when she was younger:
"Nick, can I tell you something? I just wanted to tell you that you're a huge part of my childhood and therefore life forever. All of my Converse, as I said earlier that I had in grade school and middle school, had your name on them. And I'm so proud of you. And going to your guys' concerts now as adults, I feel so proud of the three of you and I'm so happy for your lives and your creative endeavors and your families, and I love you!”
I want to believe that after hearing this they decided to put her in the music video (and that this wasn’t all just marketing) because we just love to see a fangirl winning!!
PS, the song is very, very fucking good.
🗺 Around the world 🗺
Europe
Italy shipwreck: At least 58 migrants killed off Calabria coast (BBC)
At least 58 migrants - including a baby - have died after their overloaded boat sank in rough seas off southern Italy. The vessel, which was carrying about 150 people, broke apart while trying to land, and bodies have been surfacing at a nearby beach resort.
Asia
NZ citizen released by Papua New Guinea kidnappers (RNZ)
The New Zealand professor I wrote about the other day who was taken hostage in Papua New Guinea has been released. Bryce Barker (who now lives in Australia) was held hostage for over a week with some other members of his research team, and after a week of negotiations, has now been set free.
Desperate for Babies, China Races to Undo an Era of Birth Limits. Is It Too Late? (NY Times)
“In China, a country that limits most couples to three children, one province is making a bold pitch to try to get its citizens to procreate: have as many babies as you want, even if you are unmarried.”
Australia
Anthony Albanese becomes first Australian PM to march in Sydney Mardi Gras (The Guardian)
I’ve been seeing so many photos from my pals who’ve been attending/ celebrating Sydney World Pride, so naturally, I wanted to include this story about Anthony Albanese being the first sitting prime minister to join the Mardi Gras parade.
“People want to see that their government is inclusive and represents everyone, no matter who they love, no matter what their identity, no matter where they live,” he said. “We need to continue to argue for equality.”
USA
Dilbert comic strip dropped by US media over creator's racist tirade (BBC)
Dilbert - a comic that has been huuugely popular in US newspapers - is being quickly stripped from them after it’s creator - Scott Adams - made incredibly racist comments. A quote from the BBC:
“Mr Adams, 65, later acknowledged that his career was destroyed. He said most of his income would be gone by next week.”
Today’s mundane poll:
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The only reason the plug coming out of the drain scared me so much was because I was realllllyyyyyy into the Lord of the rings movies from the ages of 2-6 and I was TERRIFIED of the orcs, so because I loved to sit in the tub until all the water had gone down before getting out, my mom told me that the sound of the water moving through the pipes was actually the sound of the orcs coming to get me if I didn't get out right away. Genius idea on her part but totally freaked me out as a kid 😂😂😂
soooo many people need to touch some grass. people create the narrative they WANT to see and run with it. without realising how stupid they are!!