There’s a lot of synergy happening between BTS and the World Cup on the European leg of their Arirang World Tour. The tour kicked off a couple of weeks ago in Madrid, when Spain was playing Uruguay. The following week they were in Brussels performing when Belgium played that crazy ass match against Senegal when they were down two goals past the 80 minute mark and ended up winning. Since then they’ve been in London and last night England advanced to the quarterfinals. Munich is where the streak ends though because… sorry Germany. But it could pick back up again when RM, Jin, Suga, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook head to Paris after that because they’ll be doing two shows in Paris right before the World Cup Final on Sunday 19 July and France, at the moment, is still in it. Plus, of course, BTS is performing at halftime at the final alongside Madonna and Shakira – and maybe Justin Bieber? There’s a persistent rumour that he’ll be joining the lineup.

In other BTS news though, they’ve been making headlines in Chile because of concert schedule shenanigans on the part of the local promoter for not securing the venue, Estadio Nacional, before selling tickets. BTS’s three shows in Chile in October are now in jeopardy because the government had concerns about damage to the field due to touring equipment. But then thousands of ARMYs protested peacefully yesterday, urging the authorities to find a solution.

They put this together in less than 48 hours, which shouldn’t be surprising to me anymore considering what ARMY has been able to accomplish in the past but this is what the group means to the people who showed up. And now the government has come out to say that they will be trying to figure it out – this wasn’t their position a few days ago.

To lighten the mood, let’s go back to BTS and the World Cup though – here’s another delightful connection, sort of. One of the biggest stars of the tournament is Norway’s Erling Haaland who scored twice yesterday to send Brazil home. Norway, as mentioned earlier, has been going viral for their Viking row… but Erling is going viral for another reason. In some corners of the internet now, Erling and Jimin are related, LOL FOREVER.

@japoreia_ KKKKKKKKKKK #haaland #jimin #bts #futebol #copadomundo ♬ original sound - kora

It’s the brand new Korea-Norway pipeline.

@lukechines KKKKKKKKKKKKK #haaland #jimin #bts #futebol #copadomundo ♬ som original - 𝐿𝑈𝐾𝐸 🇧🇷

What else happened today…

A lot, actually. So many things have been happening, on top of the World Cup and BTS and the TNT Wedding and Wimbledon and Silverstone and also Essence Fest! Kathleen was there which means she saw Michelle Obama and Cardi B and the Aaliyah tribute in person, I’m so jealous. (Refinery 29)

Taylor Swift didn’t have a monopoly on all the celebrities this weekend. Some of them were at Wimbledon, including Monica Barbaro and Andrew Garfield who trended on socials because of his extra long hair and also, um, his hairline. (Go Fug Yourself)

Kayleigh Donaldson asks the question, “Why do we keep infantilising billionaire Taylor Swift?” (Pajiba)

I have seen Tenet twice, maybe even three times. And I’m with Robert Pattinson, I don’t know what that movie is about. (Celebitchy)

What do you mean we could have had an Overcompensating-Heated Rivalry crossover?! (Out)

It is one of the lines I’ll always remember from my Greek mythology course in universe – said by Athena but also often used to describe Athena: that she is famous among the gods for her wisdom but also for her cunning, which is why she was partial to Odysseus, the wily Greek.

Who but Zendaya, then, to play Athena in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, opening next Friday and the press tour now underway. Shameless self promotion: I was in New York last week to cover the junket for ETALK where I interviewed the cast, including Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, Matt Damon, and Tom Holland. A preview of those interviews airs on tonight’s ETALK but a 30-minute special is currently being produced by Joanna that will air the day the film opens on July 17. Will share more observations about the film and the performances soon.

For now, it’s Zendaya’s Odyssey wardrobe. Like it was already a slam dunk at the photo call yesterday when she showed up in custom Jacquemus in tribute to her character but not too on the nose.

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Everything is in the details – the headwrap, the earrings like ancient coins, and the tiny knots or pompoms on the edge of the fabric all over the dress is distinctly Mediterranean but also just a great style feature.

That look was already such a banger, so the question was… how would she crank it up for the carpet? And now we know, but again it’s in the details. You’ll recall, Daniel Roseberry presented the latest Schiaparelli collection earlier today – and Law Roach was at the show. Just a few hours later, one of the pieces is on Zendaya’s body. So did he run it over on the Eurostar? Or were two of them made? If there were two, that’s another level of flex, considering this is haute couture and the level of attention and hours of craft required for just ONE piece is insane, let alone a double.

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Back to the details though that take it from runway and personalise it for Z’s purposes. The addition of the neckpiece is a lovely touch to soften the edge of the body cast. And then the hair – extensions and a braided headband to go full Greek goddess – and not just any goddess but Athena herself, the goddess of war. That’s where the hardness of the piece through the body comes in. She’s basically a statue come to life in the temple. Just the latest example of why she really is… famous among the gods, the new celebrity gods.

More photos from The Odyssey premiere coming tomorrow.

I kind of like that the TNT wedding has kicked up some conversation around weddings in general because there’s such a wide range of opinions. The guest list is massive but I’ve been to multiple weddings with 500 guests and a few with 700-800 guests. I’ve been a bridesmaid 8 times, including one bridal party where I was one of 26. A large wedding is very cost-prohibitive, so I don’t know if Taylor will start a trend there, but I did notice some guests were in white.

OK I’m really putting my life on the line here, but somewhere in the last few years, the general unspoken rule of not wearing white to a wedding has become a morality test. Not just white, but pale blue and pale pink and champagne, there’s a whole range of colours that “look too white” and are now off-limits. I trend towards dark colours so this doesn’t impact me but I also don’t get the defensiveness of “trying to upstage the bride.” Have you ever been to a wedding and mixed up the bride with another woman in white?

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There are still multiple photos of guests filtering in and out of the wedding but I think it’s important to note that Derek Blasberg wasn’t invited, which is hilarious to me as he and Taylor have definitely crossed paths and he’s based in New York. His whole deal is his social connections. This is very gratifying to me personally.

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As for the photos from inside the reception, I’m very skeptical of leaks. Joseph Kahn, who is a longtime collaborator of Taylor’s, had this to say on Twitter.

One more on the TNT wedding. I know Taylor is really into numbers and maybe the Fourth of July weekend is auspicious because three long-time celebrity couples share that anniversary. The Beckhams, Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton, and Julia Roberts and Danny Moder.

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I follow a lot of media accounts, so I keep getting this the clip of Louis C.K.’s new Netflix special. Putting aside Louis’s sex pestness, the anger is really a thing with mega successful comedians. Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Chapelle, Ricky Gervais, Joe Rogan  - they are just so hard done by. Their entire act is I’m CANCELLED and I will tell you all about it in this hour streaming special. Everyone is MEAN to me but I DON’T CARE because everyone is STUPID and I am SMART. My theory on this is that comedy requires conflict and so they invent these grandiose forces conspiring against them for the material. Louis’s clip is about a woman making an unsolicited comment to him about the weather, which is egregious to his nihilism. Very ironic considering what Louis C.K. used to do to women, unsolicited. 

When a celebrity couple sells their home it’s sometimes a precursor for divorce chatter. Justin and Hailey Bieber just purchased a very expensive condo in New York, so is this opposite of divorce chatter? I’m sure the TikTok comments will find a way.

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I went to bed much later than I intended to last night because I was too wired after that wild World Cup match between England and Mexico. Everything about it was entertaining, from the dramatics on the pitch to what was happening before the game to Scotland hilariously entering the chat.

As we know now, Three Lions prevailed and will go on to play the most viral team of the tournament, thanks to their Viking row, Norway. But there’s a competing headline in England today and, of course, it’s related to the f-ckery of the British royal family. Not even the World Cup can curb the British tabloids’ obsession with Prince Harry and Meghan Sussex.

In brief: Harry will be in England to promote the Invictus Games taking place in Birmingham next summer. He was recently denied security, which was already a story that was preoccupying the media, and thus will not be travelling with Meghan and their children to London, though they may join him on the Birmingham leg of the trip.

Still, there was a chance that he would spend time with his father and stay at Buckingham Palace – and that’s where we find ourselves today because he apparently accepted the invitation only to have it rescinded and now everyone is fighting over their version of events. Harry is saying that he had let Buckingham Palace know that he was still figuring out his security arrangements before he could confirm that he’d stay at the palace. BP is saying that he missed the deadline and now they don’t have enough resources to accommodate him. Harry is calling bullsh-t on that because he’d made it clear what the timeline is. There are also reports that one of the reasons Harry can’t stay at BP is because of the ruling on his lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mail that is coming tomorrow and whatever, whatever, King Charles has to stay neutral. Which adds another layer of f-ckass to this mess because imagine having to stay “neutral” between your own child and a tabloid organisation that has done real harm, not only to your family but to so many other British families and to the integrity of journalism, period. In media and public relations terms, it’s like saying that the king has to stay neutral between his son and the mafia. 

But everything is toxic here. Even if we aren’t fixating on the finger-pointing and the specifics of this latest skirmish, once again the strained relationship between Harry and his royal family is exposing how weird (a generous description) it is to be a member of it in the first place. Not that we didn’t already know this but in these times of “relatability” and “authenticity”, where it’s more important than ever for the British monarchy to advance the illusion that they can empathise with actual citizens, the people who pay for their existence, and are there to support organisations and policies that would improve the lives of those they lord themselves over, examples like this only amplify how they continue to uphold structures and processes that make them that much more UN-relatable than ever.  

In plain language, if Harry wants to stay at his dad’s house, his family home, he has to write to his dad’s people who then decide by committee if he, his dad’s son, can sleep there. And once that committee has decided, they write back to Harry with the verdict. That verdict is then shared with the tabloids. So now all of us are up in the business of whether or not Harry can sleep at his dad’s.

This is “normal” for them. And yet more and more, over and over again, the descendants of the king are pantomiming in a show of effort to convince us that they have more in common with the commoners than ever before. Since f-cking when???

Will it be like this with Prince William’s kids? One day, if Prince George wants to drop in at Buck House, will he have to go through his dad’s team before he can enter the grounds?

The irony here, of course, is that Harry and Meghan’s estrangement from the British royals has made them closer to normal than the people they left behind. Still privileged, obviously, on their Montecito estate. But, like, nobody needs to pull out the quill and send a scroll over to the footman waiting on the king to inquire as to whether it might be possible to sleep over on a random Tuesday. And I am stressing on this because this is a family whose whole job it is to go out and talk to other families and share their stories when they only know how to be a family in title only and not in spirit. How much longer can they keep up this charade? 

I admittedly wasn’t following the TNT wedding as closely as I could have been this weekend so I did not see any pap shots of Jennifer Lopez either on her way to Madison Square Garden or leaving after the event, and if you have, please let me know.

The reason I’m talking about this has to do with how we know she was there. I know she was there because she shared it on Instagram.

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She doesn’t name them but like so many other famous people that night, it was pretty obvious that she was suggesting that this is what she wore to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding. The dress is beautiful, and perfect for the occasion. I loooove the drop waist, but it’s the material variation that really makes it pop, with the shiny fabric accentuating the skirt. Which, by the way, from some angles looks like a bubble skirt, the subject of my last shop.

But it wasn’t just a fit check for JLo and all the other celebrity guests. Let’s not pretend that they all didn’t want us to know they were invited, some more than others. So Taylor wasn’t just getting an assist from the media and the fans in making her wedding such a spectacle, the help was coming from inside the house too – or, rather, the celebrity ecosystem, occupied by people who can be relied on to boast about where they’re going and who they’re going with and what they wore when they were there.

So that was Friday. And now JLo is at PFW where, in the middle of a heatwave, she threw on a furry white jacket over a bralette. I mean, at least it’s not tight to the body. And I do love that she’s wearing long shorts with it. As for what shows she might be attending, at the time of this writing we don’t yet know which front row, although she has had a strong relationship with Dior in the past. Not sure how that will play out in the Jonathan Anderson era of the house.

PFW runs until Thursday this week. And then look out, because BTS will arrive early next week ahead of their two shows at Stade de France on July 17 and 18. If France is still in the World Cup at that point, Paris will be mayhem!

Bad Bunny was not at the TNT wedding this weekend in New York, because he’s on tour and was performing in France over the weekend and continuing to make history on the Debí Tirar Más Fotos World Tour. At nearly every stop he’s broken records for ticket sales by a Latin artist, including in Paris, just after doing the same in London.

It was on stage in London when he shared his sympathies with the people of Venezuela after the devastation from the earthquakes.

But Benito wasn’t just sending thoughts and prayers – he donated 42,000 pounds of essential supplies which arrived in the country on Friday. If you are in Canada and would like to do the same, the Canadian government is matching donations to a maximum of $2 million until July 14. Please click here for more information. And here is the link to the UNHCR’s donation page.

Benito’s next stop is Sweden on Friday, which means he has some downtime in Paris and it happens to be fashion week. He was seen today at the Schiaparelli show, in a yellow suit, with a tie that looks like it’s braided hair, gold-plated.

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Other celebrities at Schiaparelli included Michelle Yeoh and Emma Corrin who wore the sh-t out of this feathered and beaked jacket, OMG.

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Dear Gossips,

The celebrity I thought about the most this weekend was the one coming through my headphones, in her FIFTH DECADE of coming through my headphones – in the 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s, and now it’s 2026 … and what’s coming through my headphones aren’t her old bops but brand new tracks on a brand new album that is, incredibly, not just her best album in 20 years, but is already widely considered to be among her best, PERIOD.

Madonna, of course. Who else?

Confessions II dropped on Friday and it’s been my only playlist, no skips, all bangers. MC will have more on this tomorrow in his weekly column but for now, this is about Madonna yet again surprising the f-ck out of everyone with the quality, the profundity, the riskiness, and the goddamn fun of this record. It’s an album for the club and the gym, and a kitchen dance party, and definitely the car. It’s an album to sweat to and an album to think about. And gossip about! Because when you’ve lived through this much, when you’ve seen and been seen this much, and then when you almost die, well, she has some stories to tell, some tea to spill, some confessions to make. All while refusing to become a nostalgia act. Or, rather, as the Mother of Reinvention, reinventing what it means to make nostalgia artistic.

Confessions II is Madonna at her most nostalgic, daring, and vulnerable. Most of us who have f-cked hard with Madonna since our youth will recognise the references immediately – in the lyrics, in the anecdotes, but also in the music. She self-tributes some of her biggest hits through the album, in a completely fresh sound that is more experimental that any artist who’s been around as long as she has has any right to be! A legacy idol taking big swings in production and arrangement and pushing dance music forward, again, still, just like she did with Confessions on a Dance Floor 20 years ago. To the point where the sequel isn’t just on par with the original, you could make the case that it’s better!

Imagine being described as “back in peak form” at 67 years old with a set of songs that serve a new groove to the kids in the club?! The gay boys will be grinding to her voice not just this summer but probably for years to come, just like the first Confessions album. This year in particular, though, when fall arrives, we are going to be talking about Madonna and the Grammys. Nominations in the dance categories will be a given. But given the industry reaction to Confessions II already, an Album of the Year nomination should also be in play – an award she’s never won, which is demented. Like a Prayer wasn’t even nominated at all, the album that included the title track and “Express Yourself”, “Cherish”, “Oh Father”, and “Keep It Together” was completely shut out. But that was the state of the Recording Academy in 1989…

Madonna ran so that future popstars could run alongside her. And this bitch hasn’t stopped!

Yours in gossip,

Lainey

PROGRAMMING NOTE IS NEAR THE END OF THIS POST:

Everyone thinks or is hoping that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce will get married very soon – while also hedging that perhaps they’re already secretly married but will host a huge wedding celebration this week – in New York City, probably but maybe not but possibly but who really knows, at Madison Square Garden.

Permits have been secured. Event companies have been seen unloading equipment etc outside the venue. Every six hours there’s another round of rumours – according to Page Six, Stevie Nicks and Tim McGraw will perform. There’s been all kinds of speculation about the wedding dress designer, and how many dresses she’ll have as part of her entire wedding wardrobe. The latest, as of late Monday, is The Hollywood Reporter’s story: that Taylor will be wearing Dior by Jonathan Anderson. Jonathan just designed the dress worn at the Wedding of Year – and maybe the decade. It was a wedding that set a new standard for weddings, at one of the most exclusive locations on the planet. The dreamiest wedding imaginable at Mont Saint-Michel, where no wedding had taken place in a THOUSAND YEARS. Not exactly the same vibe as MSG. As Maria wrote to me today, is Taylor really getting married at a venue that has hosted Wrestlemanias, LOL FOREVER. Then again, we all have different dreams. And if a bouncy castle inside Madison Square Garden is what Taylor’s been dreaming about, so be it. That, by the way, is TMZ’s latest: allegedly a castle inside a garden is being built as we speak.

Yesterday PEOPLE.com launched their “live update” page for the TNT wedding. Right now there’s literally nothing that hasn’t already been reported everywhere by everyone, including what is or isn’t in the alleged NDA that guests have been asked to sign. But my point is that there’s a live wedding tracker now for this rumoured/reported/possibly maybe probably/but also could be a decoy event. So, basically, it’s being treated like the way a royal wedding is observed in England, with the monarchists camping out for days ahead of the wedding. This is a lot more palatable than the ones who park themselves on the sidewalk, sometimes FOR DAYS, waiting for the baby. I will never forget the hilarious chaos in the lead-up to Prince George’s birth, when there was a heatwave happening in England and all the royalists and reporters were a sweaty mess outside and people were fainting and no one could find anywhere to pee.

As it happens, a heatwave has descended on NYC just in time for the alleged TNT wedding extravaganza. And it’s a given that there will be media camped out outside, even with the city blocking off streets. There’s no doubt fans will do the same. For months they’ve been calling it the closest thing to a royal wedding in America – and it’s kinda living up to that.

After all, if the TNT wedding does go down over the next few days, it’ll be happening on America’s birthday, Independence Day, known to gossips as Taymerica. Interestingly enough, this July 4^th will be exactly TEN YEARS since the last Taymerica. We had a good run there for a few years but after 2016, Taylor shut it down, preferring to spend the holiday in private. It’s likely not coincidence that those private Fourths started when she was with Joe Alwyn, her penultimate British boyfriend. He of course was followed by another Brit, Matty Healy. Then, after the last London boy broke her heart, she took the Eras Tour to Arrowhead just after Independence Day in 2023 and Travis Kelce brought her heart home to America. And now here we are…

The return of Taymerica in 2026?

Taymerica, the Comeback? In the loudest most ostentatious big ass way?

Popstars at Taylor’s level always self-mythologise which, in the ongoing debate about whether or not she would actually get married at MSG, is one of the arguments in favour of this being true. And if it does end up being the case, she will have written and then lived up to The Great American Fairy Tale that she’s been singing about in her songs. This is not the love story of the English teacher and the gym teacher. This the love story of America’s version of the princess and prince: a popstar and a football god on the nation’s 250^th anniversary. Where else would they get married but at Madison Square Castle (I am screaming) as the commoners gather outside? 

In his most recent Puck newsletter today, Matthew Belloni asked the question:

“[Taylor] Swift wouldn’t stoop to recording the whole thing and selling it to a streamer, would she? Would she??”

No one knows the real answer to that question. But I feel like we can all agree on the fact that someone who chooses to have their wedding at Madison Square Garden is more likely to sell the footage to a streamer than someone who would never have their wedding at Madison Square Garden.

I guess now would be as good a time as any for this programming update: it is Canada Day tomorrow, so we’ll be dark through the rest of the week, a mid-year hiatus. Regular gossip schedule will resume on Monday but of course the chats remain open at The Squawk for all your TNT wedding discourse and this post here will be the dedicated thread to all the TNT wedding hysteria for the next few days. SQUAWK!! (App link here.)

Many of you are already joining in or at least creeping the comments. If you’ve thought about it but don’t know how to start or haven’t been sure how it works, click here for a quick “how to” to get started.  And don’t hesitate to ask if you’re still stumped. Jacek has left instructions on how to get in touch.

Happy Canada Day and Happy Independence Day!

Here’s what else…

I don’t know what to call this outfit on Carrie Underwood but it puts the Canadian tuxedo in the modest and demure category, OMG. (Go Fug Yourself)

Weird Al Yankovic still has integrity and this is not surprising. He’s always been an outlier in the best way possible. (Pajiba)

The James Bond sweepstakes continue, and everyone has an opinion and now we’re learning what the opinion is of the former casting director for the franchise. (Celebitchy)

BIGGGG news in sports today that isn’t World Cup related: LeBron James is leaving the Lakers and it’s looking quite likely that we’re about to get “the single greatest nostalgia tribute to an era that changed the way we’ve come to understand basketball as a sport and a modern intercultural phenomenon”, holy sh-t. (The Ringer)

To go back to the World Cup, this is a bummer but a very necessary reminder of the heartbreakingly dark downside to sport, because it’s important to remember that the tournament isn’t fun for everyone. The stats are not lying – goals and wins and losses are actually life and death for some people. Awareness is critical as the first step to conversation. This is a conversation that is so much more important than the ones about who will advance and what the marquee matchups will be. (New York Times)

It’s a slow holiday week and PEOPLE has a headline story on polyamory, which got me thinking: has there been a public polyamorous celebrity relationship? I don’t think there’s been a throuple or quad or such configuration. Ne-Yo has multiple girlfriends and Akon has said he’s poly but only on his side. Will Smith and Jada Pinkett spoke about fluidity a few times and the story has carried on for years, people were very scandalized by it so I understand the reticence for any other celebrities to even touch it as a topic. 

The Invite takes on a poly dynamic with four very charismatic people and last year, Dakota Johnson starred in Splitsville, which had an element of open marriage but there’s not a lot of polyamory in pop culture. Except for like TLC reality shows, which make it look awful.

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Did we know Rashida Jones co-wrote The Invite with Will McCormack? I had no idea. They also wrote Celeste & Jesse Forever together.

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Now I’m on a roll – Rashida’s sister Kenya Jones married Will Peltz (brother of Nicola Peltz-Beckham), the photos are at Vogue. Very decadent, which is to be expected. Brooklyn posted a photo dump but failed to include the happy couple. I don’t think he’s that attention-seeking; Kenya and Will probably didn’t want any photos posted to social media because of the Vogue coverage. 

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Lola Leon is bringing her mom to TikTok to promote their single, "The Test". This photo choice is such a great throwback – has to be the London years, you can tell by the cap and sweater. 

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Justin Bieber was at the NHL Draft to announce Toronto’s pick (Whitehorse’s Gavin McKenna, to no one’s surprise). Later on, Gavin was asked which celebrity he would want on a line with himself and Justin Bieber and his answer is LOL. I won’t even spoil it for you, Lainey sent it to me and I cackled. This kid is a gossip, I love it.

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Attached - Olivia Wilde and Edward Norton promoting The Invite in NYC this week.

Shania Twain is back with new music and a new album that drops at the end of July. Little Miss Twain is Shania going back to her Timmins, Ontario roots. She’s going back to singing the bluesy country music that she grew up listening to with her late mother; the music that she would perform in bars when she was underage, trying to make a name for herself. At 60 years old, Shania is more confident than ever and sending a message of love and comfort to her younger self. The new single “Little Miss Twain”, the title track, is a hint of how personal we can expect this new project, her seventh, to be.  

Shania is in full promo mode for the album, serving as the opening act during Harry Styles’s Wembley Stadium concerts in London. The concept of Shania Twain being the opening act for anyone is wild, to say the least, but given her public love affair with Harry and the sheer magnitude of the tour, maybe that works somehow. Shania’s been performing an hour of her hits to British fans for weeks now, and the stadium is huge. She’s a big artist yes, but she generally sticks to arenas and casinos. Performing in a stadium is still noteworthy for someone with a legendary career like hers and there’s no better place for a legacy artist to promote a new album than a stadium stage. Shania has been performing the lead single from her new album “Dirty Rosie” every night to more than 80,000 fans per show. Plus, any opportunity to watch her slay in custom Dolce & Gabbana feels like a treat in of itself.

At this point in her career, it isn’t about creating any more hits, she’s already got a legacy worth of those. It’s about her connection to music, and doing all she can to keep on making it. She’s been open about her struggles with Lyme disease and how it has affected her singing voice in many interviews and in her 2010 memoir. Now she’s finding her groove and this new music is a more gritty and soulful delivery than her earlier works. The new sound complements her new voice in a great way and almost feels like it could be the soundtrack to her own life story, and maybe it is. She recently announced a deal with Sony Pictures for a biopic about her life, appropriately titled Shania. She’s also tapped to produce the movie. I’ve never been too in love with Shania’s acting chops, so I’m happy to see she won’t be playing herself, LOL. I have however been a lifelong Shania fan. There are videos of me as a four-year-old performing “From This Moment On” to my father who was behind the camera. Yes, I’ve showed them to Lainey. These are some of my most cherished moments, and the beginning of my love affair with music. Shania represents that for me and for so many others, it’s only natural that she gets the full legend treatment with this biopic and new album.

Next week is Madonna week at MC’s Music Lounge. It’s her first new album in seven years, and is easily my most anticipated release of 2026 so far. Madge just teased a possible Kylie Minogue collaboration on the album, and if that actually comes true, expect the gay man writing these words to go into full panic mode. This week, we have music from Tyler The Creator, JLo, Charli xcx and Carly Rae Jepsen. Plus, more Olivia Rodrigo because the album hasn’t left my rotation and now the album cuts are starting to go viral.

Listen on…

MC’s PICKS OF THE WEEK

“Little Miss Twain” by Shania Twain, Tanya Tucker

Since Shania returned to music in 2017, it has been interesting to observe her musical choices. A lot of the music she’s put out in the last decade hasn’t felt all the way authentic. Some good songs yes, but a bit disconnected from the true Shania. This song feels like it came from her first album. It’s raw, emotional and honest. The lyrical content of “Little Miss Twain” paired with the traditional country production make it some of her best work in a long time. It’s about her mother and how she would always tell her that she was “the next Tanya Tucker”. Shania being the icon that she is was able to get Tanya on the song as well, and the two harmonize in the chorus. What a full circle moment, to be able to perform a song with the person that connected you and your mother when you were starting to sing. Shania lost her parents before she became a star, so this song is the ultimate dedication to the woman who always encouraged her to pursue her dreams. As a lifelong Shania fan, this song was touching to hear, and for more reasons than just the personal lyrics, but also her vocals. One of the things about her voice on this song which I noticed right away were the key changes. She’s taking a lot more risks in her singing and she sounds a lot more comfortable with her new voice than ever before. Shania has been open about the changes to her voice and the journey she’s been on to regain the power in her vocal chords. The acoustic singer/songwriter style of “Little Miss Twain” suits her more than anything she recorded on her last album Queen of Me.

“THAT GUY” by Tyler, The Creator

For fans of Tyler, this release isn’t new at all. He actually dropped this one on Christmas Day 2024 to celebrate the success of his album Chromakopia. It’s a freestyle over the beat of “hey now” by Kendrick Lamar from his GNX album, always my favourite song off Kendrick’s project, and remains on the stairmaster portion of my gym playlist, the final 30 minutes if you were wondering. Tyler even dropped a video at the time, but since it was never made available on streaming, it remained something of an underrated fan favourite. Now it has the ability to reach the masses, and it’s a perfect time to revisit as well, given the nostalgic summer feel of the original beat. Plus, Tyler is spitting his sh-t on the song. He’s flexing throughout the entire thing, and rightfully so given the immense success he’s experienced in the last few years. If you go through the comments of the video, you will see the section riddled with requests to put the song on Spotify dating back to the day it was uploaded. His record label has finally made good on that promise and now we can all add it. If you enjoyed Kendrick’s GNX album, then definitely give a listen to “THAT GUY”. Tyler raps with the same conviction that Kendrick does, except he has an effortless flamboyance to his lyrics that make it signature to him. It’s impressive and a big reason why he’s always intrigued me so much as a rapper. Don’t let this release fool you though, Tyler isn’t planning on releasing a new album anytime soon. He recently told fans to “not get stuck on this idea”, hinting at a longer break before releasing another album. That could explain the release of this long beloved freestyle. I’ll take it either way.

“Everything’s Fine (PM)” by Alok, Jennifer Lopez

Jennifer is riding the recent wave of success she’s been seeing on the dance floor. “Everything’s Fine (PM)” is a different sound for her but it works. It’s nothing deep, it’s just a pulsating beat with minimal vocal requirement, the addictive cries during the chorus are enough to fill a gay club on their own. Lyrics like “everything’s fine but I still feel weird” feel like they were taken out of a pre-teen’s diary, it’s a little comical but also perfect. The last time Jennifer got too deep in her music it was the prologue to the dissolution of her marriage to Ben Affleck, so maybe she needs to escape into something a little less traumatic. Cue the dancefloor. Interestingly, she hasn’t explored the house music field too much over career, even though her 2000 “Waiting For Tonight” remix is one of my most cherished dance mixes. It took the resurgence of “On The Floor” and the streaming success of “Save Me Tonight” to bring her here. Alok has collaborated with his share of divas, working with Kylie Minogue just last year. He knows what the gays want to hear, and he brings it out of our girls in a great way. Jennifer embraced the new “Jen-eration” (LOL) with a new performance at Prime Video’s Obsessed Fest fan event in LA over the weekend. She performed “Everything’s Fine” and eventually went into “On The Floor”, the song that Prime’s Off Campus helped bring back to the top of the charts. I just know she’s loving every f-cking second of this resurfaced interest in her music career and I’m loving it alongside her. Tonight, we are in fact “it” on the floor.

 “Wink Wink” by Charli xcx

The opening lines of “Wink Wink” include “maybe I f-cked your dad” and “I used to jump on trampolines with no underwear on”. If you didn’t know Charli, maybe these lines would be confusing, but if you do, it’s just another Tuesday. Charli is the resident party girl, and this song is all about the wild things she could have possibly done, solely based on reputation, but also wanting to show that people can change. You may have expected her to have gotten into every mess you can imagine and more, but a lot of that is just your own imagination projecting onto her. Charli is embracing her inner freak, while still maintaining the rock undertones that she promised with this project with the first single. It’s the third single from her upcoming album Music, Fashion, Film and to me, “Wink Wink” perfectly closes the trifecta of opening singles that are meant to represent the title of the project. “Rock Music”, the song with a clear lyric about making rock music represents “Music”. “SS26” is a clear nod to “fashion” given the title but also the depiction of a fashion show in the music video. And now, we have “Wink Wink” which sonically feels like it came off the soundtrack to a 2003 Brittany Murphy movie, so that’s the “film”. This is probably my favourite of the three, because as I’ve explained in this column when analyzing both the new music from Gracie Abrams and Olivia Rodrigo, I love a song that sounds like it’s from a 2000s soundtrack. It’s one of my positive musical triggers.

“On Wires” by Carly Rae Jepsen

There’s no better way to close out Pride than with a new song from Canadian queen of all gay people, Carly Rae Jepsen. Her new song “On Wires” is the beginning of a new era for her, opting for a less dance-oriented sound and more of a yearning and reflective tone. The song is her talking to a potential love interest about wanting to get with them. It’s a dramatic mid-tempo that’s a departure for her, still polished but just more mature and more pop/rock than anything she has done in a while. Pop music fans everywhere are well aware of Carly Rae’s game, but she still remains somewhat underrated. Maybe that’s a safe place for her to be, she did just give birth to her first child, and being able to slip in and out of the spotlight is a privilege for her I’m sure. “On Wires” sounds like something she would’ve recorded in her “Tug Of War” days, before the madness of “Call Me Maybe” turned her into the niche pop star she would become. Just like Charli xcx, Carly Rae is stepping into the pop/rock realm and taking new chances. The upcoming album Day and Night is a double-album complete with 24 tracks, 12 per side. Will there be a juxtaposition of genres to represent each side?

MC’s VIRAL PICK

“honeybee” by Olivia Rodrigo

We’re two weeks removed from the release of Olivia Rodrigo’s album you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, and not only has the album not left my playlists, but I seem to be listening to it even more aggressively than when it was first released. Each song gets better with every listen and clearly I’m not the only one who thinks so because the entirety of the album has now charted for a second week in a row on the Billboard Hot 100, with some songs taking over TikTok in their own respective niches. This is where “honeybee” comes into the picture. The song is #3 on the album, the first emotional ballad. The song is a picture perfect love song where Olivia affectionately refers to her lover as “baby boy, honeybee” in the most corny but loving way possible. The truth is that sometimes when you’re in love, you embrace the corny sh-t. We all know the feeling and to deny oneself said corniness is to deprive yourself of one of the most euphoric highs of human existence.

@livbedumb

♬ WHO WROTE THAT - 𝒽𝒾𝓃𝒶𝒶𝒶ᥫ᭡

@grandadfrankk Just the luckiest❤️‍🩹 #honeybee #oliviarodrigo #fyp #youseemprettysadforagirsolinlove #grandad ♬ honeybee - Olivia Rodrigo

@erikao424 Honey boy 🍯#honeybee #goldenretriever #goldenretrieverlife #goldenretrieversoftiktok #goldenretrieverpuppy ♬ honeybee - Olivia Rodrigo

The “baby boy, honeybee” trend is taking over TikTok, with users sharing moments with the  loves of their lives. Whether it be a moment from a wedding, a cuddle with a dog, or the expected slide of pictures with their significant others, people are embracing the cheesy, heartfelt moments that life has to offer. In less than two weeks, the song has already amassed more than 2.1 million sound uses on TikTok, and is gaining by the hundreds of thousands on the daily, and has reached #1 on TikTok’s viral songs chart. Looks like we know what the fourth single is going to be.

The 2026 “MC’s MUSIC LOUNGE” Spotify playlist is live. You can add it here to keep up to date with my weekly picks throughout the year. 

With Love, 

MC

In 2024, Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu became a surprise holiday hit (this after Eggers steadily built a devoted audience, beginning with 2015’s The VVitch). His next film is Werwulf, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Lily-Rose Depp, and as Lainey mentioned, given the Christmastime success of Nosferatu, Werwulf is slated for Christmas 2026. The first trailer is here, and as a devotee of Eggers, yes, I will spend one segment of my precious year-end liminal space watching this film.

While I really enjoy Robert Eggers’ work, which is rooted in thorough historical research and a fanatical eye for detail, Nosferatu fell a little flat for me. I need to revisit it, though, because Robert Eggers is engaged in a project I admire a lot—he’s recording western folklore into the cinematic annals, not making direct adaptations so much as grafting ancient stories into modern storytelling in a way that I find both entertaining and incredibly rewarding viewing.

So far, he has covered witches and the Devil (The VVitch), mermaids/sea madness (The Lighthouse), and vampires (Nosferatu). The work that sort of sticks out is The Northman, an adaptation of the legend of Amleth, a Danish saga that Shakespeare mined for Hamlet. The Northman, while not directly addressing a folkloric tradition like Eggers’ other works, does continue a centuries-long lineage of storytellers repeating and altering this tale for new eras. The Northman might work best as an abstract for Eggers’ larger project, a distillation of how he’s adapting and evolving these stories for 21^st century audiences.

One way he does that is with his visuals, steeped in history and rich with detail. I always say that in a Robert Eggers film, everyone looks like they have lice and smell like horse sh-t, like he’s making the cinema of stink. Werwulf is no different, everyone looks miserably dirty and smelly. The funny version of this is Monty Python and the Holy Grail and the “he’s a king because he hasn’t got sh-t on him” joke. The serious version is Robert Eggers, who started out as a costume and production designer, making the kind of films that actually looks like the cast rolled around in sh-t before every take. His films are such a compelling mix of beautiful diegetic lighting and painterly composition, and the worst looking locations you’ve ever seen in your life.

Werwulf also brings back numerous members of Eggers’ acting troupe. ATJ and Depp are back from Nosferatu, Willem Dafoe has been in all of Eggers’ feature films, and Ralph Ineson is a veteran of The VVitch, The Northman, and Nosferatu. ATJ and Depp star as farmers, with Depp sporting a prosthetic cleft lip. Their clothes look itchy as hell. ATJ appears to be the one affected by the curse of the werewolf, and it looks like Eggers is going in the direction of the werewolf myth being an allegory for domestic violence, which is the same thread Leigh Whannell pulled in Wolf Man.

I want to see Werwulf because I like Robert Eggers and I want to see what he makes of the werewolf myth (he once again collaborated with the Icelandic poet and writer Sjón on the script), but I also am curious to see if he can repeat his Nosferatu success. He’s up against big competition—literally just BIG films—with Dune: Part Three and Avengers: Doomsday, where Nosferatu’s biggest competition in 2024 was Mufasa and A Complete Unknown. Audiences have plenty of options this December, so competition will be stiffer this time around. December is going to be a true taste test for audiences in the 2020s.

The World Cup is the major story in sport around the world right now and, as one of England’s most famous footballers who also played in the United States and is an MLS team owner, of course David Beckham has been super visible over the last two weeks since the tournament started.

David was in the suite with Tom Cruise in LA for the first match played in the US…

@davidbeckham Amazing way to kick off the World Cup in the US… Congratulations Mauricio and @U.S. Soccer 👏🏼 great to see so many passionate fans in the stadium ❤️⚽️🏆 @FIFA World Cup @Tom Cruise ♬ original sound - David Beckham

…and then at his second home in Miami to watch the match between Scotland and Brazil, where he was joined by Cruz Beckham, now 21 years old, but never too old for a kiss from his dad. David has always been openly affectionate with his kids which might read different now with all the drama with Brooklyn. Those who believe Brooklyn’s accusations that his parents are exploitative might see a moment like this and think: PR. And those who don’t believe Brooklyn’s accusations might point out that this has always been standard David parenting procedure.

On Saturday David was in New York for England’s final group stage match against Panama, a couple of days after the 20^th anniversary of one of the greatest goals of his career as a footballer. World Cup 2006, England vs Ecuador, round of 16. And, well, it was exactly what he was known for, “bend it like Beckham”.

@fifaworldcup Bending it like Beckham on this day in 2006 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿💫 #FIFAWorldCup ♬ original sound - FIFA World Cup

In sport though, there are highs and there are lows. And today happens to be the anniversary of one of his lowest lows – the red card at the World Cup in 1998 and all the ugliness that followed. He was excoriated in England at the time, and then exonerated in the years that followed, which was well documented in the Netflix series.

I’m thinking about this because the South Korean national team is going through it right now. Totally different circumstances, I know, most of the anger is being directed at the coach Hong Myung-bo for his decision-making, with accusations of cronyism now being directed at the Korean Football Association. But the players are catching strays too, as some of them returned to Korea along with Hong yesterday to hostility at the airport. If anyone might be able to relate to what this would have felt like for the Korean players, it would be David Beckham.

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Football is not where DB’s attention is at the moment, though. At least not in person. He’s been to Wimbledon two days in a row, observing a tradition with his mother yesterday and then back again in the box today.

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Tomorrow, England plays in Atlanta against DR Congo and he can easily hop on the pj to get himself there but it’s his wedding anniversary on Saturday so, you know, unless Victoria wants to join him, he might be watching on television.

Dear Gossips,

Earlier this year, to kick off the tennis season, Naomi Osaka served one of the most high fashion looks through the tunnel at the Australian Open, in a custom collaboration design by Robert Wun x Nike. As I wrote at the time, she was doing the tournament a favour, considering their ambition to become more popular and challenge Wimbledon as the crown jewel of the sport, which The Athletic called an arms race behind the scenes.

Wimbledon is now upon us, and once again, for her first match, Naomi has smashed a winner, while also observing the infamous All England Club dress code.

@wimbledon Naomi Osaka brings her iconic entrances to The Championships 🤍 #Wimbledon ♬ original sound - wimbledon

Naomi is Japanese, she represents Japan on the world stage, and she worked with Japanese designer Hana Yagi to create this amazing fashion moment. In an exclusive photo shoot and interview with British Vogue, both Naomi and Hana Yagi share their intention behind the look. And just as I said back in January when the Australian Open was happening, ignore the haters and the obstinate purists who are probably bitching about this because it’s exactly what the Australians wanted to support their goals for maximum exposure; and this too respects the setting, at Wimbledon, where tradition and ceremony are so strictly observed. Wimbledon’s ritualistic reputation is exactly what inspired the robe. As Naomi’s creative director, Marty Harper, tells British Vogue:

“It’s one of the few places in sport where ceremony still feels inseparable from competition,” he says. “We wanted to acknowledge that while creating a dialogue with Japanese ceremonial dress.”

Tradition and ceremony, yes. But it doesn’t have to be British tradition and ceremony. Naomi reinterpreted the “rules” of Wimbledon, in all white, but made it Japanese. And was still obviously able to play tennis as she went on to win her match in the white tennis kit that she was wearing underneath… with cherry blossoms climbing up one side, flip through the carousel to see. I am obsessed with cherry blossoms, so obviously this is hitting me in all the right places.

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In a post shared on Instagram, Naomi captioned it 文化 which means culture. How she uses her body is her job. What she puts on her body is her self-expression. And she’s doing it better than most in her sport.

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Yours in gossip,

Lainey

Prime Video is in the business of romance. You might say that romance is their main business, considering how well romance series perform on the platform. Most of the romances are young adult stories, attracting young adult viewers who then blow it all up on socials but the fact of the matter is that it’s not just 20-somethings who are watching these shows. The series that’s had the most success, at least so far, is The Summer I Turned Pretty, and much of the core audience for the series was women between 35-50 who were feral over the love triangle. The same could also be said of Off Campus this year. There are women in their 40s who can’t stop texting me about it.

In response to the popularity of these series (often novel adaptions, and there are now several including Maxton Hall, Every Year After, and movies too, like the upcoming The Love Hypothesis, premiering in September), Prime is expanding the experience, not unlike what Bravo has done with BravoCon and their reality series library. It’s a smart idea, adding opportunities for engagement and content creation with influencers, podcasters, and other online personalities invited to interact with the talent from these shows … which mostly feature straight romances and not a lot of racial diversity so I appreciate that Benito Skinner and the cast of Overcompensating were given a spotlight at the inaugural Obsessed Fest this weekend.

I interviewed Benito and his best friend and creative partner Mary Beth Barone last year during JFL in Montreal – they were so fun and so nice and I’m thrilled that good things are happening for them, including season two of their series which they’ve been shooting in Toronto. Fun fact, the costume designer for Overcompensating is Hanna Puley who so many people now know from her work on a little show called Heated Rivalry.

By far the biggest name in terms of critical mass recognition at Obsessed Fest, though, was Jennifer Lopez. Always hustling! Obsessed Fest is obviously not halftime at the Super Bowl, LOL, but performing at a fan convention does align with JLo’s ambitions right now after what’s happened with “On The Floor”, related to Off Campus, and a “new generation” of people listening to what is now her most streamed track. The Queen of Romcoms is performing for romance lovers, these are her people. As for the outfit. It’s hideous. But that face card is cashing in on a demo that might sustain her as she gets closer to 60. Could end up being a really savvy move.

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Haven’t seen a moment between JLo and the Off Campus cast, at least not on the blue carpet but everyone understood the connection. Just a note here on Belmont Cameli, who plays Garrett Graham, because it’s another lesson about casting and social media. A little over a year ago, people were bitching about the Heated Rivalry casting, and look how that turned out. This happens over and over again and more often than not, the movie or the show comes out and nobody’s complaining anymore. I wasn’t feeling Belmont when the casting announcement was made but I wasn’t yelling about it either because I’m old enough to have learned this lesson: you have to see the person in character first. And Belmont, as we’ve seen, came through. He is so f-cking hot in his role and because of it he’s that much hotter in real life. The way he’s wearing that top and those pants… the casting director knew what she was doing.

What else happened today…

On that note… Kathleen interviewed her former colleague Carley Fortune about Every Year After. (Refinery 29)

Last Friday at The Squawk, I wrote about the high degree of difficulty for actors who have and still worked on American soap operas. They are underrated and underappreciated! Movie actors are basically soft and spoiled in comparison. John Oliver has now become an actor on an American soap. Two actually. (Pajiba)

An obsessive investigation into what Taylor Swift will wear at her wedding. (The Cut)

When Walton Goggins saved Olivia Wilde’s life. (Entertainment Weekly)

 Courteney Cox is single again. (Celebitchy)

Ariana Grande’s ex Ricky Alvarez was seen at her show in Austin and she made a slight lyric change to, “thank you, next” to reference their current relationship (“he still has my back”). She is typically not one to linger or repeat exes. They could actually be just friends, possibly maybe. But she really does keep it interesting.

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Fresh off Snapchat’s influencer push for their sunglasses, Meta is working with Kylie Jenner. I don’t care how influential or popular the spokesperson is and I don’t care how many units they sell, smart glasses are corny. To the surprise of absolutely no one, some men are using the Meta glasses to harass women and post the interactions online.

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We get it, Dua Lipa. YOU ARE ON VACATION.

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Kevin Spacey told Bill Maher he is feeling welcomed back to Hollywood and it’s like, where? Besides the sexual assault (which is obviously a huge massive thing), Kevin, like Harvey Weinstein, was known to be a giant asshole on set. He’s in Mel Gibson-land and should stay there. The way these men overestimate how much audiences miss them is staggering. We don’t even notice you are gone. Anyway, here’s American Beauty star Mena Suvari.

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A very rare Missy Elliot sighting in support of Pharrell. That LV bag is very early aughts.

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If you told me James Marsden was in LL Bean I would believe you. But nope, it’s Dior. This is the year he should be inaugurated into the Paul Rudd/Rob Lowe Hall of Anti-aging Hall of Fame (men’s edition).

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