This Week

• The world can’t wait for that Challengers kiss.
• The most annoying meme of the week.
• Stars are just faking relationships now. 
• The most hilarious response to that Bluey episode.
• Spice up your life!

Challengers Is Gonna Be a Huge Deal

Every once in a while—in spite of the inferno of lunacy, cruelty, and soul-crushing stress flaming all around—the world resembles one that I still want to live in, that reflects my deepest values and belief in a society that is fundamentally good. 

By some soul-affirming miracle that’s happening right now: People everywhere can’t wait to see Zendaya and two cute boys kiss. This is my America. 

I can’t remember the last time I’ve observed as much anticipation for a movie as I’ve seen these last few weeks for Challengers. The new film features Zendaya as a tennis superstar at the center of an erotically charged rivalry-turned-love-triangle with her husband, Art (Mike Faist), and her former lover—and his former best friend—Patrick (Josh O’Connor). 

Directed by Luca Guadagnino, who steamed up screens previously with Call Me By Your Name and A Bigger Splash, Challengers has been steadily accruing buzz with months of titillating ads and trailers, scores of advanced screenings that produced ecstatic social media reaction, and a dizzying press tour spotlighting its stars’ charm and chemistry—not to mention Zendaya’s jaw-dropping fashion looks. 

Originally planned for a September 2023 release during the prime of award season, the film was pushed back seven months because the Hollywood strikes prevented the actors from doing press. Putting out the film anyway, as we’ve now learned, would have robbed us of one of the most delightful interview onslaughts from a cast in recent memory. Plus, Challengers was originally set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival. As Variety wrote, “If Zendaya can’t walk the carpet at the Venice Film Festival… then what’s the point?” A more indisputable question has never been asked.

The result, quite appropriate given the nature of a film, has been seven months of foreplay. 

The promise of Zendaya in a sweaty, sexy movie with two male co-stars—each of whom has charged up the ranking of The Internet’s Favorite Boyfriends—was tantalizing on its own. But then came each new interview, review, and report about Challengers’ most talked-about scene: the threeway kiss that concludes with O’Connor and Faist making out with each other. Anecdotally, my interminably online self could sense people on social media practically throbbing with anticipation for the film’s release this weekend.

I’ve been doing this long enough to know that this kind of pre-release enthusiasm for a film is extremely rare. I’m not saying that Challengers is going to do the box-office numbers of a Barbie or an Oppenheimer; it’s a specialty release on a far smaller scale than those blockbusters. But there’s been a palpable thrill surrounding the buildup that has managed to remain almost relentlessly positive—made all the more impressive by how atypically long this march to the cinema has been. 

This Challengers affection runs counter to how the internet typically treats everything. The list in this famous quote has expanded in the modern media age: The only things certain in life are death, taxes, turning on the news will horrify you, needing a nap, and that there will always be people lurking to ensure that you don’t enjoy anything fun for too long. 

As powerful as fans are on the internet, they are helpless to the terrorizing ways of cynics and buzzkills, the two entities that control the world. (The “world” in 2024, of course, being “the discourse.”) If something seems fun, and people are outwardly excited for it, someone beams a Bat Signal. Then, they arrive heavily armed with an artillery of “Well, actually…,” “This is problematic…,” “It is actually bad because…,” and detailed arguments as to why you are a loser for liking the project in question. 

I’ve been struck by (again, anecdotally) how this backlash has largely not surfaced with Challengers, at least not on the scale I’m used to in pop culture. Not only have people been giddy at the opportunity to finally screen the movie, but those who have been able to see it in advance have been rapturous, stoking the excitement rather than extinguishing it. (I’m not naive: There is indeed a section of the internet where people are primed to hate Challengers, and it shouldn’t be shocking that it’s the extremist bubble where straight white men live.)

The Daily Beast’s Obsessed’s Coleman Spilde wrote in his review that “heat swells, tensions flare, and skin is slick with perspiration, but fatigue never once sets in,” a sentiment that was echoed in the glowing reactions lighting up social media:

I keep waiting for the other (tennis) shoe to drop. The serve to fault. Break point to be lost. But, implausibly, the closer Challengers has gotten to this weekend’s release, there have only been more reasons to be unapologetically stoked for the movie. There have been more interviews with Zendaya, O’Connor, and Feist that are impossible not to grin ear-to-ear to while reading. More euphoric reactions from early screenings. And then, the game-set-match point, at least for me, is this beautiful, ebullient quote from Guadagnino in reaction to all the chatter that the film’s already iconic threeway kiss scene was going to generate. 

“It’s beautiful to kiss people!” he told Variety. “That’s what I want to say. People, kiss! Do not make war.” 

Do not be surprised if, by Monday morning, I’ve had that quote stitched onto a throw pillow, painted onto a billboard, papered in flyers all over town, and tattooed across my body. Why are we all so stressed? Why is there so much hate? Why am I still sitting bleary-eyed at my laptop typing this damned newsletter? Let’s all go kiss! (And then go see Challengers…and then kiss again.) I’ll meet you outside.

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I’m Heading to the Asylum

The only thing worse than a meme that completely floods your social media timeline is not understanding what in god’s name the meme means. As a burgeoning Old Person, this has become a frustratingly common occurrence. So in between refilling my acid reflux prescription and icing my sore knees, I finally broke down and googled the provenance of the meme that had been assaulting me all week, and now I’m more annoyed than I was when I was just blissfully elderly, clueless, and out of touch.

All week, I logged onto Twitter, or X, or Absolute Hell—whatever we want to call it these days—and there were endless posts of random images captioned, “You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me.” At first, I thought it was poetic, a rare instance of social media earnestness. Then I noticed some of the photos—a picture of Seattle Grace Hospital from Grey’s Anatomy, the storefront of Aeropostale at a mall, the log-in page for Tumblr—and wondered if the line was some nostalgic reference to millennial childhoods that I had forgotten about. 

Then Monica Lewinsky participated in the meme, posting a photo of the White House along with the standard caption, and mainstream media started to notice and report on it. That’s how I learned that this whole meme is a reference to a Taylor Swift lyric from The Tortured Poets Department. Seriously?!

Look, I’m not typically one to harsh anyone’s buzz. People should have fun when they can in this miserable time right now. And I can’t really articulate why this bothers so much, other than understanding that I’m more irritated than usual by this particular meme. But there’s something so dystopian about the inescapability: Beyond the discourse that has overtaken every other corner of the pop-culture water cooler in this last week, Taylor Swift’s new album has now staged a coup over my social media timeline too. 

I’m a Taylor Swift agnostic. It’s a typically peaceful existence. I like her music well enough and have no strong opinion about her life and celebrity one way or another. I have curated my social media to avoid the absurd arguing over her and her music. So to have this meme be unavoidable where I have tried to avoid everyone’s Swift obsessions entirely, well that’s going to send me to the asylum. 

Anyway, rant over. I’ll go back to watching my reruns of Matlock and warming up soup.

Hard Launching My Relationship

There was quite the scuttlebutt this week when Glen Powell revealed in a New York Times interview that the speculation that he and Anyone But Youco-star Sydney Sweeney were having an off-set affair was intentional and orchestrated by the duo themselves. 

“The two things that you have to sell a rom-com are fun and chemistry,” he said. “Sydney and I have a ton of fun together, and we have a ton of effortless chemistry. That’s people wanting what’s on the screen off the screen, and sometimes you just have to lean into it a bit—and it worked wonderfully. Sydney is very smart.”

Some people thought this was hilarious and applauded the pair for pulling off such a clearly successful marketing strategy. Others felt duped and betrayed by a celebrity romance (and scandal) that they had invested in. Is it kind of insidious to play the public and the press like that? If we can’t trust extremely hot and rich celebrities with an army of publicists hired to manipulate the media, then who can we trust!?

As for me, I totally get it. I too have been lying about a romance, though my paramour and I have been operating with the opposite tactic to Glen and Sydney. Rather than pretend to be in love in public, Jonathan Bailey and I have been keeping our torrid, sex-heavy relationship a complete secret from everyone. If you ask him about it now, he’ll still deny it. He’s really into this ruse. What can I say? That’s my guy!

Everyone Wants in on Bluey 

Last week, I wrote about how the special, supersized episode of Bluey, “The Sign,” made everyone—myself included—cry. In the episode, the Heeler family is so heartbroken about the idea of selling their home and moving out of their neighborhood that, in the end, they stay put. It was a poignant portrayal of the meaning of home, memories, and community, and the scary uncertainty of journeying into an unknown that won’t guarantee you more happiness than you already have. 

Everyone seemed to love and agree with that message. Everyone except, it turns out, the people and companies whose bank accounts rely on families actually going through with selling homes and moving, unlike the Heelers.

Zillow has, hilariously and shrewdly, released a new commercial in response to Bluey, hoping to convince buyers and sellers that they should still embrace the idea of moving—emotional cartoon dogs, be damned.

“Despite how a certain children’s show made us all feel recently, moving into a new home might just be a good thing,” an appropriately Australian narrator says. At the end of the commercial, which lists the positives of moving, four real-life dogs are shown and, in another nod to Bluey, look forlorn while sitting next to a For Sale sign. “Don’t look at me like that,” the narrator says. “C’mon guys, you’re killing me here.”

I honestly love this. Good for Zillow. Watch the commercial here.

You Gotta Get With My Friends 

It’s a miracle that this newsletter exists this week—or that any task was accomplished at all—because my brain has solely been preoccupied by one thing: the Spice Girls’ reunion performance of “Stop,” with the original choreography, at Victoria Beckham’s 50th birthday party. 

Join me in watching it for the 479th time here.

More From The Daily Beast’s Obsessed 

It must be so embarrassing to be a major celebrity who hasn’t received Meghan Markle’s limited-edition jam yet. Read more.

The Shōgun finale was excellent, and it made one of the most surprising decisions a major TV production could make. Read more. 

HBO’s We’re Here is consistently one of TV’s best reality series, and this season matters more than ever. Read more.

• The Big Door Prize: If there was justice in the world, this would have as much attention as Ted Lasso got. (Now on Apple TV+)

• Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story: Spending several hours looking at Jon Bon Jovi is always a valuable use of one’s time. (Now on Hulu)

• Challengers: At long last, my love of tennis is considered hot and sexy. (Now in theaters)

• Unsung Hero: Even God can’t save this snoozy faith-based movie. (Now in theaters)

• City Hunter: They have all the money in the world, yet Netflix can’t make a good anime adaptation. (Now on Netflix)

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