This Week

• Katy Perry may wish she’d stayed in space.
• Finally, everyone also loves one of my favorite shows.
• J.K. Rowling remains the absolute worst.
• A very important celebrity summit. 
• No one has ever stunned more in a photo.

What Did Katy Perry Do to You? 

The world’s rotation these days is propelled by the power of the division, polarization, discord, and vitriolic disagreement that exists on it. Thus it’s a surprise, for one moment, for the earth to stand still in a moment of unity. And that seems to be over the hatred of Katy Perry. 

How ironic that one major source of that ire is Perry’s recent trip to gaze at that world from the lower limits of space. Did she know what we were saying about her down here while she was looking out the window of the rocket up there? (She apparently sang a snippet of “What a Wonderful World” while in flight; either she was oblivious or she’s trolling us all.)

Perry was a part of the all-female team on the Blue Origin spaceflight, alongside Gayle King, Lauren Sánchez, and several other formidable women who the media have largely ignored because of the morbid horror that Jeff Bezos, who funded the mission, might be propelling a major pop star and Oprah’s BFF to certain death. 

Now that the mission returned safely—that is [puts on tinfoil hat] if the trip happened at all!!!—disgust over the stunt has eclipsed any girl-power-STEM enthusiasm and future-of-humanity goals the mission was supposed to accomplish.

What it did accomplish: unifying the Olivias (Munn and Wilde) in a public shaming of their celebrity sisters for the “gluttonous” space ride that distracts from and siphons resources from real issues facing mankind. 

Fellow celebrity Jessica Chastain shared The Guardian’s essay titled, “The Blue Origin Flight Showcased the Utter Defeat of American Feminism.” It’s a pretty brutal one. The line “the flight served as a kind of perverse funeral for the America that once enabled both scientific advancement and feminist progress” is just the beginning.

But it was Perry who bore the brunt of the thinkpieces. The Atlantic called her “the perfect pop star for a dumb stunt.”  And a fiery Pitchfork piece titled “In Space, No One Can Hear You Girlboss” was giddily shared all over social media, particularly for this absolutely savage—and wholly entertaining—read: 

“This trip is also kind of the next logical step for Perry’s career. And look, I’m an empath, I get it. If I had written a few perfect songs in 2010, had never been able to replicate their magic, and was somehow worth $350 million dollars, I would probably also embark on a quest for meaning in the journeywork of the stars. Would I be honest with myself and admit to the world that this was just a million dollar carnival ride dissembling as a publicity stunt, that we are not space revolutionaries but rather celebs in couture trying to milk a few days of earned media paid for by Amazon? Who can say.”

You would think that would be as harsh as it could possibly get when it comes to the Katy Perry pile-on. But then again, no one expected fast-food chain Wendy’s to enter the fray. The burger slinger’s X account posted “Can we send her back?,” inciting a whole news cycle including a response from insiders “close” to Perry decrying the bullying from the House of Frosty. With this feud, one could say Wendy’s finally “found the beef.” (Ba-dum-ching!)

But why is it Perry who is the focus of this ill-will? She wasn’t the only person on the flight. But she is the easiest target.

Unlike Perry, who is now, thanks to Blue Origin, “excited to learn more about STEM,” I am neither scientific nor mathematical. But I am well-versed in the practice of something else: gauging vibes. 

The vibes on Perry, at least online and among cultural obsessives, have not been great for years. 

She hasn’t had a Top 10 hit since 2016, with each successive “flop” record becoming a meme about how she doesn’t make good music anymore. 

The lead single off her latest record, “Woman’s World,” was mocked as a laughably obtuse—and unlistenable—attempt to capitalize on a Kamala Harris-led feminist moment. The rumor that Perry offered the song to Harris to use for her campaign, and Harris politely passed, only added to the humiliation—which the cruel internet in turn celebrated.  

She’s never really been “canceled,” but she’s not without controversy. Never forget that her attempt to buy a convent, against the wishes of its sisters, was so aggressive that one nun’s dying words were allegedly, “Katy Perry, please stop.” And then there was her voting booth selfie showing that she voted for polarizing candidate Rick Caruso for L.A. mayor, rankling liberal fans who were alarmed by Caruso’s political leanings.   

Generally, though, as her music career has stagnated, Perry has projected a mixture of excessive enthusiasm and dire desperation, a combination that can only be described as the most lethal of Very Online words: “cringe.”

So a much maligned spaceflight on top of that? Perry herself was laying up the ball for everyone to dunk on her. (Did I do that sports metaphor right?)

We want our popstars woke. They need to serve bops and demand social justice simultaneously, or else feel our wrath. Whatever good work Perry has done on those fronts over her career, taking a billion-dollar trip to space on a rocket funded by the left’s Dr. Evil, Jeff Bezos, squashes it. Worse, she isn’t even giving us good music while she does it. 

This isn’t the end of Perry’s career. She’s going on a massive tour, which she, in another cringe move, promoted from space. She’s talented. All it takes is one good song to salvage a pop star’s reputation. 

Plus, we all know how this controversy is going to end: Katy Perry starring in a Wendy’s Super Bowl commercial set in outer space.

Today’s Top Entertainment News 

• ‘The Wedding Banquet’: Bowen Yang Is So Much Better Than His New Rom-Com
• ‘The Shrouds’: Would You Pay to Watch Your Dead Loved Ones Decay?
• Why Gabby Windey’s Wife Would Never Go on ‘The Traitors’

We Can Finally Enjoy Girlsin Peace 

Thirteen years is hardly a milestone anniversary. Social media doesn’t care about that: any occasion is a perfect occasion for engagement. I can’t and won’t complain about the randomness when the 13-year anniversary was used as the prompt for thousands of users on X to post their favorite moments from the HBO series Girls.

Time has been good to Lena Dunham’s series, about millennials struggling to become responsible adults while living in Brooklyn. As years have passed, the show is finally being viewed outside of the context of the incessant, deafening discourse that surrounded it when it was airing. Because of that, people—even critics of the show when it first ran—have come around to the fact that it was good. Really good. 

I have viewed each and every clip that has come across my timeline this week that someone chose as their favorite moment. If you want to spend a chunk of your day having a really great time, click this link and do the same.

I’ve yet to participate in the prompt, largely because I struggle to choose my favorite. 

Is it the scene at the beach house where a drunk Shoshana tells everyone off? Or, when it comes to Shoshana highlights, her disastrous job interview at McKinsey? 

Would I choose one of the classic moments, like Marnie’s mortifying Kanye West karaoke moment, or the “Dancing on My Own” scene? 

My first instinct was the brilliant scene between Hannah and Elijah, where Elijah tells her he’s gay. But if I’m going to choose an Elijah scene, should it be when he sings “Let Me Be Your Star” from Smash as he auditions for the White Men Can’t Jump musical? Or when he hilariously mocks Hannah for wanting to leave New York City?

And, my god, what about Hannah and Adam’s emotional final scene at Kellogg’s Diner, which might rank as one of the best written and performed TV scenes…ever? 

It’s been a fun week, revisiting these scenes and seeing how many people appreciate the show now. 

The series pilot famously has Hannah saying she may be “the voice of my generation…or at least a voice of a generation.” As this victory lap on X this week has shown: Maybe she was right.  

Avada Kedavra to All This Garbage 

J.K. Rowling is an absolutely vile person. Irredeemably and, at this point I would assume, sociopathically toxic. 

The Harry Potter author and billionaire multiple times over celebrated the fruition of her years-long, inexplicable, dangerous, and inhuman TERF tirade against transgender women. The UK Supreme Court ruled that transgender women are not legally women, after which she posted a photo of herself smoking a cigar and holding a cocktail, captioning it, “I love it when a plan comes together.” 

The Potter franchise means so much to me, and more to so many other people. But I don’t know how to keep reconciling support of what’s become an entire Potter industry that funnels money directly into the pockets of the sentient pile of rotting, putrid garbage loosely held together by a sack of human skin. 

I hold onto this beautiful message that Daniel Radcliffe once shared. But it’s getting harder and harder.

An Important Celebrity Summit 

There was a historic meeting of celebrities: Finally, Michelle Williams met Michelle Williams. 

That there are two famous Michelle Williamses has always delighted me, as have the occasions when they’ve been mixed up, as the careers of Michelle Williams (Oscar nominee) and Michelle Williams (Destiny’s Child member) couldn’t be more different. And because, uh, one is white and the other is Black? 

The two finally met after a performance of Death Becomes Her on Broadway, in which Williams (Destiny’s Child version) currently stars. (As I’m morally obligated to do any time Death Becomes Her is mentioned: a reminder that is the funniest musical on Broadway in years. Go see it!)

In the videos, they look genuinely excited to see each other. It’s adorable! Finally, nice things! 

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Glamour Shot of the Week 

It’s become a meme online to say that someone “stuns” in a photo. Sometimes it’s used genuinely. Sometimes it’s sarcastic, mocking how overused the phrase has become. 

But truly, earnestly: Sheryl Lee Ralph STUNS with her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

More From The Daily Beast’s Obsessed 

• Tone-deaf rich people are giving tours of their luxury tents at Coachella like they’re in Architectural Digest. Read more.
• I talked to the stars of “the Gay Golden Girls,” Mid-Century Modern. But do not tell Nathan Lane I called it that. Read more.
• How Warfare, the most intense and realistic war film in years, was made. Read more.

• The Legend of Ochi: Fans of Baby Yoda, meet your new favorite creature. (Now in theaters)

• The Rehearsal: The undisputed craziest show on TV somehow gets…crazier. (Sun. on HBO)

• Étoile: The creators of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Gilmore Girls take on the world of ballet. (Thurs. on Prime Video)

• Sneaks: A movie about sneakers that talk to each other. I’m serious. (Now in theaters)

• Sinners: Our Obsessed critic is the anomaly who didn’t like this one. (Now in theaters)

   

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