on the pulse of pop culture

Another scandal was brewing, and it would become the fight of her career. She would stand accused of attempting to cover up a sexual assault and get suspended from her sport. Even the subreddit page for Cheer turned on her—thousands of strangers once united by fandom were now essentially unanimous in their scorn. “Monica is absolutely disgusting,” ... See more

Thanks to the alleged love triangle, Rodrigo and Carpenter have that built in. They have very thinly veiled songs about each other — a territory some of those past “rivals” have never really ventured in.

But what makes the Rodrigo-Carpenter dynamic unique is that they’ve both figured out how to make the “rivalry” work in their favor, embracing their... See more

In her new memoir Consent , writer Jill Ciment revisits her celebrated memoir of 20 years ago, Half a Life , about her marriage to the man she met when she was 17 and he was her 47-year-old art professor.

“Should I refer to him in the language of today — sexual offender , transgressor , abuser of power ?” Ciment asks, referring to her late husband,... See more

How did an oddball pop song versed in queer theory get on the Billboard Hot 100? Specifically, how did Chappell Roan, a rising lesbian pop star, get on the Hot 100 for the first time and break the “gay famous” ceiling (as SNL puts it) seemingly preventing likeminded acts MUNA and Girl in Red from crossing over to the main chart?

When the press tour for Madame Web began at the start of the year, lead actress Dakota Johnson was placed under such scrutiny that it became an absurdist tale of how clicks and engagement are farmed. One of the earliest examples is a quote she gave to Entertainment Weekly about working in front of a bluescreen, in which she said, “I’ve never really... See more

Lopez’s 2002 “Jenny From the Block” video is an iconic moment in her career, but she now says it was a mistake. According to Lopez, the idea to do a meta tabloid-themed video examining the Bennifer phenomenon was director Francis Lawrence’s idea, not hers. The video features shots of topless models on yachts, faux secret-camera footage and Affleck ... See more

Glover was a far more promising prospect in Hollywood, and so Childish Gambino was a much riskier and much more interesting pivot. Glover didn’t turn to hip-hop to become cool. He turned to hip-hop to reveal how deeply uncool he was. He was enigmatic. He was provocative. He was a righteous loser who modeled youthful suburban rebellion on hypermoder... See more

In an admirable show of honesty, Mike Schur, a producer and writer who created the NBC series The Good Place and co-created Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn Nine-Nine , says on camera “I pretended I didn’t know” about the rumors when he cast Louis C.K. on Parks and Recreation well before the New York Times expose. Later, Schur admits, “The fact th... See more

NEW DELHI—One of the most lavish weddings in recent years wraps up in India this weekend, after giving the world an eye-popping look at the spending power of a fabulously wealthy billionaire family—the Ambanis.Anant Ambani, 29, the youngest son of Mukesh Ambani, head of industrial conglomerate Reliance Industries and India’s richest man, is marryin... See more

We are now entering the Hannah Montana Generation of pop stars: young artists who are not just evoking the frilly and bold aesthetic and unapologetically sugary sweet music of the show but also the type of larger-than-life persona Montana had in comparison to “real-life” Stewart. Carpenter is the prime example of leaning into the Hannah Montana-ifi... See more