Billion Dollar Deals & Cheaters: The Dichotomy of Womanhood
Vol. 2 Issue 22 – 31st May 2025
This week in Women’s History
Yesterday, in a letter on her website, Taylor Swift announced that she now owns all of her masters aka she has ownership of all the art she has ever made! A little context for the uninitiated, in a deal behind her back, her old label/manager sold her catalogue of 6 albums to Scooter Braun for $300 million, despite her repeatedly asking to buy them back, but being refused. In short, her masters were always up for sale, just not to her, but for profit. In retaliation, Taylor started re-recording and releasing her old music as “Taylor’s Version” to own back what was rightfully hers. The new old music, along with five completely new albums, leads to the Eras Tour, celebrating her entire career’s worth of music altogether. Which brings us to the present, the enormous success of the tour enabled her to buy back her original masters for $360 million. Not only did she successfully devalue her own original albums by releasing new ones but now that she has them back, her barrage of fans (loyal as ever) are back to streaming her old discography, with reputation even reaching the #1 spot on the charts. A mastermind in action, ladies and gentlemen.
In her letter, she mentions she’s not even a quarter way done with Reputation Taylor’s Version (so much for us Swifties clowning over it week after week), but she is done with re-recording her debut album, and may drop it as and when it feels right. We love to see a woman win, but also in today’s age of lack of control, artistic integrity, and devaluation of art, we love to see a win for the creatives. And to celebrate this, how would I even be a Swiftie if I don’t give you song recommendations for each piece of pop culture news in today’s issue?
As for another huge business deal, Hailey Bieber has sold her skincare/beauty brand, Rhode, to Elf Beauty for $1 BILLION! The barely 3-year-old brand, with a handful of products but a huge following, was mostly bootstrapped with only a couple of small investors. While this doesn’t make Hailey a billionaire just yet, it’s still a study in marketing and positioning, and she will most likely walk away with at least a $100 million dollars, stock options, and a place on the advisory board of Elf, while being the creative head at Rhode.
Girls around the world, across the internet, mourned with pity and lashed with anger as Youtuber The wizard liz revealed that her fiance, Landon, cheated on her, while she is currently four months pregnant with their child. A creator with 8 million subscribers, she is known for empowering women, giving relationship advice through her motivational videos. This news also came in the light of their recent Q&A video posted mere days before, where he claimed how much he loved her… Similarly, influencer Catherine Paiz of family vlogging channel ACE Family fame, went on the podcast Call Her Daddy to clear the air on her ex-husband Austin cheating on her…
Aaand on the flip side, a viral clip shows French President Emmanuel Macron being slapped/shoved? by his wife Brigitte as they landed in Vietnam. He claims it was just a moment of jest but a reminder dear reader, the two met when Macron was only 15 and Brigitte was 39 years old. She was his teacher at school… In other news, France is also banning smoking in all public places. Taking away the French’s #1 favourite activity, well it can only result in them partaking in their #2 favourite activity, rioting.
In happier news, Demi Lovato is married to singer-songwriter Jordan Lutes!
Apparently, the New York Knicks win whenever Timothée Chalamet takes Kylie Jenner to watch a match with him! Talk about lady luck. Also, Kylie hilariously reshared this Sex and the City clip to her TikTok.
Rumours were circulating that Annabelle, the haunted doll, yes, the one that multiple horror movies are based on, had gone missing, but this has been debunked by the museum where she resides inside a glass box.
Sydney Sweeney, in collaboration with Dr Squatch, is selling 5000 bars of soap infused with her bath water… Sometimes being in on the joke is woke, sometimes its really just catering to the male gaze and setting back feminism. Well, at least some boys will take a shower (or maybe they’ll enshrine the soap…)
Dior’s creative director of women’s haute couture, ready-to-wear and accessories collections Maria Grazia Chiuri is leaving the French luxury house after a nine-year run.
A new Hadid sister has materialised! Gigi and Bella Hadid have announced that over 20 years ago their father had a brief relationship which lead to a pregnancy when he was single, and they have now connected with their step-sister, 23-year-old Aydan Nix.
Sabrina Carpenter is allegedly being eyed for a role in Mamma Mia 3, following in the footsteps of Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried and Lily James to join the Sheridan women!
In other news
Elon Musk has left the Trump administration, he was reportedly doing drugs while on the job.
A video of a Kangaroo as a support animal, patiently waiting to board a plane while holding his boarding pass, has been going viral, and is fooling even the most sharp-eyed Internet users as it is not real and is in fact AI-generated. (I fell for it too, I’m so ashamed)
Amazon Prime Video’s new slate of movies and series just dropped.
Un Simple Accident by Jafar Panahi won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, making it distributor Neon’s sixth consecutive win.
HBO has cast its Harry, Ron & Hermione for the new ‘Harry Potter’ series.
Fifth Harmony is regrouping and going on tour, but as a foursome, without bandmate Camila Cabello.
Variety has unveiled this year’s lineup for its Actors on Actors interviews.
Chris Hemsworth has released a statement and posted a video looking back on his time playing Thor in the MCU, leading many to believe his character may be dying in the upcoming movies.
The ‘Airball’ trend.
And finally, we know the theatres are about to be rife with summer blockbusters, but if you’re in the market for new shows to watch, look no further.
Overcompensating- The freshest college comedy on Amazon Prime Video.
Adults- In a similar vein to Overcompensating, a friend group of 20-somethings navigating adulthood.
The Rehearsal- Nathan Fielder flies a real plane. Please watch it.
And Just Like That- Back with a new season, and Carrie is already walking around with a ludicrously capacious hat.
Sirens- Remember The Perfect Couple on Netflix last summer? This is that, but for this year.
Loving the format