Recession indicators, MUST WATCH SHOWS, Risqué pop star moves and more!
Vol. 2 Issue 12 – 22nd March 2025
Everyone’s talking about
Lipton took to Instagram to announce the discontinuation of their Peach Iced Tea flavour. After an uproar and ample of mourning, the company revealed it to be an early April Fool’s joke. I love a marketing gimmick, as low-hanging as it may be, but something’s to be said about celebrating April Fools on MARCH NINETEENTH?! If this is the case, I too no longer follow the calendar, Merry Christmas everyone!
NASA astronauts, Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who were stuck at the International Space Station for over nine months, for a mission that was originally only supposed to last a week, have returned to Earth on a SpaceX capsule. The capsule splashed into the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Florida, and the astronauts were greeted by dolphins surrounding them.
The Disney live-action adaptation of Snow White starring Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot is receiving mixed, drastic reviews. A film already in hot water thanks to casting choices (a Latina playing the lead known for having paler than pale complexion), the use of CGI for the dwarves, and complicated politics (both leads supporting opposite sides of the Israel-Gaza war), the outcome was never going to be a triumphant happily-ever-after. While Rachel Zegler is being praised for her performance and touted as the best part of the movie, critics are calling out Gadot for failing to sing or act well, delivering dialogues stoically and even not standing correctly as the evil queen.
The 2025 Lollapalooza line-up has been announced. Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter, Tyler The Creator, ASAP Rocky, Luke Combs, TWICE, Doechii and Gracie Abrams are set to headline!
Pop music’s sweetheart and a conservative’s nightmare, Sabrina Carpenter is in the spotlight yet again. At her concerts, for her bit during the song Juno, she is known for imitating different positions, for her second night in Paris, she aptly got ‘Eiffel-Towered’ with the help of her backup dancers, enraging a certain side of the internet.
Emma Chamberlain is set to make her Hollywood debut alongside Lola Tung, Alexandra Shipp, Lili Reinhart and Victoria Pedretti in Meredith Alloway’s ‘FORBIDDEN FRUITS’, where they are a part of a witchy cult!
When will the Colleen Hoover adaptations end? Two more of the author’s books- Reminders of You and Regretting You are getting made into movies.
The new couple in town, Andrew Garfield and Monica Barbaro stepped out to do some grocery shopping. And because the internet has opinion on everything, some wondered why she was pushing the cart and not him. Here’s my favourite response:
The new Hunger Games prequel novel, Sunrise on the Reaping is out now! Exploring the story of a young Haymitch Abernathy, the movie for the same is due to come out in November 2026, no casting announcements have been made on who will play the role brought to life by Woody Harrelson in the original movies.
Despite the name, Forever 21 is not as perennial as it is set to shut its US stores and file for bankruptcy a second time.
Kim Kardashian has decided to fight for sole custody of her kids with Kanye West, after her security guards alerted her that Andrew and Tristan Tate, infamous misogynistic influencers known for their toxic masculinity, were visiting while North West was with her father.
Members of the band boygenius, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus are dating.
The iheartradio awards was dominated by Taylor Swift despite not being present at the ceremony. She also won ‘Tour of the Century’, sending a video message accepting the honour. Swifties were quick to notice the snake necklace Taylor was wearing. A Reputation (Taylor’s Version) easter egg clear as day if you ask me.
Bad Bunny stuns for Calvin Klein. Shawn Mendes agrees and commented “Guapo” (handsome) on his pictures.
Recession indicator
Makeup or fashion doesn’t instantly go along with the stock market. And yet the two remain intrinsically connected. Have you heard about the lipstick theory? It’s a real and legitimate economic and retail theory that has shown the correlation between increasing demand for lip products with an economic downturn. The theory suggests that during incoming recessions consumers increasingly spend on small luxury goods, like lipsticks, instead of big items. In the past few years we have seen a major spike in lip products dominating the beauty and skincare market, be it lip oils, tints, balms or glosses. Companies like Rhode, Rare Beauty, Laneige, Gisou, Summer Fridays or even luxury brands like Dior are capitalising on this. But why am I suddenly talking about this? Because now ‘recession indicator’ has become a new X/Twitter favourite buzzword, and there’s a new one in town…
American food ordering and delivering company DoorDash has signed a deal with Klarna to introduce an instalment payment option for food delivery. For the uninitiated, Klarna is a Swedish fintech company known to offer services to brands that allow customers to make online transactions over a period of time, in instalments. Already a presence in the e-commerce, retail space, the option is now extending to food and meals too. Nonggol Darapati wrote in her Medium article in late 2024, Food Is The New Luxury And Ultimate Status Symbol, and many other have also pointed out on Instagram and TikTok how brands are using fresh produce as aspirational, and with a partnership like DoorDash & Klarna, its only getting truer by the day. Small luxuries are no longer actual small luxury items, but bare necessities that are getting too expensive to afford.
Apart from this, another clear recession indicator in the fashion realm is the resurgence of formal wear and longer hemlines. The trends veering towards button-up shirts, turtlenecks, trousers, structured clothing is noticeable, but the shift is indicative of an underlying need to join the workforce and go to office.
Watch out
Trailers for Celine Song’s Materialists, The Four Seasons and Happy Gilmore 2 are here.
Materialists starring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans already has everyone picking sides on who she should end up with in the movie, the rich and chivalrous Pedro or the charming old flame Chris. Either way if we know one thing about the director Celine Song is that she will take the love triangle concept and run with it. Releasing 13th June.
The Four Seasons written by Tina Fey, is a comedy series coming to Netlfix. ‘Three suburban couples vacation together each season, but tensions arise when one couple splits up and the husband brings a much younger woman on subsequent trips.’ Starring Steve Carell, Colman Domingo and Tina Fey. Premiering 1st May.
Sequel to Happy Gilmore, the original cast including Adam Sandler, Julie Bowen and Ben Stiller, returns for the sports comedy, alongside Travis Kelce and Bad Bunny.
And while we wait for these to come out, here’s some shows you can, and MUST watch in the meanwhile
Adolescence- Everyone, including my best friend studying to be a psychologist (that’s how I know it’s good), is raving about this Netflix drama mini-series. Based on true stories of young children involved in crime, the British show is about a 13-year old boy being investigated for the murder of a classmate.
The Pitt- A medical drama series, but it sets itself apart from the rest as it portrays a realistic day in the life of healthcare professionals with each episode of the season covering one hour of a single 12-hour emergency department shift at the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital.
The Studio- A comedy series starring Seth Rogen, starts streaming on Apple TV+ next week. The show follows the newly appointed head of a Hollywood movie studio, dealing with the many facets of show business.
The Residence- Craving that thrill of a cozy whodunnit that’s actually good and makes you work for the reveal a la Knives Out? Look no further than Shondaland’s The Residence starring Uzo Aduba. Now streaming on Netflix.
Severance- Apple TV+’s most popular show just aired its season 2 finale and I don’t mean it lightly when I say, it was one of the most brilliant episodes in television history. From an artistic and visual standpoint yes, but also the story the show is weaving. The actors are phenomenal and do justice to the ethical and moral dilemmas that arise. I won’t harp on much here but to convince you, I just pose one question - Would you take a job where your work self has no memory of your real life, and can love exist when half of you doesn’t know the other half is in love? Okay, that’s two questions, but in the true spirit of the show, I had to sever it right?
Selena Gomez's new album with Benny Blanco ‘I Said I Love You First’ is out now, Miley Cyrus is teasing her new era ‘Something Beautiful’, and Will Smith has announced his new album after 20 years, Based on a True Story, releasing 28th March.
Going viral
Think fast I’m a random girl- a short-form video trend where girlfriends act like strangers and try to kiss their boyfriends to see how they’d react.
“turned 19 in Poland”- a tweet stated the simple fact that when you turn 19 in Poland you’re tested to see if you can serve (in the army), stan twitter obviously know a different type of “serve” and are using their fav’s best moments to tweet how they “turned 19 in Poland” aka served 💅
I’ve tasted this I’ve tasted that, I highly recommend…- a viral tweet template
Living in a city that doesn’t understand pop culture- this reel of a girl is going viral for complaining that no one gets her niche sense of style in her city as no one understands the references, only for the comments and the rest of the internet (who do get the references) to call her basic and a “Capitalistic consumerism final boss” 😭
#whoremembers- a hashtag on X/Twitter that started off to mean “who remembers” was soon misread and birthed “whore members”, then being used to post thirsty content.
What does it say about me that I read it first as Whore Members