Studio Ghibli AI "Art", Morning Routines, Avengers Assemble & the Benny Blanco hype
Vol. 2 Issue 13 – 29th March 2025
Everyone’s talking about…
If you’re seeing the blue glass bottle of Saratoga water, bananas, mouth tape, ice water, and a journal everywhere, it’s all thanks to influencer Ashton Hall’s viral morning routine. The fitness coach regularly garners millions of views but this time around, his absurd routine has left the stratosphere of his audience and people are wondering how much truth there is to it. From starting his day at 3:52am, the editing choice of showing four minutes passing while he’s mid-air while diving, to rubbing banana peels on his face and using a particular brand of water, the people of the internet are having a blast ribbing the video.
The good and ambitious folks at Marvel took to a 5-hour+ livestream of chairs to announce the cast of the upcoming mega-event, Avengers: Doomsday, directed by the Russo Brothers. The stream slowly panned through the backs of chairs with actors’ names on them and ended with Robert Downey Jr against his chair, set to play Doctor Doom as revealed at Comic Con. The marketing move pulled a whopping cumulative 275 million digital views. Most notably, Tom Hiddleston is returning to reprise his role as Loki, alongside Chris Hemsworth’s Thor. This movie will also mark the return of 20th Century Fox/Marvel X-Men cast member OGs. In addition, the new Mr and Mrs Fantastic will also return alongside the Thunderbolts. Let’s hope the hype is actually as big as Marvel is orchestrating it to be.
OpenAI has launched a new image generating feature to ChatGPT to replicate Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli style of art, and I can’t express enough how deeply sad and angry it makes me. As a long-time fan of Studio Ghibli and their distinct animation style, I need you to know how painstakingly each frame of those movies is made. They are completely hand drawn animated films. Human artists are the reason why this style looks as beautiful as it does. And it comes from a place of love and passion, not a burden that needs to be delegated to technology as soon as its possible. Founder Hayao Miyazaki in 2016 expressed his distaste towards AI art calling it “an awful insult to life”, and I agree with him. Turning your photos into a cartoon version is not art, it’s not cute or fun and nor is it somehow making art accessible. What it is, is wasting the planet’s water (yes, that’s how your AI requests are powered), a form of technological piracy and a shift towards a deeply empty life chasing aesthetics instead of appreciating and placing value in art.
The smear campaign against Snow White star Rachel Zegler has been brought to everyone’s notice after back-to-back articles by Variety were seen painting Gal Gadot as a victim but blaming Zegler for the box office failure of the movie due to her support towards Palestine. Producer Marc Platt’s son also revealed that his father flew to Rachel Zegler to get her to delete her political tweets but she refused.
A recent podcast and multiple interviews to promote his new album with Selena Gomez has shown the general public that Benny Blanco is actually a really good guy AND is the music producer behind some of the biggest 2010s pop hits (Britney Spears’s Circus (2008), Kesha’s Tik Tok (2009), Taio Cruz’s Dynamite (2010), Katy Perry’s California Gurls and Teenage Dream (2010), Rihanna’s Diamonds (2012), and Ed Sheeran’s Don’t (2014)). On Jay Shetty’s podcast, his opinions revealed how emotionally intelligent and supportive he is as a boyfriend, deeming him a green flag by the Internet.
The Trump cabinet does it again! A journalist from The Atlantic was accidentally added to a private group chat on Signal with US National Security leaders talking about plans to bomb Yemen. The inside look at the inner workings of the most powerful country in the world is just a bunch of emojis, unfiltered ego, and impulsive decision-making.
What the celebs are up to
On the 10-year anniversary of leaving One Direction, singer Zayn sang the band’s hit, Night Changes at his concert in Mexico City. “It's the first time I've sung that song in 10 years. Thank you, that was f***ing amazing. I almost cried,” he said.
Set photos from Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights show Margot Robbie in a wedding dress as Catherine from the beloved 1847 Emily Bronte novel, and the consensus is that… it’s bad. The historical inaccuracies are prevalent in the glittery white gown.
Divergent actor Shailene Woodley is dating Lucas Bravo of Emily in Paris fame as the two were spotted hand-in-hand.
Rumour has it that Taylor Swift is all set to sponsor football team Barca’s shirt for their El Classico match against Real Madrid. This would be in collaboration with Spotify who has previously featured Drake, Coldplay and the Rolling Stones on their jerseys.
Dua Lipa brought out Troye Sivan at her concert in Melbourne and the two gave a fan the physical copy of their collab ‘Physical’ to leak on the internet. They did as they were asked and later the song was officially released on Spotify yesterday.
Zendaya is set to star in the A24 biopic of 60s musician Ronnie Spector titled Be My Baby. To be directed by Barry Jenkins, the Dune actor was handpicked by Spector to play her before she passed away in 2022.
We are about to get new albums by Kesha, Miley Cyrys, and Ethel Cain. Lana Del Rey has also shared the artwork of her alleged next single, Henry, Come On.
Watch out
After 6 seasons and 2 movies, British period drama series Downton Abbey has announced its final hurrah. A 3rd movie, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, in theatre on 12th September this year.
A Scooby Doo live action show is coming to Netflix
Teaser for the college comedy drama series created by comedian Benito Skinner aka Benny Drama is here. Making a cameo in the show- Charli xcx is also in the trailer.
Final Destination Bloodlines is the sixth instalment in the supernatural horror series. The teaser is out now and has broken the record of 2nd most watched horror trailer of all time, with 178 million+ views!
Director Paul Thomas Anderson and Leonardo DiCaprio are back with One Battle After Another. Here’s the trailer.