Pop Cult: The magic of the Mar-a-Lago effect and puppy dog eyes

Did you miss me? Well, I sure missed you. 

That wasn’t very nonchalant of me. Apologies. Spotify has left me troubled with its latest Wrapped. 

Turns out I have the music taste of a 30-year-old grandma — no offence to 30-year-olds, of course, but what am I supposed to take away from “freak folk.” I listened to 40,000 minutes of freak folk — that’s 28 full days — for the entire month of February. Chat, I have no idea what freak folk means. Help.  

While we’re on music, the White House used a Sabrina Carpenter song in its latest pro-ICE video. Carpenter was quick to clap back and comment on the video instead of suing them for using her music.

Jokes aside, whoever in the White House social media team thought using a catchy rhythm was going to wash away human rights violations needs some serious attention. 

Oh wait, it gets worse. 

“Here’s a Short n’ Sweet message for Sabrina: We won’t apologize for deporting dangerous criminal illegal murderers, rapists, and pedophiles from our country,” the White House wrote in a response. “Anyone who would defend these sick monsters must be stupid, or is it slow?”

Yup, POTUS is definitely in charge of this account. Gotta commend the music taste, though. 

The new season of Stranger Things is out after a year of production and filming. Millie Bobby Brown, aka Eleven, managed to get married and have a child in the entire duration of the show — which is close to a decade, by the way. Also, Will has superpowers and a gay awakening. #nospoilers. I guess Finn Wolfhard’s sad-lost-boy-puppy-dog thing worked its magic on Will Byers after all (it worked on me, too). #Byler. 

Variety and CNN’s Actors on Actors, featuring some of the most “compelling performers” in Hollywood, released a list with some interesting pairings. I never thought I’d see Ethan Hawke and Sydney Sweeney in the same room talk about their work, craft, and process, but here we are. 

Now, I know art is worth a lot more than numbers at the box office, but Sweeney’s most recent “compelling” performance in Christy suffered a “historically bad opening” at the box office. I probably shouldn’t mention this was her third consecutive “compelling” flop. 

Performance aside, at a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, some X users noticed a glaringly obvious “Mar-a-Lago” makeover effect on Sweeney. If it was possible to physically look like a Republican or a Fox News anchor, then Sweeney nailed the look — truly compelling, dare I say. 

Speaking of compelling performances, yes, I’ve seen all the Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo Wicked press tour edits and I’m glad we all collectively agree that something went down on the Wicked set — I am, however, not sure what. 

But interestingly, Grande and Erivo aren’t the only victims of the Wicked curse — allegedly this happens to everyone who plays Glinda and Elphie.

“It’s something about singing for good to each other over and over and over. You get a bond like nothing ever seen,” wrote one concerned X user. 

“They’re in their first year of uni bathroom cry trauma bond besties era,” another user wrote. 

While some others alleged that this is just “annoying theatre kid shit,” — I might just have to agree.