Selling Sunset’s Christine Quinn stays at the Trump International Hotel

Talking books and Botox with the author of 'How to Be a Boss Bitch'

Back in January of this year, I wrote an article for Gawker about Selling Sunset and its star Christine Quinn. Hours after it was published, Christine herself commented on my Instagram post about the piece: “I thought your article was impeccable. Your tone and humor, spot on… I have no shame in understanding the assignment and I am happy to deliver.”

We began to correspond, and when it came to my attention that she would be briefly visiting New York for the launch of her new book, How to be a Boss Bitch, I texted her asking if she’d be open to an interview. She was going to have a packed day: an 11 a.m. visit to the Empire State Building followed by a 5 p.m. book signing at The Strand. Her PR team insisted it wouldn’t be possible, but at Christine’s request, it was decided that I would join them in the car ride from their hotel to The Strand. Continue reading

Feels like that shouldn't be allowed

Let’s start off on the positive side of things: Rihanna had a baby! TMZ reported on Thursday that the Fenty Beauty mogul gave birth on May 13, which all my calendar-heads will know was a Friday. That’s your first omen that things were not right.

Here is where we get to the bad news: It’s a boy (name yet to be announced). I know, I know, it is sick and twisted that we have to live in a world where Rihanna is a “boy mom.” All love to her and boyfriend A$AP Rocky — who I imagine are over the moon right now — but they too must know that this is a little fucked up. Continue reading

It promises a quick fix — a sip, a supplement, a scan — to make your cerebrum good as new

Listed on the Instagram account of model Bella Hadid — below the follower count (52 million), the verified blue-check category (“scientist”), the emojis scattered throughout (🧿🫀🕊🔅🔆) — is the requisite influencer brand partnership. For Hadid, it’s with Kin Euphorics, a brand of non-alcoholic drinks that touts long-term brain benefits and “feel-good vibes.”

Fair enough. Kin might seem like any start-up drink in the burgeoning sober space. Founded in 2018 by wellness entrepreneur Jen Batchelor, it has — in addition to the enviable asset of Hadid as its brand partner — $5 million in funding and is carried in nearly 800 Instagrammable cafes, health food grocers, and upscale supermarket chains. It comes in groovy-looking cans with flavors that have “herbaceous notes of ginger, bitters, and citrus.” A single can goes for about $6.50 in stores.

This is where things get weird. Kin bills itself as a line of beverages catering to “braincare,” an emerging category in the wellness space. The core premise of braincare is that we don’t take care of our brains and are therefore unprotected against cognitive decline. According to its gospel, the secret to mental and physical well-being starts with taking care of the brain first. The name sounds like self-care, a more consumer-friendly term than brain health (the sometimes accepted medical terminology); but it’s also just clinical enough to suggest some scientific backing. It offers a quick fix — a sip, a supplement, a scan — that will make your cerebrum good as new: wellness for the mind, not just for the body. Continue reading

‘Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ star Kyle Richards is threatening to leave the show

In last night’s episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Kyle Richards stirred the pot by telling Dorit and PK that Sutton wasn’t appropriately bereft after learning about their break-in; an event during which Dorit was held at gunpoint. (Sutton had her own stuff to worry about — a designer stuck in France, etc.) In this morning’s news cycle, Kyle Richards is stirring the pot once again by telling E! News that this Real Housewives season might be her last.

Nooooooooooo, OMG Kyyyyyylee, nooooooooo.

The current season ends with trouble in Kyle’s relationship with her sister, the enigmatic Kathy Hilton. According to E!, Kyle was sure she wanted to leave the show when filming wrapped. "I was like, 'There's absolutely no way,'" she said. "'I'm done. I'm finished. I want to live my life in peace. I can't take this.'" (“Me vibes,” you’re thinking, regarding having to complete any task, and it’s true — that is so us.)

But it’s unclear to Kyle whether this feeling will remain, or whether it will pass. Her appearance at NBC’s upfronts presentation, where this interview with E! took place, suggests to me that she plans to remain on the show. And Kyle told E! it’s possible her feelings will change, as they tend to after she digests each new season. "I don't know," Kyle said. "I just take it day by day." Of course, that’s all any of us can do. Continue reading

The Queen wrote it by herself

Stick Girl’s life changed forever in 1937, when her uncle King Edward VII exiled himself from the Buckingham balcony forever and fled into the comforts of Wallis Simpon’s bony clavicle. Her father became King when she was 11, and you know the rest from there: Churchill, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Beatlemania, the Troubles, the Spice Girls, Mad Cow Disease, and finally, Megxit. Lilibet saw it all, but it’s lonely at the top of the pops, and even her sister Princess Margo couldn’t understand any of it.

Today, the Royal Collection Trust has graced us with an early memento of the young princess’s solitudinous childhood, a recounting in her own handwriting of her father King George VI’s coronation on May 12, 1937. The title page has a dedication, a title, and a sign off. Continue reading

With two of the most unremarkable leads imaginable, the show feels almost hypnotic

The latest Sally Rooney screen adaptation, Conversations With Friends, is a miniseries built on the hope that its audience can sense a vibe. Following the success of 2020’s Normal People, which launched the careers of a new crop of bland actors (mainly protagonists Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones), Conversations With Friends has more or less the exact same general premise. Both series follow sexy pale young people who cannot communicate their truest desires and yearn for one another so much it makes them self-destruct.

Both of these premises work adequately in the form of a novel. In Conversations With Friends, we follow the story of Bobbi (Sasha Lane) and Frances (Alison Oliver), two university students in Dublin who once dated. At a poetry show one night, they befriend Melissa, a famous essayist, and later her actor husband Nick (Joe Alwyn), who are both older than Bobbi and Frances. While the lively Bobbi connects platonically with Melissa, Frances and Nick begin a secret affair that is mostly propelled by what they cannot say out loud to one another. Instead, they correspond via email and text message. Continue reading