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Last week we covered the TikTok trend called “girl dinner” which is essentially just a new label for the concept of a charcuterie/snack plate for dinner. I loved reading everyone’s comments about what their version of a charcuterie plate looks like. Now that it’s high summer, I’ll do anything to avoid turning on the oven or the range, so this concept seemed like a fun way to eat dinner that doesn’t take too much effort. But the “girl dinner” trend has come under fire for possibly promoting disordered eating because many of the people posting about it are showing small portion sizes (some of those TikToks are satires but others are not). The originator of the trend, TikTok user Olivia Maher, was interviewed by Yahoo about how people are responding to this trend. Yahoo also talked to a registered dietitian about the backlash to the trend.

The “girl dinner” is suddenly everywhere – and its creator is worrying that its original meaning has been misconstrued.

The meal trend — which is essentially a single-serving dinner made up of little bits of different foods like cheese, bread and an assortment of meat, vegetables, fruits or whatever a person might be craving — originated on TikTok in a video by Olivia Maher posted on May 11. Now, the 28-year-old’s original video has 1.3 million views, while inspiring countless recreations under the hashtag #girldinner and even a musical jingle by another creator that’s been used in over 23,000 TikTok videos.

While her original video characterizing her spread of cheeses, bread, grapes and cornichons “girl dinner” was all in good fun, Maher has seen how the trend has gotten carried away by those who are enjoying it and others who are critiquing it as a bridge to dangerous eating habits.

“I totally hear where people are coming from,” she says. But she stands by her creation as one that comes from a love of food, not a way to glamorize restriction.

Instead, she says, “girl dinner” is about “a celebration of food and appreciation and excitement because you’re eating exactly what you want and you’re satisfying all the flavors you’re craving,” she says.

While a “girl dinner” might be convenient for a solo diner, Maher says it’s also something that people can be “excited” about eating — particularly because it rids the person of any expectations to put together something more elaborate and instead just eat what they need and want to.

Brenna O’Malley, a registered dietitian and founder of The Wellful, agrees that that’s part of meal’s appeal. “It’s almost like a pseudo pushing against the idea that you need to have your meal look a certain way,” she tells Yahoo Life. “It can be a way to have different tastes and textures on a plate, which can be really nice. You have something crunchy, something sweet, something savory, whatever it is.”

The main concern when putting a girl dinner together would be considering whether the serving size is enough food, which O’Malley says is a criticism she’s seen on TikTok. “Some people are feeling like this is actually looking like not enough food,” she says, “or that you’re trying to glorify that you’re not having very much food.”

“It can be a bit worrying in that, are we saying this is a girl dinner because all of these messages that we have about women needing to watch what they eat and be super, super particular, and maybe really controlled and portioned around what they’re eating? Is this a way to be more permissive around certain foods? Or is it another way to be super hypervigilant of what you’re eating and have really small amounts of things?” O’Malley points out.

[From Yahoo]

I think short-form video suffers from context collapse similar to what happens on Twitter and that’s why so many TikTok trends end up becoming controversial in some way. But calling something “girl dinner” also makes the trend gendered, and brings up the tangled web around women, food, bodies, and eating. And as I’ve said before, TikTok is full of content that implicitly or explicitly promotes disordered eating. I get why people have concerns about this trend. But what is valuable about the ‘girl dinner’ trend is the promotion of freedom. Your meals don’t have to follow an expected format. Dinner doesn’t have to be the biggest meal of the day. You can create meals and snacks that incorporate both pleasure and nutrition. I think there is this pervasive idea in our culture that women have to be told what and how to eat, like we can’t be trusted to figure out how to nourish our bodies ourselves. And it’s complicated because food is related to socioeconomic circumstances, food deserts/how our cities are designed, patriarchal Eurocentric beauty ideals, time poverty…there are a lot of external factors that affect our diets. (And that’s not even including the pressures and judgments society places on mothers and what they feed their kids.) But I think women can be trusted to follow our instincts and eat in a way that’s nourishing both to our bodies and souls. It’s all the other stuff I just listed that gets in the way.

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It’s funny how indignant some people, myself included, get over the fact that Prince William and Kate separate Prince George from his siblings so often. I was so pissed last year when William and Kate repeatedly took George to sporting events – like the Wimbledon men’s final – and didn’t include Charlotte. I get why they don’t bring out Louis to many events – a tennis match is simply too long for Louis to sit still. But Charlotte would have enjoyed the tennis matches last year! So, I complained, many of us complained. Guess who was included this year? Will and Kate definitely read the comments.

William and Kate arrived at the All-England Club with Charlotte and George on Sunday for the men’s final. This was George’s second-ever time at Wimbledon, following his appearance one year ago at the men’s final. This was Charlotte’s first-ever time at a Wimbledon match. I kind of wonder if she would have gotten more enjoyment out of the women’s final, but whatever. At least she was included.

Kate wore a green Roland Mouret dress for this appearance. It looks a lot like a repeat, but I think it’s new? She just buys different versions of the same dress in the same colors by different designers. The Wimbledon Wiglet is also suffering – why has her hair looked like ten kinds of hell in the past year? Did she get a new wig person or something? I also feel sorry for George, having to dress up like a little banker every time he goes to Wimbledon. That is the dress code for the Wimbledon Royal Box though – men (even boys, I guess) have to wear a suit jacket and tie.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that George and Charlotte were able to sit still and stay engaged with the five-set, five-hour tennis match. As it turns out, they’re both huge Carlos Alcaraz fans, and their guy won! It’s very true that little kids love the younger tennis players, like Carlos and Coco Gauff. George and Charlotte were so thrilled, and the photos of them rooting openly for Carlos were pretty cute. It looks like Charlotte was literally keeping her fingers crossed for him.

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Embed from Getty Images

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Getty, Cover Images.

Yesterday’s Wimbledon men’s final was jam-packed with celebrities and royals. People were really excited to see Novak Djokovic play Carlos Alcaraz on Novak’s favorite surface, grass. The match ended up being pretty classic, with Alcaraz needing five sets to get the win over Djokovic, the seven-time Wimbledon champion (who won four of those championships in a row). Tom Hiddleston came out with his wife/partner (I don’t know if they’re actually married) Zawe Ashton. Zawe gave birth to their first child last year, probably in September or October. We still don’t know anything about the kid! Zawe and Hiddles look happy but I dislike her dress so much. Designers these days are hellbent on making those puffy-shouldered monstrosities.

Everyone was obsessed with Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz in the Royal Box. So many cutaways to them! They’re so hot together.

King Felipe of Spain came out to watch Alcaraz (who is Spanish). Felipe and Letizia are big tennis fans, and they were present at Wimbledon in 2008 when Rafael Nadal won his first Wimbledon title too. I guess Letizia didn’t want to travel this weekend though.

Brad Pitt went to the final with Guy Ritchie. The Wimbledon social media account was all aflutter about this abuser. Gross.

Ariana Grande was working on Wicked before the strike, so I guess she stayed in town for the final. She was seated next to Andrew Garfield… and she was not wearing her wedding ring. Is this gossip? Because Garfield and Grande definitely looked friendly.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

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San Diego Comic-Con takes place this week, July 19 – 23. It’s been a weird few years for the Con, which had to pivot to a “Comic-Con At Home” format for July 2020 and July 2021 because of the pandemic and held a smaller, in-person “Comic-Con Special Edition” event in November 2021. At the end of June, we learned that Universal, Sony, HBO, Netflix, and Disney were pulling out while other big studios were still on the fence. Now, the SAG-AFTRA strike has organizers again scrambling for Plans B, C, and D, as it’s looking like the SAG-AFTRA strike will affect one of showbiz’a biggest promotional weeks because actors cannot promote any of their current or future projects.

San Diego Comic-Con is going to look pretty different this year, as SAG-AFTRA has officially begun its strike. As the actors join the writers on the picket lines for better pay, conditions, and benefits, much of the industry has come to a halt without many of its key people. With the SAG-AFTRA strike now happening, it means actors cannot promote their current or future projects – including anything that was originally planned for Comic-Con. Thus, panels are already being cancelled for the event happening next week.

The first round of SDCC panel cancellations came through earlier today, with shows including Prime Video’s Good Omens, ABC’s The Rookie, and That ’70s Show being affected. Good Omens has pivoted from a panel and signing event into a screening of the Season 2 premiere episode. It will give fans an early look at the new season premiering July 28. The Rookie has cancelled its planned signing. The crime procedural recently concluded its fifth season and will return for Season 6. That ’70s Show rounds off the initial cancellations, no longer holding its anniversary panel. Earlier this year, Netflix debuted its That ’70s Show continuation That ’90s Show, which follows Eric and Donna’s daughter Leia.

Along with the mentioned shows, SDCC’s schedule is packed with panels for currently running shows, several of which may potentially cancel in the coming days. Some of the included panels include Abbott Elementary, currently on hold for Season 3 following the start of the writers’ stike; Futurama, which is set to return on July 24; The Wheel of Time, returning for Season 2 on September 1; What We Do in the Shadows, which premieres Season 5 on July 13; and several more. Additionally, the SDCC schedule does include other panels revolving around industry professionals, comics, and more beyond film and television.

[From Collider]

With the exception of the two pandemic years, I’ve attended all but one Comic-Con since 2007. I’m actually writing this post from my hotel room in San Diego, overlooking the Convention Center. While I’m not an old school attendee, I remember when tickets were still $75 and you could buy next year’s passes in person. I was a part of that group that probably ruined Hall H lines for forever by lining up to see the LOST panels at 2:00 a.m. I remember when actors still roamed the floors without fear, when a fan was tragically hit by a car carrying Robert Pattinson, Zachary Levi partying with us vaccinated folx at Nerd HQ, and the infamous pen-stabbing. Oh, and my husband once accidentally Sharpie’d Robert Downey Jr’s hand while crossing the street. His security wasn’t happy, but RDJ brushed them off and went, “I didn’t expect to get out of here clean.” Comic-Con is wild.

I’ve been refreshing the SDCC Blog, and as of right now, panels involving William Shatner, Kevin Smith, and Seth Rogan are still listed as happening. Other panels for shows like Ghosts, What We Do in the Shadows, and The Walking Dead Universe have very vague descriptions, like, “Fans are in for a treat!” Honestly, I’m perfectly okay with whatever happens. I stand with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA. Comic-Con is about more than just the chance to have your Sharpie run into Iron Man’s arm or seeing George R.R. Martin in a hotel bar (happened!). It’s about appreciating the art that all of these talent people created for us to enjoy and showing them support. The TV & film stuff is only one part of Comic-Con. The Exhibit Hall floor, the Sails Pavilion, and the off-set locations are bursting with vendors and authors promoting their creations. If all of the major studios and actors have to bow out, I’ll still support the smaller artists and venues. Mr. Rosie, my friends, and I have all met and/or become fans of authors, artists, and vendors who were there to promote themselves without big money backing. Let Comic-Con get back to its roots, and pay the writers and actors the living wage they deserve.

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Here are some photos from Wimbledon on Saturday, the women’s singles final. Czech player Marketa Vondroušová beat Tunisian Ons Jabeur. It was rough – Jabeur had the match on her racquet, but she just collapsed mentally… for the third time in a major final. Still, I’m happy for Marketa – she’s a weird, gangly, tattooed Czech gal with an idiosyncratic lefty game. The sky’s the limit! (She’ll probably lose first-round in all of the upcoming North American tournaments.)

Anyway, Wimbledon’s royal patron, the Princess of Wales, deigned to show up for the final after ignoring the tournament for ten days (the tournament is only a fortnight). I would assume the only reason Kate agreed to come to the final is because her precious eyes would not have to look upon a Russian or Belarusian player. Kate cosplayed a tennis ball in a pale green Self Portrait dress which retails for £420. She’s been doing some pleated skirts recently and I don’t necessarily hate the style, although this was not great, overall. It’s the combo – a pleated skirt with a tweedy short-sleeved jacket (with buttons!). You’ll never believe what pisses me off the most though – her earrings!! She repeated those faux-pearl earrings which don’t go with the outfit. That alone convinces me that Kate has zero style. Well, that and the fact that she wanders around like a Victorian ghost haunting the All-England Club.

Something interesting to note: Carole and Michael Middleton did not appeal at Wimbledon at all this year. Carole is the bigger tennis fan, and she always tried to make it to Roger Federer’s matches, but now Roger is retired. I’m sure that’s the cover story – why would Carole go to Wimbledon after her fave retired? But Carole also hasn’t been to any public events – events where she might be photographed – since her Party Pieces house of cards collapsed. Everyone knows she’s broke as hell and that she used her royal connections to defraud small businesses and scam the government out of loan money. I guess they don’t let bankrupt a–holes into Wimbledon. Anymore!

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red, Backgrid.

Emily Blunt covers the latest issue of Harper’s Bazaar UK, mostly to promote her role in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. Emily is a dual American and British citizen now, even though she only sought American citizenship for tax reasons. Years ago, she seemed pretty bummed about becoming an American, although thankfully, her publicist convinced her to stop talking about it so much. I bring this up because Blunt does make some references to her American life and you can tell that she still misses living in England. Also: Emily is 40 years old now and still working a lot, which she’s happy about… and then in the same breath, she talks about how she’s taking a year off. Some highlights:

Americans don’t get British innuendos: “I was just talking to a friend last night about our love affair with The Great British Bake Off. It’s the irreverence of it – you’d never get away with some of the innuendos over here.”

She’s been a naturalized American citizen for eight years: She admits to being “seduced by America’s great qualities… I have to be, right? My husband’s American, my children are American… That’s three of my favourite people in the world.” A stint living in LA left her pining for London, but in Brooklyn she found the sense of community she had been missing. “I feel very at home here. It’s like a village within New York, with all the spontaneity combined with the reality of being in a big city.” So many of her close friends live nearby, she adds, that “it’s almost like being on Sesame Street!”

Playing Kitty Oppenheimer, the frustrated wife: “She wasn’t an easy woman – she definitely didn’t conform to the 1950s housewife ideal, and yet she found herself confined to an ironing board in Mexico’s Los Alamos, which must have driven her mad… I found her so interesting to play, because she was a great scientist herself, but limited by the era she lived in. A lot of women a few generations ahead of me weren’t allowed the juggle of a career and children – there was an expectation they should choose, and if they did choose their career, they were frowned upon. Even now, I see women in their seventies whose whole identity has been caught up in motherhood, and then once that’s done, there’s this sense of, well, who am I and how do I reclaim myself?”

Mixed feelings on the streaming era: “Of course I’m hugely supportive of streaming, but when it first became part of the ecosystem, I was afraid we were losing the sense of event and ceremony – that thing of going out and putting your phone down and getting immersed in a world with a roomful of strangers. I’m very nostalgic about [cinema], because I have so many distinct memories of it from my upbringing.”

She’s not obsessed with her status: “When I see myself up on a billboard, I have this complete dissociation with it… I’m like, who’s that? And I can see my children doing the same – they might say, oh, there’s Mama, but it’s not exciting for them. What’s exciting for them is when I can pick them up from school and take them swimming.”

She’s never away from her kids for more than a fortnight. “Because even though they’re hardy, and they’re used to this strange life, it’s still rough on them when I have to go away.”

Taking the rest of the year off: “There are cornerstones of the girls’ day that I don’t want to compromise on – like, will you wake me up, take me to school, pick me up and put me to bed? And I just want to be able to say, yes, yes, yes. It’s such an exhale for me to be able to do that.”

The industry isn’t always kind to women: “My toes curl when people tell me, ‘My daughter wants to be an actress.’ I want to say, don’t do it! Because it’s a hard industry and it can be very disappointing. A lot of people tell you not to take things personally – but it’s completely personal, especially when you’re being judged on how you look. So you just have to endure that side of things.”

Equal pay: “Ambition is healthy – it shouldn’t be seen as a negative thing. It’s about knowing your worth and what you bring to a project, and never apologising for doing well.”

Turning 40: “I’m sure at some point it’s going to catch up with me, the burn of my forties, but I don’t feel it yet. It may be because I’ve stepped into a position of self-generating, so it feels like I’ve got control – I’m not just waiting for the next thing to come along.”

[From Harper’s Bazaar UK]

While this is not Blunt’s fault and it doesn’t fall on her shoulders, I hate when people within Hollywood are like “why aren’t people going to movie theaters?!?” Because it’s crazy expensive and it’s not the same as it was when people my age and Blunt’s age were in our teens. Back then, you could buy a movie ticket for less than five dollars. There was a dollar movie theater close by. The theatrical-chain monopoly has done more to destroy the theater-going experience more than anything. As for Americans not being able to pull off the “irreverence” of the Great British Bake-Offs innuendos… lord. It’s just sex jokes about baking.

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Cover & IG courtesy of Harper’s Bazaar UK.

Here are some additional photos from Wimbledon on Friday and Saturday. This year’s Championships have felt a little light on glamour and star-power, honestly, or maybe I haven’t paid close enough attention. Princess Beatrice and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi usually go to Wimbledon for at least one day of matches on Centre Court, and they were there on Friday for the men’s semifinals. They watched as Novak Djokovic easily defeated Jannik Sinner, then Carlos Alcaraz easily defeated Daniil Medvedev. Beatrice wore a £1287 Emilia Wickstead dress in a pale pink. Some are calling it Barbiecore. Yeah… not every pink dress is Barbiecore, guys.

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Speaking of Barbiecore, the cast of Barbie was in London last week as part of the promotional tour. The tour ended the very moment SAG-AFTRA went on strike. I guess Issa Rae decided to stay in town and – this is just my guess – she wore one of her Barbie-promotion looks to the Wimbledon women’s final. She looked amazing!!!

Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas love tennis – they not only turn up at Wimbledon matches, they’re also regulars at the US Open. They came out for the women’s final on Saturday. I hate her sunglasses and her peep-toe boots are fug. Nick looks nice though.

Andrew Garfield looked like a bearded king arriving at the women’s final. Love that he came out for the ladies!!

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Getty.

The WGA had already been on strike for more than 70 days when Deadline published an article with unnamed studio sources, talking about the strategy behind their approach to talks with the WGA. Long story short, those studio executives were absolutely, 100% against coming into the negotiations in good faith. One studio executive told Deadline that the studios wanted to drag out the strike for months longer and: “The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses.” They explicitly want to “break the WGA.” Within 24 hours of the publication of that Deadline piece, SAG-AFTRA walked away from their negotiations with AMPTP and on Thursday, SAG-AFTRA officially went on strike.

Actors have the exact same issues as the writers: streaming broke the system and they’re not being paid fairly. Residuals are non-existent and streamers are under no obligation to share their streaming data or any data of the popularity of their films or TV shows. Studios are in open contempt of the creators who have built their companies’ reputations. Studio executives want to give themselves eight-figure bonuses, all while showing disgust and hostility towards working actors and writers who simply want to OWN A HOME. Anyway, that Deadline quote has been rattling around Hollywood for a week, and Ron Perlman had the best reaction to it. He deleted this later, but tons of people saved it:

“Listen to me motherfucker, there’s a lot of ways to lose a house.”

Now deleted; still true pic.twitter.com/Tn0Y01ibHF

— Jorts (and Jean) (@JortsTheCat) July 14, 2023

“Listen to me, motherf–ker: there’s a lot of ways to lose your house. Some of it is financial. Some of it is karma. And some of it is just figuring out who the f–k said that. And we know who said that…there’s a lot of ways to lose your house. You wish that on people? You wish that families starve while you’re making twenty seven f–king million dollars a year for creating nothing? Be careful, motherf–ker. Be really careful. Because that’s the kind of sh-t that stirs sh-t up.” Just… perfect. Amazing. No notes.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Lisa Marie Presley’s cause of death has been revealed. [Just Jared]
I hope SAG-AFTRA & WGA leadership join forces and collective-bargain for both of their unions to get the best deal. [LaineyGossip]
Ed Sheeran’s wax figure is so good! Creepy-good. [Seriously OMG]
A Republican congressman is racist, news at six. [OMG Blog]
100% – movie budgets these days are incredibly inflated. [Pajiba]
I guess this is Margot Robbie’s last Barbie event. [RCFA]
The cute dresses of the ESPYs. [Go Fug Yourself]
The backlash against Pick Me Girls. [Jezebel]
Lindsay Lohan shows off her nursery. [Egotastic]
AI creates “the most beautiful people” from different countries. [Buzzfeed]
WHO is still trying to get people to stop drinking Diet Coke. [Towleroad]

While most of my “upcoming movie promotion” brainspace has been devoted to Barbie, I have paid *some* attention to the Oppenheimer promo. I was worried that Emily Blunt and Florence Pugh were basically cast as girly window dressing for the big-man movie, but as it turns out, Oppenheimer has “earned” its hard-R rating with a lot of nudity and sex scenes. Blunt plays Oppenheimer’s wife, Kitty, while Pugh plays Oppenheimer’s mistress Jean Tatlock. Both women have major roles, apparently. This film is Christopher Nolan’s first time directing sex scenes and nudity, and it’s also the first time a Nolan film has gotten an R-rating in 20 years. Well, after Cillian Murphy filmed all of those sex scenes and bomb scenes, he didn’t want to go out to dinner with his costars. That’s what they said in a People Mag exclusive:

Emily Blunt stars as Oppenheimer’s wife Kitty; Matt Damon portrays Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves, who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and directed the Manhattan Project; Robert Downey Jr. plays Lewis Strauss, who served two terms on the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission; and Florence Pugh stands out in several scenes as Oppenheimer’s mistress.

In a group interview with PEOPLE, Blunt equated filming the movie with the sprawling cast in New Mexico to being at “summer camp.”

“We were all in the same hotel in the middle of the New Mexican desert,” she recalls. “We only had each other. Me and Matt were roommates and we were like, ‘Let’s go to have dinner.’ ”

Sadly for Cillian Murphy, he rarely got to join in on the fun due to the daunting task of leading Nolan’s film.

“The sheer volume of what he had to take on and shoulder is so monumental,” marvels Blunt. “Of course he didn’t want to come and have dinner with us.” Damon agrees, saying, “He couldn’t. His brain was just too full.”

Adds Murphy, “You know that when you have those big roles, that responsibility, you feel it’s kind of overwhelming.”

[From People]

Compare this to the Barbie promotion, where they were doing Barbie sleepovers and hosting movie nights and playing dress-up games… it’s funny. I mean, I understand why Cillian was like “no, I don’t want to hang out.” Let the man have some peace! He probably just wanted to rest and learn his lines and not do Oppenheimer sleepovers and dinners! Let people be introverted! Let people have a separate work life and personal life! I am going to use this as an excuse for not hanging out though – my brain was too full, I was overwhelmed, you guys.

Photos courtesy of Instar, Backgrid, Instagram.