For Ampy – Happy Birthday Weekend! I am receiving your well-wishes all the way from Singapore and sending mine back to you from Canada. Along with BTS…and Jimin! Here he is, all style and grace, barefoot and dancing: Jimin for AmpyMay your year be blessed by the smoothness and fluidity of Jimin in m…

Who could forget the moving words spoken by poet Amanda Gorman at the Inauguration on January 20th? Her words were felt by so many. In fact, when Amanda was interviewed by seasoned journalist Anderson Cooper, Anderson became flummoxed by Amanda’s brilliance. Amanda’s upcoming three books are now topping Amazon’s best-sellers list and she is slated to recite an original poem for Super Bowl LV.

The beautiful thing about Amanda, a 22 year old Harvard graduate, is how she is bringing a refreshingly 21st century take to poetry. By being so young and dynamic, Amanda’s ability to twist words into new meanings rivals any old or new school lyricist (read rapper). Amanda has basically made poetry cool again. Now Amanda sat down with forever First Lady Michelle Obama for an interview to accompany her cover on Time. Michelle seems to be gushing over Amanda throughout the interview. And Michelle never gushes. Amanda talks about what inspires her poetry, what mantra she uses before going on stage and how educators should reframe poetry. It’s typically been about stuffy old rich white men but Amanda wants poetry education to highlight POC who have transformed the art:

Michelle Obama: We’re here to talk about the current renaissance in Black art—this surge of creativity we’ve seen over the past six years or so. What do you make of calling this period a “renaissance”? And where do you see yourself within it?
Amanda Gorman: We’re living in an important moment in Black art because we’re living in an important moment in Black life. Whether that’s looking at what it means politically to have an African-American President before Trump, or looking at what it means to have the Black Lives movement become the largest social movement in the United States. What’s been exciting for me is I get to absorb and to live in that creation I see from other African-American artists that I look up to. But then I also get to create art and participate in that historical record. We’re seeing it in fashion, we’re seeing it in the visual arts. We’re seeing it in dance, we’re seeing it in music. In all the forms of expression of human life, we’re seeing that artistry be informed by the Black experience. I can’t imagine anything more exciting than that.

You are part of a rising generation that isn’t afraid to call out racism and injustice when you see it. Your generation was out front at the Black Lives Matter protests last summer, and you were using your voices long before that to demand change. How do you think art fits into these larger social movements? Do you think about these things as you write?
Absolutely. Poetry and language are often at the heartbeat of movements for change. If we look to the Black Lives Matter protests, you see banners that say, They buried us but they didn’t know we were seeds. That’s poetry being marshaled to speak of racial justice. If you analyze Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, it’s a great document of rhetoric that’s also a great document of poetry, of imagery, of song. Never underestimate the power of art as the language of the people.

Poetry sometimes gets a bad rap—people think it’s all stuffy. How do you think we can make poetry accessible and cool, especially for a young audience?
Poetry is already cool. Where we run into trouble is often we are looking through such a tight pinhole of what poems can be. Specifically we’re looking at dead white men. Those are the poems that are taught in school and referred to as classics. We really need to break out of the pathology that poetry is only owned by certain elites. Where we can start is highlighting and celebrating poets who reflect humanity in all of its diverse colors and breadth.

Tell me about the poets who came before you. Where do you draw inspiration—and do you draw inspiration from artists working in other forms?
I love Black poets. I love that as a Black girl, I get to participate in that legacy. So that’s Yusef Komunyakaa, Sonia Sanchez, Tracy K. Smith, Phillis Wheatley. And then I look to artists who aren’t just poets. While I was writing the Inaugural poem, I was reading a lot of Frederick Douglass, a lot of Winston Churchill, a lot of Abraham Lincoln. I was also listening to the composers who I feel are great storytellers, but they don’t use words so I try to fill in that rhetoric myself. A lot of Hans Zimmer, Dario Marianelli, Michael Giacchino.

You have a mantra you recite to yourself before performing—can you share it here, and tell me how you came to choose these words?
This mantra I’m about to say is actually in part inspired by Lin-Manuel Miranda‘s lyrics in Moana in the song, “Song of the Ancestors.” Whenever I listen to songs, I rewrite them in my head. That song goes: “I’m the daughter of the village chief. We’re descended from voyagers who made the way across the world.” Something like that. Sorry Lin. I really wanted something that I could repeat because I get so terrified whenever I perform. So my mantra is: “I’m the daughter of Black writers who are descended from Freedom Fighters who broke their chains and changed the world. They call me.” I say that to remind myself of ancestors that are all around me whenever I’m performing.

“The Hill We Climb” mentions your being a descendant of slaves. What role does poetry have to play in helping you make sense of our history?
I wanted to give the American people some access to myself. A lot of the inspiration for that came from your speech at the DNC in which you said, “I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves.” Poetry is the lens we use to interrogate the history we stand on and the future we stand for. It’s no coincidence that at the base of the Statue of Liberty, there is a poem. Our instinct is to turn to poetry when we’re looking to communicate a spirit that is larger than ourselves. Whenever I’m writing, I’m looking at the history of words. The specific history of words in the Inaugural poem was: We have seen the ways in which language has been violated and used to dehumanize. How can I reclaim English so we can see it as a source of hope, purification and consciousness?

[From Time]

Amanda is an absolute supernova. A brilliant light showing the hope of Gen Z. I normally do not put so much on any generation because as a Gen Xer I remember the pressure my generation felt to be something bigger and better. In many ways we were and in others we were a disappointment. However, the younger millennials and Gen Z’s first wave are something amazing to behold. Their fearlessness in the face of a system that has trampled over so many inspires me. It took me several days before I actually watched Amanda Gorman deliver her poem, “The Hill We Climb” at the Inauguration because of all of the hype around it. But when I did, I was amazed because I heard Maya, Langston, Martin, Harriet and Lin and all of the ancestors that came before Amanda, but most importantly, I heard Amanda. Amanda’s voice, the voice of her generation, the voice of change and the seed of hope planted so many generations ago, watered by every generation after but blooming now. I must tell you, I am moved and joyous.

Anyways, Amanda will not be soon forgotten and despite my loving the poems of those old crusty white men, I also love the poems from the Harlem Renaissance and the poetry of music and rap and Maya and Terry. I am glad that poetry is experiencing a sort of renaissance. I do hope that going forward that poetry written by people from the 20th and 21st centuries will be honored and studied. I hope educators spotlight the cadence of poetry and how it is rooted in the experiences of BIPOC The last thing I will say is this, if Amanda is a prophecy that is foretelling the future, then the future is very bright. I hope I live long enough to see some of it.

As an aside – Our little sis Amanda looks amazing in yellowa.

What an honor to be on @TIME ‘s new cover. From the interview: “In all the forms of expression of human life, we’re seeing that artistry be informed by the Black experience. I can’t imagine anything more exciting than that.” https://t.co/SKC3rreA4x

— Amanda Gorman (@TheAmandaGorman) February 4, 2021

This 99 year old woman was moved by The Hill We Climb:

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Dear Gossips, Of all the celebrities on Twitter this week, it’s been Rihanna’s account that’s generated the most activity and conversation. I wonder… does she expect it? Before she hits the post button, do you think she braces for the reaction? Or do you think she does what she does and doesn’t worr…

Wow, Vogue really did Gigi Hadid dirty with this cover, right? Gigi covers the March issue of Vogue, her first magazine cover since welcoming her daughter Khai last September. I would imagine that for a model, the “first photoshoot back” is one of the most sensitive ones, and I would imagine that Vogue would have tried to make a new mom look voluptuous and earth-mothery. Instead, Vogue gave her harsh makeup, bad lighting, a tragic center part, weird neck shadows and a dress which looks like a bloody sheet. Offensively bad, my God. That being said, the interview is surprisingly good. Gigi talks at length about her pregnancy, her labor, her first months as a mom and her dreams for her daughter’s future.

Having a home birth with no drugs: “What I really wanted from my experience was to feel like, Okay, this is a natural thing that women are meant to do. I had to dig deep. I knew it was going to be the craziest pain in my life, but you have to surrender to it and be like, ‘This is what it is.’ I loved that. There definitely was a point where I was like, I wonder what it would be like with an epidural, how it would be different. My midwife looked at me and was like, ‘You’re doing it. No one can help you. You’re past the point of the epidural anyway, so you’d be pushing exactly the same way in a hospital bed.’”

Zayn caught the baby. “It didn’t even click that she was out. I was so exhausted, and I looked up and he’s holding her. It was so cute.”

She’s not looking to have another baby any time soon: “I know my mom and Zayn and Bella were proud of me, but at certain points I saw each of them in terror. Afterward, Z and I looked at each other and were like, We can have some time before we do that again.”

Zayn bought a farm adjacent to the Hadid family farm in PA: “We’re still close by but we have our space to be our own little family….I always want to be here full-time. I love the city, but this is where I’m happiest.”

Deciding to shoot a Vogue cover 10 weeks postpartum: “I know that I’m not as small as I was before, but I also am a very realistic thinker. I straight up was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll shoot a Vogue cover, but I’m obviously not going to be a size 0,’ nor do I, at this point, feel like I need to be back to that. I also think it’s a blessing of this time in fashion that anyone who says that I have to be that can suck it.”

Raising Khai to understand her multifaith family: “My dad’s Muslim, and my mom grew up celebrating Christmas. I felt like I was allowed to learn about every religion when I was a kid. I think it’s good to take different pieces of different religions that you connect with, and I think that’s how we’ll do that… My brother, when he was in elementary school, someone said to him, ‘Your dad’s a terrorist,’ because that was after 9/11. I think that [Zayn and I] both want our daughter to understand fully all of her background—and also we want to prepare her. If someone does say something to her at school, we want to give her the tools to understand why other kids would do that and where that comes from.”

[From Vogue]

Throughout the piece, Gigi is mostly having a conversation with herself about how she wants to stay in this bubble she’s created for herself in Pennsylvania, on the adjacent farms of her family and Zayn. She sounds like she’s had a lovely quarantine on the farm, honestly, with the added bonus of being blissed out with the baby and all of that. So, yeah, I don’t know if Gigi will ever go back to modeling full time. She doesn’t want toleave the farm.

I also loved what she said about having a Muslim father, and being with a man who was raised Muslim. As the product of a multi-faith family, she’s right that the best way to approach raising Khai is to expose her to all sides of her family and give her the information early, info about Islam and Christianity and, who knows, probably Buddhism too.

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Cover courtesy of Vogue, IGs courtesy of Gigi Hadid.

As I’ve gotten older, the conspiracies have gotten increasingly stupid and offensive. Like, in the 1990s, there were more interesting conspiracies which seemed to be rooted in some kind of vague reality, like “Tupac is still alive” or “Stanley Kubrick faked the moon landing footage.” These days, conspiracies are ridiculously unhinged. Like, sit there and really think about how bonkers the QAnon sh-t is. Or the “false flag” bullsh-t. You literally have to be nuttier than a fruitcake to believe any of that. Which brings me to Marjorie Taylor Greene, the QAnon believer, false flag conspiracist, Jewish Space Lasers bigot and representative from Georgia. After the QOP failed to remove Greene from her committee posts, Speaker Pelosi called for a House vote. Greene was stripped from her committee posts by a 230-199 vote.

The House approved a resolution Thursday that removes embattled GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from her assigned committees. The final vote tally was 230-199 and 11 Republicans voted in support of the resolution: Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, John Katko of New York, Nicole Malliotakis of New York, Fred Upton of Michigan, Carlos Gimenez of Florida, Chris Jacobs of New York, Young Kim of California, Maria Salazar of Florida, Chris Smith of New Jersey and Mario Diaz Balart of Florida.

Greene, a vocal supporter of Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of election fraud, has been condemned by Democrats and many Republicans for embracing numerous conspiracy theories in videos and social media activity before she took office this year. In posts and videos from 2018 and 2019 reviewed by CNN, Greene appeared to endorse violence against prominent Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and suggested that the Sandy Hook and Parkland shootings were staged “false flag” operations. They have since been taken down.

Greene defended herself in a speech ahead of the vote and expressed regret over some of her past remarks — which some viewed as doing too little, too late. “These were words of the past and these things do not represent me, they do not represent my district and they do not represent my values,” Greene said of her past posts and interactions on social media. “I am beyond grateful for this opportunity, and I’ll tell you why. I believe in God with all my heart, and I am so grateful to be humbled, to be reminded that I’m a sinner, and that Jesus died on the cross to forgive me for — to forgive me for my sins. This is something I absolutely rejoice in today to tell you all. I think it’s important for all of us to remember, none of us are perfect. None of us are.”

Greene also said that she believes “9/11 absolutely happened” and “school shootings are absolutely real and every child that is lost, those families mourn it.”

But she also attempted to blame “cancel culture” for her troubles and the media for how she’s come across, saying, “big media companies can take teeny, tiny pieces of words that I said, that you have said, any of us, and can portray us into someone that we’re not.”

Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has previously condemned Greene’s past remarks but stopped short of taking disciplinary action. Speaker Pelosi told reporters Thursday she is “profoundly disturbed” that Republican leaders decided against removing Greene from her committees.

“That’s just so unfortunate,” she said. “You would think the Republican leadership in the Congress would have some sense of responsibility to this institution.”

[From ABC News]

“I think it’s important for all of us to remember, none of us are perfect. None of us are.” I would say that if I was trying to excuse myself after I overslept, or ate a second dinner three hours after my first dinner, or I forgot an unimportant appointment. You don’t get to use the “none of us are perfect” excuse when you’ve literally threatened violence against coworkers, when you’ve threatened and harassed survivors of school shootings, when you actively incite terrorism because you believe a cabal of pedophiles rigged the election and that democracy needs to be violently overthrown. I feel it’s important to really sit here and list all of that, because this is not cancel culture. This is a violent, terrifying, crazy AF ideology taking hold in a major political party.

This moment is powerful. Steny Hoyer takes a blown up image of a Marjorie Taylor Greene Facebook post, where she holds an assault rifle next to images of AOC, Omar and Tlaib with incendiary language. He then walks it over and holds it in front of the GOP. pic.twitter.com/D88pKxDRUi

— Scott Dworkin (@funder) February 4, 2021

Saying that “9/11 happened” does not in ANY way indicate remorse for claiming a “plane did not hit the pentagon” or that “9/11 was an inside job.”

It doesn’t even prove that you don’t still believe those things. Greene isn’t sorry, she’s just getting more clever with her wording https://t.co/4Hprv1H9cK

— Kendall Brown (@kendallybrown) February 5, 2021

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

I haven’t spent much time thinking about Samantha Markle, quite honestly. She’s reprehensible trash and her sad little book is basically a confession that she’s just smearing her half-sister to make money for herself. If anything, her repulsive book just makes it even clearer that British media outlets should have never given her a platform, should have never paid her to trash Meghan. While the Daily Mail gleefully reported, a month ago, that Meghan is “sick to her stomach” about Samantha’s book, I theorized that what was making Meghan feel sick was her white relatives repeatedly making asses out of themselves for money. It IS nauseating. But according to Katie Nicholl, Meghan doesn’t care all that much.

When Samantha Markle revealed that she was releasing a tell-all book about life as the sister of the Duchess of Sussex’s sister, tabloids claimed that Meghan Markle broke down in tears and felt “sick to her stomach.” Out this week, the book claims to expose the “hidden truths” about Meghan’s family promising readers that the “truth is stranger than fiction.” But according to sources close to the Duchess, Meghan is neither tearful nor worried about the book, which has “barely registered on her radar,”’ according to one friend who spoke to Vanity Fair. “Meghan has not seen Samantha for years so the idea that she is worried about the book is nonsense. Meghan barely knows Samantha, they haven’t seen each other for nearly 20 years.”

Meghan last saw her Florida-based half-sister in 2008, but that has not stopped Samantha from giving interviews about Meghan and making judgements about her new life as a royal. The book, The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister: Part 1, is out now from Central Park South Publishing, a small press founded in 2020.

Given the snippets of the book reported thus far, it’s just as well that Meghan has no plans to read it. With allegations that Meghan is “controlling” and that she has behaved disrespectfully towards the Queen and the Royal Family, it wouldn’t make for comfortable reading. Writing about Meghan’s relationship with her father, Samantha alleges that Meghan was “mean” on the phone to her father as soon as Harry left the room. In one passage, Samantha recalls how her father sounded upset when she had called to check in with him in the lead up to the wedding. “I said, ‘Dad, what’s going on, what’s wrong?” she writes. “He said, ‘This is really weird, she’s not the same. When Harry is in the room, she is very sweet and a different person, but when he steps out of the room, she is mean and controlling’” Samantha, 56, also claims the Royal Family should have postponed the wedding so that Thomas Markle could be included. “The Royals couldn’t postpone the wedding so that my father could be included, and I knew it was not unreasonable that they reschedule, given resources available to make that happen.”

Samantha, who suffers from MS and is in a wheelchair, has revealed she is already working on a second book. Meanwhile Vanity Fair as been told that Meghan is also considering writing a book and has had numerous approaches and lucrative offers from respectable publishing houses.

“Meghan has some very serious book deals on the table,” added the friend. “They are all up for consideration.”

[From Vanity Fair]

Yeah, again, I don’t care about Samantha and whatever imaginary conversations she had with a hedgehog about Meghan disrespecting the Queen. I would imagine that Meghan feels a mixture of emotions, like every other person with toxic narcissists in their families. She probably does feel sick to her stomach when she really thinks about how her dad is disgusting trash. She probably doesn’t want to give Samantha one second of her time. However she wants to deal, that’s fine. As for Meghan fielding offers to write her own book… I mean, sources have been saying that for months. I would love to see Meghan write a book (with a good editor, sorry Meg), but I’m not sure she’s there yet.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

SAG-AFTRA is the actors’ union. It’s not just big Hollywood names – if you’ve ever been listed as a cast member, regardless of the size of your role, you have a SAG card. If you’ve ever been on camera or spoken on camera for a film or TV show, you have a SAG card. There are dues (like any union) and benefits and SAG will help you find lawyers if you need to, say, sue for lost wages or something like that.

Before he was a fascist wannabe dictator, Donald Trump wanted to be famous. He was desperate for the validation of Hollywood in any way, shape or form. He muscled his way into cameos on films like Zoolander and Home Alone 2. During his presidency, various people tried to start movements to have him removed from those films and TV episodes. One Canadian broadcaster edited Trump out of Home Alone 2. Just after Trump incited a violent coup at the Capitol, there was a movement to remove Trump from every film and TV show he’s ever been in, and a call for SAG-AFTRA to even “impeach” his union membership, so to speak. Well, now that he has time on his hands and he’s not using that time to prepare for his impeachment trial in the Senate, Trump decided to officially resign from the SAG-AFTRA union. He sent a letter which he signed with a Sharpie pen and everything.

You knew it was going to be a full-scale Trump tantrum as soon as “WHO CARES!” appeared in the first line. A special favorite: “…created thousands of jobs at networks such as MSDNC and Fake News CNN…” And of course, “you have done nothing for me!” Douchebag has a $500 million Deutsche Bank loan call, he needs the $13.75 residuals from Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

SAG’s shady response to Trump’s resignation tantrum? “Thank you.” OUCH!

SAG-AFTRA on Trump’s resignation from the union: Thank you. https://t.co/n1BUAMcqQ1

— SAG-AFTRA NEWS (@sagaftranews) February 4, 2021

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

Dr. Jill Biden has an exclusive interview in Parents Magazine. Jill was a working mom as she raised her children. Not only did she work a job, but she also continued her education within her field, ultimately obtaining a PhD in education. She will be the first woman to continue to work the job she held prior to office while serving as FLOTUS. Jill said working while Joe Biden served as vice president gave her a good perspective on both being in the administration and the people they served. She wants that same experience now, which is incredibly insightful, if you think about it. Parents Mag asked her about the challenges of being a working mom when she was doing it but also, about the unique challenges parents face now, during the pandemic. Jill said moms today need to give themselves a break because they are doing just fine.

Why has the pandemic dealt such an unfair blow to working moms?
Many moms were having a hard time juggling it all before the pandemic. Now they can’t send their kids to school while they work. There are no playdates to help burn off energy. They’ve lost the network of family and friends who can help out. And they’re expected to supervise remote learning while working or job hunting.

During the campaign, I met a mom with a son with a disability. His remote learning required more supervision than she could provide while working. She made less than her husband, so of course, she was the one to quit. I think stories like that are playing out in a lot of homes.

What would you say to the thousands of women who are struggling?
Maybe you’ve made mac ‘n’ cheese for dinner one too many times. Maybe your temper is shorter than usual. Maybe you’re too tired to be the “fun mom.” It’s okay. You’re not failing. You’re strong. You’re resilient. And you’re doing your best to carry your family through one of the most difficult times in memory. We’re going to do everything we can to get through this, together.

[From Parents Magazine]

As you know, I have a great deal of respect for Jill. Parents Mag tends to throw soft balls in their interviews. So I understand that is what they are looking for from Jill and that’s what she gave them. Things are extremely hard for families right now. I think most of us get that we can’t do it all when it comes to doing the dishes and serving the same thing for dinner. But there is a psychological toll that comes from missing the mark when our loved ones need our help emotionally, academically or whatever and we feel we’ve fallen short. Unfortunately, those are the things we replay in our minds, not the times during the pandemic we nailed it. So it’s hard to see our successes while while we’re still in it.

Yes, most of us will get through this. Some of us will be fortunate to do so together. We are strong and resilient. But I recognize that’s not really making any of this easier right now.

Embed from Getty Images

Photo credit: Avalon and Getty Images

Ever since Katie Nicholl’s Vanity Fair story about the Duchess of Cambridge’s “skeleton staff” during the pandemic lockdown, I’ve been obsessed with figuring out just how many people are helping Kate in Anmer Hall, and how many people have to drive in (or take the train) just to take official photos of her or help her Zoom her fingers to the bone. Nicholl claimed that Kate was Just Like Us because she has a full-time nanny, a skeleton staff, a full-time videographer and a professional lighting rig at home, and this is in addition to what I imagine is at least two dozen Kensington Palace office staffers, an on-call hairstylist and a full-time personal assistant. But we’re supposed to give her a cookie because she’s a big girl who picked out her own clothes for her big-girl Zoom! The big girl is 39!

Anyway, Kate has done yet another Zoom. She picked out an old Rebecca Taylor tweed suit which she’s worn several times before. She Zoomed with teachers at the Ribbon Academy in County Durham about how they’re coping during the pandemic. The point was that Kate’s patronage Place2Be has provided “mental health resources” to that particular school, so Kate was just putting a bow on something she – likely – had very little to do with.

At one point, Kate made the point that she keeps making in a lot of Zooms and self-videos, which is that screw the mental health of children, the adults need to look after themselves:

“You play such a vital role in looking after our children. It’s so important that you’re looked after too and have the appropriate networks and support systems to make sure you can really do the best job you possible can. I’m really glad that Place2Be is there [for you]. They’re needed across the country more now than ever. I wanted to say a massive thank you to teachers across the country for doing fantastic jobs. It’s been really hard work but please look after yourselves.”

[Via Harper’s Bazaar]

While it is true that teachers are doing a great job and that everyone is struggling and we should all look after our mental health, it’s just funny to me that Kate keeps directing all of these “adults should look after themselves” messages during… Children’s Mental Health Week, and during a moment when she’s supposed to be keen about the Early Years. I mean… Zoom with some school kids, maybe? But the Duchess of I-Can’t-See-Past-My-Own-Nose really is making the point over and over that someone needs to check in on HER, that she’s super-exhausted from working like a Top CEO, and that in the immortal words of Michael Jordan, f–k them kids.

Photos courtesy of Kensington Palace, Backgrid, WENN.

I got into watching WandaVision thanks to my friends Karen and Zakia, who watched the first three episodes with me over Zoom and kept telling me it would get better. I’m not really a Marvel person and usually see the movies once in the theater and then forget about them. However my friends love Marvel and are telling me about the timelines and backstory. (Thanks Ameerah!) I also watched the WandaVision explainer videos from ScreenCrush and they helped so much. The first three episodes were bizarre and I wasn’t sure I would keep watching, but episode four really pulls everything together in an interesting way and now I’m hooked. (For more on episode four, read Mike Redmond’s recap on Pajiba.) Kathryn Hahn plays Wanda and Vision’s neighbor, Agnes, and she’s perfect in it. There are all sorts of theories about who Kathryn could be based on the comics and the clues the show is dropping. In a new interview with Jimmy Kimmel, Hahn declined to give more information about her character and said that she doesn’t know about the fan theories because she’s never even had a computer until now! She’s not an Ann Patchett-level luddite, though, she just had an iPad before.

What are you legally allowed to tell us about your character on WandaVision
I can tell you that she’s a nosy neighbor. I can say that over and over again.

Is Agnes, your character, the villain Agatha Harkness in disguise? The clue is that you both have an oval shaped piece of jewelry at your neck.
[doesn’t answer, takes a drink]

Do you like to see people’s theories about what’s going on with your character on the show?
Not often because I do not really have access. Yesterday I got my first computer. Ever. I don’t have social media. You’re looking at somebody really off the grid.

You’ve never had a computer before?
My husband gave me his old one once. Why do I need it? I love a hard copy. I need my highlighter. I want a pencil. I had a computer intervention [from] my kids and my husband. ‘Mom, you need to get a computer. You cannot be bothering us with this stuff.’ I had a tutorial. [It] was all brand new to me because I’ve been doing it on an iPad.

[From Jimmy Kimmel Live]

After that Jimmy asked Kathryn if she could lift up her husband, who looked like a solid big guy. She got up and was wearing full jeans under her dress, which was funny. Spoiler – she was able to lift him up. They should do more stunts like that on remote interviews. That was pretty cute and I liked seeing her husband! Whenever I cover her I remember her saying that she had a dog who had to get multiple surgeries because he kept eating all her kids’ underwear. Her family sounds wacky and normal, is what I’m saying.

Kathryn is my age, 47, and she hasn’t had a computer until now! It sounds like she managed fine before with a phone and iPad and that she gets help from her kids and husband. She’s not making some holier than thou choice to not use social media or computers, it sounds like she just likes hard copies. As for WandaVision, I’ll keep watching because although I’m not heavily invested in it I like how it’s multi-layered and has such a clever premise. It makes me think. I’m deliberately being vague here to avoid spoilers but also because I don’t really know how to describe the show and I would screw up the details if I talked about it. I’ll just say I’m glad I stuck with it and that I’ll keep watching.

Here’s that interview:

Photos credit: Avalon.red. Some photos are screenshots from this New Rockstars video explaining Agnes’ character.