Dua Lipa was one of the few people to have a pretty great 2020. She released her album Future Nostalgia at the start of lockdown, and people really loved the pop-disco vibe – it was great music for one or two people dancing at home, and it was fun and light. Her tours were cancelled, but she still found ways to perform live, like her record-breaking live-stream concert Studio 2054. She spent much of 2020 locked down with her boyfriend Anwar Hadid in London, watching Netflix and doing interviews via Zoom. Which is how this British Vogue interview was conducted too! Dua covers the February issue of British Vogue to talk about music and her surprisingly good 2020 and more. Some highlights:

Going lighter for this album: The “smile through the pain” ennui of Gen Z is her speciality, and she describes her oeuvre as “dance-crying” music or “dark pop”. On this album, however – and its thrilling new additional tracks – “dance” and “pop” take precedence. “I had to fight inner demons. I wanted to write songs that were more sad, more about heartbreak, because I thought that writing happy songs would turn into cheesy songs. I had to fight that because I was like, ‘I am happy. I deserve to be happy.’ I should be able to write about that without the fear of feeling like I’m compromising my authenticity because I’m not crying about something or someone.”

Dating Anwar Hadid: “We have all these incredible memories and experiences, and if there’s something that we want to share together, then OK, that’s fun… But at the same time, we’re quite private – we’ll only show you as much as we want you to see. It’s a little bit of give and take, trying to find the right balance of being so excited and being in love, and wanting to share that with the people around me, but at the same time not wanting to put too much out there. I want to be able to just be happy in this relationship without having other people’s opinions.”

On Twitter: Her management now runs her account. Twitter was the first social media platform she had. She used it to connect with fans she’d meet post-shows, which now sounds absurd. “I would go into interviews and people would say, ‘How do you deal with hate?’And I’m like, ‘Hate? I don’t get hate, what are you talking about?’ It was so early on that people didn’t even care to try and say something mean.” As her star rose, however, things “got really hectic”. Despite her better judgement, she started endlessly scrolling hateful comments about herself. “I would get anxiety. And I was like, ‘This shouldn’t be the way that I’m experiencing this once-in-a-lifetime experience.’ It was messing with my confidence. I’d be super-nervous, wondering what everyone’s gonna say.”

Her home life is normal: “My home life is really normal. The people I surround myself with have known me for the longest time. My job doesn’t define my circle, and that makes a world of difference.”

She & her parents were refugees from Kosovo: It goes without saying that Lipa is staunchly anti-Brexit and troubled by anti-immigration rhetoric. “People don’t leave their home country unless they have to a lot of the time. To save their families, to try and get a better life. People want to be where their family is, where their home is, where they speak the language that is native to them, where they have their own culture.”

[From British Vogue]

“I had to fight that because I was like, ‘I am happy. I deserve to be happy.’” I wonder about this all the time with Adele and Sam Smith specifically, just because they’re two artists known for sad songs about how lovers did them wrong. Even when Adele was happily married, she was still writing about heartbreak! I like that Dua was like “I’m happy and I’m going to force myself to write a happy pop album.” Anyway, y’all know I’m a Dua stan. The only thing I don’t like about her is Anwar Hadid! She could do so much better than that idiot.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by British Vogue (@britishvogue)

Photo and cover courtesy of British Vogue.

Yesterday Maria posted about Pamela Anderson’s latest marriage – and how it *seemed* on the surface: very happy, almost idyllic. Well. That was fast. Her husband, Dan, was apparently in a relationship, living with a woman called Carey, and their children, when he met Pam and then just stopped coming…

You know what happened 20 years ago yesterday? The 2001 Super Bowl. Specifically the 2001 Super Bowl Halftime Show. Do you remember it without cheating? Aerosmith headlined with NSYNC and other guests included Mary J Blige and Nelly, both of whom, no doubt, are major stars, so it was already a super…

If you listened to this week’s What’s Your Drama podcast you might be able to sense my incredible disdain for the wellness community. What was once good and honest has been hacked by a bunch of flexible, privileged know-it-alls that have really diluted its original intent. Am I saying all wellness i…

The big fashion story this week is Kim Jones for Fendi – the runway show featured Demi Moore, Kate Moss with her daughter Lila Grace, Naomi Campbell and a rare appearance by Christy Turlington. Obviously he has a lot of support in this world, but what about the clothes? My favourite look was on Naom…

January 2021 has not been Armie Hammer’s best month. Pretty sure you don’t need a refresher on why but just in case, you can revisit Maria’s posts about it here, here, and here. Basically it’s been alleged through leaked messages he supposedly exchanged with former lovers that he’s been abusive in r…

Someone PLEASE TELL ME what happened tonight on @11thHour with Brian Williams! ? pic.twitter.com/VjzwMPbtt2

— Douglass Sloan (@DougSloan) January 29, 2021

Brian Williams trolled Kevin McCarthy & Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago meeting this week by playing a clip from Jerry Maguire. [Towleroad]
Katy Perry talks about motherhood & sounds blissed-out. [Just Jared]
Has Marvel conditioned their fans to not accept change? [Pajiba]
Every Armie Hammer story just keeps getting weirder & more terrible. [Dlisted]
Giambattista Valli’s latest collection has a lot of tulle & ruffles. [Go Fug Yourself]
Pamela Anderson got secretly married to her bodyguard. [LaineyGossip]
Jessica Alba makes me wonder if bellbottoms are making a comeback? [RCFA]
What Claudia Conway’s story tells us about kids dealing with abuse & bad family situations during the pandemic. [Jezebel]
What’s going on with Johnson & Johnson’s covid vaccine? [Buzzfeed]
The Walking Dead shuts down homophobes. [OMG Blog]
Shemar Moore’s mask is amazing and hilarious. [Seriously OMG]

INBOX: Statement from President. Trump’s Save America PAC says he and @GOPLeader McCarthy met today. “President Trump’s popularity has never been stronger than it is today, and his endorsement means more than perhaps any endorsement at any time.” (Photo came with press release) pic.twitter.com/Ar2GxaaVRD

— Ed O’Keefe (@edokeefe) January 28, 2021

Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly were seen in New York yesterday and she was wearing a huge ring on that finger that looks like it could be of the engagement variety. So far there’s been no word on whether or not this is actually what it is but… I could see it. These two totally give off that intense…

It was just a few weeks ago that we heard that Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem are in serious talks to play Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in a film written by… Aaron Sorkin. What a strange f–king sentence, at every level. Even if you could argue that Nicole might do interesting work as Lucy, you still have to contend with Javier as Desi, and the two of them doing walk-and-talks in a circle around the I Love Lucy production as they fight about campaign finance reform. Maybe it will be one of those “it’s so bad, it’s actually pretty great” projects. Anyway, the bulk of the criticism and consternation has been centered Nicole’s casting as Lucille Ball and how there were several other redheaded actresses who could probably do a much better job with the role. Nicole spoke with Variety about the project (it sounds like she’s definitely been cast now, for sure) and she said words:

Nicole Kidman is now taking at least a couple months off work. She shot “The Northman,” Robert Eggers’ follow-up to “The Lighthouse,” during the pandemic as well as the Hulu limited series “Nine Perfect Strangers.” It was recently announced she’s playing Lucille Ball opposite Javier Bardem as Desi Arnaz in Aaron Sorkin’s “Being the Ricardos.” “I was like, ‘Yeah, I would love to give it a go,’” Kidman says. “With Aaron’s words and his direction and Javier … that’s kind of a wonderful prospect to, you know. But yikes, off we go. Give it a go. Try my best—see if I can do it.”

Kidman’s been watching a lot of “I Love Lucy.” “I love Lucille, having looked now and delved into her,” Kidman says. “She’s an amazing woman. I’m very excited for people to see what Aaron found out about her and the way he’s interpreted Desi and Lucy and the way that it’s so rich. I didn’t know any of this.”

[From Variety]

I’ve gone through phases where I loved Nicole and her work, then I hated all of the crap she did to her face, then I thought she made terrible choices for which projects she signed onto, and lately, I’ve been back to defending her and loving her and her work. But I think I might be going through another “thanks, I hate it” phase. She’s lived in America long enough to know how important Lucille Ball was and is to so many American actresses and comedians. Instead of coming at the project with promises to diligently try to get Lucille correct, Nicole is basically like “sure, whatever, I can do it and if I can’t, oh well.” There’s a disconnect there. God, I wish Amy Adams and Bobby Cannavale were playing Lucy and Desi.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red.

Denzel Washington is a great actor with old-school Movie Star charisma to spare. It takes a LOT to make Denzel unwatchable, but The Little Things, a crime drama from journeyman writer/director John Lee Hancock, does its damnedest to make Denzel boring and without charm. The Little Things is not a te…