T LOunge for March 7th, 2024

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PinGiacomo Restaurant – Monte Carlo, Monaco

It’s THURSDAY and we’re feeling even more celebratory than normal over that fact because at 7 pm last night, Tom received the mythical and rarely spotted “Your jury duty obligations for tomorrow have been cancelled” text and we feel like we won the lottery. Look, we’re all for civic duty, but it’s the week of the Oscars over here. Some of us have very important responsibilities right now. So, first round’s on us today, kittens. Let’s celebrate avoiding civic duty!

Whatever Happened to Fun?
So much of comedy today is about making the audience cringe. Carol Burnett still believes it should make you feel good.
“I want to have fun,” she says with a shrug, sitting next to me on a cream couch and looking and sounding well rested, clear voiced, even peppy. “It’s not like I have to be busy all the time!” The peppiness, it should be noted, is unflagging on all biographical fronts, recent and not, from the “hypochondriacal Christian Scientist” grandmother who raised her to whether she’s dealt with ageism as a nonagenarian. (“Not from my own personal experiences, no!”) You’d forgive someone for saying that this preternatural optimism seems almost at odds with the world we know, even though it’s one that continues to contain Carol Burnett.

John Williams Faces His Legacy: 54 Oscar Noms, ‘Star Wars’ Mistakes and Changing the Movies Forever
This year, Williams is resetting the record books again with his Academy Award nomination for best original score for “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” It’s his 54th nomination, which is the most ever for someone not named Walt Disney, and thus the biggest tally for any living person — and any nonproducer, period.
“People ask about a legacy,” Williams says as he sits in the Amblin screening room on the Universal lot, adjacent to his bungalow office. “If I could be remembered as someone who did his job well and remembered as a good solid musician, I would rest very happily.”

Rihanna! Glass Palaces! Custom Versace! An Exclusive Look Inside Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant’s Lavish Pre-Wedding Weekend
As soon as a video leaked of Rihanna arriving in India went viral on X, it seemed like every news outlet—and person—in the world was talking about the “pre-wedding” weekend of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant. There was the guest list, for starters: Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and Karlie Kloss all attended. Then the fashion: On the first night, Radhika wore a custom Versace gown similar to the one worn by Blake Lively for the 2022 Met Gala. Add in a performance by the “Diamonds” singer—and, well, you had an internet phenomenon.

Punk hair is the anti-beauty movement that’s a breath of fresh air
And Beyonce, Florence Pugh and Megan Fox have jumped on board.
We all know trends are cyclical, but what sets punk hair apart from ‘80s crimps or ’90s blow dries, is that the aesthetic is more about feeling, expression, rebellion and individualism, than it is about following the crowd – which really, makes it more of an anti-trend.
It feels like every day there’s a new hair trend coined on TikTok: butterfly layers, the wolf cut, cowgirl copper, the jellyfish cut, the U Cut. It’s fast-paced and perpetual, but one thing is clear: individuality is in and one-size fits all trends don’t really land like perhaps they once did.
Even so, punk hair falls into its very own subsection.

As underage deepfakes of Jenna Ortega appear online, why isn’t social media taking deepfake AI seriously?
A threat to women’s safety.
The rapid rise of AI technology is scaring women — and for good reason. New deepfake AI apps make it possible for anyone to create realistic (usually pornographic) images of anyone they have a picture of. And now, certain social media companies have been allowing apps that facilitate the creation of deepfakes to advertise on their platforms.

How Steven Spielberg Dominated Culture and the 1994 Oscars With ‘Jurassic Park’ and ‘Schindler’s List’
Steven Spielberg kissed his wife and embraced his mother before his left hand floated to his temple in disbelief. Then he grew visibly emotional as he made his way to the stage of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The 46-year-old Spielberg had just won his first Oscar — as best director for “Schindler’s List,” an unflinching look at the Holocaust and its horrors. “This is a big surprise,” presenter Clint Eastwood said somewhat sarcastically.
As Eastwood’s joke suggests, Spielberg’s victory at the 1994 Academy Awards was preordained — an unavoidable coronation after he had dominated popular culture so completely over the past year.

Nobody’s Done Bad-Girl Style Quite Like Cruel Intentions’ Kathryn
Can you believe it’s been 25 years since Cruel Intentions came out? I certainly cannot! It’s one of my all-time favorite movies from the late ’90s. If you’ve never seen the cult-classic film, it follows two Upper East Side stepsiblings—a hot Ryan Phillippe (Sebastian) and hot Sarah Michelle Gellar (Kathryn)—who make a spicy bet with each other: Sebastian must deflower their headmaster’s daughter (Reese Witherspoon) before the end of the year. The plot, however, is really not that important to me. More than two decades later, it’s Kathryn’s incredibly chic wardrobe that has me rewatching it again and again. And again.

As France enshrines abortion as a constitutional right, here’s how the rest of the world fares
President Emmanuel Macron had previously made a statement of solidarity on International Women’s Day last year, in direct reference to the overturning of Roe vs Wade in the United States. He then proposed the change to the constitution the following day:
“In 2024, women’s freedom to have an abortion will be irreversible,” he posted on social media at the time. “Based on the work of parliamentarians and associations, the draft constitutional law will be sent to the Council of State this week and presented to the Council of Ministers by the end of the year.”
The update to France’s constitution is massive step forwards for women’s rights — but unfortunately the situation is more complicated worldwide, from country to country.

27 Of Our Favourite Outspoken Feminist Celebrities, From Beyoncé To Emma Watson
From Beyoncé to bell hooks, these are the outspoken feminist icons who have used their positions of power to advocate for women everywhere.
Famous feminists throughout history have helped to bring women’s fight for equality to the forefront of society’s consciousness in a variety of ways.
In the 20th Century there were women like Simone de Beauvoir, the feminist author who wrote the seminal feminist text The Second Sex, British political activist Emmeline Pankhurst who led the British Suffragette movement and American feminist journalist Gloria Steinem who to this day continues to champion women’s rights and advocate the women’s liberation movement.
In recent years, feminist celebrities like Michaela Coel, Megan Markle, Viola Davis and Emma Watson have used their fame and notoriety in Hollywood and beyond to raise awareness of the need for gender equality and help to redefine what it means to be a feminist in the modern day.

25 Of The Best Feminist Books To Read Ahead Of International Women’s Day
From ‘We Should All Be Feminists’ to ‘She Said’, these are the feminist books you need to read ahead of International Women’s Day.
We believe feminist books are the perfect read every month, but what better time to widen your collection than during Women’s History Month in particular? The month of March – as well as International Women’s Day on March 8 specifically – celebrates and highlights the contributions of women in years gone by and how they have shaped the society we live in now. Spoiler alert: things would be very different if it wasn’t for some incredible women.

The 7 Best Pheromone Perfumes That Shake Up The Laws of Attraction
Consider these scents “je ne sais quoi” in a bottle
In many ways, scent can be considered a superpower. The right compilation of notes helps unlock core memories, shift moods, or in the case of the best pheromone perfumes, utilize the laws of nature to draw someone closer to you. Pheromone fragrances—also known as skin scents—are extremely singular, blending traditional fragrance notes with synthetic pheromones for scents that are like your skin, but better.

Louvre Museum Announces Exhibit on “Olympism” Ahead of Paris Olympics
The exhibit will show how the modern Olympic games were created.
Ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics, the Louvre Museum has announced a new exhibit focusing on the history of the Olympics. “Olympism: Modern Invention, Ancient Legacy” opens April 24, and will follow the founding of the Games, and how the sporting event’s organizers sought to channel ancient Greece.
Per the Louvre, “The exhibition firstly seeks to tell the unknown story of the creation of the modern Olympic Games and to highlight the role played by France, and Paris in particular.” Many may know Pierre de Coubertin as the father of the modern Olympics, but “Olympism” will also spotlight lesser-known figures, like Dimitrios Vikelas, Michel Bréal and Spyridon Lambros.

A Portrait of Princess Diana by Andy Warhol Is Heading to Sale at Phillip’s Auction House
The painting is expected to fetch anywhere between $1.5 and $2.3 million.
Andy Warhol’s Portrait of Princess Diana (1982) is heading for sale at Phillip’s Auction House London and is estimated to sell for $1,500,000 to $2,300,000.
Remember the official engagement photo by Lord Snowdon of Prince Charles and Princess Diana taken in July of 1981? Warhol’s portrait of Diana is essentially a contemporary art version of that and follows the stylistic vein of his other glamorous muses, such as Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy.

Campbell’s Just Released a Limited-Edition Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup
And it could already be in a supermarket near you.
These days, Campbell’s offers so many kinds of soup — not to mention styles like Chunky, Home Style, and Healthy Request — that Warhol might have second-guessed this idea before he even started. And Campbell’s has just announced a new, limited-edition soup that takes a classic comfort food combination and puts it into a single can.

How You Can Visit a 281-Year-Old Sake Brewery at the Foot of Mt.Fuji
The views do not disappoint.
Makino Sake Brewery has been open and operating since 1743, a humble 281 years. It’s located in Fujinomiya within Shizuoka prefecture, just an hour’s train ride from Tokyo. Notably, the brewery uses water flowing from Mt. Fuji to craft its sake. It’s both because it’s “the best water,” according to Makino Toshikazu, the sake master, and equally because it’s the closest source — from the roof of the building, Mount Fuji is within an arm’s reach.

How a Vegan Doughnut Coverup Outraged the Internet
There’s more than one hole in this story.
Even if you don’t run on Dunkin’ their doughnuts are pretty much unavoidable.
According to ScrapeHero, there are 28,776 locations across the United States alone. Whether you’ve grabbed a Boston Cream and an impossibly large iced coffee at an airport or your coworker brought in a dozen for a birthday, you’re probably familiar with what their doughnuts look like. But would you still recognize them if they were taken outside of their hot pink storefront, placed on sheet trays lined with parchment, and sold at a vegan marketplace?

The 100 Best Beatles Solo Songs
Five decades of amazing tunes from John, Paul, George, and Ringo
WHEN THE BEATLES broke up in 1970, they figured it was the end of the story. But they got that wrong. Over 50 years later, John, Paul, George, and Ringo are more influential, famous, beloved than ever. That means the world is finally catching up with one of the weirdest chapters in the Beatles’ saga: their solo music. All four Fabs kept making music, on their own eccentric terms. All four dropped classic albums. All four released total garbage. The solo Beatles story is a gloriously messy, crazed, chaotic world of its own.
So let’s celebrate that story: the 100 greatest Beatles solo songs, starring John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr.

‘Dune: Part Two’ Costumes Were Inspired by 1950s Paris Runways and Balenciaga
Jacqueline West searched far and wide to bring the expansive world of Denis Villeneueve’s “Dune: Part Two” to life. The seasoned artisan recruited the help of locals in Budapest and jewelry makers in the Middle East to tell a visual story through costume, particularly with the female characters in the film. She also looked to the past, finding inspiration in 1920s Tiffany jewelry, Balenciaga and even the haute couture renaissance of the 1950s.

[Photo Credit: studiokiki.design, bigmammagroup.com]

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