T LOunge for May 28th 2025

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PinLa Bellezza Bar and Restaurant – Lille, France

While today’s LOunge may not give off the most relaxed vibe in the world, we find we’re needing a little clatter and stimulation on this rainy WEDNESDAY of the longest short working week of the year. Sometimes you just want a space that gives you a lot to look at. Settle in and make some noise.

Madeline Brewer: ‘I’m proud to have played the character that brought a homicidal, misogynistic maniac to justice’
The Handmaid’s Tale star on saying goodbye to Janine, surviving Netflix’s You, and the worrying rise of deepfake abuse.
“Janine is so much more resilient than I am,” Madeline reflects. “If I had to go through a day in Janine’s shoes, I might collapse and crumble, but she’s so resilient and optimistic. It always surprised me when I got the scripts and read about how she’s handling what’s going on, and I just thought, ‘How is she doing this? And just seeing a silver lining, or just trying to make the best out of the worst possible situation?”

Ginny & Georgia season 3 is out so soon
Here’s what you need to know.
The second season of Ginny & Georgia debuted at the top of 2023, almost two years after the show first hit Netflix. The coming-of-age drama/mystery series follows the story of a mother-daughter duo as they adjust to their new lives in a small Massachusetts suburb and the secrets that follow them wherever they go.
Ginny & Georgia made waves in 2021 when it trolled Gilmore Girls in its first teaser trailer and made even more buzz as a controversial fave with some notorious scenes (Oppression Olympics and unfortunate Taylor Swift joke, we’re looking at you) — but nevertheless, the show quickly became a Netflix hit, and season 2 was no exception.

New Netflix docuseries F1: The Academy highlights female racing talent in a male-dominated sport
Girl power, indeed.
A new dose of feminist empowerment is hitting Netflix, filling us in on the plight of a group of amazing female F1 drivers – members of the F1 Academy.
So what is the F1 Academy? It has been described as “a starting ground for young women in motorsport, built to help them grow their skills and move up the ranks — from Formula 4 to Formula 3, and maybe even all the way to F1”. Super, super exciting when it comes to female representation in male-dominated sports.

Macron Insists Wife Shove Was Just Them Being Sexy and French, You Provincial Hacks
What you saw was part of their normal repartee, okay?
Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron whipped the internet and conservative media into a frenzy over the weekend, when video circulated showing the latter aggressively shoving the former’s face just before they stepped off a plane in Vietnam. Were they in the midst of a domestic dispute? Does the French first lady regularly manhandle her husband when she’s seemingly unaware that cameras are rolling? Is their marriage in trouble? According to the French president, none of the above. Instead, what people saw was merely part of their standard repartee, which he doesn’t expect prudes like you to understand.

Napoleon’s Gold and Diamond Signet Ring Heads to Auction
According to Sotheby’s, their forthcoming auction of Pierre-Jean Chalençon’s collection “presents an extraordinary synthesis of Napoleonic history, combining great historical symbols with intimate relics.”
Napoleon Bonaparte is back in the spotlight. The emperor, who is a silver screen staple in his own right thanks to filmmakers like Abel Gance and Ridley Scott, continues to fascinate a community passionate about the Empire era. Now this leader whose equal parts warring and romantic career profoundly altered the balance of power in Europe is once again front of mind for the public though he has remained a fixture for Pierre-Jean Chalençon, a collector made popular for appearing on Vos Objets Ont Une Histoire and Affaire Conclue. On June 25, Chalençon’s extensive Imperial collection will be auctioned by Sotheby’s.

The Testaments TV Show: What We Know About ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Sequel So Far
The sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale has cast its three female leads.
The sixth season of the adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale may have just finished in the U.S., but streamer Hulu doesn’t plan to loosen its grip on the famed Margaret Atwood saga. Next up will be The Testaments, an adaptation of Atwood’s Handmaid’s sequel, which was published in 2019 — more than three decades after its predecessor.
The Testaments takes place more than 15 years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale and will pick back up inside the Republic of Gilead, a dystopian theocracy built on what former Handmaid’s Tale showrunner Bruce Miller called ‘a perversion, misreading of Old Testament laws and codes.’ The story follows three women — Aunt Lydia, Agnes, and Daisy—as their lives weave together under Gilead’s iron fist.

Everything We Know About The Devil Wears Prada Sequel
From who’s coming back to when you can expect it to hit theaters.
At long last, after many years of rumors and fans urging to make it happen, a sequel to The Devil Wears Prada is finally on its way.
Based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Lauren Weisberger, the story follows recent college graduate Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway), who lands a job as the assistant to Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), the powerful and demanding editor-in-chief of a fictional fashion magazine called Runway. Andy struggles with working at the magazine and starts to find her footing with the help of co-worker Nigel (Stanley Tucci) and even Priestly’s first assistant Emily (Emily Blunt). But as Andy grows into her role at the magazine, she struggles to balance her personal life as well as her long-term career goals.

BIAB Nails Are the Longer-Lasting, Good-for-Your-Nails Alternative to Gel and Shellac
We tested the strengthening manicure—and here’s how it went.
Gel, acrylics, and shellac, step aside. If you struggle with weak nails that are prone to breakage and don’t seem to want to grow out, trying BIAB nails might just transform your nail care routine. The extremely durable manicure option doesn’t do as much damage to your nails, and it supports nail growth and nail health, unlike other options.
As much as we love our shellac and gel polish (they last so much longer than regular nail polish), there are drawbacks to these popular options. Soft gel manicures often have to be filed off the nail in combination with soaking the polish in acetone, which, if improperly done, can cause damage to the nail bed, making your nails thinner and more prone to breaking or chipping.

A Nostalgic Flavor Is Making a Resurgence — Here’s Why You’ll See Creamsicle Everywhere This Summer
You don’t need to find an ice cream truck to enjoy this treat anymore.
The sound of an ice cream truck rolling down a neighborhood street, drawing kids in with its cheerful tune, is a cherished memory that permeates so many American childhoods. As a result, enjoying a classic ice cream truck treat — whether in its original form or a modern take — can evoke a sense of nostalgia for so many of us.
Perhaps it’s a cone of artisanal soft serve ice cream that reminds you of Mr. Softee or a box of fudgesicles tucked away in the freezer for those moments when you need a moment of comfort, but the flavors of an ice cream truck do manage to echo into adulthood. And now one of them might be making a comeback for an even bigger moment.

Why Breadfruit Is the Superfood You’re Missing Out On — and How to Use It
Learn why this tropical fruit could be the next big thing in sustainable eating.
For centuries, those who live within the world’s warm equatorial band – the high-humidity areas around the equator – have savored the mild, sweet abundance found in breadfruit. Cultivated in the Pacific, Africa, the Caribbean and Central America, breadfruit is the most protein-rich, nutritionally dense, and starchy fruit that grows on trees. Its versatile flesh, encased within a vibrant green, firm bumpy exterior that resembles the skin of a baby armadillo, is simple to grow and easy to harvest.

Think You’d Win the Spelling Bee? These Commonly Misspelled Food Words Might Trip You Up
I’m a former National Spelling Bee contestant and a Food & Wine editor. Here’s an exercise in swallowing my pride.
I had a minor freakout just last week trying to spell “bourguignon” without looking it up. So far as I know, no one was watching this time, but I felt the same hot shame suffuse my face as it did all those decades ago. Back then, I was just a gawky eighth-grader with a terrible perm and unmedicated anxiety. Now I’m an adult who is paid to write and edit at a major food publication. I think I’ve figured out the hair situation, and decades of therapy and proper meds have softened my physical nervous responses. However, there are certain food words that I’m going to have to look up no matter how many times I type them, and that bugs me — or it did until very recently.

Lorde Has a $185 Water Bottle, and the Internet Is Divided
Is it time for an upgrade?
Lorde’s forthcoming album “Virgin” will be released in just over a month, and fans are on the edge of their seats. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Lorde was tasked with sharing seven artifacts that helped inspire the album. She presented her favorite water bottle from Snow Peak, a pack of 5 Gum, a roll of T-Rex tape, and a shoelace belt.
Far from the Stanley, Yeti, or even Owala tumblers we see every day, the rainbow titanium bottle is as pricy as it is unique. During the interview, Lorde called the Snow Peak Aurora bottle a “talisman of this album,” but its $185 price tag has the internet divided.

I Asked Two Denim Experts How to Shop for Jeans Online—This Is Their Step-By-Step Plan
No fitting room? No problem.
Oftentimes, shopping for jeans isn’t particularly fun, especially if you’re in and out of dressing rooms for hours. But buying them online also comes with pitfalls, like not being able to evaluate their quality firsthand or gauge how they fit on your body. With all its limitations, I still prefer the experience to stumbling around dressing rooms, sweaty and frustrated, then buying jeans I don’t love, just to feel like I haven’t wasted my time.
To make the online shopping journey as pleasant and successful as possible, the InStyle team tested the best jeans for all body types, including pregnant, petite, and curvy shoppers. We also spent hours researching various styles, ranging from wide- to straight-leg jeans. With the help of experts and our extensive testing, I’ve cracked the perfect code to make shopping for jeans online a fruitful and painless experience. From understanding the various cuts and washes to learning how to accurately measure your inseam and waist, get ready to become the ultimate (online) judge of jeans.

Is It Bad Not to Have a Best Friend as an Adult?
Apparently, not necessarily. A best friendship, while lovely, isn’t essential to having our most fundamental social needs met, according to the social scientists I spoke to. To hear them tell it, a fulfilling friendship—whatever name you give it—is one in which A) you can be vulnerable and disclose personal thoughts, secrets, hopes and dreams, knowing the other person won’t betray your trust or withhold their love; B) the other person is also vulnerable with you; and C) you can count on them to meet your needs as you articulate them, and to interact with you in ways that show that they care, support, understand, and value you.

From Westeros to Warwickshire: Rose Leslie is taking centre stage on Tatler’s July cover as she becomes queen bee in The Constant Wife
The Game of Thrones star will appear with the Royal Shakespeare Company in a role Ingrid Bergman made famous on Broadway. Has the wildling gone soft – or is this her boldest act yet?
Rose Leslie sweeps into a pub in rural most Suffolk, a land of hedge-lined winding lanes, thatched houses and luscious green fields. She is wearing patterned floral trousers and a warm jumper, and her signature red hair is freshly washed and drying naturally en plein air. Suffolk – as well as north-east London – has been home to her and her husband (and Game of Thrones co-star), Kit Harington, for seven years. ‘It’s slightly more chilled than London, isn’t it?’ says Leslie, freckle-adorned and effusing warmth, now settled into a wood-panelled corner of the pub that’s covered with racing portraits.
Leslie, 38, fresh from the daily ritual of her four-minute cold water immersion in a little barrel at home, is dazzling in the flesh, oozing vitality and curiosity. With leading roles in Vigil, Miss Austen, Downton Abbey, The Time Traveler’s Wife and The Last Witch Hunter (opposite Vin Diesel), she is no one-trick pony. And now she’s about to dazzle as the Royal Shakespeare Company’s new queen bee in Stratford-upon-Avon, playing Constance in a new adaptation of W Somerset Maugham’s classic, The Constant Wife.

The Most Wondrous Art in the World in 1,726 Objects
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Michael C. Rockefeller collection from Africa, the Ancient Americas and Oceania reopens with a pantheon of historic art stars.
If you want to feel the charge of excitement that great art — no imaginative limits — and new thinking about it can bring, head to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s redesigned and reconceived Michael C. Rockefeller wing, and its collection of work from Africa, the Americas and Oceania that opens on Saturday. Go for the pure visual pleasure of the work there — believe me, it’ll have your eyes spinning — and go for the still unfolding histories it tells.
Every step of the way through the revamped galleries, closed since 2021, is wondrous. Spaces that once felt cramped and crowded have become enveloping vistas that will stop you in your tracks. Objects once confined to boxy wall cases are now free-standing and approachable, to be engaged with, like the living things they were conceived to be, and truly are.

Ithell Colquhoun: A queer, occultist artist who created between worlds
We explore the legacy of the surrealist mystic who painted from the liminal threshold of perception, merging life with myth
Radical, esoteric, and defiantly independent, Ithell Colquhoun (1906–1988) remains one of the most enigmatic figures in British surrealism. A painter, poet, and occultist, her practice dissolved the boundaries between gender, sexuality, and spiritual inquiry, positioning her as a visionary far ahead of her time. Having debuted at Tate St Ives in February 2025, Ithell Colquhoun: Between Worlds comes to Tate Britain from June and promises to be the largest exhibition of her work ever staged, featuring over 170 works, including rare archival material and pieces never before displayed publicly.

‘Running Point’ Costume Designer on Kate Hudson’s Power Suits: ‘Why Not Have Her Femininity Be Her Superpower?’
In conversations with Kaling, Buss keeps her looks simple and doesn’t really dress up. Perez also didn’t want to play into “corporate boys-town wear.” With Hudson, they had someone who was a fashionista and had a great stylist in Sophie Lopez. “We wanted to play into femininity, and Kate wears clothes beautifully, so why not have her be a fabulous woman and embrace her femininity, and make her femininity part of her superpower, as opposed to hiding it?”

Hugh Jackman’s Ex-Wife Deborra-Lee Furness Breaks Her Silence on ‘Betrayal’ as Their Divorce Is Finalized
The former couple share two children and were married for nearly 30 years
Hugh Jackman’s ex-wife Deborra-Lee Furness is speaking out for the first time since filing for divorce from the actor.
“My heart and compassion goes out to everyone who has traversed the traumatic journey of betrayal,” the 69-year-old Australian actress said in a statement to the Daily Mail Tuesday, May 27.
Furness and the Deadpool & Wolverine star, 56, wed in 1996 before announcing their amicable separation in 2023 after 27 years of marriage.
She called their split “a profound wound that cuts deep.”

Shaboozey responds to viral AMAs side-eye after Megan Moroney said Carter family ‘basically invented country’
“When you uncover the true history of country music, you find a story so powerful that it cannot be erased,” he wrote on social media Tuesday.
Shaboozey has responded to the viral moment where he appeared to side-eye co-presenter Megan Moroney at the 2025 American Music Awards Monday night.
In a clip from Monday night’s awards ceremony, the two artists can be seen taking the stage to present the award for favorite country duo or group. “Country music has been an important part of AMA history,” Shaboozey begins, adding, “The very first year of this show, the award for Favorite Male Country Artist went to the great Charley Pride.” Pride, who died in 2020, is considered to be the country genre’s first Black superstar.
“That same year, Favorite Female Artist went to Lynn Anderson. And this award went to the Carter family, who basically invented country music,” Moroney then reads off the teleprompter. Shaboozey can then be seen giving what looks like a side-eye, and scrunching up his face in apparent confusion at the comment before laughing and moving on.

8 Mistakes Everyone Makes When Buying Produce—and How to Avoid Them
What grocery experts want you to know about picking, storing, and enjoying fresh fruits and vegetables.
Walking into the produce section is a sensory experience: the vibrant colors, crisp textures, and earthy aromas all beckon. But despite our best intentions, many of us still make missteps that lead to wasted money, bland meals, and wilted greens. According to experts from leading grocery stores, some of the most common produce pitfalls happen right at the point of purchase, often because shoppers rely only on visual cues or misunderstand ripeness indicators. And once fruit and vegetables make it home, mishandling and poor storage choices can cut their life short.
The good news? With a few simple tweaks, you can shop smarter, store better, and enjoy fresher, more flavorful produce. Here, grocery insiders share the most frequent mistakes they see—and how you can avoid them.

22 Genius Desserts You Can Make with Store-Bought Ice Cream
Purchasing a gallon or two of your favorite flavors makes these delicious dessert recipes so much easier.
Go ahead and trade your usual scoops for a milkshake, sundae, ice cream sandwich, layer cake, or a celebration bombe. Thanks to store-bought ice cream, they’re easy to make and entirely impressive. Get started by stocking up on your favorite flavors next time you’re at the store, then get creative with mix-ins, pour-overs, and our hands-on techniques. With ice cream treats this magnificent, brain freeze is a beautiful thing.

Can You Put Cardboard in the Oven? Here’s What Experts Say
Read this before you defrost your pizza.
Even if you have a dishware collection that could rival Martha’s, you might have once been tempted: You open the oven, take a glance at last night’s leftovers still sitting in their cardboard box, and think—do I really need to dirty another dish? As convenient and harmless as putting cardboard in the oven may seem, it’s worth a pause. At best it could burn your pizza; and at worst, it could be a potential fire hazard.
To get clarity on what’s oven-safe and what’s better left to the trash or recycling bin, we spoke with fire safety and appliance experts. Here’s why cardboard isn’t the best choice for reheating your leftovers.

I’ve Lived in Japan for 20 Years—Here Are 10 Hidden Gems You Won’t Find in Guidebooks
Go off the tourist track and into the heart of Japan.
Numbers of international tourists to Japan continue to smash records year after year, with sites on the so-called Golden Route of Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, and Hiroshima becoming increasingly congested. Luckily, Japan has so much more to see off that very well-trodden path. I’ve lived in Japan for two decades—here are 10 of the country’s hidden gems to consider for your next trip to the “Land of the Rising Sun.”

[Photo Credit: bigmammagroup.com]

• T LOunge