Everything Is Content - Fetishing Hockey Smut, Jameela Jamil's Leaked Texts & Nepo Music

Episode Date: January 30, 2026

Hello EIChihuahuas,We're back with a hot, steamy episode... Yes it's Heated Rivalry time!! We bravely tackle the series everyone in the US has already spoken about for months now (thank you HBO for edging the UK with a delayed release). Next-up, Jameela Jamil has been drawn into the Blake Lively/Justin Baldoni arena thanks to text messages between her and her PR agent becoming public knowledge. We weigh in on the situation and her response to it all.Finally we're back with some pop culture headlines and a live review of Cruz Beckham's music. Is he capable of becoming the most successful Beckham? THANK YOU for listening to us. Please could you gift us a review on your podcast player app and share us with a friend? Love O, R, B xxxIn partnership with Cue Podcasts.--------This week Ruchira reccomended Sentimental Value and Diabolical Lies. Beth reccomended Sorry Baby and Conclave.Do women love “Heated Rivalry” too much?Why Are Women Obsessing Over Gay Hockey Smut?Women are feral for Heated Rivalry. What does that say about men?So, my private texts were leaked to the world...What Jameela Jamil’s Texts Say About Her FeminismCruz Beckham - Optics Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm Beth. I'm Ruchera, and this is Everything is Content, the podcast that shares the week's biggest pop culture stories. We cover everything from internet trends to red carpet and your next best long read. We're like the flirty text you can't wait to open. As you can tell, Anoni isn't here for this one, but she's taking a well-deserved break in the sun, or at least we hope that she's in the sun.

The last time I heard, I think it was forecast to rain the whole time, so Anoni, I hope you're doing good in the sun. I love Googling when people got on holiday like the weather forecast. I did it when you went to Mexico. I just love a little nose to be like, what they're up to? And I saw some son for a new, so listeners say a prayer. This week on the podcast, we're diving into the sexy hockey gay romance. Should that be sexy gay romance? Or I'm going to stick with sexy hockey gay romance that everyone's talking about. Jamila Jamil's leaked texts and Cruz Beckham, the rapper. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Everything is Content Pod. And please make sure you hit follow on your podcast player app so you never miss an episode. So before we get into the sexy hockey gay romance bowl, Richerra, what have you been loving this week? So it's not this week, really. I've got a backlog of content that I've been consuming

since we had that Christmas break that I've been slowly trying to whittle through. So I feel like I have to be honest. The first thing, and I don't think it'll be a huge surprise, is sentimental value. So obviously the huge film by Joachim Trier and Renat Rinsifay. It is just as good as people are saying. I really enjoyed it.

It's a really slow film in a way that I really enjoyed just taking some time out of my life, sitting there, really being consumed in another person's world. Have you seen this, Beth? Is it on your list to watch? Absolutely is on my list. My understanding was it was just out in cinemas. It's not a film that will be coming to my small town. I've known people say the same thing where it hasn't come to their town. But in London it's been out for a while. That's really annoying. Definitely watch it if you can, especially if you're like me and predisposition to find father-daughter relationships on screen hit particularly hard, especially when they're quite fraught. obviously not going into that one on the podcast. That kind of film really gets me. It really gets me

somewhere, somewhere deep. My understanding of the film is it's a foreign language film nominated for a boatload of Oscars. Elle Fanning's in it. She plays someone who plays his daughter. Is that, I mean, I'm mostly guessing. So essentially the kind of father figure in it is this huge director. He is finally ready to do a story that very clearly explores his own relationship with his family and I think he's finally got to the age where he can look back at the things that he's done wrong with his daughter and he wants to explore that through the medium of a film. Obviously, not actually by talking to her, just by doing a film about her. And then Elle Fanning is this American actress who really, almost like in May December, Natalie Portman's character, really

thinks that this is the role that's going to change her life. She's been doing all of these big blockbusters and she finally gets this indie role by this amazing esteemed director and she thinks it's going to change her life. So it's all of these people projecting on to this film that they're working on. And it's, it's really interesting. It's almost like you're seeing everyone kind of hash things out in their own life. It doesn't always go well and just becomes an actual conversation for what's going on between them all. Really, really good. I am actually dying to watch that. I need to stop calling it sentimental garbage when I talk to people because I don't catch it and they're like, it's not garbage. I'm like, no, no, sorry,

I'm talking about an excellent podcast. Because I think this year could be one where I've maybe, or I've got a chance to have watched all of the big hitters for the Oscars, which never ever happens. And people actually, when we do our Oscars episode, we will normally focus on one film or the dresses and people are like, you haven't seen any of them. And I'm like, not the point. But this year, do you know how many you've got to go or how many you have watched? So I think I've actually done really well. And apart from F1, which obviously I'm not going to watch that. I'm not watching it. Sorry. There's only a few, but I hadn't even heard of these until they were just on the list. So the secret agent and trained dreams, they'd completely crossed me by.

I've not heard of them. Train Dreams I know is on Netflix because that is on my list. agent, as far as I know, it's nowhere in the UK. I mean, I'm going to Google this. Secret Agent where to watch? So the Secret Agent is actually not out in the UK, so it's not available to legally watch anywhere, but it will be in cinema in the UK from Friday the 20th of February, just if anyone else is doing what we're doing, trying to watch all of the Oscar Noms. The other thing that I was going to recommend is this podcast called Diabolical Lies, which is so excellent. It's this culture, political podcast by two American women. One of them is called Kero, and the other one is called Katie.

I'm sure so many of our listeners have already had this podcast directed to them, encouraged to them, because it came up on my algorithm on Spotify, even though it's only been going for a year, which never happens to me. And my God, it's the most researched, amazing, right politics, incredible topics, podcasts I've heard in a while. I've binged the back catalogue, and I just know that everyone who listens to our podcast will love this one too. The one I started with, I think the one that is the best gateway is,

it's called Is There a Skinny Apocalypse in Hollywood? It talks about the wicked press tour. It talks about Ariana Grande and Cynthia Arevo. It's honestly about should we be dissecting other people's bodies and what we have to gain and what we have to lose, specifically what we have to lose by normalising those conversations. Obviously it's something that we tried to hash out ourselves and I think it's really hard towing that line. What they did is they took a really research-heavy approach to it and just asked, psychologists, historians, look through all these kind of different examples throughout history of shaming bodies, discussing bodies, and what harm that actually led to versus what gain

actually led to, they landed on an answer and I felt like, finally, I think I know where I stand on this and I know how to move forward. I don't think that discussing the rise of skinny bodies and labelling people specifically has any real world gain. I think actually it only harms every single person, whatever body they're in. And I felt so happy to have an answer on it. I agree. I think that's the kind of thing. I'm dying to listen to the episode now because I think the only thing I want in these conversations is clarity and not to do more harm. Like it's not of interest, I think, to any of us to be right or to be justified in that. It's basically like, am I doing more harm? I care about this issue. I kind of need someone to guide me on that because

I feel like there hasn't been a great deal of cohesion. So I think you've unlocked what I'm doing this weekend. And on that note, what have you been loving so I know what to do on my weekend. Okay, so I fear I will have to disappoint you because everything that I've belonged this week originally, I think came from you. Oh. I have this, as you know, I have this big deadline looming. So I've just not been like truffle picking on the ground for new content. I was like, who can I trust?

What can I watch? So first what I have consumed is conclave finally, which I think was a Routure recommendation actually when it came out, 2024, which for anyone who's not watched it or doesn't know about it, it's a film starring Stanley Tucci, Ralph Fines, as two cardinals who are in the running to be the new pope of the old pope, pops. his popy clogs. It's amazing. It's about gossipy men, basically, and I knew there was a reason everyone loved

it, but I had to watch it to find out. So that's a Ruchero Rec. Unless you want to re-watch that, I'm sorry, I've got nothing for you. Next I think is again, Ruchero Rec, which is Sorry Baby, which is a slightly more recent recommendation from me, which is the black comedy drama film from last year about a woman who's continuing to live

after a terrible thing, happens to her. Everyone who loves this film, which I now love this film, is very angry that it was snubbed at the Oscars. It's just a fantastic film, so that's available. I think it's available on Mooby, but I rented it. Was this a film that you really liked last year, or you just recommended it? I know Anoni is listening to this, screaming and shaking, because it was her who recommended this. Yes. I've never watched this, but I honestly, my head is huge with all of the acclaim and praise, which has given me

for stuff that wasn't mine. Anoni, I'm so sorry. But do you know what? I just, I knew it was one of you and I thought, film, I'm going to take a pawn. Well, then maybe you can do this this weekend, because it is. is, as an only one attest, I think, a very, very good film. It's very funny. It's very considered. I was sucked into the world and I lingered there a long time. It's great on trauma. I think we've had this glut of films about trauma that don't really understand trauma or at least do something with trauma which isn't particularly realistic. This, however, I think, is excellent, not to real what happens, but it's very much what do you do when something is done

to you. And it's really good and I can recommend, and Anoni, I'm sorry. Oh, that sounds so good. Stars, isn't it? Eva Victor, Naomi Aki. There's another, I want to say he's the lad from Lady Bird, the sort of blonde boy that she goes out with. He's been in a lot of stuff. I think he's fantastic, but I forget his name, and I'm sorry for that. But it's a great cast. It also has in, because I recently watched Fargo and I was Googling with my boyfriend what the husband of Margie had been in. And he was like, oh, he's in Sorry Baby. And I was like, is he? And so there's these little pop-up cameos from really fantastic actors. And, I mean, mostly it's just Eva Victor. Naomiaki just shining like stars. So it is very, very fantastic. Oh, I love that. And now I have

a recommendation for Saturday. Thank you, Anoni, and thank you, Beth. Yeah, thank you, Anoni. One thing I have actually been tempted to watch, I wanted to ask your take on this, is the new Ryan Murphy sci-fi, The Beauty on Disney Plus. Yeah. It's about a sexually transmitted, not infection, it's sexually transmitted treatment that makes whoever receives it beautiful with all kinds of side effects, sort of substance reheated their nachos. guest stars Bella Hadid, Megan Traynor and Nicola Peltz Beckham, who obviously two of those people are massively in the news at the moment. It's calling to me with a siren song. I convinced it will be terrible, but I'm also like, I've got to find out. So either you need to convince me

to, we'll do it together or I need someone to be like, Beth, don't go near it. I've watched two out of three episodes, so I'm sorry. I am going to encourage you to watch it. I'm pleasantly surprised. It's actually really fun and it's really enjoyable. And I think it takes the body horror-ness of the times we're in, the really grotesque obsession with self-perfection, optimization, looks maxing, all of that kind of stuff. And it does something really entertaining with it, which is kind of looks at it as what if that was a virus, a literal virus, our obsession with beauty, and what if it was destroying us? Which, I mean, it's not that different to what's actually happening. I'm really entertained watching it. And I think so far it is worth

watch. People were pointing out, it's quite funny how, obviously, with the substance, to be more led that and then Ashton Coucher. I don't know if he's the lead in this, but her ex-husband, her much younger, is the lead, or at least a player in this, which I thought was quite funny. Quite a nice bit of symmetry in Hollywood. It's crazy. I think they must be taking the piss massively, because I think his role, I haven't got to it yet, but it seems like he's the person behind this virus, this sexually transmitted disease that is making people ruin their lives. And obviously, in the substance, to be more, her life is ruined by taking the substance. So it kind of seems like this insane drawing between them of being like her younger husband in real life is now the person who's orchestrating the beauty complex in this other text that is in communication with the substance.

I think it's like doing galaxy brain discussion around this, but I don't know if I'm just mental. Do it have to be mad to be on this podcast, but it helps. Okay, Beth, so with challenges Marti Supreme and now heated rivalry, I actually think I might be a sports fan. I know that we've had so many messages to discuss this show. obviously we were going to discuss it. Heated rivalry for anyone who doesn't know is a TV series adapted by Jacob Turney, who adapted Rachel Ree's best-selling novel Game Changers for a Canadian streaming service. It then landed on HBO Max and had an egregiously long wait time before arriving on our screens in the UK. And all we could see with these explosive, orgasmic reactions

across the seas, internet seas, should I say. You could say that we were edged all summer before it finally landed on our TV screens. The series follows Shane Hollander, who's played by Hudson Williams, and he's the shy Canadian captain of the Montreal Metros. His love interest is this brooding Russian hockey player called Ilya Romanov, played by Connoisse, and he plays for the Boston Raiders. Crucially, and I think this is why I like the series, it's not really about hockey, it's about hot, sweaty men taunting each other and then having hot sex. The story also begins in 2008, before mainstream acceptance of queer relationships. The series starts and they're both closeted

and they have this sparky first meet and it's really obvious that they've got really amazing chemistry. Over the course of a few years, they keep coming back together because they're playing in a match in the same city and they hook up. Okay, look, so people have compared this show to soft porn and people have also been gagging over their chemistry.

But there's also been this huge amount of discourse around women's role in standing this story and also kind of standing gay romance as a genre, in general, even though the book has this huge female fan base, as the show's audience has grown, it's also tilted even more female, according to HBO figures reported by the New York Times. It's also quite interesting to note another big gay romance series from recent years is obviously Heart Stopper, which was also written by a woman named Alice Oseman. So before we get into that discourse, which I also need to know your thoughts on, I think,

let's start with a review, what were your thoughts about this series? How far are you? Did you enjoy it? I absolutely loved it and blitzed through it. So I don't know. I hope all the episodes are out now because I watched them illegally. I could not stop. It was the kind of thing I picked up and then I had to continue to hold it

because it is this slow burn. Like it's all very delicious and it's all very like they pace it very well. But I'm like, it's been four years of action. I need them to hold hands again. I will be watching the next episode immediately. And I think I was sort of trying to work out what the appeal was apart from the obvious, which is beautiful characters, really compelling story. And I think it is that it is an almost aspirational world that this takes place in.

It is recognizably this world, but it just has those tweaks. I was like, this moment in time, this feels like a utopia where, yes, there's homophobia, but also like it's possible for these gay characters to come out and these gay characters to consider their relationship as having great potential. And I just think I really enjoyed that. It's kind of this, like, speculative universe. And I read a few pieces about this, one being a substack by someone called Jenkirk Gurf Finkel called Heated Rivalry in the Art of the Anti-Distopia, which basically argues

what I've just said, that we have this entertainment landscape that is full of really bleak dystopian fantasies, like kind of grief porn and trauma porn and like the end of the world as the fantasy device, whereas the fantasy device here is imagine if actually things could be progressive and good and gay again. And she points out in the piece, our reality is that there are currently no openly gay or by men actively competing in any of the major American Sports Leagues, which is a really depressing statistics. So this show imagines that not being the case, because of course there will be gay players and I imagine every single sport on earth at that level. And I just think it was, maybe my enjoyment was, I was reading the news, I was writing

about it. And then I was watching this show, which just seemed to have a glimmer, more than a glimmer. It's like sunburst of hope. Also, I do love all the kissing and blowjobs and like the romance of it just makes me giddy. But I do think it feels very hopeful. What about you? are you in the show and are you loving it? So I just finished episode four and from all of the kind of discourse that's seeping through, even though I'm actively trying not to read people's reviews, something about a cottage scene is apparently really big in the show and things change massively because of this cottage scene. I haven't got there. So I'm excited there's loads more to come, especially if what I've seen apparently isn't even the best bit. I'm really enjoying it as well.

I also will try and talk about this show in a way that's not just weird because I know there's loads of discussion about women being weird about this and I'm just going to try and not engage with that. But it's also interesting that in and of itself being a discussion, I guess first things first, I wanted to kick off. I read this piece in Salon and it was talking about whether women fetishizing this show is a problem. And the writer who was a man himself said, though fetishization can be a tricky and fascinating subject to pass, it's not inherently bad. Like all things in life, fetishes are multifaceted and complex. They don't necessarily always relate to a exoticizing someone for their identity, often fetishes, a harmless, little physical traits or romantic

qualities that one can admire without emotional injury. He goes on to say that his problem, essentially with women really falling for this show, is their response to gay men who dislike the show and kind of the pylons that have been happening online. You know, we've spoken about I Love L.A. There's a star in that called Jordan Firstman, the comedian, who got so much stick for coming out and saying, not coming out really because he was interviewed about it and he was asked specifically what do you think about heated rivalry and he just said you know what the sex doesn't seem very realistic it doesn't seem like real gay sex

and the amount of pile on he got from women the writer talks about this in the salon piece and he was saying that his problem isn't that women like the show it's that they police another gay man's experience of the show he was saying that women want to enjoy one aspect of gay romance but they don't want to accept the wider experience about it And that's the problem with fetishizing the gay romance of the show. It is narrowing down people's idea of what gayness should be

and actually discriminating against real gay men in the process. Did you see all of that kerfuffle? What do you really think about it, I guess? You've just unlocked the memory of seeing this. Because, of course, when this was happening, the show was on my radar, but it wasn't out here. So I was like, I can't put a file this away. And I do remember this.

I remember it being very disgust on X, but also very memed on X with people being like, the cast of I Love LA, have definitely got a separate group chat being, like, we need to contain this, we need to contain this. I think it seemed like quite productive conversation, at least concerning Jordan and the, I forget his name, the actor from he did rivalry, who I think sort of made his own point that, okay, just because this is the way that you have sex and you're not staying on screen, doesn't mean that's the way that all gay and bisexual men. And it did

seem to be sort of wrapped up between those two men and the show. But I remember how angry people were. It was one of those moments where I'm like, I'm sure at some point in media history, like you could say something like that and it would be not a headline. It would not be a think piece. but unfortunately that is not. Today, I did, I felt quite bad for Jordan Firstman at that moment because it was such an internet reaction of like, you are today's main character and everyone is very cross with you. And I'm sure he was like, I'm just going to say something, a little off the cuff and, you know, a little bit snarky, but not that. And then it was suddenly like, I think he sent an apology. He had to sort of, had to backtrack on his own opinion. But yeah, I completely

forgot about this. This whole series has had so many hashtag moments. I know. And before I've even watched it, I feel like it was almost done and dusted in the US before I watched the first episode, which really felt sad. I'm on BuzzFeed and I saw a picture of Jordan Firstman and Hudson Williams, EG, the lead character,

both smoking a SIG together. So obviously, order has been restored with a heart emoji. So if I know what I'm listening, being like, but there's everyone friends, I think everyone's friends.

I'm seeing all of this you're seeing. And there's a lot of women who are having a great amount of fun, not just with these characters, but also with ice hockey. And I've seen a mixed reaction to that where girls and women

are calling ice hockey the boy aquarium and going with their sides and they're having great time with that EG Lab Boy Aquarium, the glass, the glass and the men inside are the sort of sexy sea creatures. And it seems to me like completely harmless fun. I don't think anyone is going and making the players feel unsafe. I think a lot of the time the players are really enjoying it because it's bringing this fan base and they're kind of engaging with it as a phantom but without being massive creeps.

But I think it is interesting at least to theorise why this show is so popular with straight women and these demographics. And I think there's this sort of harmful fetishizing where straight women would feel in any way qualified to weigh in on the Jordan Firstman. You know, straight women are not having any gay sex. So I think it's knowing your ranking, but also like feeling comfortable enough to be like, no, I love these characters and I don't love them because I am the creep at the window watching the boys kissing. It is just, it's romance without straight men, which is so appealing to women because obviously straight men today could be very difficult. It can be quite tough, I think, to escape into romance. And romance is such a fun and beautiful genre. But I think when you've had that experience of dating straight men,

it's a little bit difficult to lose yourself because you're like, it's not like this. Whereas removing all straight men from a romance and also removing all straight women. So it's not even like I'm self-inserting. I'm just watching two people be in love and has nothing to do with me. I think that's what I enjoyed so much about it. It wasn't like, ooh, gay man, that's a little bit exotic. That's a little bit different.

I was genuinely like, this has nothing to do with me. And I can almost completely surrender to it as a result. And I think that's why I'm enjoying it. I don't think I'm cloaking any secret creepery. Although who knows? No, I think that's a really smart way of putting it. And I completely agree with you. I think the feeling of watching it is just really pure.

It felt so nice to observe something outside of myself and not to have the comparing notes. This doesn't feel real. This doesn't blah, blah, blah. Because I don't have experience of it. So when Jordan Varsman does have his thoughts on it, there's no part of me that's disputing it because I don't fucking know.

It's not my realm to weigh in on. I completely agree with you. So I do really get that salon writer saying that was his real issue with the fandom weighing in and kind of asserting the boundaries of what is realistic and not realistic. I think that is going too far. And I also really liked what you said about compared to the swathes of dystopia that we consume on a regular basis, both fictional and both non-fictional actually day-to-day. It does feel really nice to watch something. Even though there are, you know, high stakes, things go wrong, people aren't nice to each other or fair to each other in this show

sometimes. It's still really got this sense of giddy joy when things are going right and it's really fun to get lost in it. I mean, I'm not texting anyone and waking up to good morning text these days. I live with my partner. It's really fun to watch that again and to like really get excited about it. It's such a joyful thing. And at the minute, the bit I'm at, things are going wrong for the two leads. So I'm just hoping it's going to come through. I feel like from the amount of insane joy, everyone's had over the show, I'm hoping they get together for the long run. and I think they might do. The series has, I think, been greenlit for both a second and a third series, because there are more books in the series.

However, this ends, I think, at the very least, there's a lot of scope for the inscribed both right and wrong, which I'm really excited for, but again, I'm nervous. One, I'm nervous they're going to take a while to make this. I don't think they will. I think they will capitalize on its success. I'm always nervous for the boys. Question, the guy who plays Ilya Romanov, because I'd never heard of him before. I'm assuming he's not actually Russian. I have no idea.

Let me have a love. Because I thought his accent was quite good. Not that I'm a Russian speaker, but he speaks Russian and a. the accent is very good when speaking English. I was convinced because these were not household names. I'm sure they've been in a lot of stuff before. I'd never seen them. I was like, and that is a Russian man. You said his name and I went, doesn't sound that Russian. It doesn't. Okay, so I have got up an amazing Reddit thread called Ask a Russian and somebody's posted heated rivalry, Ilya Romanov's accent. For any native Russian speakers who've watched, heated rivalry,

how is this accent when talking in Russian? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The responses are quite positive actually. I was fooled and thought he was a second generation diaspora Russian before I found out he's just some dude from Texas who started learning as they began filming. And somebody replied, yeah, he looks in at Slavic even with the accent. So I think it's pretty good then. We've got real life people weighing in and it's good. Ask a Russian. I love read it. I know it's so weird. I also read around this thing that we keep coming back to, which is the really female fan base of it all. And The Guardian had an amazing piece, which I'll obviously have in the show notes. The writer said there's a whole tradition of women, usually lesbian women, writing classical era historical fiction with

pretty heavy man-on-man themes. She interviews this man called Adrian Dobb, a professor of comparative literature and gender studies at Stanford University. And he says the mid-century historical fiction writers read Mary Renalte and Marguerite Jornsener wrote novels exploring homosexual relationships set in ancient Greece and ancient Rome, respectively for an audience that was probably heavily female. So it's definitely not a new thing and it's coming out now. It's coming out now just because we're seeing more of these stories become astronomically famous. I found it so interesting just deep diving into all of it. There's this term for female fans of male-male romance, and they're called for Joshis,

which it's not new and it's actually a Japanese term. And even within fan fiction, there's huge amounts of really popular fan fiction that's male-male romance. And even the fan fiction between Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter apparently was the most popular story category in a 22 survey of fan fiction readers. Yeah, see, I remember actually in my brief Tumblr days, I was a lurker not a poster. It was a lot of the lesbians that I followed were writing and shipping male characters from things. And again, with heated rivalry, some of the biggest supporters on my timeline are my lesbian friends.

And a lot of people are saying, like, there's just something about this show in particular, heater rivalry that's written. It's very lesbian. The pacing of it, the way they get, you know, this sort of like, this takes years and years, and it's very deep. And they're very, like, something about it is sapphic. Obviously, I don't know precisely what. But I'm finding it fascinating to see different groups, the straight women, the gay men, the lesbian women.

I haven't seen actually much. I know that there is a big response. There's a piece that I really want to read about the straight male fans of this show, which I've not read yet. So I can't speak to it. But I'm really interested in how different people online are receiving it and the appeal. Yeah, there's sort of these lesbians and their boys. So the Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni saga, which seems to have begun a lifetime ago, has gained a new, legal dimension in the last couple of weeks, after court documents from Blake's legal case were unsealed and showed private text messages and emails from and about the situation between the two parties. A lot of the media focus has been unsurprisingly on the unsealed messages between Blake lively and Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift called Justin Baldini a bitch and that has been at the heart of so much discourse. But maybe surprisingly, it's not what we are talking about today because an unlikely

new character in this saga has emerged, Jamila Jamil. So if anyone getting a bit lost, in this story in the wider picture, let me explain what is going on. So the overall situation is as follows. The actress Blake Lively is suing her former co-star and the director of It Ends with Us, Justin Beldoni, for sexual harassment and retaliation. Lively is claiming that the damage from his smear campaign towards her has cost her $160 million or £122 million. And the trial for this is set for May. She filed this suit in December 2024. Baldoni denied the claims and counters sued Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, for 400 million. or 295 million pounds. His case, however, has been dismissed in June of last year. As part of this

ongoing legal battle, over 180 court documents have been unsealed, meaning that we, the general public, can get our grubby hands and opinions on them. And among the famous names in these correspondences was British actress, activist and presenter Jamila Jamil, between herself and her publicist Jennifer Abel, who also represented Baldoni. In the messages, the two women are reacting to a TikTok video calling out Blake Lively's comments during the It Ends With Us press tour, and for not taking the domestic violence aspect of the film seriously enough. So in response to Jennifer Abel writing, quote, I want to officially incorporate nightmare cunt and demon cunt into my vocabulary. Unbelievable, she's doing this to herself. Jamila messaged, she's a suicide bomber

at this point. And in response to Jennifer Abel messaging, I hate her so much, Jamelia replied so much, I've never seen such a bizarre villain act before. She's over, over. And since these were unsealed, Jamila has posted a few comments and a TikTok video in her own defence where she points out that these private messages were exchanged in August 24. So the lawsuit was filed December 2024. So she was not commenting on any of that. She didn't know about any of that and that she was purely talking about the press rollout to a friend, not anything related to the now alleged harassment on set. She's also written a sub-stack about this, which we'll get into shortly. But, Richeer, I wanted to ask you, what have you seen online about?

Jamila's comments and has any of it stuck with you either because you agree or because you think it's gone way too far. So I haven't been keeping up with the public response to it, but I have been thinking about her response to her text being leaked and I've just been thinking about the situation. For honestly, like most of this week since it all kind of came out, every time I hear or read her reply, it is quite winting, isn't it? It's really not great. It's hard not to get a sour taste in your mouth, just hearing the level of bitching about her and just, just Even those words suicide vomit, oh, she's over, over agreeing to Jennifer Abel saying, I hate her so much, being like so much, it's quite intense.

And I'm also trying to have a bit of a reality check about it and just think, you know, when you're in a chat with your friend and you talk, obviously if those things are taken away and just shared publicly, it probably would paint a very bad picture of me, all of us. When we're in the privacy of our chats, we can really just kind of go off-piece and act in ways that we're not proud of. I'm finding it really hard to find the right line with all of this. My first thought was, yikes, this is really fucking bad. And especially when she is an activist, when she, her image is built on the fact that she is a girl's girl. She is a woman advocating for other women at all times above any cost to her reputation. Then you read this, it really

left a sour taste in my mouth. And I don't really know where to land on it with both being fair to her with privacy whilst also thinking about the reputation that she's, built and seeing behind closed doors the kind of messaging around another woman. I also completely acknowledged the press tool was a fucking mess. And we now know, obviously, in hindsight, that the production company, I'm not sure if it's the studio or the streamer funding the film, encouraged her to make the press store quite light because they didn't want it to be depressing. They didn't want it to be intense. So she was getting direct messaging to do that. And we now know that is one of the allegations. So that goes to explain it, but it also doesn't remove the fact that the press

or was a mess, it came off very badly in tone deaf. So there's just so many different components to this that makes it really hard to have a black and white answer. What do you think? And also, what responses have you seen online? Please fill me in. So I think I feel similarly to you. It's, it's the stuff of nightmares, isn't it? Basically, the group chat being leaked. I scrolled back with Arthur Messias and I was like, okay, there's nothing really damning here, but like, out of context, we have certainly got it wrong behind the scenes being like, oh, I don't like how she's handled this. I don't know. I wonder what's going to happen here that had we not then posted what our current opinions would be, people would be like, oh, you've got that wrong. And often we get

things wrong, as she did, because we didn't have the full story. So I think what I'm seeing online is a lot of people reacting as if her words were to do with the claims and the allegations of harassment. And the timeline kind of negates that, but people are ignoring it. Like, she is pointing out she's not talking about accusations. If she was, this would be a completely different conversation, and it just feels like the internet is having that conversation, as though that's what's happened. She didn't know the full story and she's in a conversation, private conversation with one friend and she's taking the friend's side, which obviously does happen to all of us, not quite on this scale and not involving some of the most famous people on earth. But she didn't have the full story. These are parts of a, I'm sure, longer conversation. It is the stuff that like, oh, it just makes my blood run cold. But she didn't know what she didn't know. She acknowledged this online. After it happened, she was posting comments, she was replying to people. And then she took a step back. She was like, I took my anti-anxiety. medication and I just sat with it and this is when she made this eight minute TikTok video which we'll link in the show notes. It's worth watching just to get a picture of her side of this.

And to reiterate, she wasn't talking about this really serious accusations of sexual harassment, creating this untenable work environment. She's talking about her going on the red carpet, stuff like that. It's a very different situation and may this never happen to any of us, but I think we should all remember we have this conversational bias when talking in private to our best friends. Sometimes friends need to vent and they can do no wrong and you're just there to be like, yeah, absolutely. Fuck that. That's awful. You're in the right and they're in the wrong. But it is difficult, again, to watch one very famous feminist talk about another woman that way. And something that I have seen online, which actually seems very considered versus a lot of this reaction being really ill-informed, is a piece on subset called What Jamila Jamil's text say about her feminism by Emily Ziam, which will link in the show notes.

And I highlighted a part which I thought nailed some valid criticism, which is, quote, once you become attuned to the broader patterns of misogyny and how often women are dismissed, doubted or publicly punish for speaking up against male behaviour, it becomes impossible not to pause and consider the way of such a disclosure. The pause is not blind belief, but an understanding of feminism and context. Yet Jamila did not pause. She reacted confidently, as though detached from that long, painful lineage of women whose voices have been routinely undermined. Although it can be argued that this was done in the comfort of the privacy between two friends, the public reaction to Milo displayed had the same tone. So I guess this is a response to Jamila's insistence that feminism means, quote,

fighting for the political, social and economic equity for women. It does not mean you have to like every single women. It does not mean you have to be friends with every single woman. It means you can actually beef with other women. You can criticise them. You can do whatever you want as long as you are also fighting for their human rights to the same things that men have in this world. And this piece is sort of arguing that actually, no, it's not quite that. Because in the context of deeply ingrained misogyny, in the context of women being so constantly harmed every day, men's voices carrying greater way. When it comes to a public dispute like this between a man and a woman, feminism, I guess, means placing it in the context of, I am attacking another woman, she's in a public

dispute with a man, I should pause at this point and think she is going to get hounded for being a woman. What is my role in considering both sides? And Emily goes on to say in the piece, critiques are not attacks, feminism is not a badge, one protects at all costs. It is a discipline of continuous self-interrogation without that humility. Even well-intentioned activism becomes another form of self-performance, the cattyness, the competitiveness, the eagerness to publicly shame, these are not trivial flaws, but inherited social scripts, and something we can fix. I think that's a really good other side. It's kind of saying, no, to be a feminist and an effective feminist, you don't have to like all other women. But when you have come out in

defence, even accidentally of a man who allegedly has done these things, and also a man that was just immediately rewarded for being a man when they had this initial, what seemed to just be a feud between two big stars, so many people sided with him automatically, including women and that is because of this ingrained social script and we have to interrogate that. And I think having read her sub-stack, it doesn't seem clear that she has done a great deal of that. I think she has gone straight on the defensive, which to be clear, if I was getting it from all angles, I may do the same, but I think it's worth reading this piece and considering that. Yeah, what you read out was so perfect. At first I was thinking, I guess, what do we think

about the difference between having a private space to maybe not live out the politics that you live in the world, the outside, what you say publicly, what you tweet, what you broadcast to the world. Do we have the same standards for the people we are in our safest, most vulnerable spaces? Or are there different boundaries, different expectations and lines we should have for ourselves? And that piece perfectly nailed it. I think that is so right. We're not going to always be perfect. We are going to side with a friend. We are going to say things, which after we might just think, oh, I think I probably went a bit too far there. That's the exact problem that I had in Jamila, Jamil's substack, which I read as well. There was a lot.

no sense of, you know what, I really did fudge up there. I really need to hold myself more accountable when I'm having private conversations. I'm always growing. Tomorrow, I aim to build upon the work that I've done to challenge narratives about women, to blah, blah, blah. And I really have a lot of empathy for the fact that these were private messages. I honestly really do. Like you said, it is an absolute nightmare. It's my personal nightmare as well. It's just horrible. But it is the kind of defensive. I am a feminist, the identification of that. And I don't think it is an identity you can claim of the term. I think it is the constant work and the constant self-improvement, the constant questioning of yourself and just the questioning of narratives all around us, because

they are so pernicious. And this story in particular was so pernicious because there is something about Blake Lively that really riled people up. There was something about the scenario that really riled people up. That doesn't do us any good to privately engage with those narratives and then publicly not. You can't really have both of them at the same time. I think if we are really going to challenge, the fact that women aren't believed that it is so easy to side with a man and align yourself with a man who has sexually harassed a woman and then has utilised PR strategies to build upon the fact that he's a feminist. I don't think that privately messaging bitchy things about her contributes to a destabilization of those very easy structures or the narratives that are so entrenched in society that women make up things.

Women lie, women say things for attention. I think we all need to do a bit of self-checking in those private spaces too. And it's difficult because that doesn't mean that I'm perfect, but I also think I can want to be better. Absolutely. The fuel that went into the sort of engine to completely flog Blake Lively, it's the same fuel that goes into the engine to flog Jamila Jamil so often. Like she was saying even when this story came out, she braced herself,

and then she was getting death threat, she was getting people telling her to kill herself. It's the same misogyny that powers both things. It's the same instinct to punish a woman in an outsized way. And we have to sometimes just step back and be like, it's not really about my hashtag feminism. This is about where is the evil in this world? Am I counter to it or am I meaning to or not? Am I feeding in to that same system? And something in Jamila's piece that sort of lingered with me.

And I was like, I don't know how I feel about it. Is the positioning of this as like it's almost a defense of I'm going to talk shit with my friends. Everyone tells it's important to do it. And she writes, quote, my text of itchrollic because I'm angry my friend is being mistreated. I create space for an itty-bitty shitty committee when nobody is judged for being gratuitously gossipy and shallow and petty and mean because it's a safe private space, a victimless crime. We need to normalise this part of girlhood and womanhood. Society doesn't allow us to be ugly in any way, anyhow or anywhere. Within our tight little circles is our only outlet. We don't have to smile or be

palatable or reasonable or repealing. You can just be crazy and unattractive and witnessed and toothless and accepted. It's such a relief. And I feel conflicted because I don't necessarily disagree, but then you think, oh, but you're talking about this very particular case of gossip. And I think there's been this oft-repeated line that gossip keeps women safe and it's this kind of historical practice that actually it's the way that we share who is bad and who will harm us and that is true but that doesn't mean that all gossip is that. Sometimes gossip is, I am being my worst self. I am being shitty. I can't defend it. If it were to come out, if it were to come out, if it were to come out, I don't think it's a great social harm, I don't think you'd see it. I don't think it's a great social harm. I don't think it's a great social harm. But if that were to come out and it were to be found that actually I didn't know the full story, I would just have to say something. I would just have to say sorry, I would have to say I got that wrong. And I do think it's very foul that her text of public. I don't see the relevance for this case at all. But sometimes you're just in the wrong. Sometimes you just get it wrong. And that's okay. On her scale, of course, it's completely Frankensteinian. It's like monstrous and weird and it would never happen to anyone else.

But the essence is the same. I think she just got it wrong. I completely agree. And I think that is it. If she'd said that in the piece, I would have been like, oh, it's just unfortunate, isn't it? I really respect you. Just coming out hands up. I find the explanation that women need to be ugly and have spaces to be their worst selves really superficial and shallow in this context. I think in any other context when you've been a bit bitchy and your ex has moved on with somebody else, it's not ideal. It should never be the woman that gets the brand of it. It should be the actual person who's hurt you. But those spaces feel kind of like a bit more harmless, whereas in this scenario, that as a defence feels quite shallow to me because there was real harm. There was this

widespread movement to discredit a woman which also bleeds onto every single other woman. So I find that in response to this entire scenario, it falls quite flat for me. Okay, so to end, I think we should have a little glance around at some of the various pop culture headlines of this week and recent weeks, because it kind of feels like the first month of 2026 has been mad and messy and relentless. I would like to start with something a little bit lighter and Anonia is obviously not here with us, but she is responsible for what I would like us to do next, which involves 20-year-old Cruz Beckham, who is the son of Victorian David, obviously, releasing his debut song, Optics. It managed to peak, I think last week,

at number 79 in the chart, respectable. At time of recording, I believe it has exited the chart, but it did peak at 79, that's good. This happened alongside, of course, Victoria Beckham and her 2001 single, Not Such an Innocent Girl, which surged back into the same. the charts. And I think it hit number one on the UK iTunes charts, all because of a campaign by fans, to boost sales and signal allegiance among what I think we're calling it Bexit, is that right? Eiji the feud. Yeah, I've heard Bexit. We're going to stick with Bexit. Of course, everyone's heard that song, but I would like to listen, Ritchiea with you. I think for the first time to Cruz Beckham's single, which we won't be able to play live because of licensing issues.

We'll link at the show notes, but I think we should both listen and react. How do you feel about that? I feel really good about that, yeah. linked it in the show notes. Should we open it and try and press play it at the same time? We'll listen to a bit of it. We'll pause it. We'll have a reaction and then we'll move on. So I, I'm cheeky. I listened to it yesterday. Okay. Well, should I just press play and then in my headphones and then we'll just... Yeah. Oh. He does look like Victoria, doesn't he? He really does. He looks like a perfect mashup of both of their faces, but more Victoria, actually.

Yeah, he's got the Victoria sort of nose. Yes. Okay. I'm listening to Brain Dead in Pets. Harris. Is there a good message to this song? Do you think we're going to be blown away? I don't know if it's like, you know, a poem that I'm going to remember for agents, but it's brain worms. I really enjoy it. Are these his band? Or are these his friends in the video, do you think? I don't know because the song is from Cruz Beckham. So I don't know if it's a band that follows him around or just friends for video or just the band for this song. I don't know. And I wonder if this was, it looks like it's filmed on a farm, so I can't work out if we'll see Victoria in the background doing some gardening.

You know, when you've kind of got off-school project or you're doing a drama thing and you're filming the garden, your mom's like, can you get out of the cupboards? I don't hate this. I'm not going to lie to you. I actually don't. I was expecting to be like he sort of sings like Brooklyn Beck and Kirk's, which is the criticism I've seen. I don't hate this at all. Am I mad? No, I, you're not mad. I really enjoyed it. Also the kind of optics, optics. That like infiltrated my brain. And I was like just like nodding my hand, tapping my toes. for Neppa Baby music, don't come for me, don't skewer me for this. I think it was pretty good. I think it was all right. I think it was quite catchy. You know, he's not, he's not bad, he's pretty good. Do you know what? I think this could be a grower. Maybe not song of the winter, but one of them. Okay, listeners, you have to go and listen to this and just tell us, are we lunatics? Because I think I know he quite liked it as well, not to put her on blast, but she said it was quite good. I didn't like his other song, something about the Toad. I think it was lick the Toad. That one wasn't for me.

Are we going to have to listen to a full album at some point? Okay, so obviously we have to touch bass again about the end of the train That finale, my God, I kid you not. I didn't get to sleep until 2 a.m. that night. And it was because I had my friend round, we watched the finale together. But I was so keyed up on the drama of it all. I physically, my body was just like so tense with stress, so just like wired from watching this crazy end of the series. I just couldn't get to sleep. I'm assuming you watched it. What did you think of it? Oh, I watched it live. I was so, again, I think keyed up is the right term. I was so tense. I was excited. I was sitting there just like glugging a glass of wine being like I need because I really was rooting for the traitors by the end. I really needed them to stay low to each other

which spoiler alert they did. I was so satisfied by that ending. I think it's the most watched season slash finale for the civilian traitors. I've got 9.4 million. I think that's live as well. So more sins, which is about two million less than people who tuned in to watch Alan Carr say that he was a traitor and burst into tears, which is so good. I'm such a fan of live TV events. We don't get enough them and I'm really, it's so encouraging that we have this show that does just unite people. I was obsessed. Yeah, I heard those viewing figures as well, so wild, especially when all you hear about is just no one cares about appointment TV anymore. No one watches live TV. Young people are just watching YouTube. You know, the rates of broadcast TV are like dwindling more than ever.

You hear something like that and you're like, shit, when something is good, when something is really good. People will sit down and they'll make the time for it. So it should be really inspiring for TV. I know it's really hard, but God, that is so impressive. I will say, I'm sorry, my boy Ferrell's got massively fucked over. And that was sitting heavy on my heart. He should have won. I think he should have won right at the last minute. The gameplay he was trying to play with Rachel. I was like literally on the edge of my seats. It was 40 chess. It was 5D chess. He should have won it. I know. And it's almost that thing like he could have. There was a brief glimmer, but he didn't know for sure. And at the end, when it was kind of 2V2, I was like,

oh, God, if they get rid of a traitor and then they get rid of another one, you know, we could maybe do this. But yeah, I think Fraz was a standout for me. I think he was just a fantastic, because he didn't get too much airtime earlier on. But the more he saw of him, I was like, he is actually a legend. And I just thought he was gorgeous and divine. So cute. Also in the cutaways, did anyone else absolutely love that his shoulders seem to be by his ears every time he was sat in the seat? He just was so stiff in the cutaways in that armchair. It was so funny. Have you heard that traitors is now going to become a stage version and it's going to hit theatres soon apparently

and the BBC reported this play will tell a new story inspired by the programme's format in which a group of faithfuls tried to root out the traitor in their ranks and it's going to be staged at an unnamed London menu next year. So is this kind of real people veriting out a traitor or it's a fictionalised version of because this is, I've read this and I was like, wait, hang on, both I would love but I'm just trying to work out is these real people getting together

to have an argument and figure out with the traitor is Or is it a dramatized version? The second one, dramatized version, which I don't really know how we're going to care, having just heard the premise, because the point is that it's real. Maybe it's a sort of like someone really dies. I don't know, not I mean really, really, but like, you know, going on a reality TV show and then someone actually dies. I think that's a fun premise. I mean, obviously I will be trying to get tickets for this. But I agree.

I can't quite see the vision, but I'm assuming they've thought this through. Something that I have been following online this week is from Meg Stultes, Instagram post where she says that she's deleting her TikTok. And she is one of, I think, quite a few TikTok users who believe that since the new TikTok joint ownership situation, e.g. TikTok has set up a joint ownership venture with an American company after that whole hoo-haha about, you know, majority Chinese ownership, bite dance. We did do an episode on it. This is the kind of outcome of that. It is now mostly American owned in America. And people are accusing TikTok of suppressing videos. So political videos, anti-Trump videos, videos coming out live.

of Minneapolis regarding the murder of the ICU nurse, Alex Pritty, by ICE. And the Californian Governor Gavin Newsom has referred to the American company who have that majority share as being a Trump-aligned business venture. And he has said that his office is receiving complaints that TikTok is suppressing content and they are going to launch a review. And I'm quite on TikTok. And I did notice watching from the UK like I saw no videos talking about the protest, talking about his death. I went from X, which was nothing but that on my news feed to TikTok, where it was all, I mean, it was all videos I'd seen before very weirdly, and people were saying they were seeing the same, like I was seeing Christmas videos. I was seeing absolutely nothing about US politics,

which seemed mad because it's some of the biggest on the ground news there is. I don't know what you've seen and what your thoughts were, but it just feels like something massive is brewing. It's weird, isn't it? It's really disconcerting. And I think as part of the bigger picture of what's going on over there, it's really scary. And I know that they, came out and they said that there was a temporary outage with TikTok, which is what they are claiming is the reason behind this. And it was temporary. They're saying that there is no impact on censorship. It was a really interesting to see Meg Stolt to say that she was downloading all of her videos and she was coming off TikTok. And it'll be interesting to see if that starts a trickle effect

of people doing that or whether people are thinking that's jumping it a bit and they'll just wait to see what happens. I think we are going to have to just keep on top of this story because, you know, we're only in the first few hours, first few days of the kind of changeover. And I think it's just going to keep progressing. I think there will be changes regardless of whether that is big changes, whether that's people on the ground, just saying that they're going to delete their accounts, you know, move on to different platforms. Maybe there'll be alternative platforms that kind of crop up. But I think that this is the start of developing things and kind of reactions on the back of it, especially with the political unrest and all of the kind of unfolding in the US at the same time.

It's a really intense situation, actually. Yeah, it's a really like a live story. X is still, if you follow certain people and you kind of stick to what you know to be reputable, I'm finding quite useful for keeping on top of what is happening at the moment in the US and Minneapolis. But TikTok has been useless. And I saw in Meg Stilter's comment, so she's deleting it. She's saying they are suppressing content about ICE and this is why I'm going. And Bobby from Queer Eye commented to say he's leaving as well. And Billy Eilish said her brother's content about ICE on TikTok has been suppressed. and she says, quote, TikTok is silencing people. And I would be very interested for any American users of TikTok who have noticed this or have a different take or are maybe thinking, well, I can't use TikTok for this anymore. Where are you going? What are you thinking? If you can DM us or pop it in the comments. I'm really interested.

And again, yeah, I think we should keep across this story. I think it's just beginning. Thank you so much for listening this week. Before we go, just checking that you've listened to our latest everything in conversation episode where we discuss student loans, are they a scam, are they a tax on? students who dare to go to university without having rich parents and what, if anything, should be done. If you enjoy listening to us, then please give us a rating. We read every single one, we adore them and we are so blessed to have them. We would love even more.

Please also follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Everything is Content Pod. See you next week. Bye. Bye!