Everything Is Content - Tech Bros At The Met Gala, Devil Wears Prada 2 & Celeb Traitors

Episode Date: May 8, 2026

Happy Friday EIContrarians! Beautiful Beth is sunning herself on hols, so Ruchira and Oenone are driving the content car through the winding roads of the World Wide Web discourse.First up Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni have settled their lawsuit, Britney Spears finds herself in trouble and Celebrity Traitors is back!Secondly, The Met Gala! One of this year’s biggest themes was Jeff Bezos and wife Lauren Sanchez’ presence at the gala, with rumours the Amazon founder spent $10m to sponsor the event. We get into our fave, and least fave, looks from the evening, and what we made of the event as a whole.And last but by no means least, 20 years after the original film, The Devil Wears Prada is back! The hotly awaited sequel has had everyone's tongues wagging, including ours.We hope you enjoy! As always, please do rate, review, and subscribe. Mwah O,R,B xxxRuchira's been loving: Asian mothers, bad feelings: notes on an all-conquering stereotype, Tracey EminA Second Life, The FarewellOenone's been loving: Dandelion Is Dead, The Handmaid's Tale, Surrender (The God Shot)Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni settle lawsuit over It Ends With Us filmBritney Spears pleads guilty to reckless driving charge in DUI caseThe Celebrity Traitors series 2 line-up confirmedThe Best-Dressed Stars At The 2026 Met GalaMet Gala 2026: Activists leave nearly 300 ‘bottles of urine’ in protest of Bezos’ involvementThe Devil Wears Prada 2? Groundbreaking. What The Sequel Got Right Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm Richira and I'm Anoni and this is Everything is Content, the podcast that explores the biggest and best pop culture stories. Where the Chanel boots you borrowed from the fashion cupboard, this season's most coveted accessory. As you can tell, Beth is on a well-deserved holiday, hopefully lounging on a beach with an April spritz, but she will be back in your ears very soon, so do not fret. This week on the podcast, we're talking about the new celebrity's line-up and diving into the the Met Gala and The Devil Wears Prada too. Follow us on Instagram at Everything's Content Pod and make sure you hit follow on your podcast player app so you never miss an episode. Okay. What have you been loving this week and only? Oh, I've committed a crime again because I can't remember first said this last week, but I'm now reading Dandelion is dead by Rosie Story, the book that Bathaccomend is about three weeks ago.

So good. Really enjoying that. I finished the Gem Calder one. I want you to be happy. That was great. And then I am also, obviously I've been watching the Testaments, and I want to ask you if you started it. And then it's, I'm up to date, but I do, I am like, okay, this is a bit of a drag. And my partner had never watched Hammaid's Tale. So we started watching that from the beginning. And it has reminded me that it kind of makes the Testaments look quite bad because the Handmaid's Tail is so good in comparison. But I'm still going to pursue with the Testaments. But basically, you're kind of, it's a lot of just existing in this world and not much plot and not much happening.

but I am going to persist with it because you do feel like something is coming it's just quite slow burn. Did you start watching it yet? No, I haven't started watching it yet. I kind of want to hear your full review of the series just because there's so much TV, I'm a bit overwhelmed at the minute.

What have you been watching? So I started beef and have been carrying on since you said. I still don't know how I feel about it, to be honest. So that is still a TBC for a proper review. But I've also just been watching and reading other things. So I read this piece in The Guardian about this trope called The Tiger Mum. The piece is called Asian Mother's Bad Feelings, Notes on an All Conquering Stereotype. And it's by Rebecca Liu.

And it's about essentially this pervasive stereotype of East Asian moms as these matriarchs of the family, very harsh people who are emotionally unavailable. I don't know if you can remember everything everywhere all at once. But the mum in that is very much that vibe. and once you read the piece, you realize it's quite a consistent trope. And the piece was just really beautifully done. It's a long read and it really attacks the issue in a really earnest, interesting way, speaking to real kids of East Asian moms about their experience of having that fraught relationship with their mother figures and also maybe contextually being part of an immigrant family,

what that brings into these kind of fractured generations, you know, ones that are more westernised because they've been brought up in the West, the UK, the US, versus the parents who've brought their kids here and are butting up against these kind of cultural divides. And I just, I don't know, I found it really moving, honestly. Now you said that immediately, I could just think of so many films, but that is such a trope, like such a characterisation that we would see all the time. That is so interesting, I need to read that. You just remind me actually that I was going to recommend as well a substack.

Oh, yeah. I tell the bees who I'm always recommending, because it was. quite interesting because we obviously did our Lena Dunham episode and all of us kind of came to the conclusion that especially around how she talks about what she's done she's not it felt like she was giving context but it didn't necessarily feel like we weren't cross about it whereas until the bees she wrote a piece called surrender the good shot on fame sick sickness sobriety and self-delusion and she kind of writes about how she suffers also with chronic illness but she's talking about Lena Dunham's specific flavour of

like why she's like a millennial millennial. And she talks about how, so she writes, during the current press store, Dunham seems self-possessed, finally becoming the one thing that always alluded to her during her early fame. Cool.

And then she writes about how a decade ago there was a neat appeal to forming community around shared identity markers and mental health struggles. Then this style of self-disclosure spread. Then this became a highlight of a particular type of millennial. Then it became something outdated and gauche. I still see Instagram profiles

with depressed queer cat dad, open or something of the sort and feel instantly transported back to a more innocent time. Dunham being a millennials, millennial, feels comfortable operating in this shorthand. And it was quite an interesting take, which is almost the opposite of what we said where she writes that she thinks that Leonard Dunham took that piece of advice from Bruce Springsteen, which is basically don't have to tell the truth, just tell how you experience the truth to like its furthest end point. And she actually felt that the whole book was her kind of going, nothing I did. said or acted on was me. It was all my sickness. It was like she was a victim of her circumstances.

And I thought it was quite interesting because it was just different from our perspective. So we'll look at on the show notes as well because I would recommend. Oh, that's interesting because I also listened to a podcast recently. I'm not going to name it because I'm going to say that I've fully disagreed with their takes on Lena Dunham. But it's interesting hearing such different perspectives because it might be an echo chamber. It might be this podcast, the echo chamber specifically, but all I've seen is positive reception. So yeah, I am quite intrigued and actually quite welcoming of discourse around certain topics. So I'll definitely read that. Yeah. Well, because also I think the specific thing about like whether or not you take what she's saying, because one of the points in that

essay is she says like one of the things you learn in addiction recovery is just because you can explain a behavior doesn't mean you have to excuse it. And I guess her interpretation of Lena's writing was that everything was an excuse, whereas I think we all read it as an explanation. So I think what's interesting is it is kind of up to the reader or the receiver to go, I've taken what she said and that's given me enough context and information to kind of do whatever you want with or other people have taken it as literally this book is kind of her final say in explaining why she actually is faultless in a way,

or like a victim of her circumstances. So yeah, it is interesting. And yeah, it is interesting to hear different perspectives because I've been similarly to you just heard quite positive stuff. Yeah. I wish there was a way for me to survey everyone who's read the book to ask them, what were your thoughts before reading, what were your thoughts during and what were your thoughts after?

Because it kind of feels like to me people who are already her fans have read this and have just gone, Yes, yes, yes. She seems to you doing really well. Great. But I don't know if people who weren't a fan of hers before who struggled with a lot of her behaviours and her public image have read this and changed their views. And that's what I'm particularly interested in if it's done any kind of transition work into helping people now like who she is in the present. That's what I'm super fascinated by. So if any readers or listeners of the podcast are in that camp, please let me know. I'm so interested. Yeah, that is really interesting. What else

you've been loving. Okay, so I actually have a few this week. I went to the Tracy Emin exhibition at the Tate Modern. And it's, it's really good. I really enjoyed it. I really want to go. Tell me about it. So there's so much in it. It is basically a collection of her work across her career. But the bits that really got me were the pieces that she did before she became famous when she was kind of struggling, not really making it. There was a very, of her where I think it followed her maybe honestly immediately after the aftermath of an abortion. And I just really felt her pain because she talks about feeling like an utter failure and feeling just like everything is now going to be viewed through the prism of the fact she had to have

an abortion because her artistic career wasn't good enough for her to even consider having this baby. And it, I, I, I can't even really put into words. I actually did put into words. I wrote a piece for myself that's not going to go anywhere about how I felt about that video because it was so honest and so raw. And off the back of FAMSick, I have been wondering, with this kind of, you know, perceived, you know, version of art that is oversharing or just sharing or just kind of saying the truth, why that is often seen as inferior to creative worlds, because sometimes, you know, when somebody says something that is so honest and so true and raw, it can be the most powerful thing that you have ever experienced.

And I really felt that with that video. There's a really good quote on this, which way, I just want to get it up. Oh yeah, so there was a quote from James Baldwin. I think I can't remember when it was from, basically said,

you think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. And it's basically about how like every time someone is able to put into words, something that you've carried through your life or like, the more specific they are about the type of pain that they feel, the more that you're able to recognize that people have gone there, done that before and lived through that thing. And it has like the biggest power.

And it was like this whole thing about why he thought like books and reading was so important because you could read a book from 100 years ago and someone sat in a room that like you'd never meet, you'd never experience who died before you were born, puts into words the same thing. And there is something so powerful about that. But I wonder if it's something to do with the reason why when it's now in this oversharing. time is because so much of oversharing is tied to like ego and branding and I guess like

late stage capitalism whereas if it's shrouded within fiction or storytelling it feels like it's more directly connected to art whereas maybe we're more dubious now of if someone is oversharing or being very vulnerable is it actually just as a means to sell something to us rather than as like just adding to the canon of stories about the human experience I think there's something in that because I think confessional writing even being called confessional like when it's around women is looked down on whereas I don't think people felt that way before but I think in this time in this specific moment in culture it's so done everywhere that you kind of maybe it loses weight a little bit for some reason no that is such a that is such an

interesting point and I think you're so right that is exactly it is like everything is performative and nothing is authentic even if you are authentic yeah Definitely. What else have you been loving? Have you got anything else? It's such a good question. I can't remember. I feel like I did have something else,

but I honestly couldn't tell you now. No. Okay. I have one final recommendation, which is a film called The Farewell by Lulu Wang that came out in 2019 and stars Aquafina as this, basically this woman who is experiencing upcoming grief

because her grandma has final stage, I can't remember what kind of cancer, but basically it has terminal cancer. But everyone around her grandma in China has decided not to tell her that she is dying. They protect her from the truth because apparently that is a practice that is very common because there is this belief that if you know you're sick, that contributes to you dying quicker, whereas the belief of health is seen as preserving life. So people, apparently, I'm not sure, I would love to know if this is a legit thing. often don't tell people who are dying that they are dying,

and the people around them just hold onto that kind of preemptive grief and just have to deal with it silently. So Aquafina leaves the US, seems like New York, travels to visit her grandma under the guise of her cousin getting married. They're all putting on this kind of really insane wedding, fake wedding, but real wedding, that her cousin is putting on for the sake of just having this big family moment to share the fact that they're all going to lose their grandma soon

and the grandma's just going thinking it's a wedding and it's really dark, darkly funny but also just like really sweet and sad and very, very moving. That is so beautiful. It's so interesting because I don't know how I would feel about that happening to me but interesting and I'm going to get this like not right because I listened to this years ago but you can flip this up but one of my friends, my sister's friends, Jackson was a rugby player and he dived, dove into a pool and got paralyzed from the waist down. And when he was in hospital, he was like, I just really believe that I'm going to be able to

to get movement back. So he just focused and focus and focus and one day he moved his toe. And the doctors had told him basically that he would never ever be able to get movement back. And eventually when he did, he now can walk, but with like crutches. So he spoke to loads of like psychologists and people that do stuff to do with the brain. And they were like, actually you can think yourself, not think yourself better, but there is something in your mind where like if you have positive beliefs, it is connected to like your ability to do things. So like living in a positive mindset, but basically hospitals and doctors can't have to give you like kind of the worst outcome. So they have to tell you it'll never

happen because if they said it didn't, it didn't. But he did this whole campaign around actually there is something to do with like, I don't know if it's neuroplasticity. I'm quoting this really badly. But basically that idea that if you believe that you're well, it obviously won't cure you, but it will contribute to you actually being healthier and living better. Like there is a way that your mind does inform how your like bodily processes work. Oh my. That is, it's just, yeah, I feel like I've got scrambled brain from it all because I can in one way understand it. But then also it's just like the power of the brain and the mind and the body.

It's just too, it's too big to comprehend. But it's a bit like when my mum's mom's mom was really sick and she went into a nursing home, she basically just like kind of gave up. And like there is a thing about old people like if their partner dies or like if they if they go into an hospital like you can kind of decide you can't but you do there is a part of the control

which is the brain encouraging the body to like keep functioning obviously go listen to some actual scientist on this but there is there is something to it there is something to that so I do believe that there's something in that yeah that sounds really good I want to watch that

so it has been quite a big week for pop culture stories actually the first one that we wanted to talk about was that it's finally ending with us or then should I say, Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively settled there. It ends with us lawsuit two weeks ahead of their scheduled trial. So they were supposed to testify during the trial, but they both now reached an undisclosed settlement.

And part of their joint statement read, we acknowledged the process presented challenges and recognized the concerns raised by Ms. Lively deserved to be heard. And the statement added, we remain firmly committed to workplaces free of improprieties and unproductive environments. It's our sincere hope that this brings closure and allows all involved to move forward constructively and in peace,

including a respectful environment online. I think that last bit is quite interesting, but were you expecting this? To be honest, I kind of had to stop following it. I got quite exhausted. There was a time when all everyone could talk about was Blake and Justin. I then forgot this then reminded me. And I am quite surprised actually.

Yeah, I was really surprised as well. I think it's because when it was at its worst, you very much felt this fighting spirit, this combative spirit from both camps and the lawyers saying, we are going to fight this case, we are going to get justice for our clients. And I know that is how lawyers talk. But for it to have settled two weeks before it's going to court, it really just, I don't know why it just really feels like that's not the outcome

that I would have put on the bingo card at all. And I wonder, I just, I wish we had details about how they settled and what they settled on because these are two people who are claiming, who claimed huge things about each other, how on earth could they have reached an agreement? The only thing I can think is that it actually was just causing them, like, bad energy on both sides. Like, I think people actually were exhausted.

And it was quite hard to see the whip from the trees, even though, like, obviously you believe anyone that puts forward statements about certain things in the workplace. At the same time, I think it was actually making public perception of the, both of them to be quite negative. And I wonder if they thought actually bigger picture thinking in the long run, it's better for both of us if this doesn't carry on. Because it was like every searcher. I wonder if they almost feel like they can't get away from it now.

Like they are so tied into this. And we're going to talk about the Met Gala later. But Blake Lively's appearance of the Met Gala was totally marred by everyone just talking about this. And it feels like maybe they've decided that actually the fight isn't worth it if it's going to kind of ruin their careers. Yeah. No, I think you're right because I think of like an Amber Heard. and I'm not sure if she even wanted to stay in Hollywood, but the fact that she's really off-grid now

after that horrible debacle of a trial, yeah, it does feel like nobody really wins, I mean, unless you're Johnny Deppie seems fine, I don't know. Do you think that there is a world where both of these people will return to Hollywood life, or do you think that they might do a few years away, go off-grid, just kind of do appearances here and there? I think because Justin Baldoni's a man,

he'll probably pop up in something else. I mean, I'd never heard of him before the whole it ends with us thing, but I bet you he'll come out unscathed. I think that people will be quite exhausted by Blake Lively because of the way that women get womaned, as we talk about that Rain, Fisher-Quann thing. I think that she's had way too much overexposure. There's too many people that are kind of,

whether or not it was smear campaigns or not, it's still like rumbling on. And I think that she will struggle to get, I think she'll still work, but I think there will forever be a chorus of people online who just have decided that they hate her now. And I think prior to this, she did have quite goodwill. I don't think that's right.

But I just thinking about how these things play out, it probably will be that she'll be much more harmed than just Baldoni will. Yeah, I think that's true. Like I think of Anne Hathaway when she had been half-awade, half-hathed, half-a-hated, that's it. And it kind of felt like because she was toxic to touch. I don't know if she chose not to appear in things for a few years or she struggled to get something.

Maybe it's a bit of both. Maybe it's chicken and egg. But it really feels sometimes when you can feel that a woman is hated publicly. She just doesn't really appear in anything for a few years. And part of me thinks that directors, especially as cynical as they are with getting people to sit in those cinema seats,

they won't pick people like that up until everything has kind of died down. Yeah. Although I guess her and Ryan had their own production company and stuff, don't they? So I swear she could just be making stuff up for her own accord. But yeah, I think, I mean, and I hope she feels like she's got a resolution. But yeah, wasn't on my bingo card for 2026.

No. So this is a really sad one, but I felt like we haven't done an update on Britney Spears for a while. Britney Spears pled guilty on Monday to a charge of reckless driving during a case of driving under influence. So she's now been spared from any jail time. But soon after she was arrested, she voluntarily entered a substance abuse treatment program. And it's just, it's just really sad. And we obviously won't have a lot to say about it, but I just,

it just makes me really sad. And I think all it does is make me think that there has just been years and years and decades of trauma to this woman. And I don't know. It just all around feels like this is a person who is struggling. Yeah, I think you want to feel like once Brittany was freed in Verticomers, that there was going to be some kind of resolution. But ultimately, it's so complicated to everything that she experienced. and she's obviously not fighting fit at like full wellness.

And I think even I don't think it's a stretch to say as a voyeur, as someone extremely removed, that even seeing her content, you feel like this woman is still experiencing repercussions of everything that happened to her when she was younger. So it is hard because I think what you want is almost to be absolved of responsibility and hope that she was freed and now she's fine. And actually quite clearly this woman does need support.

and you kind of feel at a loss as to know how to feel about it. I just feel sorry for her. Yeah, same. On an exciting note, the Celebrity Tatas is back. I gasped when I heard the line up for this. So season two,

the cast list is wild. So we have Amal Rajan, who's a journalist and broadcaster, Bella Ramsey, actor of my favorite zombie program, which name, I can't remember now fame. Why can't I think of what that zombie show is called? Is it the walking?

The last of us. Oh, the last of us, yeah. That's it. James Acaster, James Blunt, Jerry Hall, Joanne McAnley, Joe Lysett, Julie Hasman Hall,

King Kenny, who's a content creator, Leanne Pinnick, obviously Little Mix, Maya Jama, Michael Sheen, Miranda Hart, Mahala,

Professor Hannah Fry, Rich D. Grant, Bob Beckett, Romish Ranganathan, Ross Kemp, Sebastian Croft, Sharon Rooney. This is,

I mean, that is the golden ticket. I cannot believe how they've got a half of these people. It's so wild. To be fair, my partner was talking about it and he was like, what do these celebrities get out of it? Like, why is Mahala on there? And one thing I've learned, especially listening to Last Cultureistas when they interview loads of celebrities, celebs bloody love traitors and even the most A-list people, their secret reality wish, if they got asked, would be to go on traitors because it just looks like so much fun. Yeah. Mahala was the one that I was most

surprised about because comedians make sense like it's just like it's yeah it's it's like a lateral thing for them to do alongside their career there's some celebrity shows e g i'm a celebrity got me out of here which kind of can be the death knoll on it's like if you've gone on that as a certain type of celebrity it either means you're at the end of your career or you're like very burgeoning as a as a reality star as it is where celebrity traitors seems to sit in a place where it's it's neither of those things like it's just good for you all around i think because it's a show that has loads of goodwill, I do think they get paid quite a lot of money to appear on it as well.

Oh, do you think? I think so. Because it's all for charity though, but they get paid. I think the money goes to charity that they make, but they get paid to appear on it. Okay, that makes sense. I think because it's a BBC production in my mind, I was like, they're probably not getting paid a lot.

This is a passion project, but maybe they are. Oh, but apparently, okay, it's a flat fee between 30 to 40,000. That was like last time. Okay, that's not bad. I'll take that. So it's not, but it's not like I guess other shows where they got hundreds of thousands. But yeah, they share the pot of money that goes that they earn goes to charity, but they're paid to appear on it. But I think that it's like, it's done a really clever thing where there's so many reality TV shows that real celebrities would never touch.

And my harlot is like on the up doing really well. On her way to be like A-List celebrity. She's not a presenter or a comedian which sit in a subset of TV where you can kind of do these shows and it's, It makes sense. But I wonder how this is such a good lineup. Like, how would you ever top it? I know. One thing I'm curious about, my friend who is a massive traitors stand,

was saying that she is worried and she's trying to be optimistic, but she's worried that this will change the flavor of celebrity because obviously with the first iteration, the reason why it was so good is none of these people were particularly fussed about their public image. They didn't really have anything to protect. they were just like the glossies of like British daytime TV vibes. And I think that gave it this level of just like silliness and like not not taking anything

too seriously. I do wonder having somebody like a Richard E. Grant, even though he's like an amazing celebrity and just seems really fun and a Mahala, if that even just will create a different dynamic of people being a bit more serious and turning it a bit more into a Metcala version of the celebrators, you know? Yeah, it'd be interesting. I always think once it's the second round of something, how people play it, it changes because they understand the game play a bit better.

So I think that it will be interesting. I mean, I'm sad. I'm so sad. Oh, I'll be watching it. Even if I'm saying all of this stuff, I will be watching it. So obviously we're going to talk about the Met Gala, but I am curious how first you were about it this year because it snuck up on me last week, people reporting on it. And I just, it feels like it comes earlier and earlier every year.

Or I just, I'm getting less bothered about it. I'm not sure. But the theme before we get into that for this year's was costume art, exploring fashion as an embodied art form. So yeah, and Noni, what were your thoughts? Were you first? I was first and I was away for the weekend with my friend Poppy who loves fashion as well. So we were talking about what we were imagining people were wearing. We're going to talk about the Jeff Bezos of it all, but we were lamenting the fact that like Zendaya, who obviously is so reliable for having such amazing outfits, wasn't going to be there.

And it does always annoy me because I, I, I, I love going to bed early, so I'm never awake. Although I will get into this, Emma Chamberlain being the first on the carpet, obviously because she does all the presenting. And her outfits set the tone. I think it was my favourite, aside from one other. And so I got really excited and I kind of wanted to stay up and then slowly, but surely people were like filtering onto the catwalk and the outfits was so shit that I actually said

to my partner before I went to bed, I was like, really cross. The outfits are really bad. And then like, I woke up the next day and he was like, did they get any better? And I said no. No. I was actually really excited. And then I was very, very underwhelmed. Okay, so is that your temperature check? Give me some highlights and some misses and what your impression of how people turned out this year.

Anok Ye was after Emma Chamberlain, who I just thought looked stunning that her dress really embodied the theme. Anokie was my second favourite. She had these amazing like tears going down her face. It was in Balenciaga inspired by the Mata Dilarossa, which I think is like the crying Madonna or like, is that, is that right? Yeah, I think that's exactly right. So she looked beautiful and I thought what was so clever again is it's like it was art and it was stunning and it was, the pictures of her were amazing. So I loved her look. I also actually really loved all of the Kardashian and Jenna representation. I loved that Kylie and Kendall were like both meant to be statues and I actually thought that that really fit in with the theme. So Kendall's dress was inspired by the Nike of Sima Thrass and Kylie's was Venus de Milo. And then I actually thought, and I know there was loads of people that. hated it that I loved Kim Kardashian's I thought I loved it too I love Alan Jones that being said I actually thought before this met girl happened I do not want to see another breastplate and there were breastplates everywhere Haley Baldwin oh Haley Bieber even she I thought she was really boring even

though she's getting best dressed she's getting best dressed really she's on the best dress list I actually also again another one that people hated Rachel Senate Mark Jacobs I love that kind of like pop up all of the the painted tone on top of the tights oh that That was a proper miss for me. I was just like, I'm not, I'm not getting what you're putting out there right now. It just felt, that actually felt like art to me. And then I got so many misses. But what were your favourites?

Emma Chamberlain, absolutely. I agree with you on that. There was, because I never really identify men when I say my favourites. But Jeremy Pope in Vivian Westwood had this like sequined, kind of like bodice thing. Oh yes. Which I thought was really cool. Because I do, I can acknowledge as a man turning up to the. Met Gala, it is difficult with, you know, female dressing or, you know, non-gender-specific dressing,

there is a huge wealth of what you can do. A lot of the men just come in suits, which is boring. Joe Orwin actually looked really sweet and looked like he'd made an affair. I don't know if you saw what he had on. I, okay, I really disliked what he wore. I know, I didn't like, the thing is, it's not about, I didn't like it, but I felt like he's trying. He's trying, yeah. It was giving me like Aladdin vibes, to be honest. That kind of like Harim punt. It just made me feel quite warm towards him because he did look a bit uncomfortable as well when he was posing.

There were some good tweets I saw that were like so one from African Calisi that said I do think a lot of people are interpreting fashion as art as just paintings and sculptures. Fashion by itself is art. Everyone last night was technically on theme because it was someone's art but we still expected the designers to wow us

with their art last night and they didn't. And another tweet from at Chloe I. Kennedy said a similar thing. She said, my problem with fashion as art reduced to this dress kind of looks like painting is that it denies fashion artistic credibility outside its proximity to more traditional mediums. And one of the things that happened was I was getting served so many AI looks. And after a while I was being able to identify them. Oh my God, X was filled with it. And actually loads of the AI looks were kind of better than the real looks because only because they were really to your mind,

you're like, oh, that makes sense. As in all of the dresses just had like paintings of paintings on top of them. And I think that is kind of what everyone was expecting. And actually, one of the biggest controversies was Bavita Mandava went dressed by Chanel. And she wore an outfit that actually, I can't remember where Margot Robbie wore it, but Margot Robbie wore it already. But it looks like it's jeans and a t-shirt. But it's actually not, because the whole point of this new Chanel connection is it's those jeans that look like jeans are actually made of a kind of like silk, which is really hard to do. And someone tweeted saying, to me, there's nothing more fashionist art than Khathechou. made jeans. What's more artful than achieving those artisanal techniques on such a delicate fabric?

And actually, I almost think that her outfit out of everyone was the most fashion as art because it was the art of. It's a real feat in like fashion technology of creating stuff like this. The reason that I thought it fell quite flat is because there was already so many pictures of Marga Rubby in that same outfit. So it wasn't like interesting. But I do think the theme, I think we expect quite sort of almost like the capital from Hunger Games dressing for the MetGar. and actually it doesn't have to be as outrageous in order for it to fit the theme. Yeah, it's kind of like a fancy dress approach to fashion rather than, I guess, quite an interesting introspection of the theme.

And I obviously am not a fashion expert, but that's an interesting thread about this whole thing. It does, it's quite, it's quite costuming rather than real, real kind of fashion. But I will say with the Bevita thing, I was really disappointed because visually it does just look so, it looks so underwhelming compared to all the kind of like, you know, the drapery, the gowns, the like sequins, the bodices, everything. And there's this picture of her, this selfie. It's like this year's new selfie of her with like everyone behind her. And I just feel really like, I feel really sad and underwhelmed for her visually because it just, it didn't really work. And I think if everyone else was addressing the theme in that way, this could have been really visually interesting. But I think she almost was set up to fail a little bit visually because Chanel knows what the Met Gala is.

I think regardless of the rationale behind it, it's just always going to look flat on the red carpet compared to everyone else. And Bevita's got this amazing story where she was a student at NYU and she essentially got spotted and she became the first Indian woman to open for the Chanel runway. ever. It was this like incredible story from last year. So I think I've got just a bit of a chip on my shoulder about just like really wanting her to have had this amazing moment. And I just, I feel like it just didn't pan out even though the thinking behind it was really cool and interesting. Yeah, a lot of people were saying like it felt like it was, well, some people were saying it felt racist. It felt like they'd like underdressed her for an event where people are really overdressed. Other people were saying, what is interesting is that it's, I think that opening catwalk that she did,

she was wearing jeans and a jumper that were made of like normal fabric. So it's actually like echoing what she walked down the catwalk on. If I was her though, I would have felt incredibly uncomfortable wearing that. The MetGarlet. It's like kind of things I have nightmares about, you know, and you turn up something and you've got like the wrong outfit on. That is kind of, I think, how I would have felt. But there was, I can't remember.

Someone else turned up wearing like leggings. Did you see that? Leggings? No. Literally like black leggings and like a black zip up top. The people that really pissed me off were Charlie XXX. Boring. So boring. So boring.

And they made this beautiful flower thing, which I think was meant to be Van Gogh's. Irises, wasn't it? I think. Yeah. And they showed the actual thing that they'd made with the flowers that was beautiful, like without the dress.

And they stuck it on this really plain black dress so you just can't see it. I found that totally underwhelming. And Margot Robbie, I also thought, what the hell? She has been serving so many looks. And it was just, it was so boring. And then she wore jeans.

She was dressed by Chanel. And to the after party, she wore like, jeans in a best top. They're obsessed with jeans in a nice top. What is going on at Chanel? Another fave actually, which also was a lot of people's flops and also interesting because the conversation we had a few weeks ago, but Sabrina Carpenter's dress made out of film showing the film of Sabrina.

I thought it was really cool and I think that is art. But then people were pointing out that her headdress is like an Arabic headdress and people were being like, okay, so she does like our culture when it suits her. So that got a bit of backlash. Oh no. Not this again. I actually can't wait into it again. It's always funny seeing what discourse points come out because did you see,

see Sarah Poulson had that dollar bill, I mask, which she said represented the 1%. And I'm like, I love Sarah Poulson. She's one of my favorite actresses. But I have to say, the way people try to shoe in a political point when they're attending this wild benefit for the Met Gala, which I do agree with. Obviously, it contributes to the Met, this amazing institution being able to continue it was amazing work. But it is quite funny and silly, this frivolous, rich person event where people are wearing dollar bills to make a point about the 1%, whilst also being in attendance with the 1%. She also is, like, everyone keeps being like she's got like a net worth of like 12 million. And also this was maybe it was because of the Jeff Bezos of all that she thought it was a good

idea, but that kind of makes it worse. It's like you shouldn't have gone. That would have been a better statement. Yeah. Yeah. I think that that did. It is a weird. event and like the history of it is actually that it would be just all of these like celebrities and kind of socialites and people would turn up and it would raise loads of money for charity and then since the celebrities have got involved it has become more of a caricature of itself with these like amazing costuming and obviously like Rihanna looked amazing I thought Beyonce's dresser was awful and like it had been made like really last minute yeah not not great just kind of quite basic and but also like the most literal interpretation of fashion as art and the body is

I don't know. I don't know. I think after this year I am quite exhausted by it. I do think that Jeff Bezos is just such a kick in the teeth. They did I think reportedly raise $42 million a year which is like the most they've ever made and obviously Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez did donate 10 million. Lauren Sanchez was another interesting thread in it because her dress everyone was like it looks like it's from she in but it was actually representing this portrait. Did you see this where the inspiration for her dress came from? The original portrait of Madam X depicts Virginie Amelie Aveño Coutreau, an American socialite married to a French banker

and the painting is famous for its provocative style, a deep cut back dress, bare shoulders with jewel straps. Today it's considered one of the most iconic masterpieces of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and it was really criticised at the time for being like overly daring and overly sexualised. So it's quite interesting because it's kind of, it's a woman who's heavily criticised for being like,

she gets a lot of criticism for the amount of work she's had done and the way she presents her body and obviously the fact that she's married to this billionaire. So actually, it was quite on the nose and almost quite funny from her. It was Scaparrelli as well, wasn't it? Which is like very shocking. Because Scaparrelli is always a hit for me.

There was a quote from Matt Bernstein who didn't really comment on the Met Gallup, but did comment on Lauren Sanchez's dress. And he said, this boring dress was arguably a perfect symbol for the tech gala, proof that all the money in the world can't buy you real cultural cachet. and it is harsh but I honestly just fully agree

and I do think they're okay to receive our harsh criticisms because they have literally brought their way into culture and the least we can do is just erect these like these gatekeeper posts by just saying yeah you're there but what you're wearing does kind of look trash and I think it's indicative of the fact you don't really respect or appreciate or understand the cultural world that you've just forced your way into.

Did you see this whole bottles of urine activist thing that happened as well. There was essentially this group, everyone hates Elon, a British political activist group, God bless British culture, who placed nearly 300 miniature bottles of fake urine

throughout the Met on Friday in reference to Amazon workers who are not given a fucking wee break under Jeff Bezos's regime and essentially had just like protested his attendance there. I did see this and also it reminded me because we,

years ago, we were going to do an episode about the documentary by, what was he called? Uber Butler. Uber Butler about these Amazon workers who basically aren't allowed pee breaks. So they're forced to pee into bottles like whilst they're driving and stuff. And we were told we weren't allowed to do it because at the time the company were working with Amazon. So we weren't allowed to say anything. Anyway, but yeah, I did see this. And I think like little, it's not a little protest, but process like that are so good and effective.

and it does make me pleased to think. I mean, I almost felt like should I not be watching this because of their attendance? So it does make me please that people are able to get in because it feels like a good gag. It's not harming anyone and it's like pretty effective.

It's really fucking funny. So we are finally coming on to talk about the Devil Wears Prada 2, which I finally watched yesterday. It's 20 years after the original film and the second installation has a lot of the original main cast except for Adrian Grenier, who paid Nate, famously the true villain of the double-wise prodder.

The second film follows Miranda Priestley struggles to keep runway afloat in an age of media layoffs and tech billionaires buying up titles. Andy Sacks, Anne Hathaway, returns to runway and she becomes the features editor and she is really desperate to try and help preserve Runway's future. And in the process, she is reintroduced to former colleague and nemesis, Emily, played by the stunning Emily Blunt, who is now a fashion exec at Dior. Justin Threw plays a Bezos knockoff, a nerdy permatampillianer who is willing to use his money to buy Emily, his girlfriend, a place in the fashion world.

I've so many thoughts, but I want to hear from you, Ruchera, what did you make of this sequel? So I went into it expecting absolute trash. I just, I was not going in, imagining that this would be good at all or even fun, just the kind of reboot culture is just, I'm just over it, to be honest. But I was surprised by how much fun I did have. Lots of the takes on journalism I found really triggering.

And my main takeaway was lots of it doesn't stand up when you interrogate it too deeply. A lot of the character arcs kind of fail the original characters saying that I did have a hoot. I did really enjoy watching it on my bank holiday weekend. but I probably won't watch it again. This is not a canon film. This was a fun event for my bank holiday. Same as you. I'm always quite dubious about a sequel.

I actually think it did everything it needed to do and it was as good as it could be for a sequel. There were certain things that felt like it didn't flow that naturally. Like I didn't necessarily believe Andy's character change. Like even at one point Emily's character's liked her, you're confident. And I was like, I don't know that Andy that she fits very neatly in the chronology of where I would have imagined Andy to go.

But I did really enjoy it. I thought I obviously loved the fashion. I thought the fashion was amazing. Emily Blunt was an absolute standout for me as Emily. And there's so many people saying this now, but it is truly just a comment on the current state of the media and arts world. It's so met up with the mat gala that we've just seen, seeing this collision of sort of like billionaires and tech giants,

buying over culture and the arts, which is famously, usually more of like a liberal left-leading space that it feels like it wants to protect itself from the capitalist monster that is slowly enveloping all of us. So it was very on the nose and I did think the messaging was depressing, but like true, felt very honest. And it was, yeah, it did exceed my expectations. I thought that like there was the plot line with Andy and the guy from that column from accounts, that Australian sitcom that we all got really assessed with. I didn't think that plot line needed to happen. No.

It was kind of like, it was so unnecessary. But I did like it. I did think there were certain bits where like Miranda has to hang up her own coat and she sort of like slams the door shut with her back. And it was like it felt a bit too like heavily comedic. Yeah, the characters to me maybe in some parts felt like they were caricatures of their previous selves. Yeah. But I did think, I actually thought it was good and I would watch it again.

Okay. I feel like you've got a warmer reception overall. What did you think? Obviously, one of the big talking points from the film was how bleak and depressing it was. And I think there's a few points that people are making, which is the film has identified and accurately captured what is happening to the media. There's layoffs galore fashion magazines have become advertorials. There's barely any articles in them. People don't want to read investigations into sweatshops. They just don't. and I think what people were hoping for, okay, if the Devil Wars Prada is going to attack this theme, surely it's going to suggest or hope for some kind of future that puts forward its theory for how journalism can be saved. But really, the film just didn't do that. The film was like really depressing. It starts off with Andy getting fired as she's accepting an award for her investigative journalism. and then it kind of ends with, okay, not just in Theroux's character billionaire,

the Bezos Knockoff, buying the magazine runway, but his ex-wife buying it. And because she's a woman, it's almost like this girl boss positive story, but ultimately is like journalism can't survive unless a billionaire, regardless of you like them and they're your friend or not, buys up the publication. And Andy and Miranda in the car just like returning back to New York, York. And there is this kind of unsettling conversation they have where they're like, okay, I can't remember what her name is, but she's played by Lucy Lou. Okay, so she says that she's happy to give creative freedom. And then one of them looks over and she's like, for now. And that just,

that's under shudder through me, because I was like, this film has not ended feeling satisfying at all, which is fine because journalism is not at a satisfying point. But it really, it really is hilarious that even in this kind of idealistic aspirational film, even they couldn't even suggest a Hollywood ending for this fucked up situation? I don't think there is a Hollywood ending. I genuinely don't think there is a solution. Like every single creative endeavor now has to have financial backing either through financial investors or through advertising. There is actually no real way to make money through art just through the art. And I know we both screenshots of this story from Sean Faye, but I'm going to read it out because it was so good. So she writes,

something very weird about seeing the double-wears Prada 2, Brackett's Fun movie, which is basically an official insider-approved depiction of the media and fashion industry with a plotline about billionaire techno-capitalists intruding upon culture on the same evening as the real-life Met Gala, which is sponsored by Jeff Bezos. It's like self-awareness can stand in for any kind of nobler or more hopeful aim. Seems to speak to some broader late capitalist malaise where creatives and cultural curators and artists can critique everything, even ourselves, and our own institutions and their complicity with capitalist exploitation and even do it publicly.

And yet we ultimately bend capital and the techno-capitalists don't even care that we're slacking them off. They're still invited and we will still have to be polite to them because we all rely on the infrastructure they own. It's basically like there's no ethical consumption under capitalism has now become a shrug of almost everyone in culture lull. And just the act of saying it, Riley, is now what passes for art. And I do agree with that. And it's funny because even on the weekend on Saturday I was at a friend's birthday, we were talking about how, and we've spoken about this before, but there was times when sort of like aristocratic landed gentry would sponsor the arts

through actually like paying for beautiful buildings or libraries, paying for the arts in and of themselves. Whereas now that that payoff comes with their own capital gain. It's not like artistic philanthropy where they're just trying to make the world more beautiful and make the arts more beautiful. Because the people who are rich now are tech bros rather than not that the lander old gentry were good, but they did like kind of have some semblance of love for the arts. They're only doing it as sort of like financial gain or as like for them to have a proximity

to coolness that they could never normally achieve. I don't know how you could have made this film hopeful in this current climate because I can't see a way out, but maybe brighter minds creating the devil was proud of two should have been able to see a way out and through. It was depressing. But then I, maybe it. isn't that interesting. I kind of thought in a way it was, it was brave, but like Sean says, it's not going to do it. It's not going to move the dial. They literally don't care if it's slag them off. They're just sitting there as their money incrementally grows. Yeah. And I guess that was the other point that I was curious about because there's been loads of pieces saying like,

oh, damn, you know, Bezos gets the villain edit in the Deverewe's Prada too or like a Mark Zuckerberg because Lucy Lou's character could also be seen as a Priscilla Chan equivalent, who is Mark Zuckerberg's current wife, or, you know, a Bill Gates, Melinda Gates. It feels like they're all kind of, you know, touches on these characters. But I don't really feel like he got a villain at it. He's annoying, yes, he's rich, he's gauche. But people are acting as if they really went hard on him. And I think much like the studio at the time, we said, wow, what brave TV series to be making a joke of the constant chase for IP in Hollywood. But you take a step back and you're like,

that isn't that deep of a point. We all know that's happening. That's not that revolutionary. It's slightly spicy, but that's not enough to be really pointing the gun at the Hollywood execs. And in this case, in the tech bros, and being like, you have ruined culture, you have ruined our lives. I don't know.

I guess after a second, I was like, I don't really agree that they've gone hard on them. I feel like they've almost like a roast, like a Nikki Glazier roast. I think she treads the line perfectly of being spicy, but not offensive. And I think this even wasn't that spicy. It was a touch of like pepper,

maybe a bit of paprika, but I don't think it was the full hog of red hot chili pepper. Well, the main thing they did was basically to say that he lost weight and became permatant. It was mostly just like a criticism on his like perceived glow up. That was the thing that everyone was kind of talking about. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, to bring it to the more fashion side of things, I was, I did enjoy the fashion stuff.

That's kind of what I wanted more from. But the whole point of it is the first film is both a love letter to fashion and kind of a caricature of fashion. This one is actually more about how like fashion isn't even the central point. And the depressing bit I did find was when Andy's writing these really good articles and they're just not getting any clicks because that's something I feel so deeply my bones about creating content and writing and doing anything you think is substantial. Whenever you do anything that you genuinely think is meaningful, no one sees it.

And then I'll do some random shitty reel. And it'll get loads of views and it's like views are value. Attention is value. It doesn't really matter if it's got any substance. Anyway, back to what I wanted to say was that I hated Emily Blunts to your outfits. Loads of them were hideous. They were awful. Whereas I feel like Simone Ashley's outfits, oh, spectacular, absolutely glamorous.

And even Anne Hathaway's outfits, not all of them, but I would say a good 70% were incredible to me. Yeah, I did really love Anne Hathaway's. And I did love Stanley Tucci. I, yeah, I thought it was good. I think that, what do I think? I think that there's also that thing of just like films don't look as beautiful. I didn't think the soundtrack, like the soundtrack to the first of was Prada is so iconic. And I feel like they didn't, they didn't really have that as much. I have to say that Dochi Lady Gaga song is absolutely hideous. Like it is just so bad. And you have to know that I am dragging my two queens down here by saying this. This does not please me in the slightest.

But I heard that song and I was like, what the AI nonsense is this? Yeah. Actually, my biggest thing was it was I just didn't believe Anne Hathaway's Andy in this one. I don't know if you did. No, I agree with you because in the first one, you really believe that she is so out of place in this world. So to then see her being a bit, whilst also being this amazing investigative journalist, I just felt like there were all these parts that weren't really welding to me. And then to say that when she had this big cock up with inadvertently helping Emily and

Justin Thoreau's billionaire, I can't remember his name, but kind of get away with potentially a takeover of runway and then she realizes her mistake. I was just like, is she silly and too trusting or is she this amazing investigative journalist? It doesn't feel like all of those things match up to me. I just felt like she was quite confused as a character. Yeah, I felt that because also the other thing is, she's meant to go on and had this incredible investigative journalism career. She does this whole video at the beginning

where loads people get laid off and she's like, it's like, journalism doesn't fucking matter anymore. Journalism matters more than money. Then she goes to work at Runway. And there's a bit where obviously it is really, it actually is quite degrading and watching Miranda having to fly coach, as they call it in the ass or like economy. And Andy's like, why is she putting up with this?

And I was like, it's surely not the biggest thing. Like I understand that the cutbacks are awful, but surely Andy would be more stress. about the potential layoffs of like everyone else within runway than the fact that Miranda Priestley has to fly economy and she's genuinely like that's the first time that we see here go this is awful and it's like yeah it is a bit awkward but like ultimately that's surely not the biggest issue and then there was another bit that I can't think about like she's just very taken in by oddly taken in by fashion and like luxury real estate and even the fact that she goes back to runway

I almost feel like her having that time away experience that layoffs yes she might take that job because she's not got any other opportunities. But she seemed oddly like her values weren't fully fleshed out. Like how could you be so well versed, so educated, such a good writer? And then also, or maybe we do all have blind spots about that. Maybe that is very realistic. I just found it a bit like which one of these people is she like what train of thought is she existing on?

It didn't feel like she matured in a coherent way. It felt like bits of her were matured. were aggressed in that same spot she was 20 years ago. So then it felt hard to feel like a huge passage of time had happened. And there was like all these moments where she was talking to people, she was like, hey, how are you doing? It's been 20 years. And I was like, I would never introduce myself like that to somebody I'd not seen in 20 years. You're meant to believe that she spent 15 years abroad having this incredible journalist career, but she's still very much rooted in her one experience as an internet runway. Like this woman seems

like she's not moved on, but I know she's moved on because she's had 20 years of life. Yeah, it's funny. All of that said, I did actually really enjoy it. And I did think it was like as far as sequels go, I don't know how they could have done it. I'm sure there's ways they could have done it differently and it would have been as good. But I think it would have been quite hard to do much better. But I think they leave it alone now. Oh, no, actually, what I wanted to bring up, and I think it's such a good point. Daisy Buchanan, but it was on her story. So it's gone now. She said, I don't want a double as part of two. I want a pre-quential. I want to see Miranda Priestley in the 80s

wearing massive shoulder pads doing loads of drugs. I want to see them smoking in the office. I want to see what the world was like before when it was just like bottles of champagne everywhere when everyone was just getting paid loads, the martini lunches. And I was like, that is such a good point. I don't think in this time of total economic instability,

AI and tech roads taking over, we need another sort of like representation of the world that we're living in. I want to see the decadence. Yeah. the snorting coke in the office that's what I want to see. Thank you so much for listening this week.

Before we go, just checking that you've listened to our latest Everything and Conversation episode where we talked to Caro Claire Burke, the incredible author behind yesterday year. Please also follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Everything's ContentPod. See you next Wednesday. Bye!