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[Claim Here] |
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| “I think TV shows like Love Island and X Factor have led to the rise of people like Trump. If I ruled the world, you would have none of that” – Glen Matlock |
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| 27.02.25 Free newsletter every Thursday subscribe
Issue #1225 Email stories: hello@popbitch.com
* Popbitch Takes on the Classics
* Gene Hackman: Franz Ferdinand fan
* PLUS: With Friends Like These |
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| >> Making A(nother) Scene << |
| Great minds think alike |
| Congratulations to Matt Lucas and David Walliams, who are collaborating again on a unique and exciting new podcast! It’s called Making A Scene, where the guests are asked to direct the movie of their life.
It’s also remarkably similar in format to another podcast called Greenlit, which has been running for the past four years, even down to some of the same specific questions, On Greenlit, comedians are asked to direct the movie of their life.
Weirder still, both Walliams and Lucas followed Greenlit’s creator on Twitter when that podcast launched (Walliams has since unfollowed).
Probably completely unrelated. |
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| She’s not alone: Olive’s singer, Ruth-Ann Boyle, is now a recruitment coordinator for Hilton hotels. |
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| >> Tribute Acts << |
| AI-ding profit margins |
| This week the BPI, famous names in music and many UK media outlets and pundits all got together to campaign against AI being used in creating music.
Social media had been ablaze this week about a song, Somebody Else, which everyone thought was Lily Allen teaming up with Fred Again but turned out to be an AI creation by producers e.motion.
Lily’s voice had been mimicked and pictures photoshopped of Lily and Fred in the studio – but it came as a surprise to everyone – including Lily.
So, at the same time as this worthy campaign, this AI track is also everywhere. And signed and marketed by an imprint of Sony, one of those labels whose top execs were (rightly) slap bang in the middle of the campaign. |
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| Fun fact in this week’s Guardian interview – Fat Boy Slim used to do violin lessons with Keir Starmer at primary school, but says he doesn’t remember them. Harsh on Keir from 4B. |
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| >> Big Questions << |
| Who’s asking again this week? |
| What can’t you do at media liggers parties in Dubai that you can do in London? One ex-tabloid hack got a big job editing a Dubai magazine, only to find himself out on his ear after three months, for living it up at some big parties. Thankfully, he quickly scored another role at their rival publication… where he lasted only two months before getting the push for the same thing. |
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Octopus Energy is known for being vocal on customer issues. Their latest mission: to cut £3.7bn from our bills per year by not turning off wind farm swhen it’s windy. If your head is spinning, Octopus had a go at explaining it with fish…
[Watch here] |
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| >> Et tu, Popbitch? << |
| Are you not entertained? |
| Tom Holland has found an interesting way to describe his newly translated book The Lives of Caesars.
Trying to find a modern equivalent for the salacious, backstabbing world of emperors and gladiators, the Rest Is History co-host said:
“It is full of the most sensational gossip. It is kind of ancient Rome’s Popbitch. It is full of scandal, and extraordinary detail, but it is also very psychologically astute.
“It has the quality of a very highbrow gossip column”. |
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| Following our Chalomet/Jenner spot there last week, this weekend it was Tilda Swinton who was out in Berghain. |
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| >> Hackman’ed Off << |
| Hollywood’s surprise indie fan |
| S writes, May 2004
“I was at the Astoria last night for a Franz Ferdinand gig and Gene Hackman was in the stands, stood just in front of me. Marvellous chap – turned and smiled to everyone at the end of the gig rather like he thought the applause was for him. Perhaps it was – he had sung and nodded along to every song.
“He was also nodding along to one of the support acts too, but they were shit so I’ll keep schtum about that.” |
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| If you’re strapped for cash and bored out of your mind this week, tickets to see Jason Donovan at the London Palladium on Monday are now going for the bargain discount price of 15 quid. |
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| >> Old News << |
| A Different Class |
| With the music industry about to slap itself on the back at the Brits, it’s sobering to see the charts these days.
Look at this week’s top three – Kendrick’s Not Like Us was released on 4 May 2024. Lola Young’s Messy – released 30 May 2024 and Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club came out on 3 April 23. And biggest climber? Benson Boone’s Beautiful Things from 19 Jan 2024, the global best seller of last year.
It’s not just streaming that seems to be making music discovery harder and harder. The Radio Edit did a dive into BBC Radio playlisting and found that there’s not that much in the way of new tracks finding their way on to the airwaves.
1Xtra plays as much music from before 2020 as after it, and increasingly skews US. R1 does concentrate mainly on post 2020 songs but over indexes the biggest artists versus up and coming. 6Music plays even less music from this decade than 1Xtra. |
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| Blindboy Boatclub questioning reality, Takeshi Kitano’s job interview, Tank Girl, Tatty Macleod & loads more – Ralph Magazine: Pop Culture For The Fun Of It
[Get it here] |
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| >> A Swift Exit << |
| The other school of rock |
| In last week’s issue we wrote about the 1975’s early days at Wilmslow High school.
Serendipitous really that Matty Healy met his bandmates there – he only ended up at Wilmslow in the first place because he was kicked out of the private Kings School Macclesfield.
(Matty was expelled for starting a fight club in the changing rooms.)
Notable former King’s pupils also include Ian Curtis, Stephen Morris from Joy Division, convicted sex offender Matthew Falder, and Michael Jackson (not that one; the Channel 4 Exec). |
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| Lenny Kravitz invited his fourth grade teacher to his 60th birthday party. Luckily Ms Goldberg decided to come. |
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| >> Lynne! Help! << |
| Don’t you know who I think I am? |
| Self care is very important. Steve Coogan knows this, which is why when he checks into fancy health spas and hotels, he makes sure he uses an alias so he isn’t disturbed.
The only problem? His pretend alias (for argument’s sake, we’ll call it “Mr Smith”) didn’t conceal Coogan’s real life dick-ish behaviour at one hotel.
At one point during his week long stay, when the level of service dropped below the level of fawning obsequiousness Coogan felt was his due, he petulantly asked one of the staff members “Do you know who I am?”
“Er, yes, you’re Mr Smith,” came the response, which only infuriated Coogan even more. |
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| Nominative Determinism of the Week: Director of ‘A Role To Die For’ (a new play about casting James Bond)… Derek Bond. |
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| >> With Friends Like These << |
| Did my back hurt your knife? |
| It’s easy to forget just how powerful the six stars of Friends were at the height of their sitcom fame… and just how much it turned them into divas in the process.
At the height of their noughties heyday, one of the six decided to have dinner in Soho House Greek Street, but discovered – to their horror – that other mere mortals had the sheer temerity to be seated in the same restaurant.
To rectify the error, they began frantically clicking their manicured fingers and demanded that the staff remove these appalling interlopers (who happened to be members of the club) so they could have the restaurant to themselves.
This being the egalitarian Soho House, the staff politely, but firmly, declined the diva’s request. “Isn’t That Just Kick-You-In-The-Crotch, Spit-On-Your-Neck Fantastic?” |
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| The accountant that Kerry Katona blamed for losing her so much money has been jailed for six years. He defrauded an estimated 1,200 people. |
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| >> Franke Speaking << |
| The devil is in the detail |
| Disney today casually dropped a bombshell documentary series that had been more than a year in the making and was generating a lot of column inches. A British TV company had managed to get exclusive access to the Franke family, the ones from that Mommy Vlogger YouTube child abuse scandal.
The doc even managed to score the holy grail of the whole Franke story – the infamous video clips of rogue therapist Jodi Hildebrandt pretending to be possessed by Satan, all while shagging Ruby in her daughter’s bedroom as husband Kevin slept downstairs.
As Kevin memorably puts it during his interview for the series, “Jodi started putting her fingers into every aspect of our lives”. Including, it seem, into Kevin’s wife.
FYI: To see the short sequence where it all gets super weird, see episode two, starting at about 28 minutes.
[Watch here] |
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| POPBITCH POPQUIZ LOVERS REJOICE! February’s quiz is here and available to buy and download for £9.99. Brand new music round, trivia, puzzles, arts and crafts and a picture round. Plus some scandalous celebrity confessions. Fun for all the family (If you’re the Frankes)
[Get Quiz Here] |
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| >> Hmmms << |
| Best and worst of the web |
| Tekashi 6ix-9ine’s stuff confiscated by the IRS is now up for auction
[Bid]
Headline of the week: “Nude school Batman probably a teacher”
[True]
Bird drops severed human hand into schoolyard
[In Ireland]
Kung-fu kicks, Pope pissing, club threesomes: The life of Eric Cantona
[Watch on The Upshot]
A comprehensive list of language fuck-ups in pop-culture
[Your Wrong]
A comic-con for psychopaths: Meet the serial killer lookalikes
[Read on The Fence]
Woman in New Jersey charged with running a prostitution ring called.. Soon Bang
[On NJ 101.5) |
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| Thanks to: NB, BGA, JM, AR, CL, L, |
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Old Jokes Home
My pet parrot died today. I’m devastated, but it’s a huge weight off my shoulders.Still Bored?
Someone (doing God’s work) has uploaded the entirety of Noel’s House Party to the internet archives.
[Blobby Blobby Blobby!]
*** WhatsApp us some goss on +44 7923 619540. We’re also on Instagram and our DMs are open *** |
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