Feature image photo by Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images
Hello and welcome to Sundance Week! Drew and Shelli are coming at you with so many amazing reviews! While you wait, please enjoy your Monday Pop Culture Fix.
+ Reneé Rapp on Mean Girls, TikTok Romance, and her music career. I love the answer to “Which artists are you most inspired by?” She says Kacey Musgraves, of course. And then: “To be honest, my pitch when I wanted to get signed to Interscope was: ‘I want to be bisexual Justin Bieber.’ So I’m trying to do that, but in a younger era — his ‘R&Bieber’ era, but a little more girly. I’m really just taking it from a lot of shit and trying to make my own little lane in it. Somebody who did that so well is Billie Eilish. She took the things that she loves — alternative music, pop music, and hip hop — and was like, ‘I’m creating my own lane.’ That is exactly what I want to do.” I’ll be your Belieber, Reneé Rapp!
+ Good Trouble‘s Sherry Cola is at Sundance promoting her new film, Shortcomings. She’s also from Monterey Park, California, so she’s grieving the heartbreaking mass shooting over the weekend, and speaking to reporters about that as well.
“I definitely cried myself to sleep, to be honest, because this is Monterey Park, California, like where I grew up, the 626, San Gabriel Valley,” Cola said. “This is where my Buddhist temple is, you know? Like all my friends I grew up with they were born in Monterey Park. It’s this hometown that I’m so proud to call my hometown.”
+ The highs and lows of That ’90s Show‘s queer representation.
+ Aubrey Plaza gave SNL permission to get weird. It’s actually been so long since I watched a full episode of SNL! I don’t even know which skit to choose! I’ll go with Parks and Rec.
+ Inside the Jojo Siwa Zoomer Lesbian Summit at Erewhon Market. (This is technically Vapid Fluff, but I’m including it here ’cause it made me laugh and also feel like I am 300 years old!)
+ Also technically Vapid Fluff, over at Vogue, I Want What They Have: Niecy Nash-Betts and Jessica Betts.
+ Peacock has axed Vampire Academy.
+ M3GAN 2.0? Yep, she’ll be here in 2025.
+ The Comedies That Understand What Peak Scammer TV Does Not. “Abbott Elementary and Minx both follow ambitious women leaders who don’t subscribe to the girlboss myth.”
+ The cast of The Drop open up about their hilarious, queer film. (And you can read Kayla’s review right here!)
+ And finally, this dang cutie on the set of The Morning Show.
Gwen + Leia = Geia
I love Renee Rapp’s music. I hope she gets her Belieber dream, with or without the Justin Bieber lesbian haircut.
If you read the renee article she mentions how she was 3 when mean girls came out ;_____;
RE: That 90s Show, I really did think Gwen and Leia were endgame until episode three when Ozzie said he was gay, I knew they weren’t going to have more than one queer main character.
It just seemed so clear to me what they were doing but then again, I view everything through a queer lens.
This Renée interview is so chaotic and I love it
Cannot believe the M3gan sequel is not called Meg4n
Comment award ! Snort-laugh
Gwen and Leia’s chemistry was by far the most visible/palpable in the show, and I’m not just saying that because I view everything through a queer lense. Their final argument and make up was way too intense for a straight BFF pairing. But yeah, once Ozzie came out I knew they’d never go for three queer kids out of six.
Also, I find it hilarious that Fez is so camp but always has female love interests. It turns stereotypes on their heads, and I like that. His sexuality isn’t ambiguous at all, they’re purposely messing with our assumptions of what ‘straight’ men should be.
So we’re not gonna acknowledge that both of the artist she named. Are notorious culture vultures, just say you wanna appropriate and keep it pushing