10k on groceries? My family of 4 spends about 200 a week and we eat *well* - and it's not like they are cooking for themselves! Also, 5k on laundry? Is it gold-plated?
*
Those pics of Anne Hathaway are miserable but also she can no longer actually move her face - has anyone seen the meme of her crying in a film now vs. 10 years ago - so it also tracks that she looks miserable as she cannot express anything!
If we can't stop Annie Leibowitz from taking terrible photos, can we at least take the terrible filters away from her? Confine her to black and white? (You used to be able to take good photos, Annie! That one of Keith Richards is burned into my brain for a reason! What happened?)
Oh. Oh no. Why is Annie obsessed with people being lopsided? Why does she look like she's being buffeted by a storm? Why does she not look like herself???
Wow. I have thoughts. First, her upper body does not match her lower body. No one sits like that. Second, because of both the upper body and the dark murkiness of the lower part, I had to find a high res photo and look closely to confirm that the subject in NOT sitting with legs spread wide open. It's kind of hilarious!
I started watching this season of Love Island USA, excited to watch in real time but about a week or two in it became too toxic and I just couldn’t. LI is what I watch for silly fun, everyone is so unlikable this year. Everything I’ve read since quitting confirms my decision to stop.
That's similar to what happened to me last year with Perfect Match. Between the overly staged aspects of it and the neurotic personalities, I just felt icky.
Luckily Love Island UK is now on Hulu, and it's, as usual, far superior. I'm loving some of the women.
LI USA is so weird. It's the final week and I don't think any of the couples even like each other all that much. And I totally think if Ace wins, he's taking all the money. I don't trust that man. I actually respect how well he's playing the game, but he's definitely playing :)
I've not been watching LI USA, but I need people to know LI UK is killing it this year! Someone on Reddit said it was "loathe island" - none of the couples are working, and there are two disparate camps of the "girls." I am loving this season!
Yes! I also love that I can't tell what girls to root for. I feel like Emily IS annoying, but I also think Toni speaks like she was built in a Real Housewives lab. And I totally buy that Meg, Megan, and Helena are a mean girls clique. And they're all suuuper entertaining! I'm only on episode 16 or 17, but I've been binging it.
Ooohh, I didn't even think of him taking all the money. If anyone would do it it would be him, but he would be even more reviled than he is now. Dare he risk it!
It's so weird because last season of USA (Season 6) was amazing (truly lightning in a bottle), while the UK was terrible -- for many of the reasons this season of USA sucks -- too many influencers, few of the connections felt truly genuine, no one to really root for, etc. UK is better this year fo sho but not as good as some previous seasons. It's truly all in the casting and producers needing to have a lighter hand. I could go on and on about what's not working on USA this year but I'll stop mahself!
I first read Forever Amber as a teenager - my mother's copy - and I love it. It's also, for better or worse, where most of my understanding of Restoration England comes from.
My sibs and I used to perform Tom Lehrer songs for our parents (we were kind of extra in various ways) and "The Vatican Rag" was one of our favorites. Our parents were Vatican II-type Catholics and fairly liberal, but even so, they occasionally flinched at the "2 4 6 8, time to transubstantiate" line because it was just so saucy.
Tom Lehrer was teaching math at my alma mater, UC Santa Cruz, when i was there in the late '80s. He also taught one small, highly sought-after musical theater performance class per year (and famously wouldn't discuss his music with math students who wanted to bring it up).
Everything I know about Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel is from that Tom Lehrer song. My parents had "That Was the Year That Was" and we played it endlessly as kids, merrily singing along even though we didn't understand a lot of the references, hee.
A seminal album of my youth from my Mom's record collection--I absorbed way more about mid-20th century politics and anxieties than I would have any other way.
I just came here to say the very same thing! That book also sparked my interest in British history in general. But don’t waste time on the movie; even though Linda Darnell and Cornel Wilde were extremely beautiful, I think they were miscast. Or maybe it was because in 1947 they had to leave out all the good bits!
I also first read it as a teenager (it was my grandmother's copy) and loved it as well. To quote a sadly defunct British literary award, it's a thumping good read and perfect for a hot summer day.
Tom Lehrer is an intergenerational delight. I can still remember being introduced to Lehrer in school by a friend, bringing it home, and then my dad turning around and pulling out a copy of That Was The Year That Was that had belonged to HIS parents. Still (alarmingly) relevant 60 years later.
(Also responsible for me (age 13) asking my mom what “masochism” meant, but we won’t hold that against him)
Of all the Hathaway photos, I think the last in the dark blue trench is the weirdest one. Her body looks so awkward on that metal chair (which you can barely see) atop the rocks. Maybe it's because I'm reading murder mysteries these days, but I think she looks like a corpse. The composition is awkward too, and why is the lense focused on the embroidery of her coat (also the only part with value contrast), while we get a blur for her face?
About Hathaway herself, I'm not particularly a fan, but I have a soft spot for her and feel protective of her in light of haters. In her college years, she was buddies with a close friend of mine. I didn't know her, but she was already a big deal, and my friend was super dorky and lovable, and she was a good friend to him. Big points for that!
OK, if you’re spending $18,000 on rent each month, why on earth are you also spending $5,000 per month on REPAIRS?!? For $18K, a property shouldn’t need continual repairs, and if you are RENTING, you should not be financially responsible for said repairs - unless of course you are trashing the place on the regular and covering the damage. I suspect all these outrageous amounts actually fall under “drugs, and cosmetic upkeep.”
The scuttlebutt on the Bravo Subreddit is that Aaron's parents and brother are living in Denise's home which is why they are renting. Also that Denise and Aaron are renting 3 apartments--one for them, one for Denise's OnlyFans content, and one for her daughters with Charlie.
I think she mentioned it on her show. I didn't watch, but read it on a recap or gossip blurb. It sounded insane. Like, is his whole family a bunch of grifters as well? Probably. Will they move out now that Aaron has filed for divorce? Will she be able to evict them? The whole thing is nuts.
Elizabeth Goudge’s Pilgrim Inn was a favorite of mine years ago. It’s part of a trilogy and was one of the few books at a mountain cabin we went to every year. Highly recommend if you like charming and messy British families with lovely scenery and surprising character development.
I jumped on to also plug for Pilgrims Inn! Gouge was very religious and fairly hidebound regarding women’s proper role in society…but she never wrote a character without layers or descibe an English country house Fug Nation wouldn’t love to move into.
Elizabeth Goudge has been one of my favorite writers since I came across her children's book Linnets and Valerians around the age of ten. I have nearly all her books and they're some of my favorite insomnia in the middle of the night reads. I agree that her religious faith and beliefs on women's roles in society are deeply ingrained in her writing (this is particularly evident in The Bird and the Tree, the book that precedes Pilgrim's Inn) but I very rarely feel as if she's preaching at me.
The one good thing I can say about the Vogue shoot is that it highlights two great exhibitions currently up in New York: Sargeant in Paris at the Met and Amy Sherald at the Whitney. If you are in town be sure to check them both out as soon as possible!
I was going to say! I was just at the Sargent exhibit last weekend, it's lovely. (And relevant to the Broads' interests since Sargent appeared in the first ep of S3 of The Gilded Age.) I hope to catch the Sherald exhibit at the Whitney before it closes!
Agreed. Its a really interesting concept but doing it with Anne Hathaway makes no sense. If one instead did it with someone who had a history of fascinating clothes that pushed boundaries, now that would be an interesting pairing with Madame X. But I dont know who that would be. Maybe Zendaya?
Jessica, Hunter Harris has a subscriber chat thread for Love Island, as does Rich Text (Claire and Emma from Love to See It/Here to make friends pod). I decided to make LI my whole personality this summer to deal with a truly shitty spring (I have never watched a single season before this), and it’s been a ride. I feel like the last episode finally had everything snap into place to what love island should be like? (Again, haven’t watched before) but there are only five or six episodes left. I’m hoping this is the equivalent of a sophomore slump (if we consider Ariana’s hosting gig as a “season 1”) and the next season will even out.
How does one spend $10,000 on groceries AND $15,000 on eating out in the same month?! Denise Richards was one of the protesting idiots on 30 Rock, and her exes prove that...she maybe wasn't acting? All of those expenses are insane.
Annie Leibowitz should have her camera forcibly removed. She is constantly doing terrible things to beautiful people.
$277/ meal isn't even the REALLY expensive type of sushi in L.A. and NYC, but I think those places also mostly don't do takeout/ delivery.
It's very easy to drop $500-$750 on an upscale meal these days (I mean, in terms of there being way too many restaurants at that price point, not that it's easy to afford), but that's STILL such a wild amount I assume it's the budget pad line for "cocaine, actually."
I recently got back from Italy, and we budgeted around $250 per DAY for food, shared between both my husband and I. We didn't come close to spending this, and we ate every single dinner out for 3 weeks.
I wonder if the groceries line also includes a personal chef? That's definitely one of the first luxury expenses I'd have if I were truly wealthy, a personal chef.
Just to get you started on Strange Fruit: yes, there is info about it in the archives of the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University. You'll need to scroll but you can find the listing here. https://archives.wayne.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/397957
And now to Anne Hathaway. I was interested to see her pop up as the Vogue cover because The Intern recently dropped on Netflix. It came out in 2015 and it has not held up particularly well. Anne's character is incredibly unsympathetic. She has zero people skills, essentially ignores her house husband, who cheats on her, and she's incredibly disorganized at her start up. I hope Robert De Niro got a big payday for being in it. This was Nancy Meyer's last movie; she's fine, but she gave up on film making after it.
I thought it was cute when I first saw it. The premise was good: retired exec teaches start up exec how to run a business. But it just seems dated now.
Ditto. I saw it on a plane relatively soon after its release and it wasn't particularly fun then. I have no idea why Netflix is currently pushing it so hard.
Yes! Each post has made me think about the way culture is such a feedback loop - like, the way people think and act affects which books they choose to read, but also, the popular books also influence how people think and act. If you wanted to get the vibe of a year, as an actor or writer or historian, the bestsellers would be a great way to start.
10k on groceries? My family of 4 spends about 200 a week and we eat *well* - and it's not like they are cooking for themselves! Also, 5k on laundry? Is it gold-plated?
*
Those pics of Anne Hathaway are miserable but also she can no longer actually move her face - has anyone seen the meme of her crying in a film now vs. 10 years ago - so it also tracks that she looks miserable as she cannot express anything!
For 5k, I hope it's a service where someone comes to your house and picks up the laundry from wherever it has fallen on the floor.
7k on childcare seems like an absolute steal compared to that!
5k on laundry killed me! What are they washing, money from his insane wellness grift??
It's beyond depressing. My full time annual salary would cover only his laundry and cell phone bills.
And why is his cell phone bill $500/month? Mine is $70.
If we can't stop Annie Leibowitz from taking terrible photos, can we at least take the terrible filters away from her? Confine her to black and white? (You used to be able to take good photos, Annie! That one of Keith Richards is burned into my brain for a reason! What happened?)
She did the portrait of my alma mater’s first female president and I really hate it. I finally saw it in person and it makes me cringe.
Oh that's so disappointing! It really boggles the mind how bad she's gotten.
Here’s the portrait: https://www.amherst.edu/news/news_releases/2022/december/unveiling-annie-leibovitz-s-portrait-of-biddy-martin
And here: https://www.amherst.edu/people/facstaff/bmartin is her photo on the side of being a professor.
Oh. Oh no. Why is Annie obsessed with people being lopsided? Why does she look like she's being buffeted by a storm? Why does she not look like herself???
I don't have great answers to either question, but it is what makes me hate it more. She looks so fake in the portrait!
And she has such a kind face in her photo, which is totally not reflected in the portrait.
Her hands look out of proportion, too.
And weirdly yellow tinged!
Wow. I have thoughts. First, her upper body does not match her lower body. No one sits like that. Second, because of both the upper body and the dark murkiness of the lower part, I had to find a high res photo and look closely to confirm that the subject in NOT sitting with legs spread wide open. It's kind of hilarious!
Yeah you're not wrong on both points. It's just frustrating.
I scrolled through those pictures, and I have a suspicion that Biddy feels the same way as you do about her portrait.
Sadly I can't ask her as she's not on campus much now, but I hope so.
Absolutely. She is looking at AL with some DEEP skepticism.
She looks like she’s on a pirate ship and has gangrene in her hands…
Oh my now I can’t unsee that!
I started watching this season of Love Island USA, excited to watch in real time but about a week or two in it became too toxic and I just couldn’t. LI is what I watch for silly fun, everyone is so unlikable this year. Everything I’ve read since quitting confirms my decision to stop.
That's similar to what happened to me last year with Perfect Match. Between the overly staged aspects of it and the neurotic personalities, I just felt icky.
They finally had a lighthearted episode yesterday that was very funny. FINALLY. —H
Luckily Love Island UK is now on Hulu, and it's, as usual, far superior. I'm loving some of the women.
LI USA is so weird. It's the final week and I don't think any of the couples even like each other all that much. And I totally think if Ace wins, he's taking all the money. I don't trust that man. I actually respect how well he's playing the game, but he's definitely playing :)
The U.K. version is so much better. Been a fan of that one for years.
I've not been watching LI USA, but I need people to know LI UK is killing it this year! Someone on Reddit said it was "loathe island" - none of the couples are working, and there are two disparate camps of the "girls." I am loving this season!
Yes! I also love that I can't tell what girls to root for. I feel like Emily IS annoying, but I also think Toni speaks like she was built in a Real Housewives lab. And I totally buy that Meg, Megan, and Helena are a mean girls clique. And they're all suuuper entertaining! I'm only on episode 16 or 17, but I've been binging it.
Yeah, there's something about Toni that irks. You may be on to something here!
Ace would absolutely keep it to himself.
Ooohh, I didn't even think of him taking all the money. If anyone would do it it would be him, but he would be even more reviled than he is now. Dare he risk it!
It's so weird because last season of USA (Season 6) was amazing (truly lightning in a bottle), while the UK was terrible -- for many of the reasons this season of USA sucks -- too many influencers, few of the connections felt truly genuine, no one to really root for, etc. UK is better this year fo sho but not as good as some previous seasons. It's truly all in the casting and producers needing to have a lighter hand. I could go on and on about what's not working on USA this year but I'll stop mahself!
Tom Lehrer wrote a song about Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel - https://genius.com/Tom-lehrer-alma-lyrics
I first read Forever Amber as a teenager - my mother's copy - and I love it. It's also, for better or worse, where most of my understanding of Restoration England comes from.
“Alma, tell us:
All modern women are jealous!
Though you didn't even use Pond's
You got Gustav and Walter and Franz”
Tom Lehrer is a national treasure. Far too often when helping my youngest with his homework I think of “New Math.”
I like to sing "The Elements" when I need to think of chemistry.
I think of 'Egypt's going to get one too just to use on you know who... Who's got the bomb'
My sibs and I used to perform Tom Lehrer songs for our parents (we were kind of extra in various ways) and "The Vatican Rag" was one of our favorites. Our parents were Vatican II-type Catholics and fairly liberal, but even so, they occasionally flinched at the "2 4 6 8, time to transubstantiate" line because it was just so saucy.
That was delightful!
https://youtu.be/3f72CTDe4-0?si=Gjby9RWbSsi7RW79
Ah, thanks for posting that! I'm sending it to all my sibs.
Tom Lehrer was teaching math at my alma mater, UC Santa Cruz, when i was there in the late '80s. He also taught one small, highly sought-after musical theater performance class per year (and famously wouldn't discuss his music with math students who wanted to bring it up).
Alma is one of my favorite songs from him!
Everything I know about Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel is from that Tom Lehrer song. My parents had "That Was the Year That Was" and we played it endlessly as kids, merrily singing along even though we didn't understand a lot of the references, hee.
A seminal album of my youth from my Mom's record collection--I absorbed way more about mid-20th century politics and anxieties than I would have any other way.
I just came here to say the very same thing! That book also sparked my interest in British history in general. But don’t waste time on the movie; even though Linda Darnell and Cornel Wilde were extremely beautiful, I think they were miscast. Or maybe it was because in 1947 they had to leave out all the good bits!
I also first read it as a teenager (it was my grandmother's copy) and loved it as well. To quote a sadly defunct British literary award, it's a thumping good read and perfect for a hot summer day.
Tom Lehrer is an intergenerational delight. I can still remember being introduced to Lehrer in school by a friend, bringing it home, and then my dad turning around and pulling out a copy of That Was The Year That Was that had belonged to HIS parents. Still (alarmingly) relevant 60 years later.
(Also responsible for me (age 13) asking my mom what “masochism” meant, but we won’t hold that against him)
Of all the Hathaway photos, I think the last in the dark blue trench is the weirdest one. Her body looks so awkward on that metal chair (which you can barely see) atop the rocks. Maybe it's because I'm reading murder mysteries these days, but I think she looks like a corpse. The composition is awkward too, and why is the lense focused on the embroidery of her coat (also the only part with value contrast), while we get a blur for her face?
About Hathaway herself, I'm not particularly a fan, but I have a soft spot for her and feel protective of her in light of haters. In her college years, she was buddies with a close friend of mine. I didn't know her, but she was already a big deal, and my friend was super dorky and lovable, and she was a good friend to him. Big points for that!
My immediate thought was MÜRDER bcz its looks like a murder scene in Central Park from a mystery I've read.
Even her expression looks at least half dead!
OK, if you’re spending $18,000 on rent each month, why on earth are you also spending $5,000 per month on REPAIRS?!? For $18K, a property shouldn’t need continual repairs, and if you are RENTING, you should not be financially responsible for said repairs - unless of course you are trashing the place on the regular and covering the damage. I suspect all these outrageous amounts actually fall under “drugs, and cosmetic upkeep.”
Right?! And I was thinking maybe car repairs, but "auto" is a separate line item! What the hell are these "repairs"??
Right?! I don't know Denise Richards' life, but I sense she will be better off without this dude.
The scuttlebutt on the Bravo Subreddit is that Aaron's parents and brother are living in Denise's home which is why they are renting. Also that Denise and Aaron are renting 3 apartments--one for them, one for Denise's OnlyFans content, and one for her daughters with Charlie.
Wait she had to rent because his family was in her home?!
I think she mentioned it on her show. I didn't watch, but read it on a recap or gossip blurb. It sounded insane. Like, is his whole family a bunch of grifters as well? Probably. Will they move out now that Aaron has filed for divorce? Will she be able to evict them? The whole thing is nuts.
Thank you. Came for this comment.
Elizabeth Goudge’s Pilgrim Inn was a favorite of mine years ago. It’s part of a trilogy and was one of the few books at a mountain cabin we went to every year. Highly recommend if you like charming and messy British families with lovely scenery and surprising character development.
I jumped on to also plug for Pilgrims Inn! Gouge was very religious and fairly hidebound regarding women’s proper role in society…but she never wrote a character without layers or descibe an English country house Fug Nation wouldn’t love to move into.
Elizabeth Goudge has been one of my favorite writers since I came across her children's book Linnets and Valerians around the age of ten. I have nearly all her books and they're some of my favorite insomnia in the middle of the night reads. I agree that her religious faith and beliefs on women's roles in society are deeply ingrained in her writing (this is particularly evident in The Bird and the Tree, the book that precedes Pilgrim's Inn) but I very rarely feel as if she's preaching at me.
The one good thing I can say about the Vogue shoot is that it highlights two great exhibitions currently up in New York: Sargeant in Paris at the Met and Amy Sherald at the Whitney. If you are in town be sure to check them both out as soon as possible!
The Sargeant one is so good! But that shot of Madame X is wrong on so many levels.
It's not a good shot, there's another one from the same exhibition that I like better.
I liked the whole vibe of that exhibit.
I was going to say! I was just at the Sargent exhibit last weekend, it's lovely. (And relevant to the Broads' interests since Sargent appeared in the first ep of S3 of The Gilded Age.) I hope to catch the Sherald exhibit at the Whitney before it closes!
Putting Ann in front of Madame X and thinking she can compare is a CHOICE!
Agreed. Its a really interesting concept but doing it with Anne Hathaway makes no sense. If one instead did it with someone who had a history of fascinating clothes that pushed boundaries, now that would be an interesting pairing with Madame X. But I dont know who that would be. Maybe Zendaya?
Like Anne looks like she could be Madame X but I think Zendaya is closer to the potential scandal. Not sure I can come up with a good comparison.
Jessica, Hunter Harris has a subscriber chat thread for Love Island, as does Rich Text (Claire and Emma from Love to See It/Here to make friends pod). I decided to make LI my whole personality this summer to deal with a truly shitty spring (I have never watched a single season before this), and it’s been a ride. I feel like the last episode finally had everything snap into place to what love island should be like? (Again, haven’t watched before) but there are only five or six episodes left. I’m hoping this is the equivalent of a sophomore slump (if we consider Ariana’s hosting gig as a “season 1”) and the next season will even out.
Last season is really good if you want another summer watch — season 6. -H
That’s my plan after this one! I didn’t want to have any expectations going in, lol.
Anne on the steps of the Met is giving me grown up Blair Waldorf vibes.
What are we repairing to the tune of $5k a month?
How does one spend $10,000 on groceries AND $15,000 on eating out in the same month?! Denise Richards was one of the protesting idiots on 30 Rock, and her exes prove that...she maybe wasn't acting? All of those expenses are insane.
Annie Leibowitz should have her camera forcibly removed. She is constantly doing terrible things to beautiful people.
Yeah, the math is not mathing. Assuming the numbers are correct, and a 30-day month, that's $277 PER MEAL budgeted. HOW?
Really expensive sushi all week?
Maybe I'm the wrong person to ask because for me $40 sushi is the expensive stuff lol
We are not on their level. I can imagine some LA or NYC spots with really expensive stuff.
A-A-Ron is also a wellness grifter. I can imagine him spending some serious coin each month on supplements and other "natural" foods from Erehwon.
Oh I can too! I had to get their membership fee reversed because I had no clue it was $100 off the bat.
$277/ meal isn't even the REALLY expensive type of sushi in L.A. and NYC, but I think those places also mostly don't do takeout/ delivery.
It's very easy to drop $500-$750 on an upscale meal these days (I mean, in terms of there being way too many restaurants at that price point, not that it's easy to afford), but that's STILL such a wild amount I assume it's the budget pad line for "cocaine, actually."
Yeah 277 on sushi feels like a mid range deal, but I think the most I drop is like $90.
You might be right on the coke.
I recently got back from Italy, and we budgeted around $250 per DAY for food, shared between both my husband and I. We didn't come close to spending this, and we ate every single dinner out for 3 weeks.
I wonder if the groceries line also includes a personal chef? That's definitely one of the first luxury expenses I'd have if I were truly wealthy, a personal chef.
Just to get you started on Strange Fruit: yes, there is info about it in the archives of the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University. You'll need to scroll but you can find the listing here. https://archives.wayne.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/397957
And now to Anne Hathaway. I was interested to see her pop up as the Vogue cover because The Intern recently dropped on Netflix. It came out in 2015 and it has not held up particularly well. Anne's character is incredibly unsympathetic. She has zero people skills, essentially ignores her house husband, who cheats on her, and she's incredibly disorganized at her start up. I hope Robert De Niro got a big payday for being in it. This was Nancy Meyer's last movie; she's fine, but she gave up on film making after it.
I saw The Intern in the theater when it came out and I'm pretty sure it was bad from the start....
I thought it was cute when I first saw it. The premise was good: retired exec teaches start up exec how to run a business. But it just seems dated now.
Ditto. I saw it on a plane relatively soon after its release and it wasn't particularly fun then. I have no idea why Netflix is currently pushing it so hard.
These little dives into summer bestsellers have been fascinating!
Yes! Each post has made me think about the way culture is such a feedback loop - like, the way people think and act affects which books they choose to read, but also, the popular books also influence how people think and act. If you wanted to get the vibe of a year, as an actor or writer or historian, the bestsellers would be a great way to start.