Dirt: Requiem for a Cake
Don't cry for me Betty Crocker...
Dirt is a daily email about entertainment.
Eliza Levinson returns twice a week to tell us what is going on in streaming and the metaverse.
As the days tick by and people continue to talk about Slapgate 2022, I’ve realized that maybe I should add a couple of thoughts I’ve had about the whole thing.
Just kidding … lol.
Anyway, when something Major happens in pop culture, the bad news for us is that it’s sort of a slow news week for everything else. Everyone’s really mad at Zoë Kravitz this week because she expressed judgment at the Academy via two Instagram posts for letting Will Smith still get his Oscar (she has since disabled comments on said posts.) On the bright side for her, there is apparently an ever-growing list of celebrities that people are mad at because they also expressed disapproval for Will Smith’s behavior. Unfortunately, I can no longer follow such news because it has the same effect on me as staring directly into the sun.
Some people are also upset with celebrities including Emily Ratajkowski, Kim Kardashian, Timothée Chalamet and Rosario Dawson (who once played labor organizer Dolores Huerta in film Cesar Chavez) for crossing a picket line in order to attend Jay-Z’s Oscar party at the Chateau Marmont. (Dawson has since argued that she did not cross the picket line due to technicalities over when, exactly, she arrived and whether the picket line was still active at that time.)
At one time – at least, according to my parents – everyone knew that “you just don’t cross a picket line.” I was surprised to hear that that was once widely-known dogma. Maybe I’m being too charitable, but maybe the celebrities – and the 2022 public – just don’t know about what crossing a picket line represents? Or – cover your ears, EmRata! – maybe they just don’t care?
I am very sorry to tell you that award season continues apace. The Grammys are going to be on Sunday, hosted by Trevor Noah and sans Kanye West. Nominees for Record of the Year include drivers license by Olivia Rodrigo, I Still Have Faith In You by ABBA, Kiss Me More by Doja Cat feat. SZA, Happier Than Ever by Billie Eilish and Montero (Call Me By Your Name) by Lil Nas X.
Saweeti, FINNEAS, Japanese Breakfast and Olivia Rodrigo are all nominated for Best New Artist.
Slaps aside, this week has been Kind Of Bananas for me personally because I’ve been working on a very emotionally taxing journalistic piece. After a day of alternating transcribing interviews and crying, I tucked my arms in at my sides and rolled into the uncanny valley that is Netflix’s IS IT CAKE?
Capgras delusion is a psychiatric condition in which someone believes that the people they love have been replaced with impostors. I have never experienced capgras delusion, which sounds very upsetting, but I have experienced a discomfiting level of irrational suspicion ensuant to watching Netflix’s Is It Cake?, an eerily-lit competition baking show hosted by a wan comedian my dad identified as “depressed.”
In the world of Is It Cake?, everyone, at some point or another, is faced with a series of hyper-realistic objects and forced to determine which of the objects is cake. Once they have entered the simulacrum, the successful guessers go on to bake their own hyper-realistic cakes to later masquerade as material objects for another set of guessers, a series of embedded unrealities not unlike an M.C. Escher sketch.
For some reason, Is It Cake? is awash in deep purple and blues and staged like a retro game show. This, paired with host Mikey Day’s transparent unenthusiasm, is made only more sinister because he is often holding a large knife (and in one case, a sword). Despite the show’s popularity – it’s now trending on Netflix’s Top 10 – I found Is It Cake? less like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and more that game show that Ellen Burstyn is addicted to in Requiem For A Dream.
The rapid-fire discussion to determine which object is cake disintegrates rapidly. “That looks too real,” says one judge, pointing to an actual bucket cap. “It’s too … perfect,” says another, pointing to an actual croissant. What does it mean?
My sister texted me this morning to say that she’s been watching Twin Peaks and everything in her neighborhood feels Lynchian now. That’s kind of how I feel after watching Is It Cake?
This week in NFT corner, I want to shout out web3 artist mcbess, who makes sick retro-looking B/W animations set to music that remind me of this 1932 Betty Boop cartoon of “Minnie the Moocher” accompanied by Cab Calloway (and animated by the incomparable Max Fleischer). mcbess has one collection of 10 NFTs on Foundation (all sold), and seems to mint new ones about once a week.
~Catch up on Dirt~
— Lucas Gelfond on BeReal, the social media app that urges its users to be as authentic as possible
— in Tuesday’s roundup, I bravely ask: is cinema dead, or did covid make me dumb?
— Daisy Alioto on gross-out comedy and Cat Cohen’s Netflix special, The Twist…? She’s Gorgeous
The Slap Ripples Ever Outward
— the Academy is reportedly investigating The Slap (you know the one), a process that will take “weeks.” Everyone in the Academy is very unhappy about the whole affair — though Chris Rock himself is nowhere to be found, ticket sales for upcoming Chris Rock shows ballooned “over 200%” following Slapgate — Chris Rock’s brother, Tony, denies P. Diddy’s claims that the comedian and Will Smith made up post-Slap — absolutely everyone has something to say about le Slap (that’s French for The Slap) (probably), from Jim Carrey to all of the late night hosts and even Alec Baldwin, who is probably glad we aren’t talking about him for once
Streaming news
— America’s sweetheart Julia Fox is working on a book. But it’s not just any book. It’s a masterpiece — Bruce Willis is retiring from acting — in exasperated tweets this week, Doja Cat responded to “Paraguayan fans and journalists [who] flooded her feed with hate messages.” The musician used phrases like “I quit” and “I’m out,” leading Paper Mag to ask, “Is Doja Cat Quitting Music?” — Blonde, a new Netflix biopic starring Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe, is set to be the streamer’s first-ever NC-17 film — Activison Blizzard settled a sexual harassment and retaliation suit filed against them by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for $18 million — in a since-deleted Instagram post, Britney Spears shades Justin Timberlake for using her for clout — Bottega Veneta revives a Warhol collaboration in their new campaign — mid-performance, Miley Cyrus referred to her marriage with ex Liam Hemsworth as a “fucking disaster” — Megan Thee Stallion made a TikTok of her Oscars (and after party) experience — iconic TikTok train enthusiast Francis Bourgeois runs into Rosalía mid-TikTok in Kings Cross (London) — Art imitates life: Elliot Page’s character in The Umbrella Academy will transition next season — the unfortunately gorgeous Ezra Miller was arrested this week for disorderly conduct in Hawaii — HBO Max is making a TV prequel to It — I know what I’ll be watching next week: Bridgerton breaks Netflix viewing records with the release of its second season — Gavin Leatherwood, who plays Nico on The Sex Lives of College Girls, will not be returning for season 2
Dispatches from the Metaverse
Change the Code, Not the Climate is a project from environmental orgs and funded by a crypto company Ripple Labs, Inc. They’re working to get Bitcoin to reduce its CO2 emissions, and the details are surprisingly complicated — Russian oligarchs who can’t stop stunting on social media get smacked with sanctions — NFT game Axie Infinity was robbed of $625 million by hackers this week, what The Verge calls “one of the largest ‘decentralized finance’ hacks yet” — sad you’ll never see that one TikTok you remember but never “liked” again? The app is reportedly creating a “watch history” feature — lawmakers are racing to pass the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, which is more colloquially known as an antitrust bill to crack down on the power held by companies like Meta, Amazon, Google, and Apple
Playlist
— Is It Cake? on Netflix — Twin Peaks on Amazon Prime — The Truman Show on Hulu — can’t watch Twin Peaks? Listen to this song which kinda feels like the same thing — memba when someone synced up the Twin Peaks theme and “Everytime” by Britney Spears? — “Everytime” by Britney Spears — I love frantically writing / breaking a sweat/ daydreaming abt raving in Berlin this summer / also sometimes getting a little scared to Club Qu’s playlists on Spotify — these besties on TikTok & shout out to my bestie Ruth who has covid this week ily girl — @FaveTikToks420 interviews performatively weeping TikToker Calvin Reef — a reader call on the most recent episode of The Read had me gasping out loud — By Eliza Levinson