Everything we canât stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture.
[Manage newsletters]( [View in browser]( [The logo for Daily Beast's Obsessed] Everything we canât stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture. with Kevin Fallon Everything we canât stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture. with Kevin Fallon This Week - The sure-to-be breakout of the [Traitors Season 3 cast](.
- The surprising biggest summer music festival star.
- A dispatch from a Bravo party.
- A majorly nostalgic throwback.
- God bless Dolly Parton. (Always.) The Second Coming of Dorinda Medley She cooked. She decorated. [She made it nice](. But did she murder? The biggest news in the pop culture world this week was the reveal of the Season 3 cast of [The Traitors](. Because the show cannonballed into the watercooler with its past season, which featured a 15 Minutes of Fame parade of reality TV stars in the cast, there was intense scrutiny and excitement over who Peacock might draft for its Season 3 roster. Which Real Housewives? How many [Survivor]( contestants? What absolutely random British politician? Host [Alan Cumming]( delivered the cast announcement as [only he could](âClueless by fashion, Shakespeare by elocutionâand the internet responded in kind: raving about how savvy and gloriously random the cast list is. There are the expected: six Bravo personalities, Boston Rob from Survivor, and perhaps reality TVâs most notorious personality at the moment, Tom Sandoval. And there are the WTF choices that this genre thrives on, like [Zac Efron](âs brother, Dylan, and [Britney Spears](â ex, Sam Asghari. But if you ask me (which nobody has), I can tell you who is the most thrilling addition to the Clue-esque series: none other than former [Real Housewives of New York City]( star Dorinda Medley. A show like The Traitors, in which the cast must figure out who among them is a âtraitorâ that can âkillâ one of them off each night, thrives in the very specific realm of what I call âsophisticated chaos.â Thatâs a delicate tightrope to walk, one on which most reality stars make the mistake of inelegantly trampling down. The misconception is that someone who is purely a loud, belligerent mess makes for good reality TV often poisons modern shows. A loud, belligerent mess that uncorks organically is beautiful entertainment; one that is either calculated or too disastrously unhinged is unwatchable. Dorinda Medley is the best kind of reality star because what she thinks sheâs presenting is at wild odds with her actual behavior. In most circumstances, Medley is a voice of reason, an intelligent and grounded person who serves as an audience surrogate because of her ability to rationalize and her level of taste. So when she, fairly reliably, becomes a slurring, intoxicated whirling dervish of screaming nonsense, itâs more fun than when other reality stars completely lose it. You expect them to be a disaster. When Medley unravels, itâs like youâre looking into a harrowing funhouse mirror: If someone as âtogetherâ as she is can become so unhinged, does that mean it could happen to me too? Worse: has it happened? That personality will make for perfect TV on a show like The Traitors. Sheâs someone who I can see brilliantly strategizing and breaking down the specifics of the game, which is a necessary element of the series. I can also see her completely losing her shit at the elimination table, concocting nonsensical rivalries, and, after a few wines, sloppily monologuing as if sheâs making the worldâs most salient point, only to sound like a sentient bottle of vodka. One of the reasons The Traitors exploded in popularity last year is because itâs a TV show perfectly positioned to produce moments that go viral. Forcing some of the most magnetic personalities in reality TV to execute humiliating tasks is one thing, but then requiring them to deliver speeches about why they donât trust each other is pop culture gold. Thatâs how we got moments like former Housewife Phaedra Parks [saying things like](, âI do too much because you do too little,â last year. Medley, who will arrive at the Scottish castle with an entire backlog of viral moments and memes from her time on Housewives, is poised to be the showâs successor to Parks. That The Traitors has a reach that expands far outside the Bravoverse means that an entirely new audience will be exposed to her penchant for inebriated poetry. Letâs just hope that production isnât stingy on the wine. How perfect is Medley for a show like The Traitors? Take a look at all these posts on social media that imagine exactly how Medleyâs time on The Traitors might unfold. Clearly, sheâs the fan favorite of the new cast, complete with some of the greatest hits of her RHONY memes. (Click on the images to watch the videos.)
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The Countess Global Takeover Itâs a good week to be a former [Real Housewives of New York City]( star. While the cast of the rebooted version of the Bravo reality series is currently filming in the Big Apple, alumni from the original run seem to be triumphing in their own rights. Dorinda Medley is destined to become a viral sensation in Season 3 of The Traitors, which just started shooting in Scotland. Sonja Morgan, âthe straw that serves the drink,â finally sold her Upper East Side townhouse [in an auction](. (If youâre a RHONY fan, you know what a years-long saga this has been. To put it in terms of a traditional narrative series, Sonja selling her townhouse is akin to Jim and Pam finally kissing in [The Office](, or Ross and Rachel getting back together in the [Friends]( finale. Weâve been waiting years for this moment, and itâs just as gratifying as those TV milestones.) But no graduate of the Bravo tentpole of fabulous lunacy is doing better right now than Luann de Lesseps. âThe Countess,â as sheâs knownâa title she held because of a past marriageâperformed at the Mighty Hoopla pop music festival in the UK. Suffice it to say, this is the first time a Real Housewife has performed at a music festival. Nelly Furtado, Jessie Ware, En Vogue, Eve, and Rita Ora were among the major acts on the lineup. That Luann de Lesseps was among those major names should seem like a joke. But it wasnât. It was barely even ironic. If you watch the videos of her performing, youâll see that it was a triumph.
Mighty Hoopla is a festival that raises awareness for issues facing the LGBTQ+ community, to the point where, when you Google it, one of the automated questions that the search engine pulls up is, âCan straight people go to Mighty Hoopla?â So, suffice it to say, the crowd there is the target audience for Countess Luannâs novelty pop songs and cheesy cabaret act. Still, it was wild to see this Real Housewife strut her way on stage to a crowd of thousands of fans at a legitimate music festival, all losing their minds in support of her and singing every word of her songs. You know itâs time for an intervention when you are about to seriously type the sentence âI am proudâ in relation to a Real Housewives star. And yet, I got a little teary seeing all the videos of Luannâs performance. She turned a music career that was very much a sillyâalbeit entertainingâjoke into a legitimate act. My only disappointment is that sheâs no longer on the Bravo series, so there werenât cameras capturing the moment. A MESSAGE FROM LULULEMON Fatherâs Day is quickly approaching (6/16). Donât procrastinate! Check âget dad a great giftâ off your list today with lululemon, so youâre not stressing out at the last minute. From sleek windbreakers to casual pants to stylish athleisure, lululemon has something for all the do-it-all dads out there. Order by 6/11 to guarantee your gift arrives in time. [Click here to find curated picks dad will wear for years to come.]( I Watched What Happened Live The intention wasnât for this weekâs newsletter to be so Bravo-focused, but then again, my intention is never for anything to be entirely [Bravo](-focusedâbefore I spend every brunch, cocktail party (wedding reception, birthday celebration, Bar Mitzvah, funeralâ¦) talking exclusively to anyone who will listen about Bravo. I attended a party this week celebrating the 15th anniversary of [Andy Cohen](âs Bravo talk show Watch What Happens Live, which had a clever guest list: All the Bravolebrities in attendance were ones who had appeared on the show at least 15 times. Among the people at the party were [Real Housewives of Salt Lake City]( stars Heather Gay and Whitney Rose, [Summer House]( stars Carl Radke and Kyle Cooke, and [Vanderpump Rules]( favorite Scheana Shay. Both feuding [Real Housewives of New Jersey]( sisters-in-law Teresa Giudice and Melissa Gorga were thereâPresidential Medals of Freedom are owed to the Bravo publicists who worked to keep them on opposite sides of the party the entire night. Iâve long championed the series as the most fun late-night show on TV, with merits that go far beyond just being a boozy dish session with game celebs; more than most series in the genre, WWHL manages to break real news because the guests are so willing to answer the cheekier, gossipy questions Cohen has no qualms asking. So I was tickled by what Cohen had to say in his speech at the party: âWe have kept this show as stupid as we possibly could. We have a Watch What Happens Live glory hole. We have a gay shark. We have referenced poppers more than any other late-night show. This is what we do.â Bless him for that. Oh Happy Day There are certain movies that are indisputably perfect, and Sister Act is one of them. This isnât me trying to mischievously piss off cinephiles. Itâs objectively true: It has an immaculately structured screenplay, a supernova lead performance from [Whoopi Goldberg](, and an impeccable sense of tone. A lot of Gen X-ers and millennials nostalgically champion Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit because of the music, but the original is flawless. With that preamble out of the way, it was a treat this week to learn that Goldberg had reunited members of that Sister Act 2 cast to sing one of those memorable numbers to commemorate the filmâs 30th anniversary. Will I admit to getting a little misty in the eyes when the original actors sang âOh Happy Day,â as Goldberg beamed at them with pride? No, absolutely not. Definitely didnât happen. [[ratio] ]( Finally, Something Nice It was announced this week that Dolly Parton will be creating her own [collection of wine]( and will also be collaborating on a [Broadway musical]( about her life, and nice things like this happening that are tailored specifically to greatest interests is how I know that God is real. More From The Daily Beastâs Obsessed There is a Love is Blind mobile game (?), and it is apparently really good (???). [Read more](. If youâre not watching Interview With the Vampire, youâre missing out on one of the hottest shows on TV. [Read more](. Why is everyone so giddy about J.Loâs personal and professional setbacks? [Read more](. [See This] - Perfect Match: We stan a reality show that knows and perfects [the trash TV formula](. (Now on Netflix)
- Queer Planet: Did you know that pretty much every animal [is a flaming homo](? (Now on Peacock)
- Hit Man: Glen Powell is officially our [next great movie star](. (Now on Netflix) [Skip This] - The Watchers: The directorial debut of M. Night Shyamalanâs daughter [doesnât make a great case]( for nepo babies. (Now in theaters) - Am I OK?: It's never a good day to make a movie that, if critics donât like it, they can turn it into [a pun in a headline](. (Now on Max) - The Acolyte: This new Star Wars prequel is a $180 million [waste of time](. (Now on Disney+) Like our take on what to watch?
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