Hey guys! Hannah here with your weekly pop culture recap. Here's everything the internet was talking about this week that you might've missed!
Spoilers for life ahead, I guess.
1. Tayor Swift announced and released her ninth studio album, Evermore, a sister album to Folklore. Spoiler alert: it's good.
Ever since I was 13, I’ve been excited about turning 31 because it’s my lucky number backwards, which is why I wanted to surprise you with this now. You’ve all been so caring, supportive and thoughtful on my birthdays and so this time I thought I would give you something!
Some of the lyrics referenced the infamous Kim/Kanye/Taylor feud, while other tracks included some assistance from boyfriend-turned-collaborator Joe Alwyn. Earlier this week, she also opened up about Folklore, saying the saddest tracks were about Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta, and discussed her process for writing the love triangle songs.
2. Olivia Jade went on Red Table Talk to discuss the college admissions scandal, and did alright.
3. Ellen DeGeneres tested positive for the coronavirus, shutting down production of her show until after the holidays.
This shutdown is especially noteworthy, as Ellen's Christmas giveaways are one of the most well-known parts of the show. Ellen has stated she's feeling fine and quarantining.
4. In other celeb coronavirus news: Bill Nye went viral on TikTok for shutting down anti-maskers, the Kardashians canceled their holiday events, and Taylor Swift spoke out against people not following CDC guidelines.
5. Disney+ announced a ton of new Marvel and Star Wars series — and the trailer for Loki finally dropped!
View this video on YouTube
Among the announced Marvel series were a Guardians of the Galaxy 2022 holiday special, Armor Wars with Don Cheadle's War Machine, and Secret Invasion with Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury. Among the announced Star Wars series were Rangers of the New Republic and Ahsoka, with Rosario Dawson playing the titular character, both of which will tie into The Mandalorian.
6. Disney also announced new Disney films, series, and shorts, including Enchanted sequel Disenchanted, which will see Amy Adams reprise her role as Giselle.
Just Announced: @DisneyAnimation’s first-ever original animated series are coming to @DisneyPlus: Baymax!, Zootopia+, and Tiana are coming in 2022, and Moana, the series, in 2023.
They also announced Sister Act 3 with Whoopi Goldberg, and a series for both Tiana from Princess and the Frog and Moana from Moana! There were casting announcements as well, like Daveed Diggs as Sebastian in the upcoming The Little Mermaid. Click the tweet above to follow the full thread of their announcements on Twitter.
7. Among these films was a Buzz Lightyear project, with Disney revealing Chris Evans would voice Buzz Lightyear.
Blasting into theaters June 17, 2022, Lightyear is the definitive story of the original Buzz Lightyear. Voiced by @ChrisEvans, get ready to go to “infinity and beyond” with Lightyear. 🚀 👨🚀
Chris came on Twitter to express his excitement, also letting us know that "This isn’t Buzz Lightyear the toy. This is the origin story of the human Buzz Lightyear that the toy is based on."
8. And the final piece of news from the Disney investor event — the Kardashians just signed a deal with Hulu to produce new content.
9. A special episode of Euphoria aired, The Princess Switch: Switched Again and The Prom came out, and Selena: The Series became the No. 1 show on Netflix.
10. The MTV Movie and TV Awards, which were hosted by Vanessa Hudgens, aired Sunday night. They featured a noteworthy performance from Steve Aoki and gave out awards for the "greatest of all time" pop culture stars.
11. The awards also paid tribute to late actor Chadwick Boseman, with Don Cheadle and Robert Downey Jr. giving a speech about the star and how special he was.
12. Ben became even more of a fan favorite on this week's episode of The Bachelorette, when he opened up about his mental health.
13. The Grammys backlash continued, with Tiffany Haddish calling them out for asking her to host the pre-show without payment.
14. In other Cardi B news — there was a whole lot of drama after Cardi tweeted asking her followers if she should buy an $88,000 purse.
Cardi. Pls stop sis. I beg of you. We’re in a pandemic with high unemployment and ppl in food lines. Do not compare ppl finding a lil joy in a $500 gaming system and you talking about a purse that costs more than the avg family makes in a year. Log off and stop being goofy. https://t.co/igxseiZpt1
A lot of people found the tweet insensitive considering the current global pandemic and economic crisis. Cardi responded by posting screenshots of an article about her donations to struggling fans and medical staff. She then set up a challenge where she asked people to send proof of their donations this year to her, and she'd match them. In the end, she apologized — but did end up buying the bag.
15. A LOT of celebs talked about body image this week, including Lizzo, Mindy Kaling, Lena Dunham, Serena Williams, and Kelly Clarkson.
16. Speaking of Kelly Clarkson — she just filed a fraud claim against ex-husband Brandon Blackstock.
17. Miley Cyrus was VERY active on TikTok, becoming part of a trend where people make videos saying they'll do something like talk to their crush or get married if she comments.
18. And Chrissy Teigen and John Legend were, as usual, active on social media. Their week included a thirsty comment John left on Chrissy's Instagram, a dead hamster, and a family photo shoot that didn't go according to plan.
Family shoot went...right as I thought it would, actually
To recap: Chrissy posted a picture captioned "fuck it!", to which John replied, "Don't mind if I do." Peanut Butter the hamster died (and was replaced), and Miles was not too happy to have his photo taken.
20. Pete Davidson made waves on SNL this week with a spot-on impression of Eminem (that Eminem himself got in on) and his discovery of a vibrator with his face on it, which promptly sold out.
21. Jenny Slate, Christina Milian, and Victoria Monét all announced their pregnancies.
22. The existence of aliens was "confirmed" by Israel's former head of space security, and people on Twitter had all the jokes.
humans: can we meet the aliens yet the galactic federation:
The Jerusalem Post published an article in which the former head of Israel's space security program, Haim Eshed, claimed that aliens exist and have been in contact with not only Israel, but also the US. Allegedly, Trump knows of their existence, and was urged by them not to tell the world because we're not ready.
23. Any finally, Ryan Reynolds both roasted and was roasted this week.
Permission to frame this? Or turn it into a billboard? https://t.co/7IBKDYgSKu
Known for his longtime "feud" with Hugh Jackman, Ryan responded Thursday to someone who had covered Hugh's Walk of Fame star with Ryan's gin. Also this week, Blake Lively playfully roasted her husband, calling four dessert dishes her "four favorite things from Vancouver" (notably leaving her husband off the list).
For more you might've missed this week, check out celeb tweets of the week, celeb #tbt photos of the week, TV moments from this week, and Latinx celeb photos from this week.
See you next week!