Culture Club - The Hudson Williams’ Double Standard, Zendaya’s Private Jetted Dress & AI In Media

00:00:00.000 Hudson Williams' paparazzi blow-up, Zendaya's private jet dress, and another AI gaffe.

00:00:10.840 I'm Maggie Zhao.

00:00:11.960 And I'm Jasmine Wallace.

00:00:13.400 And you're listening to Culture Club, where true writers and editors analyse pop culture,

00:00:18.060 the internet, and the arts.

00:00:19.880 Today we're on the land of the Wurundjeri Wurrung people of the Kulin Nations.

00:00:24.020 We would like to pay respects to elders past and present and extend this to any Aboriginal

00:00:29.180 or Torres Strait Islander listeners today. 0.84

00:00:35.640 Jazz, the silliest thing happened to me today.

00:00:39.760 What?

00:00:40.420 I burp pooed on my hair as I was walking down the street.

00:00:44.600 I just feel this blop and then this wet thing

00:00:47.360 and also not the first time it's happened to me.

00:00:49.440 Well, they say it's good luck.

00:00:50.560 They say it's good luck.

00:00:51.660 Is it only if it lands on your shoulder?

00:00:53.240 It's good luck or anywhere?

00:00:54.620 I haven't heard that.

00:00:55.420 I just heard it was good luck full stop.

00:00:57.140 But I wonder if that's just people saying that

00:00:59.020 because you've just been shut on by a bird.

00:01:01.040 I will take the good luck.

00:01:02.660 Thank you very much, bird.

00:01:04.120 Your hair looks good though.

00:01:05.160 Thank you.

00:01:06.080 And I just got it done yesterday, like a little blowout thing yesterday.

00:01:09.460 So I was like, please, no.

00:01:11.140 Did you just wipe it out?

00:01:12.460 Kind of.

00:01:13.160 I was with a friend, so she used her tissue, wiped it out,

00:01:15.720 went back into the office bathrooms, like put water through it.

00:01:18.540 You might have seen me at the tables.

00:01:19.720 I keep like kind of scraping my hand through it.

00:01:22.640 I thought you were just like really self-conscious about like your hair today.

00:01:26.720 no apparently um she said it was a tiny poo so it's okay and it was just like the white 0.65

00:01:33.440 sorry okay just drop people straight into that well i have to live breakfast i have to live 0.62

00:01:41.460 through it you don't you're just listening to it we were chatting this morning as well because

00:01:45.300 you're actually going away again soon i feel like every two months it's like you're going away where

00:01:50.240 are you going so tell listeners what you're traveling to next yes so very soon i am going

00:01:56.200 to be traveling to Europe. I'm going on a press trip that will be taking place in London. And

00:02:02.240 after that, I'll be extending the trip. I'm going to Copenhagen and hopefully going to Copenhagen

00:02:07.460 Fashion Week, pending if anyone lets me in. But I'll be there. And then I'm also going to Amsterdam.

00:02:14.340 So it'll be a three week trip. What are you doing in Amsterdam? Just sussing the vibes, having fun.

00:02:20.100 Nothing's too much on the agenda. I have a couple of friends that live there. So going there. Oh,

00:02:24.960 oh, maybe I can finally go to the Miffy Museum because last time,

00:02:27.900 can you believe it, it was closed under construction

00:02:31.020 and Miffy is honestly one of my favourite things in life.

00:02:34.680 So you can go back and it will be even better.

00:02:36.760 Also this weekend before you go jet setting off,

00:02:40.440 we are going on a book club retreat. 0.93

00:02:43.600 Sounds much more bougie than it is. 1.00

00:02:46.560 We're just renting a house in Mount Dandenong. 0.91

00:02:49.600 So two years ago we actually went on another book club retreat,

00:02:53.420 which is just like you know again a private book club with eight other girls or so and we just

00:02:59.220 spend a nice little weekend out in the country we cook dinner last time we were like knitting and

00:03:05.500 doing puzzles and playing games I don't know if we have any games like locked in yet do we

00:03:12.880 oh my god well I'll tell you um I have made a quiz for us that's my love language everyone's so

00:03:19.440 freaking cute like one girl text the other day being like I'm making peanut butter cookies

00:03:24.640 and then someone's like what stickers does everyone like do you like circle stickers

00:03:28.840 or square stickers I feel like the worst because I'm not like crafty like I have to really like

00:03:34.540 I don't have any hobbies or skills that naturally I would just be like oh yeah I'll just do that off

00:03:38.080 top of my head so I'm like oh everyone's like it's like a talent show you can bring the vibes

00:03:44.020 on the weekend oh just be dj okay yes your favorite self-appointed position i also saw

00:03:51.640 that you went to a winter solstice party over the weekend it's a bit belated but it looked very

00:03:56.980 cool what what happened there we actually haven't spoken about it offline well yeah subsac got a

00:04:03.260 sneak peek because i teased it in a previous entry that this was happening so my friend this is the

00:04:09.640 second time she's thrown a winter solstice party and I think for the second time it's not on the

00:04:14.740 solstice it was like two weeks late but we get the vibe and it was very fun it was a witchy

00:04:20.080 like chic dark moody vibe she had a pinterest board and everything that she sent through

00:04:25.740 and then she loves like set designing so when you walk into her front room um she had like a tarot

00:04:32.480 card reading tent where she draped some like fabric and then it was like a little table in

00:04:36.840 there with some candles and then through the space I mean there was just like gorgeous snacks

00:04:43.240 there was mulled wine I'm so into mulled wine so that was very good and I even put on some press

00:04:48.920 on nails which I have never done I don't think and I felt like a new person they were so long

00:04:53.880 I felt so hot and sexy and then that night I had to like rip them off because I was so uncomfortable

00:04:58.920 where did you get the nails from um some of the other girls bought them from the chemist and then

00:05:03.020 I stinged off them I feel like you might actually have the most like whimsical friends in Melbourne

00:05:08.720 like every weekend every week you're like some like organized fun event it's always so wholesome

00:05:16.260 and you know what you've got to be the change you want to see in the world you got to start first

00:05:20.880 you know just throw a little something something and then that energy will come your way you got

00:05:25.480 to give to take

00:05:33.020 heated rivalry actor Hudson Williams has been hounded by Paris paparazzi and he is fed up

00:05:43.040 this was a viral video that we saw in the last week oh my goodness did you watch this I actually

00:05:49.040 been pretty offline this week so I didn't see this um I saw a headline but I didn't watch the video

00:05:54.080 what actually happens in the video okay so Hudson Williams is like getting out of the car going to

00:05:59.440 his residence in Paris and he's being like surrounded by some people who resell autographs

00:06:06.320 okay so like no one is like autograph hounds and he was actually filmed on Meta AI glasses so this

00:06:12.620 is a video that's been making the rounds and you can tell in this video he's like so fed up he

00:06:17.920 actually attempts to burn one of the photos oh my god it's actually it's a little bit it's like

00:06:22.260 it's secondhand embarrassment because he can't but he like rubs one of the film photos of him

00:06:27.060 from the people's hands and he like tries to burn it with a lighter like multiple times

00:06:31.500 and it doesn't catch because it's a plastic or something we're gonna actually play a clip

00:06:35.200 of the video that's uh doing the rounds

00:06:37.580 guys you just followed me to my residence no okay no sorry you can't do this this is really 0.95

00:06:46.480 fucking weird okay you can't fucking do this this is fucking weird you guys aren't fans you're being 0.99

00:06:52.800 really creepy and you just follow me okay you don't do this you don't do this i'm gonna burn 1.00

00:06:59.380 this at home thank you so please fucking leave me okay well he says i'm gonna burn this at home 0.98

00:07:04.120 so hudson obviously has blown up recently because he plays the canadian shane hollander from the 0.98

00:07:09.700 massive heated rivalry series i can't imagine zendaya or ella bright from off campus anyone

00:07:15.760 like that at the moment saying those words to paparazzi as a woman and not making massive 0.85

00:07:23.040 massive headlines yes this is made headlines but it feels quite small in comparison to if a woman

00:07:28.340 did it oh yeah and all the headlines that have come out of this are people praising Hudson for

00:07:33.720 this they're really backing him and being like yeah like stand your ground like as you should

00:07:38.020 they should not be like this and can we just compare this to what happened with Chapel Rhone

00:07:43.540 also in paris also with this autograph resellers back literally just in march a post by instagram

00:07:50.840 user and life coach at susan hyatt has also gone viral for pointing this out at the time of

00:07:56.720 recording the post has had a quarter of a million likes in two days and it points out the gender

00:08:01.580 difference of how we as society as media respond when a woman like quote claps back a paparazzi

00:08:09.300 versus when a man does it and i just think it's really stark and i guess you would say that chapel

00:08:14.620 and hudson are comparable like gen z like really popular at the moment blew up quite quickly as

00:08:20.120 well i know chapel run was grinding it out for years and years and years but when she did make

00:08:24.120 it she made it really big we didn't actually talk about this incident at the time i think we didn't

00:08:29.200 really want to put extra eyeballs on it in the sense of like what she was doing i think was

00:08:36.200 completely fine and she was just copying so much slack for the way that she responded what's very

00:08:42.460 telling is that when i was getting this clip up that will play in a second and on tiktok the

00:08:47.940 search bar wrote chapel roan and do you know what it came up with as a suggested search it said

00:08:52.760 yelling at paparazzi i was like girl did not yell and we'll play it for you

00:08:58.240 so i'm just trying to go to dinner and i've asked these people several times to get away from me

00:09:02.920 Step to the side, step to the side.

00:09:04.480 This person I've asked several times to go away, and they will not.

00:09:07.800 They're hiding my face because they're ashamed.

00:09:10.180 Because I've asked them.

00:09:11.920 These are all the people that are completely disregarding all of my boundaries. 0.96

00:09:18.760 My first time to see you, Shafen. 0.98

00:09:20.440 So this is, then go away. 1.00

00:09:22.120 Happy to see you.

00:09:22.680 So all of you, I'm asking you kindly to please leave me alone and stop following me, harassing me.

00:09:30.860 Can you just sign, Shafen?

00:09:32.060 i think that just shows how women are socialized too like you have to be very calm because if 0.92

00:09:40.440 you're like if you show anger or any sort of emotion like that you would she would be well

00:09:45.080 she has been branded as like quote-unquote hysterical um yet men are able to have a

00:09:52.100 literal lighter try to burn someone else's like belongings whether it's yes it's a photo of him

00:09:56.780 and they're praised I think it's just really really stark they're both in the right for like

00:10:02.160 defending themselves like clearly Hudson in that video is very shaky he's like clearly very

00:10:06.280 uncomfortable but I think it's so obvious the way the media and social media is treating men versus

00:10:12.320 women. This past week, Australian Marie Claire was called out on the global stage for a bit of

00:10:27.900 an AI gaffe. We saw this first on eggs and there was a screenshot of the article that was going

00:10:36.180 around because there was a paragraph left in the body copy that was totally not meant to be there.

00:10:42.320 The article was an explainer on all of the characters

00:10:45.000 from The Odyssey, which is a massive, massive task

00:10:48.580 as I was doing the notes this morning,

00:10:51.120 which we'll talk about later.

00:10:54.520 But in this particular article, a certain part was left included,

00:10:58.660 which said, this version feels a little tighter

00:11:01.180 and more magazine style and embracing his villain era

00:11:04.480 lands more naturally than stepping into his villainous arc.

00:11:08.900 I died.

00:11:09.400 My stomach dropped.

00:11:10.640 like I did send this to you straight away because I was like oh I was mostly shocked to see that an

00:11:15.500 Australian publication was being spoken about on social media like this it just ended up picking

00:11:21.140 up more traction at the time I sent it to you I actually checked if the article was still live

00:11:25.680 and I saw that it was just with that paragraph removed but after some time the article was like

00:11:32.440 now has since been deleted I think when you sent the link and we were chatting about it it was more

00:11:36.320 like oh this is like local industry like what's going on in our industry in australia but then we

00:11:41.620 saw that it was on saint hoax which has 3.4 million instagram followers and is like a pop culture

00:11:48.180 news site we were like oh no like this is really really gone global now independent australian

00:11:55.760 media company crikey reported on this through their daily news column called the snoop

00:12:00.480 and they got intel that AI is widespread and regular at Marie Claire Australia so apparently

00:12:07.920 sources close to this weren't surprised. A spokesperson for their parent company Our Media

00:12:13.360 did respond with a statement and they said yesterday an article was published on Marie

00:12:19.340 Claire Australia which included an AI prompt that the reporter had used to help refine the wording

00:12:24.500 of the piece, which is in line with our media's AI policy. There was no breach of our AI policies

00:12:30.420 by the reporter. To be clear, Marie Claire Australia's editorial content is commissioned,

00:12:35.400 edited and published by our talented team of journalists. This also isn't the first time this

00:12:39.600 has happened to journalists and publications. At Bristol Live, which is a Bristol news site,

00:12:45.940 one reporter left the chat GBT instructions on a social post saying, since you didn't include

00:12:52.780 specific instructions with this text I've gone ahead and rewritten it into a punchy scannable

00:12:57.360 format based on our previous tasks this happened in the same two weeks as well so this is becoming

00:13:02.360 very common we didn't bring this up to like bitch about it if we can be transparent obviously this 0.52

00:13:09.080 isn't a great look and no one wants to be put into this position but I think we wanted to bring it up

00:13:14.940 because like we know what it's like to be in the Australian media industry when redundancies are

00:13:20.580 rife when outputs are still high and AI is being like pushed down our throats I'm literally like

00:13:27.640 nodding non-stop because I was seeing quite a lot it was a lot of other international journalists

00:13:33.480 and then a lot of people who want to be writers and want to be in the media on Twitter and

00:13:38.240 Substack etc a lot of them like I dream of working for publications like this like I would never use

00:13:44.660 AI you and I don't use AI in our writing but like you said we know what it's like to work at this

00:13:51.500 pace and we've seen newsrooms across the country stripped of so many staff yet there's still so

00:13:58.040 much pressure on media editors writers to output the same amount so it's basically like we're doing

00:14:04.180 the same sometimes more with less and as a result of that it's like the systems I think a lot of

00:14:10.480 People were like going for this journalist and the publication itself, Marie Claire,

00:14:15.660 but it's more about the system.

00:14:17.840 It's systemic in the industry.

00:14:19.780 So this is just going to happen more and more and more.

00:14:21.900 And I don't think it's fair for other people to be like, oh, I would never like hire me

00:14:26.440 instead or like I dream of this.

00:14:28.660 It's like unless you're in the inside of the four walls, like you actually don't know

00:14:32.600 how many stories writers like this are pumping out per day.

00:14:37.020 I think a great comment that was left under the tweet about the Bristol Live example

00:14:43.320 was this. Unfortunately, this sort of thing will happen when reporters are put under immense stress

00:14:49.780 to write and replicate stories and newsroom cuts continue to happen all over the shop.

00:14:55.220 I'm sure none of these people want to be working like this. Yes, like sometimes you hear from older

00:15:01.680 journalists in the industry or you read books from like really legacy editors and they're like,

00:15:06.780 I was given 20 grand. This is totally just like off to my head, but like I was given thousands

00:15:12.200 of dollars and I had six months to produce like one Rolling Stone feature. Do you guys want to

00:15:18.600 know how many Rolling Stone features I'm writing a week? This is not the era of Joan Didion getting

00:15:24.220 paid three grand to write one Vogue feature and getting gifted six months off to write

00:15:30.740 slouching towards Bethlehem. This is 2026 and the owners of these publications, the Rupert Murdochs,

00:15:40.180 the James Packers, et cetera, they are just trying to squeeze as much as they can. And I know that

00:15:46.740 the people who got these jobs, they care so much. Like if you, you don't become a writer for the

00:15:52.840 money, like you become a writer or an editor because you love telling stories. You want to

00:15:58.580 interview people like you're a communicator you don't do it for the pay and so these people are

00:16:04.840 really overworked already and they are just using the tools that a lot of companies are like giving

00:16:10.320 to them being like here use this tool to make you work faster and when you're working at that pace

00:16:15.720 things like this are going to happen so true and like if you want to support journalism perhaps

00:16:21.160 pay and support independent journalism like when is the last time that some of these detractors

00:16:26.200 have paid to read behind a paywall you know we've been talking about ai a lot recently but there is

00:16:31.840 actually finally one positive update finally one i we added this to the notes because i made a

00:16:40.180 post about it earlier in the week uh it was around meta's ai feature called muse image this feature

00:16:47.700 allow people to generate ai images out of people's public instagram accounts they've already removed

00:16:53.220 it because of the public outcry which is great so it was a crazy tool it just was like added to

00:16:59.280 everyone's if you have a public account it was just added to your account automatically I went

00:17:03.300 in and figured out how well I learned how to turn off from a journalistic site I reshared how to do

00:17:08.060 it people were like this is a fucked tool basically why are we just like letting meta take these

00:17:14.200 images and then you can like imagine if someone had like I don't know been like I want to look 0.72

00:17:18.900 like maggie or like i want to wear an outfit that's thrifted like maggie would wear make me

00:17:25.720 look like ye mags can i just yeah mags by the way so sorry i've got to correct my pronunciation of

00:17:31.120 my instagram handle my thing though is that when you post to a public platform like instagram and

00:17:38.000 meta they own your content they already own your content there is nothing stopping other people

00:17:43.160 to still use your images on ai sites i totally get that this is a step further where it's inbuilt

00:17:50.640 into the platform but i hope even though that this is a win not to have a negative turn on it

00:17:56.920 that's people could still be like uh ai uh like make me a photo with jasmine wallace and me

00:18:02.980 holding hands like at like you know at a cafe or whatever totally you know what i mean once like

00:18:08.560 i had to google something about us or i can't remember it wasn't on ai it was like on google

00:18:12.960 and i think i just google culture club something and it was like culture club is a podcast by

00:18:18.940 jasmine esky it called me jasmine esky because my instagram name is jasmine e sky and yeah mags

00:18:27.540 like jasmine esky and yeah it was like so wrong it's probably right now it's probably like

00:18:32.280 figured it out but after the public outcry meta has removed it they said our intent was to provide

00:18:37.780 a useful creative tool and to give people control over whether their public content could be

00:18:42.120 reference in this way we've heard the feedback that this feature missed the mark so it's no

00:18:45.880 longer available and this is proof that our words and our actions have power we literally shamed

00:18:51.940 them out of this yeah that's why it's so nice to like actually be like within 48 hours it was like

00:18:57.860 oh cool that's gone now and i think sometimes it feels like ai is very like everyone's saying like

00:19:03.640 oh it's inevitable like you just got to get used to it but i think it's important to still keep

00:19:08.000 talking about what things you don't like about it or at least like alerting other people to them

00:19:12.700 be like by the way if you use this thing or if you have a public account this is what's going

00:19:15.960 to happen like i think it is important yeah bring back public shaming i want to throw tomatoes at

00:19:21.500 zendaya has truly been stunning on red carpets for the odyssey press tour

00:19:38.960 i don't think we expected anything less after her challenges method dressing like she was 0.94

00:19:44.740 literally wearing tennis balls out on red carpets and for the odyssey she has like really stepped 0.98

00:19:50.180 it up. I can't get some of her makeup looks out of my mind. But before we dive into all of that,

00:19:55.960 let's talk about the Odyssey. So the Odyssey is an adaptation of one of the two major epics of

00:20:01.560 ancient Greek literature. It's attributed to Homer, who was an ancient Greek poet. The other

00:20:06.320 one of Homer's epics is the Iliad. Christopher Nolan is directing and has written the film and

00:20:13.460 it's a massive massive epic film the books themselves are massive okay the odyssey is

00:20:20.300 divided into 24 books and let's be real jaz and i have not read these books we didn't know too much

00:20:27.840 about it i feel like in the lead-up of this movie i have been like cluing in a little bit more

00:20:32.980 we'll also say the australian podcast hot history has done a whole episode dedicated to this if you

00:20:39.000 want to dive in further we're going to take you through like a brief synopsis of this movie but

00:20:44.140 i think i explained it to you really well jazz when i said it's this guy and his name is odysseus

00:20:52.360 and he's like the king and it's about him like returning home like he's trying to get home after

00:20:57.440 the war but his wife and son don't know if he's alive and then he has to go through all these

00:21:00.980 challenges i think that sums it up yeah that sums it up you didn't say it as distinctly when you

00:21:07.640 you were like you were like it's about like you didn't say like oh it's about this king

00:21:14.340 and something about homer and like as a journey you did not say i succinctly in my head i was

00:21:20.600 locked in and i was like amazing and i was like oh okay i'm just gonna do my own research now

00:21:25.360 yeah also like any history majors greek literature majors like don't laugh at us that we're like

00:21:32.200 top level obviously we know a few names of greek literature but yeah not experts oh yeah

00:21:38.680 passy jackson i grew up with that shit okay let's go both of these stories are the foundations of

00:21:46.460 ancient greek literature which is crazy so it's one of the oldest surviving pieces of literature 0.99

00:21:51.620 in the whole world it's alleged it was composed around the 7th or 8th century bc crazy crazy

00:21:58.100 crazy so you did sum up the synopsis very well at the top there the journey home though that takes

00:22:05.620 10 years so this king the king odysseus has been away for 10 years as part of the trojan war

00:22:13.020 and then he's coming back to his kingdom of ithaca and that takes 10 years to get back and

00:22:19.060 during those 10 years he encounters many perils like battling mythical monsters a hostile sea god

00:22:25.680 and there's also the temptation of immorality while he's doing all that his wife Penelope and

00:22:32.900 son Telemachus are at home and they're trying to ward off all the suitors that are coming for

00:22:37.820 Penelope okay and Penelope is being played by Anne Hathaway and the son is Tom Holland correct

00:22:43.600 key family and Odysseus is played by Matt Damon yes oh and he was a defining childhood crush of

00:22:50.620 mind you too no i'm just like i never knew this from that movie where he plays the smart janitor

00:22:56.400 sorry what's it called goodwill hunting yes yes i had dreams about this man should have been born

00:23:03.320 in the 90s or born in the 80s oh okay born in the 80s so you were around for that so i could be with

00:23:08.280 that david so you're around for his uh his peak although he this could be his this could be his

00:23:13.980 yeah no there are also heaps of stars in this like this is star studded you could not fit another

00:23:20.860 person in we've got robert patterson we've got zendaya elliott page lupita nyong'o and so many

00:23:28.260 more it was funny um i listened to the tom holland episode on amy pollard's podcast and she's like

00:23:33.480 i'm the only celebrity not in it and i think the robert patterson edition as well people are saying

00:23:40.620 that he's on this like 2020s like a run of like he's at his peak for sure I think it's cute as

00:23:46.560 well as Andrea and Tom Holland obviously recently married in the same movie the movie is from

00:23:51.680 Christopher Nolan of course we know him from creating Interstellar Inception Oppenheimer

00:23:57.660 etc but Christopher Nolan said that the Odyssey has been the most challenging of his career because

00:24:03.040 of the scale it was actually shot across six countries Morocco Greece Italy Iceland Scotland

00:24:08.620 and the US. Classically it is shot on IMAX film which is this rare 70 millimeter film format and

00:24:17.100 in that same Tom Holland episode I learned a little bit more about it these massive massive

00:24:22.220 cameras are like so big and the rolls of film literally only go for like about three minutes

00:24:27.780 so you do three minutes of filming then they have to wait stop reset redo it pause and then get

00:24:33.940 straight into it and he was explaining like this scene between Anne Hathaway and Matt Damon which

00:24:38.240 is like emotional they're crying they just have to do three minutes of it then like wait and like

00:24:42.940 keep the emotion going a day to film wow so this is like a labor of love wow wow incredible as you

00:24:50.220 said it was shot on that rare film this means that only 41 cinemas on earth can show this movie in

00:24:56.720 the way that Christopher Nolan intended it to be it will be shown of course in like every other

00:25:01.400 cinema in the world but if you see like the cuts of it the full picture is meant to be like much

00:25:07.660 larger and one of those cinemas is right here in melbourne at the imax we're so i feel so

00:25:13.320 genuinely lucky but we've already looked and like everything's sold out everything's sold out

00:25:17.580 what's funny is they are showing those cut downs of like what's included imax versus like your

00:25:22.720 regular schmegular cinema screens and it'll be like tom holland right above his eyebrow and you

00:25:28.080 get a little bit of his lip like it's like crop you're missing a lot of the picture some people

00:25:33.020 on twitter were saying it's anti-art because it's like oh so only like rich people who can afford

00:25:38.480 imax or like who are near an imax that show it can see it but i think it's more pro art because

00:25:43.120 it's like i'm using this really rare film and like this isn't like an incredible experience to like

00:25:48.960 to film it etc i don't know i think it's pro art versus anti-art i agree it's a it's not an easy

00:25:56.660 question to answer though because i understand like a very minuscule uh amount of the population

00:26:02.520 will see it as he intended as god intended as nolan intended but i admire that he's doing it

00:26:08.760 it's it's the more difficult route right like he's doing something that's complicated

00:26:12.140 and takes it's so much more labor intensive and so much more expensive i i like that imagine

00:26:18.680 telling like an oil painter i'll go paint with acrylics like you don't have to wait for it to

00:26:22.700 dry or you don't need all those layers like do something i'll use photoshop for the i'll use ai

00:26:27.620 like why sorry what is it it's more like if you're lucky enough to like have access to it

00:26:34.320 then that's that's nice that's good for you back to zendaya's press outfits you have a favorite yet

00:26:40.020 the freaking angel wings she wore it to the premiere in new york so so stunning and the

00:26:47.320 makeup look as well incredible it's like this gown white gown with beautiful feathery angel 0.55

00:26:53.100 wings i'm not even going to try to and pronounce the french name okay i will link it in the show

00:26:58.840 i'll tell you what though um it's a french name but it translates of beagle matter so oh okay

00:27:04.920 amazing beautiful i want to talk about that scaparelli dress that she wore to the world

00:27:09.680 premiere so this is i think the outfit that has um like got the most attention so it's this like 0.99

00:27:15.860 shaped molded bustier with this like racer back lace detailing and she's got like these fringes

00:27:24.240 at the bottom but it's how the dress got to this premiere that has people up in arms a little bit 0.98

00:27:30.020 so the actress's longtime stylist law roach who is responsible for all of her incredible looks

00:27:35.720 told this 27 year old french creator elias medini who's known as elias online that law traveled to

00:27:44.760 Paris just to get the Schiaparelli gown literally off the model's body and then put on a private jet

00:27:51.320 to get to London in time for the premiere. Let's play that clip now. You chose this look 0.80

00:27:58.220 for a premiere tonight? Yes. I flew in last night to come to the show. I have a private jet waiting

00:28:04.720 for me. And for her? And for her to get that dress off of her, to get it to London, to put it on a

00:28:10.940 very special girl i have a question is there a chance where like law is just like embellishing

00:28:16.360 for a story like i literally had like the jet there i don't think so i think the way he says

00:28:22.100 is so casual because like that world is so normal to him this is an interesting one because a lot of

00:28:29.180 it is like that's just the fashion world like that's just the world of like incredible celebrity

00:28:36.160 red carpets and Paris Orcator runways that stuff would be I don't say it's like normal to transfer

00:28:43.400 a dress via private jet but if you're the one of the biggest movie premieres in the world

00:28:47.980 you have so much budget that is normal you'd be like oh yeah let's just get the private jet and

00:28:53.260 like and just send the dress over that way like you're just thinking of like solutions

00:28:57.760 what's the fastest way to get this scaparelli dress off the model to Zendaya put on a private

00:29:03.160 jet but to the average person who's at home scrolling on tiktok and sees law roach saying

00:29:09.260 that to the creator it is just like another example of like let them eat cake or like eat

00:29:14.700 the rich of like this is so out of touch when so many especially americans can't afford bills and

00:29:23.320 aren't traveling they can't afford it or whatever it's very on the nose and i just think it's a sign

00:29:29.400 of the times yeah I think if you talk to any person off the street they'll be like oh yeah

00:29:34.160 that's pretty bad like I feel like it's a bit unnecessary but we understand that these are the

00:29:38.380 way things happen my thing is like Zendaya has been getting a bit on law they have been getting

00:29:44.020 a bit of slack black sorry but imagine if Taylor Swift did this oh this would be like front page

00:29:52.140 news yeah I do think there's a double standard happening it's funny that we say that though 0.52

00:29:57.060 because like as two black people like I wouldn't necessarily say that they get it easier they

00:30:02.460 obviously have to um they have to wade through way more criticisms but Zendaya is seen as such

00:30:09.160 a darling and I was talking to a friend about this because her press run she is going back to

00:30:13.560 back to back she's been in everything you know from the drama to euphoria everything um I think 1.00

00:30:20.000 the reason why she hasn't been womaned at least yet is that she's notoriously private and she 1.00

00:30:26.020 doesn't actually do that much media when she does media you don't actually learn much about her i 1.00

00:30:30.780 think she's like one of the most media trained celebrities yeah going right now yeah every time 0.91

00:30:34.760 she answers a question you don't really learn anything else about her which is like such a

00:30:40.320 a good skill to have if you were like a private celebrity like that interestingly when we were

00:30:44.900 doing the research for this a few news articles began popping up because back in 2022 her husband

00:30:50.520 tom holland actually received some positive press because he flew commercial to visit zendaya in

00:30:56.500 budapest while she was filming june 2 grazia magazine actually called him a man of the people

00:31:01.720 oh the bar is on the ground i can take an economy flight and also i'm pretty sure it was a business

00:31:08.080 economy flight like he had like a big table in front of him so hello it was still business but

00:31:12.940 that was back in 2022 so i do think that tom and zendaya are definitely the darlings of hollywood

00:31:17.860 slash London at the moment. They're not going to get the criticism that other celebrities would

00:31:22.480 face. Is putting a dress on a private plane great? No. Is it happening? Is a lot worse stuff happening?

00:31:29.480 Yes.

00:31:39.720 Now it's time for Bookmarked where we share a recommendation from our week. Just another

00:31:45.280 reminder if you want a double bookmark section you can head to our sub stack where we post an

00:31:50.460 extra one jaz you're up first i am sharing a gorgeous gorgeous film that i had the privilege

00:31:56.260 of watching recently at cinemanova it's called first light and it's the debut feature from

00:32:01.600 filipino australian filmmaker and photographer james j robinson have you heard of this movie

00:32:06.220 yeah i heard about the movie and i've heard about his work he's a very very prolific a locally

00:32:11.580 loved photographer like lots of like cool like lighting he does things with lighting oh my god

00:32:16.860 i'm not a photographer the photographer does things with lighting yes his work is known in

00:32:22.500 publications like vogue australia gq wonderland he's also known for his protest photography which

00:32:28.880 if you remember back in 2021 i do think we spoke about on the podcast if i remember correctly

00:32:32.580 where it was called burn the blazer and it critiqued like the private school um culture

00:32:38.640 because he went to St. Kevin's College and made national headlines yes I remember yeah funnily

00:32:43.960 enough I actually interviewed James back in 2016 or something for my own little blog when I was like

00:32:52.060 19 not to be patronizing to myself calling it a little blog but I remember being like this guy

00:32:57.700 is freaking cool and great at what he does so this is his first film 10 years on it is set in the

00:33:03.840 mountains of the philippines in like a remote town and it follows sister yolanda who's played

00:33:08.620 by ruby ruse she's living a peaceful existence in this convent until there is an accident on a local

00:33:13.940 construction site and she has to read the last rites and bless uh this young man who passes

00:33:20.280 away as she investigates this accident further she kind of begins to uncover some corruption

00:33:26.600 and things aren't what they seem and the result is a movie about faith mostly but also power

00:33:34.400 religion and community I did find it's very like peaceful it's very slow I watched it at like 9 30

00:33:44.280 in the morning on a weekday with after a coffee and I was just kind of like you know like don't

00:33:49.700 go into it expecting like an average watching experience it's much more like a Sunday afternoon

00:33:55.200 like really like looking at all the beautiful film photography and the film cinematography

00:33:59.920 but it's a beautiful beautiful story and I highly recommend and it's important to support

00:34:05.120 local filmmakers as well. Thank you so much for sharing that one. You can watch it in select

00:34:10.000 cinemas currently. Mags what are you recommending for us this week? I've got a book that I'm

00:34:14.300 recommending it is called The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa and it was translated by Steven Schneider.

00:34:20.240 So this book was actually published back in 1994 and it's a sci-fi dystopian novel. It was only

00:34:27.240 translated like, I want to say 2020 or something like that. That's why you might have seen this

00:34:32.300 one popping up a bit more. Interestingly enough, the Japanese title actually translates directly

00:34:38.540 to secret crystallization or quiet crystallization. We did this for book club and a lot of the people

00:34:44.860 in our book club said that those names felt more fitting for the book a very brief synopsis of this

00:34:51.080 one it follows a novelist on an island which is under the control of the memory police and no one

00:34:58.040 knows why but every so often things disappear from everyone's like collective memory things like

00:35:04.880 ribbons and like just like almost cease to exist things like pats perfume birds perhaps even fruit

00:35:13.720 like kind of things get gradually worse and we see this person grapple with with this like the

00:35:20.920 losing of what it means to perhaps be human um I very much enjoyed it it's quite like a slow moving

00:35:27.940 unassuming novel it's not like a sci-fi where it's gonna be like jammed down your throat the

00:35:33.120 narrative but I enjoyed like how creepy and like horrific it was

00:35:40.800 it was such a juxtaposition I enjoyed how horrific it was yeah look I started this book because I'm

00:35:48.620 also in this book club and I was just really fatigued by dystopian sci-fi like we'd done

00:35:53.900 three in a row and also like wasn't in the best headspace when I started it like did the other

00:35:59.600 book clubbers like it in the end there was a mix definitely a mixed review I will say though in

00:36:04.240 some ways yes the start felt more sci-fi it for me read like a historical fiction obviously this

00:36:10.720 has not happened and like let's hope this never happens but it actually felt a little bit like a

00:36:14.560 historical fiction so you might like that aspect but it is depressing yeah i was like guys it's

00:36:20.340 the middle of melbourne winter why are we reading this book that brings us to the end of the episode

00:36:26.740 thank you so much for tuning in to culture club we have loved having you here if you want more

00:36:32.120 Culture Club. Make sure to follow us on Substack, on Instagram, on TikTok, and maybe leave a little

00:36:37.880 rate and review on Spotify and Apple as well.

Culture Club - July 20, 2026

The Hudson Williams’ Double Standard, Zendaya’s Private Jetted Dress & AI In Media

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