Culture Club - The Over-Simplification Of Streaming, Hilary Duff's Comeback & The Biggest Celeb Feud Of 2026

00:00:00.000 Hilary Duff's comeback, glam bot drama and the biggest public feud of 2026.

00:00:10.800 I'm Maggie Zhao and I'm Jasmine Wallace and you're listening to Culture Club where two

00:00:15.900 writers and editors chat about pop culture, current affairs, the internet and our lives.

00:00:21.520 today we're on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung people of the Kulin nations

00:00:33.060 we would like to pay our respects to elders past and present and extend this to any aboriginal or

00:00:38.660 Torres Strait Islander listeners today I feel like I only just saw you it was like just over

00:00:47.400 12 hours ago we went to the australian open together we did and for our listeners who might

00:00:53.400 not know because we've got a few new ones among us hello we're from melbourne and the australian

00:00:59.340 open is probably our biggest event if not for the whole year like definitely of the summer

00:01:05.800 definitely the biggest like summer event and it goes off it's like a festival in melbourne right

00:01:11.420 now it's so fun it's becoming more and more like wimbledon i think um and it is obviously one of

00:01:16.620 the grand slams so it's nice i think that it's becoming more of like a social event as well but

00:01:23.520 there actually has been some criticism not to get straight into it let's go it's meant to be the

00:01:27.660 chit chat there has been some criticism on tiktok of it becoming like a bit too commercial a bit too

00:01:32.700 commodified too many influences i'm hearing are being invited uh i say after we were invited last

00:01:39.780 night but what are your thoughts on that yeah it's an interesting one because i've been seeing the

00:01:44.220 same commentary but from both sides in terms of like the brand activations are wild literally

00:01:51.200 every like meter square foot is covered by brands pouring so much money into these pop-ups and that

00:01:59.260 in itself I'm like not a big fan of like the hyper commercialization of the space but on the flip

00:02:04.880 side what a lot of people are talking about is like almost all these activations are free and

00:02:09.140 available to the public like i was at one of the bars last night and he was so slick and schmick

00:02:14.900 and he was like oh usually you'd have to be like a member of something or you'd have to pay to get

00:02:19.380 in but it was just like anyone could go that's good and honestly i think not to be like a capitalist

00:02:24.580 about it i also think that the money it brings to the local economy the jobs it brings all the

00:02:31.360 spending people are doing at the australian open can only be good for australia i think so i'm team

00:02:37.600 australian open i'm team like let's make this one massive party and make it more accessible for

00:02:44.580 the average person to go you know with the ground tickets this is not sponsored by the way at all

00:02:49.420 like it sounds like it is anyway so yes we went there last night it was so fun i don't know if

00:02:54.300 we are going back at all this summer um one and done this year but you're also about to go on a

00:03:01.560 special trip last minute yeah so this is a thing listeners to take you a tiny bit behind the curtain

00:03:08.380 we're recording this earlier than we usually would because I am going on a very last minute

00:03:13.820 week-long trip I can't actually say much which is so annoying so mysterious it's like a media thing

00:03:21.100 and the only other thing I'll say is that if you do follow me on Instagram and other people on

00:03:27.060 Instagram what I mean is to say is that I am with two other content creators two people you might

00:03:32.000 know if you do like follow me I feel okay and that's all I'm saying and I can share more about

00:03:37.540 that literally in March so oh yeah okay so that's that's the tea so so that's where I'll be next

00:03:44.800 week you don't know just knows but yeah aside from tennis one thing that has been taking my attention

00:03:52.060 and over my social feeds this week

00:03:54.740 has been the comeback of Hilary Duff.

00:03:57.940 Yes.

00:03:58.520 Okay.

00:03:58.920 We briefly mentioned this the other week

00:04:01.100 when we were talking about the Toxic Mom group

00:04:04.620 by Ashley Tisdale.

00:04:06.540 And my for you pages and everything haven't seen this.

00:04:09.880 That's why I gave that.

00:04:11.180 Yeah.

00:04:11.700 Okay.

00:04:12.760 So you tell me.

00:04:13.700 I was the biggest Lizzie McGuire stan in the world.

00:04:16.820 And I think my algorithm knows that.

00:04:19.460 and I genuinely like when I sometimes if I'm like sick or just feeling a bit sad I'll put on Lizzie

00:04:27.160 Maguire and I genuinely think that I actually modeled my personality off her it's crazy like

00:04:33.200 when I I watched it so frequently went after school and was obsessed with her obsessed with

00:04:39.520 the movie and when I look at her now I see myself in her and I'm like what the hell I think I

00:04:45.100 Like, I actually subconsciously watched it so much that I, like, absorbed Lizzie McGuire and, you know, through that Hilary Duff into my personality.

00:04:53.760 Cinderella Story, Raise Your Voice, Material Girls with her sister Hayley.

00:04:58.320 I saw them all.

00:04:59.800 And so I'm very happy with this revival.

00:05:03.060 You're honestly just listing off some of my, like, favorite movies from that era.

00:05:06.820 You're so right.

00:05:07.380 Okay, but when you're saying that you think you kind of modeled your personality off her, are you saying, like, Lizzie McGuire character her?

00:05:14.460 or like hillary duff in general i think both but i think mostly liz mcguire because i would watch

00:05:20.700 it so frequently and silly remind me what is she like in the show again lizzie mcguire she's only

00:05:27.500 like 12 13 like young teen when it first starts but she's just a very like happy-go-lucky person

00:05:35.920 she really really cares for her friends and family but she's still trying to figure out like what's

00:05:40.640 important to her and I think just in the way especially the way she treats like her closest

00:05:45.640 friends like at the end of the day she always has like their best interests at heart like she

00:05:50.980 doesn't want to hurt anyone by what she's doing she's also very passionate so she'll go through

00:05:54.560 phases where she's like you know really passionate about like the environment or um wanting this new

00:06:00.360 pair of jeans or something like she kind of wears her heart on her sleeve and like things really

00:06:05.780 really mean a lot to her um so I think that's probably kind of sounds similar to me in certain

00:06:11.900 parts obviously she's a young teenager in the in the show and the movie I think also she's very

00:06:17.140 optimistic as a person so I feel like I'm like that as well this is I feel like embarrassed now

00:06:23.380 like breaking it down being like I am actually a Disney character no but I do see similarities

00:06:31.280 And as someone who is a bystander, I'm ticking off the boxes.

00:06:35.500 You are like her in those ways, Jess.

00:06:37.380 And also my hair.

00:06:38.360 You can. 0.97

00:06:39.060 You know, the choppy layers with the blonde. 1.00

00:06:40.740 Well, she's quite blonde. 1.00

00:06:41.660 She's way more blonde than me.

00:06:42.860 It's interesting, though, because now we're talking about her again in 2026.

00:06:46.560 And her revival is still in conversation with this era of herself.

00:06:51.040 She's definitely referencing her as a child star.

00:06:54.700 Yeah, so her first album in over a decade is set to be released next month, February 20.

00:07:00.200 and the title of the album is called luck or something and the lead singles are mature and

00:07:06.500 roommates which are already out already have music videos so so good but actually the album title

00:07:11.420 is a reference to her reputation of being one of the only disney stars of that era of like the

00:07:17.200 2000s without this super controversial past and also just to clarify the album is called

00:07:22.620 luck dot dot or something jazz wasn't like luck or whatever something whatever it's called yeah

00:07:28.700 yeah tell me more about it though when hillary announced the album she said i'm often asked how

00:07:35.220 i still have my head on straight after growing up in this industry the album title is my way

00:07:39.860 of answering that question it's luck but there's also a lot of weight in the or something many of

00:07:45.560 the things i've been through along the way are held there and i feel like ultimately that's what's

00:07:49.880 shaped me so during her tour launch in london she performed it was actually her first performance

00:07:56.080 since 2015 her last performance was like on a radio show and she performed what dreams are made

00:08:01.700 of which is of course the iconic kind of main song in the lizzie mcguire movie so i just feel

00:08:07.380 like a lot of millennials older gen z's are having like this really nostalgic moment with her and it

00:08:14.560 is interesting what you said about her having a comeback but i think she's doing a really great

00:08:18.840 job or her and her team are doing a great job of like still feeling like new and fresh like we

00:08:23.720 mentioned a couple of episodes ago the song roommates has some really spicy lyrics like

00:08:27.560 one of them is like i'm watching porn or like i'm touching myself by the back door or whatever so

00:08:31.360 she's still like has that grown-up element but then she's still holding her past self close and

00:08:37.760 knowing that that's what got her here so i think that's really sweet right before we were recording

00:08:42.700 this i did listen to mature and roommates her two singles that are out at the moment and i will say

00:08:47.780 i don't really like them but that's okay we we differ we differ and that's and that's what we

00:08:53.300 love about the pod you don't even ask if i like them but i know that you like them no you're like

00:08:59.100 so keen on this revival yeah i'm more keen on the revival i'm not like i like the songs so far

00:09:04.980 they're growers for me okay i didn't hear mature it actually came out the weekend i got married so

00:09:10.660 i was like i kind of missed it a little bit again i was also listening this morning when we were

00:09:14.180 writing notes they were growing as with each listen because they are very poppy i think they're

00:09:19.180 still very like 2000s poppy still a bit of Disney pop influence so we'll see what the rest of the

00:09:24.660 album is like yeah to me the contrast there is not sitting 100% right in my brain the fact that

00:09:31.940 it is referencing early 2000s pop but then she's got lyrics which are like she's me in another font

00:09:37.760 like a very 2020s like internet lingo it's just like oh where am I supposed to be like you want

00:09:43.100 to be very current or do you want to still be like referencing your old stuff anyway I am keen to see

00:09:48.560 how this continues to go out because with her new album she's co-produced that with her husband who

00:09:54.000 is musician matthew coma i've been loving the press tour they've been on so far both of them

00:10:00.640 have been in a few and i think it's really sweet you can just tell like how in love they are and

00:10:05.600 how much of a team they are so i'm just gobbling up all of the hillary duff like content that we're

00:10:10.360 getting at the moment. We're now at the stage of celebrity where even the camera people are

00:10:24.920 getting swept up into controversy. I feel like this is going to be a big underlying theme of

00:10:30.720 today's episode. There's been a lot of controversy in the pop culture news cycle this past week.

00:10:36.940 so in case you missed it jennifer lopez came under fire this week when her glam bot footage 1.00

00:10:42.440 from the golden globes was released in it she was seen to like not talk to or brush off or be rude

00:10:50.480 to however you want to say it to the glam bot guy aka cole walliser let's just like rewind what is

00:10:58.220 glam bot so cole is a canadian filmmaker and he's a music video director he's actually directed

00:11:04.340 music videos for miley cyrus katy perry and pink but now he's known for directing the glam bot videos

00:11:11.020 on the red carpet so the glam bot it's essentially like a high speed camera photo booth cole is known

00:11:19.600 for like using it on the red carpet and it captures these like slow motion videos where 0.66

00:11:25.080 the celebrity like turns around or like flicks their dress or like spins yeah but mostly it's

00:11:32.040 a lot of spinning around and then it like captures them in slow-mo in their face like very in high

00:11:37.880 definition it's definitely like a kind of trend of the last few years on red carpets so this is

00:11:44.500 in the news cycle at the moment because j-lo was slammed for being rude i watched the video

00:11:49.980 and it's wild alisa footage that's uh being published it's like she does actually not say

00:11:55.580 one word to him and he's like hey welcome to the glam bar it's so good to see you again

00:11:59.540 and people have slammed her for it so much so that Cole himself put out a TikTok video

00:12:05.900 that was about you know who are like my least favorite of the worst glam bots ever and he

00:12:10.840 addressed this kind of coming to JLo's defense. Cole said everybody on the internet just needs

00:12:15.700 to calm down there was only one person in that conversation outside of JLo and that person was

00:12:20.480 me he reminded fans that glam bots are completely elective so the celebrities can choose whether

00:12:26.680 they walk up to them or not and he said anybody that stops i already like you because you're

00:12:32.100 taking the time to do my thing and this is generous of you um so he was very gracious i think he said

00:12:38.740 like some people are chatty at work some people are not so chatty at work like celebrities are

00:12:43.040 on the red carpet they are there for work even though i'm sure it's probably quite fun since

00:12:47.780 this came out there's also been footage of cara delavine's that's been recirculating again i feel

00:12:52.600 like that combo wasn't as big as this one but I remember there was some criticism of Cara Delevingne

00:12:57.580 because she's the same like he's like hey how you going and she's just like straight to the camera

00:13:01.660 like do it she talks to him but I don't even know if she looks at him it's very much like she's

00:13:06.120 getting directed by him and then he's like cool thank you so much like goes to like look her in

00:13:09.480 the eye and she's just like bye and walks away like doesn't even really again look at him yeah

00:13:13.540 in Cole's TikTok video he actually brought that one up because at the start Cara like rolls her

00:13:17.880 eyes and he's like and he was like I didn't actually notice that so I would have edited it

00:13:22.200 out otherwise but he didn't pick up on it then I liked his comment about it being a work environment

00:13:28.780 and that you know people act differently at work you can be chatty you can be not chatty

00:13:32.780 and it was a nice framing of it what are your thoughts on this on politeness and like work

00:13:39.600 versus your personality I'm of the belief that politeness and kindness uh is not exclusive to

00:13:46.620 your personal life or your work life and I definitely try to carry that with me regardless

00:13:51.960 of the situation regardless of who I'm with and I'm sure you're going to say the same yeah I think

00:13:57.140 it's just like the lesson that you're taught as a child which is bring your manners with you

00:14:00.580 wherever you go yeah and it would be remiss of us if we didn't acknowledge it that's very much

00:14:05.500 conditioning of women or girls and that we're told that we have to be kind and polite and it

00:14:12.680 reflects very poorly on our character otherwise so I think in recent years I try to toe that line

00:14:19.120 of like not being overly courteous or overly polite without actually wanting to be or like

00:14:25.860 without thinking about it it's a hard one because I'm like at the end of the day I'd love everyone

00:14:30.800 to be 10% nicer yeah but I think we do hold female celebrities to a higher standard in when it comes

00:14:37.920 to conversations like this so i would love to like go back through the archives of the male glam

00:14:43.580 bots and see how many of them did the same but they're not that's not gone viral on tiktok oh

00:14:49.260 my god and like how many male glam bots have gone viral like if they're doing a turn like their

00:14:53.860 suits not really switching like their hair we're not really seeing i can't even recall like a good

00:14:58.600 male glam that's true sorry the only one i can think of is chris olsen i'll take your word so

00:15:03.760 you would think that that is you know the end of the controversy jlo was a little bit standoffish

00:15:08.200 to a photographer on the red carpet but this story has gone one step further as just one day later

00:15:15.980 a tiktok user by the name of yinka animachon shared an alleged screen recording of an email

00:15:22.620 thread between her and cole the glam bot guy yeah so this email exchange was from 2019 and yinka is

00:15:30.760 seen inquiring about the use of the glam bot for her wedding her emails are quite like a it's like

00:15:36.420 a casual inquiry right but we will say that cole's responses were quite curt so what happened was

00:15:43.920 after her initial um request he was like is this in your price range because it's not cheap and

00:15:49.440 then she was like yeah yep i've budgeted this into my wedding cost and then and then he was

00:15:57.440 kind of sassy he said i don't see how you could since i didn't say how much it was and it could

00:16:02.080 be between ten thousand to one million dollars which kind of fair you know she was just like

00:16:07.240 yeah whatever it is so there was some back and forth and then cole finally confirmed the price

00:16:12.020 which was three hundred thousand dollars and it prompted another reply from him saying if you

00:16:17.900 wanted to know how much it costs you just need to ask you don't need to pretend you're going to book

00:16:21.880 it oh because um yinka was doubling down being like hey no like i just want to book this for

00:16:27.540 my wedding like why am i jumping through so many hoops because of this another ex-user actually

00:16:33.180 shared a similar interaction they had also when inquiring for a glam bot at the wedding

00:16:37.480 can you imagine if i had a glam bot at my wedding how funny would that be

00:16:40.920 so when the user asked for a quote cole replied there's a reason the glam bot is only at the

00:16:49.080 Oscars the Grammys and the Golden Globes and followed that with a bunch of money bag emojis

00:16:54.320 I saw this other thing which was Nigel Barker who is a famous fashion photographer and he was also

00:17:00.340 America's Next Top Model judge he used to actually creative direct the glam bot a few years ago and

00:17:07.260 he like posted online saying that it apparently costs around $25,000 for basic package of the

00:17:14.300 glam bot in new york or la so didn't it definitely did feel like cole was taking the piss with the

00:17:20.480 300k but he did also um mention that you know there are teams of people involved in the glam

00:17:26.960 bot god i didn't realize i'd be saying glam bot so many times in one bloody segment not us

00:17:32.440 decoding the politics of the glam bot like yeah but to take it a step further i think that cole

00:17:41.060 has a point here because exclusivity is everything and what's that word like only a certain percentage

00:17:47.760 of the population can have access to it and makes it more exclusive so if you just started having

00:17:52.640 like obviously you'd have to be very wealthy to like afford a glam bot at your wedding but like

00:17:56.840 if it started becoming like a gag or a gimmick or like something that rich people can just buy

00:18:02.160 then i do think like the golden globe red carpet grammys like they wouldn't have the same impact

00:18:08.180 because i think the trend of like the slow-mo video one day that's going to be super dated

00:18:12.800 but i think that by any old person having access to it it would make it dated more quickly whereas

00:18:19.380 right now it's been going for a few years obviously i feel like his one is definitely

00:18:23.460 state of the art but i've definitely been to so many events where they have like some version of

00:18:27.860 really i swear to god i have this video in my head no but like a way low much more low-key

00:18:33.200 version i've got like a colgate one at the f1 i swear to god that's what's coming to my mind

00:18:38.420 and it was like a slow slow moving one but not as chic but i know that cole did actually come

00:18:44.520 to australia and put up the glam bot for the tiktok awards at the tiktok awards that's yeah

00:18:49.960 with tinder that's right i did see a few influences glam bots would you do it if you had access yeah

00:18:57.640 why not why not yeah I'd be scared I would like fudge it up I do think why this story is interesting

00:19:03.840 to me is that Cole for quite a few years now he's become quite like a loved figure on the internet

00:19:09.080 he's like known as being very sweet very like humble very hard-working and to see the tide

00:19:15.540 turn on him so quickly was quite fierce I did not expect it especially as like this is a guy

00:19:22.240 doing his job yeah I don't really have an opinion about how any of this went down I'm like I don't

00:19:29.160 know it's your job it's your business like you charge what you want I guess but if those email

00:19:34.400 threads become public I mean you gotta cop that you said that but it's just like whoa people are

00:19:39.640 so ready to hate they really are people can just like what is that saying turn like a cut snake

00:19:44.720 that's how it feels whoa god why people sayings are so crazy you guys will say something so random

00:19:50.040 i never knew the one like what is it kick a can down the road you guys i'm like what's that one

00:19:56.180 you guys are so cute it's actually um that phrase i just said i just looked it up it comes from 0.93

00:20:03.000 an australian phrase actually which is mad as a cut snake which means like you're crazy you're

00:20:08.080 furious you're out of control so therefore to turn like a cut snake means like you're like

00:20:12.420 suddenly thrashing around like angry just like turning like on a dime oh my god not to break

00:20:18.560 one analogy down with another analogy no thank you for the australian linguistics lesson i'll pop

00:20:24.520 that in my back pocket actor matt damon has made some headlines this week while promoting his new

00:20:40.960 netflix movie the rip which co-stars himself and ben affleck who are longtime collaborators

00:20:46.540 Matt I feel weird saying like just Matt I feel like he is Mr Damon Matt you know old mate Matt

00:20:54.680 he made some pretty revealing comments about the streaming platform Netflix on the Joe Rogan

00:21:00.660 experience podcast I actually loved what he said though I think this was pretty eye-opening and

00:21:06.680 for him to be so explicit about this I was like oh my god does this go against your NDA or something

00:21:12.920 but matt damon said that streaming platforms like netflix are asking filmmakers to dumb things down

00:21:19.180 a little bit and that they're encouraging filmmakers to reiterate the plot multiple times

00:21:24.980 as well as having like a action scene near the start to get people interested brain rot so

00:21:31.120 producers allegedly told matt that quote it wouldn't be terrible if you reiterated the plot

00:21:37.480 three or four times in the dialogue because people are on their phones while they're watching

00:21:42.080 Matt said, it's going to really start to infringe on how we're telling these stories.

00:21:46.860 I couldn't agree more with Matt.

00:21:50.340 I'm guilty of it.

00:21:51.280 Like, we're all guilty of it.

00:21:52.500 Being on our phones, just checking our phones.

00:21:53.640 I don't do that.

00:21:54.340 Oh, okay. 1.00

00:21:55.400 Maggie over here.

00:21:56.220 I don't. 0.60

00:21:56.520 Not on our phone.

00:21:57.700 Yeah.

00:21:58.540 Yeah, highbrow.

00:21:59.480 I'm in my toilet.

00:22:01.060 Sorry. 1.00

00:22:02.180 That's what cinephiles wear, right? 0.99

00:22:05.360 Well, not all the time. 0.89

00:22:06.940 But, like, sometimes I'll just, like, get on my phone, look at a few things, put it down.

00:22:10.600 Laurie does get cranky with me if I do that he says like because he's a big film guy so he's just

00:22:15.740 like put it away put it away so I try to make more of a conscious effort but if I'm watching like

00:22:19.860 a film you know like a movie it's a movie that feels like a movie then I do have to concentrate

00:22:27.340 because you look for away for five minutes and you're like wait what is going on so I get why

00:22:32.120 streamers would be saying this but I think it's like the consumer's problem and I think if you

00:22:37.080 are suddenly lost in a plot I feel embarrassed I'm like oh I was looking at my phone for too long

00:22:42.040 I don't want to ask Laurie like what's actually going on so I'm just going to try and catch up

00:22:45.800 with this but also this is happening a lot in Stranger Things 5 did you notice yeah oh yeah

00:22:50.400 uh sorry to get to Stranger Things 5 I was like oh okay so 30% of every episode is them

00:22:57.080 saying what they're about to do amazing every single episode went through that and I was like

00:23:02.380 I simply cannot so two things there I want to also mention is that like when I am on my phone

00:23:09.060 and I'm watching like a tv show movie I just have a terrible experience on both ends like I'm not

00:23:13.700 enjoying the phone scrolling I'm not enjoying what's happening on the screen so that's why I

00:23:16.960 don't do it secondly I feel like this whole conversation is like so chicken or the egg it's

00:23:22.400 like yeah maybe Netflix your consumers are going on their phones because what you're putting out

00:23:26.960 is like not very good so they're bored or it is the other way around where consumers are just like

00:23:32.100 so hooked on their phones that they aren't paying attention i don't know but i feel like

00:23:35.820 in my head i'm like well netflix you just put out better quality things and then people have to pay

00:23:40.440 attention to them i don't know but i think it's a slippery slope and i think that's what matt

00:23:44.000 damon was saying i'm just gonna call him matt damon full name let's go yeah you can't say matt

00:23:47.980 um i think that's what he was saying because it does impact storytelling like if that was a lot

00:23:53.560 of complaints of stranger things five was like guys what are we gonna do we're gonna go through

00:23:58.320 this tunnel and then we're gonna do this because vec know this and i do think it's a slippery slope

00:24:03.620 of like dumbing down culture and dumbing down uh media that we're watching and i do think it's

00:24:10.580 creating an increase in media illiteracy you see it all the time i think i spend too much time on

00:24:17.280 twitter slash x and i see too many film and tv takes from like teenagers but all of them because

00:24:23.820 you don't know people's ages when you're just scrolling a lot of them are very much like this

00:24:28.380 character didn't explicitly say that they were good or bad so therefore like it's bad to like

00:24:35.320 this movie or like do you know what I mean like all the characters have to be morally like explain

00:24:40.500 themselves explain why they're doing something bad or be like morally perfect because otherwise

00:24:45.740 it's like bad for society or something I'm kind of going off on a bit of a tangent I think these

00:24:50.840 things are actually feeding into each other no definitely i think it's maybe oh the all i know

00:24:56.780 chat gbt is relatively new new but it's almost like the chat gbt vacation of content where we

00:25:03.580 want all the answers straight away you're right like to tie that into stranger things i saw so

00:25:08.580 many comments on like x twitter that were like there are so many unanswered questions like we

00:25:14.760 didn't get the answer to all these things i'm like mate get real like get used to it like that's

00:25:19.840 what it should be that's and that's what i mean like not everything is going to be tied up in

00:25:23.980 this perfect bow and i think that's what consumers want at the moment especially when you've got a

00:25:28.320 sprawling show like stranger things where there are so many side plots so many characters not

00:25:33.540 everything can be perfectly like and then the end like sometimes things are just open for

00:25:40.320 interpretation yeah media literacy it actually scares me if i think about it too deeply and i

00:25:46.400 think you've spoken about this in previous episodes when we talk about film and tv that we

00:25:52.280 should become comfortable with like the moral ambiguity of characters and that people don't

00:25:56.500 have to be morally perfect on screen and I think to add to that I think we should become just more

00:26:01.800 in overall more comfortable with being uncomfortable about what we're watching so perhaps the themes

00:26:08.300 don't resonate with you perhaps there are unanswered questions perhaps the ending is

00:26:12.160 ambiguous and you don't really know what happened that's fine I feel like that adds to an experience

00:26:16.380 it's time for culture shock and this week we are discussing brooklyn beckham going absolutely

00:26:32.140 nuclear on his parents brooklyn beckham has created the biggest celebrity news story of

00:26:37.640 2026 and for the british media maybe even of the last decade he took to instagram stories to rehash

00:26:46.300 and unveil the family drama that he and his wife have been experiencing we posted the entire thread

00:26:53.720 onto our instagram grid if you want to take a read of that but in it he shared why he has cut

00:26:59.720 contact with his parents victoria and david beckham we won't go through all of the posts but

00:27:06.260 in them the overarching theme was that his parents have tried to ruin his relationship with his now

00:27:12.160 wife american actress and billionaire heiress nicola peltz beckham and that his parents had

00:27:18.360 placed quote countless lies in the media to preserve the facade of a perfect family when in

00:27:23.960 fact the family's brand beckham business always came first oh when i saw this posted okay i'll be

00:27:31.420 real i saw on pop crave twitter first i was like gobsmacked i was like airing your dirty laundry

00:27:38.560 to the highest degree right putting so many details and i say airing your dirty laundry in

00:27:44.440 like a neutral way just sharing deep secrets and things that have been hidden for so long

00:27:51.420 to put that in so much detail into such a public forum would have been terrifying the way that it

00:27:57.860 was on instagram stories and not a post it was not through a news outlet it definitely also the

00:28:04.780 fact that it came out our tuesday morning which was the us's and the uk's monday night so just

00:28:11.540 like a random monday in january and it was like very confessional style like i don't think that

00:28:17.380 that was run past a pr expert it was very i think that's like why it's it would put it in culture

00:28:25.300 shock this week because it was very like shocking after all of like the kind of tit for tat in the

00:28:30.760 tabloids that we've seen in really the past like four years since brooklyn and nicola's wedding

00:28:36.720 an example of what we mean by this is that he went so detailed right so he spoke about the

00:28:42.080 wedding quite a lot and one of the biggest headlines that come out of this is that allegedly

00:28:47.020 his mom victoria beckham quote-unquote like stole his first dance with his wife um why you laugh

00:28:54.340 because it's just like crazy his quote was she danced very inappropriately on me in front of

00:29:01.540 everyone i've never felt more uncomfortable or humiliated in my entire life poor boy like honest

00:29:07.640 sorry boy mom yeah i'm looking at you he's the eldest boy too there's so many things i want to

00:29:14.060 talk about like yeah boy moms that could be a whole podcast episode on boy moms there's also

00:29:18.480 an allegation that victoria beckham you know as a fashion designer was meant to design nicola's

00:29:23.420 dress and apparently pulled out at the 11th hour why would you do that to your own daughter-in-law

00:29:27.940 when you like full stop but also when you're like a mega fashion designer i think overall

00:29:33.520 reading this and hearing about this there have been unfortunately in my eyes like so many memes

00:29:39.000 about this but like to me this is like a heartbreaking story so some of what he said in

00:29:43.940 the instagram post was quote i do not want to reconcile with my family i'm not being controlled

00:29:49.760 i'm standing up for myself for the first time in my life then he spoke about how the anxiety that

00:29:54.680 he's had for most of his life has since lifted quote i wake up every morning grateful for the

00:30:00.760 life i chose and have found peace and relief another thing that stood out for me was that

00:30:06.380 his parents have allegedly been trying to ruin his relationship since before the wedding and

00:30:11.380 had also pressured him to sign away the rights to his name which he refused that is giving like evil

00:30:18.500 millionaires to me like making your own son sign away the rights to his name that you gave him 0.63

00:30:25.760 because it's like a brand it actually is like I'm team Brooklyn here but I think the British

00:30:32.640 tabloids are going to be team Victoria and David because they are like if you don't know like

00:30:39.020 culturally they are like as famous as the real family in the UK David beloved soccer player of

00:30:45.540 the 90s like the biggest football star of all time captain of the england team married a pop star

00:30:52.460 in the spice girls which was a cultural phenomenon in the 90s as well they teamed up together to

00:30:59.520 create this like perfect family of like models and musicians and chefs and whoever and i think that

00:31:07.900 i really feel for brooklyn in this situation i was very much like i didn't really have an opinion on

00:31:13.100 despite being like a pop culture podcaster but since brooklyn's like stories i'm like i don't

00:31:19.360 think that you would do this for attention the fact it's an instagram story the fact he didn't

00:31:25.020 sell this story when he could have made millions of dollars dead set and the fact his whole life

00:31:30.140 has been commodified so the story of victoria's pregnancy with brooklyn before he was even born

00:31:36.140 was sold to okay magazine they also his parents also sold the first pictures of him to the

00:31:42.880 publication when he was born he was also the ring bearer at his parents wedding when he was a few

00:31:47.780 months old and his parents sold the exclusive rights to cover the wedding to okay magazine as

00:31:53.260 well for one million pounds in like 19 oh in like the early 2000s so you can imagine what that would

00:31:59.880 be worth today what is making me feel icky about some of the conversations that are being had

00:32:04.280 online is this whole thing of like I believe blah blah and I believe blah blah blah and I mean you

00:32:11.120 mentioned that your team Brooklyn and I would say the same but the people who are so like set on

00:32:16.980 trying to tear holes in this we're of course no experts in family estrangement but I have been

00:32:24.540 reading a few things by people who are therapists which I have found quite helpful so for instance

00:32:30.920 Dr. Micah Vidal-Taylor who is a narcissistic abuse and trauma expert wrote on threads about

00:32:39.280 this situation so we'll read some of it out now. This is a public case study in what happens when

00:32:44.600 an adult child stops complying. For years image is managed and dissent is contained. The moment

00:32:51.020 autonomy appears the system retaliates. Narratives shift. The partner becomes the threat. The adult

00:32:57.840 child is reframed as manipulated unstable or lost this is not miscommunication it is strategy

00:33:05.040 the most clinically significant detail is the anxiety lifelong anxiety that eases once distance

00:33:11.500 is created is one of the clearest indicators of relational control in narcissistic family systems

00:33:17.740 anxiety is not an individual flaw and i guess like we're all gobbling this up in terms of like

00:33:23.300 the biggest gossipy celebrity news story so far 2026 I know that Brooklyn would not have done

00:33:30.480 this lightly given the history that the British tabloid press have you know they hounded Princess

00:33:35.240 Diana and this story is definitely giving Meghan and Harry 2.0 but at its core like you know we're

00:33:41.640 all laughing at the dancing memes and kind of saying which team we're on but it is sad because

00:33:47.360 like it is a family there are so many other issues going on in the world of course like

00:33:52.760 we're not exactly feeling sorry for like millionaires and billionaires they'll be okay but

00:33:57.840 I think it's a good case study of like commodifying your child and creating like a brand as a family

00:34:04.840 and when that can go wrong we see it a lot with children of influences and I think this will only

00:34:11.460 become a conversation that we hear about more and more and more Brooklyn's your age and I think that

00:34:17.020 as people you know your age and younger start becoming adults and realizing that they were

00:34:22.620 in patterns of abuse and they were exploited essentially for money for fame whatever we'll

00:34:28.840 see like more of this and I think Brooklyn is just like an example that's like on a crazy

00:34:34.140 crazy scale because of who his parents are. Now it's time for Bookmarked, where we share

00:34:48.940 a recommendation that we've enjoyed reading, watching or listening to this past week. Jazz,

00:34:55.120 what do you have for us? I didn't watch it this week. I watched it over the summer break,

00:34:59.880 but it's the 1996 movie Michael which is directed by Nora Ephron I saw this in my parents they'd

00:35:07.860 seen it before and when we were like what should we watch they were like have you ever seen Michael

00:35:12.120 and I said no and they were surprised and by the end of the movie I was also surprised that I

00:35:16.140 hadn't seen it before it's very much up my alley in the 90s rom-com scene however I never heard

00:35:21.760 the name no I mean I don't think it's the best name but for a movie like it doesn't really stand

00:35:26.720 out but it's a really sweet watch i think you'll like it when the like title credits were coming

00:35:31.980 up and it said like directed and produced by nora efron i was like oh my gosh no way nora efron like

00:35:37.580 i love all of her work i said that out loud to my parents and my dad's like yeah isn't that zach

00:35:42.300 efron's mom and i was like no it's spelled differently and even my mom who listens to

00:35:50.120 the podcast i'm exposing them hi sonia my mom was like yeah no i thought the same i definitely

00:35:56.340 thought that Nora was Zac Efron's mom. And I was like, no way. Dad's like, look it up, look it up.

00:36:02.640 So I did. And obviously straight away, the search engine was like, Nora Efron and Zac Efron are not

00:36:09.360 related at all. And dad was like, oh, I thought at least an aunt. Oh, I love that because that never

00:36:15.760 like I never put two and two together that their last names are pronounced the same since they

00:36:20.240 spelled differently. I was like, surely not. But if you're verbally, yeah, it does make sense.

00:36:24.520 Nepotism is real. So back to Michael. It's a 90s rom-com about three journalists who are sent to

00:36:32.100 rural America to investigate a man who is claiming to be an angel. This angel is played by John

00:36:39.280 Travolta and he's actually like a chain smoking, beer drinking being who is very lucky with women

00:36:47.140 and has a fondness for kind of messing people's lives up and dancing and just being a bit cheeky

00:36:55.560 all around so it's quite charming I thought because it has it's kind of like a comedy fantasy

00:37:01.880 so it has you know a strong through line strong emotional through line but also kind of like a

00:37:07.600 lesson in the end it kind of is quite heartwarming I think I teared up a couple of times like there

00:37:13.560 just a few points that are yeah quite emotional and also i think it's like one of those comforting

00:37:17.960 watches so so i think if you're a fan of you've got mail and that kind of similar ilk of kind of

00:37:23.520 comforting low stakes easy to watch sunday afternoon movies then you will like this uh low 0.74

00:37:29.960 stakes my ass you've got mail like the multi like billion dollar conglomerate fox books that's 0.98

00:37:36.460 moving in to take over the independent bookseller are you kidding me that's a high stakes my favorite 0.99

00:37:41.540 movie sorry sorry also fun fact it stars andy mcdowell as the love interest and of course

00:37:50.600 she is the mother of margaret qualley did i say that right excuse me marie quilly am i hearing

00:37:57.260 that very quilly for people who don't know that is jazz has um messed it up a couple times and

00:38:03.680 now i'm like who is who yeah when i was writing i was like who's margaret qualley i think that's

00:38:07.940 right that sounds lovely I mean it sounds quite different to Nora's stuff so that's maybe why I

00:38:14.140 haven't heard of it as much I mean like that almost like magic realism fantasy element of

00:38:19.960 George Travolta but that sounds lovely Maggie what have you enjoyed watching reading listening

00:38:26.160 to this week before I get into my recommendation can I give the listeners a fun fact story I just

00:38:32.620 remembered since we did a big segment on marty supreme yeah my dad is involved randomly in

00:38:41.160 promotional material for that film here in australia kind of caveat i texted you about this

00:38:46.680 i gave you a one-liner so by the time that this is out it's already done but essentially he and

00:38:52.840 his he plays table tennis by the way and his um table tennis club was essentially approached by

00:38:59.100 like a local cinema and for the release of mighty supreme they're having like a table tennis

00:39:05.260 competition outside the cinema and what it is is like if a person like you know anyone can enter

00:39:11.260 quote unquote and if you win a point against my dad you get a free chalk top that's so cool

00:39:16.760 wait which cinema is it so cute it's already finished it's already happened but just so

00:39:22.400 bloody cute it's a volunteer thing so he gets one movie ticket question mark at the end of the

00:39:27.280 these hours but he's very excited. You should be negotiating for him as a influencer. Yeah

00:39:32.520 okay but now to my actual recommendation I'm recommending a book Clara and the Sun by

00:39:40.960 Kazuo Ishiguro. So this is a science fiction dystopian book published in 2021. You've probably

00:39:48.220 seen the cover it's everywhere and it's a very popular book. We did it for book club recently

00:39:53.400 and i loved it i went in knowing nothing nothing about the author or the book and i love that i

00:40:00.220 went in so blind because at the start i was like oh my god who are we where are we am i a dog like

00:40:06.820 that was my thought process in the first few pages jaz have you read this one by the way no i didn't

00:40:13.660 i won't give too much away but essentially it follows someone called clara who is an af which

00:40:21.520 stands for artificial friend so yes we're talking ai here and it begins with her being at the store

00:40:28.400 that it's sold at and um she is an af who has really great observational and qualities and

00:40:36.440 she's very curious and then we see her getting taken in by a family because afs are for children

00:40:42.360 like companions i won't give anything else away but i found this so enthralling it's quite dystopian

00:40:49.960 you know but it's also kind of believable you could see this happening in the not so distant

00:40:55.220 future and it engendered like empathy and it's not like this is like ai sympathy novel but i think

00:41:03.800 it was a beautiful way to explore the themes that we're grappling with in our lives at the moment

00:41:08.720 it was definitely a page turn as well there's like a couple little twists in it again won't say

00:41:15.580 anything but i really enjoyed this and now i'm like desperate to read his other books especially

00:41:21.220 never let me go which is like his most famous one for this to be published in 2021 he was ahead of

00:41:27.360 the curve when it came comes to artificial friends like obviously written oh yeah 18 19 20 however

00:41:32.920 long it took him to write it but even 2021 like ai stuff feels so old now oh yeah and when i was

00:41:39.800 um bringing up never let me go again this is like a sci-fi book that was published in 2005

00:41:46.080 so like this man has been around this is this was his eighth book so incredible to see that journey

00:41:52.580 sounds so good thank you for the rec thank you dear listeners for joining us this week we hope

00:41:57.700 you enjoyed listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed recording it and if you did we would

00:42:03.660 really appreciate maybe a little apple review spotify star review because it really really

00:42:09.620 helps us out and help more people find us thank you so much and we'll catch you next time bye

Culture Club - January 26, 2026

The Over-Simplification Of Streaming, Hilary Duff's Comeback & The Biggest Celeb Feud Of 2026

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