Courtesy of Andrew Ruiz
Welcome back to the pop culture column! This week’s topics include: Coachella, Summer House drama, and new movies.
This year’s Coachella has major artists as headliners: Justin Bieber, Sabrina Carpenter, and Karol G, and features other artists such as Giveon, Major Lazer, Central Cee, and Laufey. Many “beliebers” were thrilled to see Bieber’s performance at this festival, where he included videos of his younger self singing some of his classic songs (like “Baby”), while singing along to the song live. Another aspect of Coachella that seems to become more prominent each year is the extreme costs that the festival requires of its attendees. Not only are the prices of hotels in the surrounding area of Indio, CA, incredibly marked up, but the funds required just to eat and drink at the festival seem like a deterrent (one mixed drink being $40+). The “influencer culture” revealed during Coachella can also be shocking to some. Coachella opens the curtain on the startling amount of money and privilege certain celebrities are allowed. Some viewers compare the fashion, houses, and resources of celebrities who attend Coachella to the wealth gap of The Hunger Games (me watching this from district 12).
The reality stars of the Bravo show, Summer House, have recently faced a major scandal concerning certain romantic relationships between the group of co-stars. Last week, Amanda Batula and West Wilson released a shared Instagram story revealing their situationship. Why is this of note? Batula is in the midst of a divorce with her long-term partner, Kyle Cooke, another one of Summer House’s “main characters.” Additionally, Wilson is the ex-partner of Ciera Miller, and the pair recently rekindled their friendship (?) after a messy breakup. Batula and Miller have been friends for years, and all four of them have lived in the same house for multiple summers to film the reality show. Last season, we saw the breakup between Miller and Wilson, and Miller confiding in her friend Batula to help her through the tough times. With Batula and Wilson now together romantically (a situationship at that), it’s clear that the friendships in the house have hit the rocks, and may not be able to be recovered.
Some new movies to note: The Drama, starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson; Spider-Man: Brand New Day, also starring Zendaya, as well as Tom Holland and Sadie Sink; The Devil Wears Prada 2, with Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci; and Toy Story 5.
