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It’s been a big year for Taylor Swift at New York University (NYU): First the college started offering a course about her, then in March, they announced they’d be awarding Swift an honorary doctorate of fine arts. Swift, who didn’t go to college since she was instead spent those years of her life becoming a global megastar, is pretty excited about the whole thing, as indicated by a video she shared this morning.

In the Instagram Reel, set to Beabadoobee’s recent single “See You Soon,” Swift rides in a car, looking out the window. Subsequent shots show her getting ready, donning her cap and gown, and having her father take a photo of her in her get-up. The closing shot is similar to the opening one, except this time, Swift is smiling in her graduation outfit. The post is captioned, “Wearing a cap and gown for the very first time – see you soon NYU.”

In addition to receiving the honorary doctorate, Swift is also set to deliver a speech at today’s commencement ceremony, at approximately 11 a.m. ET. The commencement is being livestreamed here.

Beabadoobee, by the way, was thrilled with Swift using her song in the video. On her Instagram Story, she shared the video and wrote, “taylor and see you soon I’m crying [heart emoji].” In a follow-up video, she said, “This… is possibly the best day of my life. Taylor Swift listens to ‘See You Soon.’ This is the best day…”

Harry Styles is a really nice guy. I know this because he told me himself, over and over, in his songs.

Take “Boyfriends,” the penultimate track from his forthcoming album, Harry’s House. Singing in a tender croon over a gentle, finger-picked guitar lick that evokes the ’70s AM gold of John Denver, Styles enumerates the many ways in which most boyfriends are bad. “They think you’re so easy,” he says. “They take you for granted / They don’t know they’re just misunderstanding you.” A few lines later, he sniffs, “You love a fool who knows just how to get under your skin.”

As he makes clear in the other songs on Harry’s House, Styles himself is not guilty of any of these offenses. He is the opposite of those other guys. And he’s here to be your surrogate best friend, romantic partner, and/or sensitive ally, the hunky hero who will whisper sweet nothings while the dumpy zero in your life watches sports on the couch. In the ersatz indie-pop number “Grapejuice,” he’s the hopeless romantic who admits that “I was on my way to buy some flowers for you.” In the low-key bedroom ballad “Little Freak,” he’s the sultry dreamboat who raves about “the body all that yoga gave you.” But mostly, he’s just … nice! Really, really nice! “Take a walk on Sunday through the afternoon,” he sighs moonily in “Love Of My Life.” “We can always find something for us to do.”

Harry Styles’ public-facing persona is so relentlessly pleasant and ingratiating that it’s almost impossible to criticize the guy. Picking on Harry is like giving the finger to Tom Hanks or Barney the dinosaur. It feels wrong. And yet … something has bugged me about him ever since he broke free of teen-pop phenoms One Direction with his 2017 self-titled debut and subsequently forged a wildly successful solo career. And I think I finally figured out what it is: The niceness. The aggressive, hectoring, not totally plausible niceness. While I’m sure Harry Styles is a swell guy in real life, it’s inconceivable that any person on Earth could be as nice as he is in his songs. Even the most compassionate among us has a weak moment every now and then. But with Styles, it always comes back to rote generosity.

“Harry Styles is a good person” is Harry Styles’ overriding artistic credo. He lays it on so thick that the performative altruism becomes oppressive, like in “Treat People With Kindness,” a particularly egregious nice-guy routine from Styles’ blockbuster second album, 2019’s Fine Line. “Maybe we can / Find a place to feel good,” he sings. “And we can treat people with kindness / Find a place to feel good.” Do I dispute the message of the song? Of course not. Nobody can. And that’s the point. It’s bulletproof brand burnishing. Finding a place to feel good … is good! It’s the equivalent of a corporation tweeting out a social-justice slogan. What it’s not is compelling art.

As I played Harry’s House, I kept wondering: Has Harry Styles ever been a bad boyfriend? Has he ever said the wrong thing or had an impulse that is impure, untoward, or selfish? Has he ever felt like not taking a walk through a park on a Sunday afternoon? Really, dude? A song like “Boyfriends” would seem disingenuous or even creepy if it appeared on a John Mayer record, because we know John Mayer is a flawed human being, to say the least. But to his credit, whatever else you want to say about John Mayer, he’s copped to those shortcomings in his songs. Whereas Harry Styles — the occasional, conspicuous lyrical reference to sniffing cocaine or popping “pills” aside — comes off like a life-sized Ken doll on Harry’s House. And that makes for a terribly boring listening experience.

In a recent list of the world’s most stylish musicians, Styles was praised as “a new-school style icon in the gender-fluid footsteps of ’70s and ’80s heroes — especially David Bowie and Prince,” presumably because he wears dresses on stage, just as countless other straight male pop stars have done for a half-century. I personally wouldn’t compare him to Bowie or Prince, for a variety of reasons. He reminds me more of the monologue that opens Mary Harron’s 2000 film American Psycho, in which Christian Bale’s Patrick Bateman coldly intones, “There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman. Some kind of abstraction. But there is no real me. Only an entity. Something illusory.”

Something illusory. That, to me, sums up the fantasy version of himself that Harry Styles serves up on Harry’s House. To be clear: I am not comparing Harry Styles to a fictional serial killer in any other way! (Though injecting American Psycho into Harry’s House would definitely make it less dull.) What I am saying is that his persona, which informs how his songs are heard and discussed, is very much about presenting a facade that is divorced from reality. Yes, he is handsome and charismatic. But he is not some transgressive paradigm-shifter. He is the paradigm. If he looked like Ed Sheeran, he would have the credibility of Ed Sheeran. Because his actual music occupies the same middle-of-the-road pop lane as Ed Sheeran’s.

This is where the nods to genuine innovators like Prince and Bowie — both of whom were fearless about owning and exploring the thorniest parts of their lives and psyches in their songs — start to seem especially preposterous. Styles, at heart, is a pastiche artist who specializes in making soundalikes of the most broadly accepted music from the 1970s onward. This is another kind of facade, an additional distancing device that keeps you at arm’s length from a flesh-and-blood person who might have an original (or even dangerous) thought or two. What you get instead is a curator of cool signifiers. His songs always remind you of better songs.

On Harry’s House, the strongest numbers take a meta turn by evoking other contemporary pastiches, layering more copies on top of copies. The smash hit “As It Was” — which is rocketing rapidly toward a half-billion streams on Spotify a mere six weeks after it was released — is Harry doing his version of The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights,” which was The Weeknd doing his version of A-Ha’s “Take On Me.” (Who could have predicted the long shadow of A-Ha’s influence on 21st-century pop?) On the amiably breezy summer jam “Daydreaming,” which sounds like another potential hit, Harry puts his spin on Bruno Mars’ spin on ’70s soul.

Working again with long-time musical collaborators Kid Harpoon and Tyler Johnson, Harry’s House sonically resembles the agreeably bland star who made it. Lyrically, it disproves the notion that referencing a Joni Mitchell song in your album title is the same as writing with the candor and insight of Joni Mitchell. “If the stars were edible / And our hearts were never full / Could we live with just a taste?” he philosophizes in the album-opening “Music For A Sushi Restaurant.” Given how air-headed that sentiment is, perhaps it’s best that he mostly operates in idealized plastic boyfriend mode. “You stub your toe / or break your camera / I’ll do everything I can to help you through,” he pledges in the wan yacht-rock tune “Late Night Talking,” a song that also sounds like music made for a sushi restaurant.

The genius of Taylor Swift (or Joni Mitchell, for the matter) is that even when they write about their pettiest and most vindictive sides — see the entirety of Reputation — it makes people like them even more. Because listeners recognize those unattractive (but universal!) personality traits in themselves. Nobody, as they say, is perfect. And imperfections are infinitely more fascinating and relatable than airbrushed delusion. But Harry Styles still won’t show us those jagged, authentic edges.

Here’s the truth: Harry Styles is rich. He is famous. He is powerful. He is currently dating Ted Lasso’s estranged wife. Based on that information alone, we can conclude that he is probably a lot darker and more complicated (and therefore more interesting!) than he lets on in his songs. And being a little more honest about that would go a long way to making his music more exciting. At the very least, he would finally be something more than illusory.

As the Fulton County racketeering case against Young Thug and YSL Records continues to draw scrutiny for its use of the Atlanta rapper’s lyrics in its 88-page indictment, the movement to reform criminal law to limit this controversial practice made significant progress this week. Pitchfork reports that the New York State Senate has approved Senate Bill S7527 — aka known as the “Rap On Trial” law.

Sponsored by Senators Jamaal Bailey and Brad Hoylman and receiving support from rappers like Fat Joe, Jay-Z, Killer Mike, and Meek Mill, the Rap On Trial law would limit the use of artists’ lyrics as evidence unless prosecutors can prove that the raps are “literal, rather than figurative or fictional.” This could make it much more difficult for RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) cases to simply pull lyrics that mention suspected criminal organizations, such as the ones used against Young Thug. According to the State Senate website:

The purpose of this legislation is to protect freedom of speech and artistic expression in New York State. This bill effectuates the enhanced free speech protections provided by the New York State Constitution, ensuring that criminal defendants are tried based upon evidence of criminal conduct, not the provocative nature of their artistic works and tastes.

The bill must still pass the State Assembly to become law — love that bicameral Congress — and would require a signature from the Governor to become law, but should it do both, it would set a precedent for other states to follow to stop prosecutors from overreaching when it comes to rappers and their expression.

From their days on the Disney Channel, in which the two played lead roles on Hannah Montana and Wizards Of Waverly Place, Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez have remained close friends, so much so that Gomez asked Cyrus for advice ahead of her debut appearance on Saturday Night Live this past weekend.

Gomez addressed this in her opening monologue, in which she repeated Cyrus’ good words, while nailing her Tennessee accent, reiterating Cyrus’ directive to “just be yourself and have fun.”

Gomez continued, saying, “I was like, ‘Miley, is that just an excuse for me to do an impression of you?’ And she’s like, ‘Hell yeah, I’m Miley Cyrus.’”

Continuing to show her support for Gomez, Cyrus has responded to the Only Murders In The Building actress’ impression in the most Miley Cyrus way possible. Yesterday, the “Midnight Sky” singer shared images of herself in bed, wearing a hand-written shirt which read, “Hell yeah, I’m Miley Cyrus.”

If Gomez is to respond to Cyrus, it probably won’t be via Twitter or Instagram, as she revealed back in March that she hasn’t been online in four years, letting her team manage her handles.

“It has changed my life completely,” she told Good Morning America. “I am happier, I am more present, I connect more with people. I understand how powerful the internet is, and in so many ways it’s done the best things for the world. But for me, I get to my news that is actually important, I get through people in my life.”

Madison Cawthorn’s number should have been up when it came to reelection anyway, based upon how he regularly embarrassed the GOP with his fringe perspectives, but he seems to have sealed that deal when he alleged that D.C. is fueled by coke and orgies. Long story short, the controversial North Carolina representative lost his primary to Chuck Edwards, proving that a certain PAC’s campaign to take him out worked. Now, though, people are wondering who’s next among the ultra-MAGA, QAnon-loving ranks.

Lauren Boebert fits at least one of those descriptors, although word on the street is that she’s been calming down behind closed congressional doors in order to hopefully not end up the subject of a similar campaign. Naturally, though, the GOP cannot be thrilled about either Matt Gaetz’s sex scandals or Marjorie Taylor Greene’s space laser fixation, as well as her “marshall law”-associated obsession and her many lies under oath.

Madison’s number was up first, and it sure looks like Marjorie (who’s long since been stripped of all congressional committee assignments) could be next. Her primary election night (in Georgia) is May 24, and although she doesn’t have the coke-and-orgies claim under her belt, her conspiracy-theory-loving ways do embarrass the GOP. No one knows how she will fare in the primary, but as far as the general election goes, Democrat Marcus Flowers is ready to do the thing: “I’ll be unseating Rep. Greene in November, and it will be my pleasure.”

Otherwise, the sentiment is that if Madison can be pushed out, then loose cannon Marjorie truly needs to worry.

Also, here’s a question for you (and Freddie Krueger):

Squid Game is by far Netflix’s biggest hit of all-time. The (self-reported) numbers are staggering: the Korean series logged 1.65 billion hours during its first 28 days on the streaming service. In second place among non-English language shows: Money Heist part five with 792 million hours. The gap is even larger among English language series, a list topped by season two of Bridgerton with a measly 656 million hours.

Will Squid Game be able to replicate its success in season two? Possibly, but we won’t find out for awhile. Creator Hwang Dong-hyuk told Vanity Fair that the next season won’t come out until the end of 2023, possibly 2024:

He only has about three pages’ worth of ideas that he plans to turn into a script, so there isn’t much he can say except that there will be more games: “Humanity is going to be put to a test through those games once again.” Gi-hun is definitely coming back. Hwang has mentioned that the mysterious Front Man from the first round of games might play more of a role, but this seems like a maybe.

As for the theme of season two, Hwang said, “I want to ask the question, is true solidarity between humans possible?” If by “solidarity,” he means “everyone on Netflix watching Squid Game,” then yes, yes it is.

(Via Vanity Fair)

Madison Cawthorn is officially a loser—and a history-making loser at that. On Tuesday, the people of North Carolina’s 11th congressional district spoke with their votes and made it clear that a 26-year-old scofflaw who may or may not have attended a coke-fueled orgy with some geriatric Republicans is not the person they want representing them. They opted to take a chance on state senator Chuck Edwards instead.

The silver lining for Cawthorn? He can leave office having made history as a congressman at least twice: First, at 25, he became the youngest-ever Republican elected to congress. Now, at the tender age of 26, he’s the youngest-ever Republican congressperson to lose their re-election bid. We’re not sure whether Hallmark makes a card for this particular occasion, but… congratulations?!

Of course, Cawthorn will remain in his current position until early 2023, which means he’s got another six months to continue to stir things up in D.C., on the road, at the airport, or wherever else he chooses to be a public menace next. In the meantime, he’s taking the time to trash his own political party and blame the votes not going his way on what he seems to think is a coordinated effort to oust him from Congress, as Raw Story reports.

Before calling Edwards to concede the election on Tuesday, Cawthorn told a crowd of his own supporters:

“There has been a coordinated strike by really, kind of, the old establishment wing of our party. It’s a loser’s mentality. They realize the direction the country’s going in, the direction the population’s going in. If they want to… pay off people from my past and bring up old pictures or things that happened years and years ago, I feel free to let them do that. I think the American people will see through that.”

The only thing most people are seeing through is that little teddy Madison was rocking in those recently surfaced photos:

Immediately after trashing the GOP, Cawthorn did take a moment to pledge his undying allegiance to Donald Trump, who endorsed the North Carolinian despite being “weirded out” by the video of the twentysomething dry-humping his cousin.

When asked about the former president, Cawthorn said “the thing that I love about President Trump is that when you get your back pushed up against a wall, I’ve found that most people in politics, if it’s not politically expedient to them, they’ll turn their back on you in a heartbeat. But no matter what you are facing, when Donald Trump has your back he has your back ‘til the end.”

Try telling that to Rudy Giuliani.

(Via Raw Story)

Lil Wayne and Mark Cuban are used to having enemies given that they’re both among the most successful figures in the competitive fields of hip-hop and business, respectively. Now, they’re facing off against each other, launching a Twitter feud that has so far peaked with Wayne proclaiming he will urinate in Cuban’s mouth.

On May 8, Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic dropped 26 points and 11 assists to tie his team’s second-round NBA Playoff series against the Phoenix Suns at 2-2, a series the Mavs would go on to win in seven games. That day, Wayne tweeted, “Luka a ho.” Cuban (who of course owns the Mavs) took a while to respond but came back with a good one on May 16, quote-tweeting Wayne’s tweet, adding a photo of Wayne sitting courtside at Game 7 of that series, and quoting a lyric from Wayne’s “Uproar”: “It’s a sh*t show, put you front row.”

Wayne was not a fan of the clap-back, as last night, he tweeted and then deleted, “Mark Cuban don’t make me get u smacked boy U playin w me?? I will piss in ya fkn mouth ho.” In a follow-up tweet that’s still up, he added, “Ya lil b*tch it’s up.”

Multiple Twitter users quickly dug up a photo of Wayne and Cuban celebrating the Mavericks’ 2011 NBA Championship together.

Cuban has yet to respond, but last night, he shared a tweet quoting Doncic as saying, “I’m living my best life right now.” Cuban added, “The best quote ever.”

It’s certainly a good time to be Doncic and Cuban, as the Mavericks are preparing to face the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals. Wayne’s doing alright, too, as he’s working on new music with Tiffany Haddish.

Britney Spears recently faced some tragic news: Last month, she announced she was pregnant, but a few days ago, she revealed she had a miscarriage. She wrote in part, “It is with our deepest sadness we have to announce that we lost our miracle baby early in the pregnancy. This is a devastating time for any parent. Perhaps we should have waited to announce until we were further along. However we were overly excited to share the good news.”

Spears has continued to post on Instagram since then and in one of her latest dispatches, she doesn’t specifically mention her lost pregnancy but does say she’s “definitely going through something in my life at the moment” and that music is helping her through it.

In the sub-two-minute video, Spears dances to Beyonce’s “Halo.” Her caption reads, “I’m definitely going through something in my life at the moment … and music helps me so much just to gain insight and perspective … I shot this 2 months ago but when I look back, each song I danced to gave me a different feel … a different mood … a different story to tell … and I’m thankful for that escape … this song is pretty spiritual and I really enjoy dancing to it !!! Psss I know I’m dramatic and feeling myself but is it believable ???”

This came not long after Spears shared a Sex And The City screenshot of Carrie Bradshaw saying, “I am not in the mood to be with a bunch of people.” Spears wrote, “Unfortunately my mood these days … I honestly hope it doesn’t turn into years !!!!”

Elsewhere in Spears’ life, she recently noted she expects to release her tell-all memoir by the end of this year.

Pennsylvania’s GOP Senate contest between celebrity quack Mehmet Oz and former-hedge fund CEO Dave McCormick is too close to call, with a mere 0.2 percentage points separating the two. The night before polls opened, Oz made sure to remind Keystone State voters that he’s the only candidate being backed by former-president Donald Trump (it’s not the flex he thinks it is). “President Trump said this and I think he was right and kind to say it, that I am smart, I am tough, and I will never let you down,” the not-so-good doctor said on Fox News, to which Colbert replied, “Because there’s nothing more impressive than being called smart by a man who stared directly into an eclipse.”

Later in his monologue, Colbert singled out a weird campaign vow made by Oz.

“So when you go to bed at night and put your head on that soft pillow, you know Oz will be doing exactly what you want him to do if you were there next to him,” he assured (skeezed out?) Fox News viewers. Colbert called it the “creepiest political promise” since George H.W. Bush’s “read my lips” vow (which now involves extra tongue).

You can watch The Late Show clip above.