The very worst thing about And Just Like That? The contents of Carrie Bradshaw's bathroom cabinet
The dreary drugstore sunscreen, sponges and old soap felt jarring. Plus, what's with the weirdly prominent Tums? Is it product placement or is acid reflux aspirational now? Someone on Substack better versed in SATC lore than me wrote an impressively exhaustive analysis of why some products (a particular nail varnish; Pond's cold cream) made sense, but even she thought much of it was wrong. Carrie dresses like Marie Antoinette attending a rival's wedding just to sit in her mansion writing her (execrable) novel; I agree with the Redditor who commented: 'She'd be using La Mer. La Prairie Skin Caviar. That Guerlain Impériale nonsense that you'd have to remortgage your house to afford.'
Maybe someone painstakingly selected every product, but it feels more like a missed opportunity, because a bathroom cabinet is far more revealing than even a fridge. I'm not a peeper – honest – but open shelves in other people's bathrooms are fascinating, from feral-looking scruffs revealed to be followers of 10-step Korean skincare routines, to Instagram princesses somehow conjuring a glazed doughnut glow from a cracked bar of Imperial Leather and an economy tub of Vaseline. A survey of my own bathroom cabinet reveals a forest of manky interdental brushes, HRT, cracked-heel balm, ibuprofen galore and, weirdly, a broken light switch, betraying the dentally challenged, desiccated, headachy, oestrogen-depleted mess behind the, ahem, polished exterior. So if And Just Like That won't give us bathroom glamour like the escapist fluff it's supposed to be, it needs to double down on realism: let's have neck retinol, vaginal oestrogen, cystitis treatments and citalopram.
Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
24 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Ellen guest makes new bullying claims
By Published: | Updated: Comedian Adam Carolla has made a series of startling new claims about Ellen DeGeneres' 'notoriously hellish' former chat show. The former 'Man Show' host said staff on 'Ellen' 'were scared, real scared' during his two guest spots on the program, during a podcast appearance Tuesday. Speaking to conservative commentator Emily Jashinsky, Carolla, 61, provided a pair of anecdotes as purported proof. The first saw Carolla recall being repeatedly reminded by a 'scared-to-death' page to avoid certain topics before going on air. The second involved a writer for the show branding his then-boss 'the worst person I've ever met.' 'I knew they were scared because it's like, I was just sitting in my dressing room and their like segment producer came in, and he went, "All right, so we went over all the stuff we're going to talk about," you know, Christmas vacation or whatever it was,' Carolla began. 'And I go, "Yeah, yeah." 'And he goes, "You're not going to talk about meat or beef or anything like that, right?" And I go, "No, I'm not. I'm just going to talk about the stuff we talked about — going on vacation at Christmas or the kids or, you know, their anecdotes."' At the time, DeGeneres had been a devout vegan — a lifestyle she has since abandoned. 'Okay. All right. Okay. All right,' Carolla recalled the staffer saying, after making one appearance on DeGeneres's show in March 2012 and another on an undisclosed date that Daily Mail has not been able to confirm. 'And he like came back like 20 minutes later right before I went out, and he's like, "Okay, but don't talk about beef or meat or any[thing]," Carolla continued. 'I was like, "Oh, this guy's scared to death."' Carolla then offered up another never-before-heard tale about the show that was canned after allegations of toxicity from its longtime host surfaced in 2022. 'Later on, I talked to someone who signed an NDA, so I won't say his name, but he wrote for Ellen,' Carolla explained. 'I just went, "How's Ellen?" 'And he said, "Worst person, uh, worst person. Not worst person I've worked for. Worst person I've ever met,"' the comic recalled. Carolla — who hosted 'The Man Show' with Ellen's former ABC colleague Jimmy Kimmel in the early 2000s — then revealed the staffer had also worked for Rosie O'Donnell's daytime show during the 90s and was still adamant his then-boss was the worst of the bunch. '[This was] when Rosie was the Official Chub Club,' Carolla pointed out, referring to the title of a book O'Donnell wrote the foreword for in 1999, titled, 'You Don't Have to Be Thin to Win: The Official Chub Club Coach's Workout Program.' 'The worst and the meanest,' he said of the comic who, like DeGeneres, has left the country due to disapproval toward Donald Trump. After nearly two decades of being on the air, showrunners decided to pull the plug on the program in 2022. DeGeneres, 67, told The Hollywood Reporter that year, 'I have to just trust that whatever happened during that time, which was obviously very, very difficult, happened for a reason. I think that I learned a lot, and there were some things that came up that I was shocked and surprised by. It was eye-opening, but I just trust that that had to happen.'
BBC News
24 minutes ago
- BBC News
Wednesday: Jenna Ortega says sudden fame was 'very overwhelming'
Jenna Ortega has described the sudden fame that came with starring in Netflix hit Wednesday as "very overwhelming".The first season of the show about the Addams family's deadpan daughter became Netflix's most popular English-language series ever after its release in 22, told BBC culture correspondent Lizo Mzimba she was "very grateful and glad that it was able to resonate with people in the way that it did".But asked if she was ready for the attention that came with the series, the US actress replied: "Is anyone? No, I wasn't. I wouldn't want to know someone who is. I don't think that should ever be like a normal sort of [experience]." She added: "I'm still very appreciative and grateful. We didn't know that anyone was going to watch the show. You do these things and you don't know what's to come, so it was very overwhelming."The second season of Tim Burton's show, released next week, follows Wednesday Addams as she returns to Nevermore Academy, now under the leadership of a new also sees a bigger role for Wednesday's parents, who will have an increased presence on the school's campus, something Netflix has said results in "a rare new form of torture for a fiercely independent amateur sleuth". The greater prominence for father and mother Gomez and Morticia Addams gives a chance for the show to explore the family dynamics more deeply than it did in the first season."I think one of the reasons people resonate with the Addams family so much is their strangeness," Ortega reflects."They're a very cohesive unit, but they're also very different from one another and stand out. They shouldn't fit [together] but they do. And that's very relatable."She highlights the complex dynamic between Wednesday and Morticia, played by Catherine Zeta-Jones, and says she's looking forward to viewers "getting to see more" of the Welsh actress, who she describes as a "delicious, divine presence"."It's very typical for mother and daughter to butt heads," Ortega notes, "and the daughter wanting to be her own person and feel that maybe she's not being given the space she deserves or needs to come into her own."But also the mother's desire to look after her children and be protective, and not wanting them to have to deal with the same hardships that they may have faced in the past. Reading the scripts, it's very applicable to my experience as a teenager, and now."California-born Ortega has also starred in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Death of a Unicorn and two films in the Scream franchise, as well as TV series You and Jane the Virgin. But her best-known role is Wednesday Addams, a character known for her sharp wit, deadpan delivery and fascination with all things was first portrayed by Lisa Loring in The Addams Family TV series in the mid-1960s. Christina Ricci later took on the role for two movies in the early is flexing some different muscles for the forthcoming second season by also serving as an executive producer, something she says "was a great education for me... I tried to soak in as much as I possibly could".She acknowledges the three-year gap between the first and second season, but adds that it "allowed the dust and debris to settle a little". Viewers have been "very patient with us", Ortega smiles. "We made them wait for a long time. We do want to please them, but we want to do it in new and more exciting ways." Zeta-Jones says the second season gives her a bigger role after "just dropping in and setting up the matriarch of this central character" in the on the opening season, the actress recalls, felt "like you were at the grassroots of something".So when producers told her they wanted to use the second season to "really incorporate the family surrounding Wednesday, and really look at that dynamic between the mother and daughter, it was just a joy"."They created a lovely arc that didn't supersede the through story of Wednesday and her journey, it just padded it out beautifully and they fleshed our characters out great. At this point in my career, I feel so blessed to be part of this world."Other stars appearing in season two include Joanna Lumley as Wednesday's grandmother Hester Frump, Steve Buscemi as Nevermore principal Barry Dort, and Billie Piper as head of music Isadora Capri. 'Online communities can be isolating' Ortega suggests one of the reasons the show has resonated so widely is because it explores themes of "where we find our sense of community now"."I wasn't around in the 70s, but I hear stories of people knocking on their neighbours' doors, and the bikes going all throughout the city, and just expecting to meet someone at a certain time on a certain location."That contrasts hugely with the reliance on smartphones today, she notes. "People don't talk to each other in person. They're interacting and finding their community online, which can be very isolating."Also, there are so many voices and so many opinions that you're exposed to, much more than you would typically be, or that humans are kind of meant to be exposed to."So I think it's harder to find a sense of self. Young people are struggling to find, 'What makes my voice stand out? What is it about me in this world and this society today that gives me a sense of purpose or control or authority?'"According to Zeta-Jones, the Addams family are relatable precisely because "we embrace our idiosyncrasies", adding: "It's OK to be different, we don't try to box it, hide it, as a family we encourage it... it's the ultimate modern family."Ortega agrees: "There's great comfort in seeing people who are so obviously themselves, freely, and place priority where it matters, and that's your family, that's who's in front of you, your special interests, that's your strength and your courage and your confidence in your voice."It's very easy now to get swept up in some sort of sheep mentality, and I think it's so important for young people to see this family now more than ever." The first four episodes of Wednesday's second season are released on 6 August, with the remaining four released on 3 News used AI to help write the summary at the top of this article. It was edited by BBC journalists. Find out more.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Yes, Kris Jenner and Corey Gamble are 'sick of each other'... but that isn't whole truth about their relationship
Kris Jenner and Corey Gamble have been dating for over a decade, but the Hollywood couple don't always see eye-to-eye. That was evident this past weekend, when the momager, 69, and her talent manager boyfriend, 44, were caught having a 'visibly tense' exchange at Beyoncé 's Cowboy Carter concert in Las Vegas.
