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  • Manhattan’s Jewel Box Celebrates 95 Sparkling Years

    New York’s grande dame, The Pierre, knows how to throw a soirée. Last night, the elegant Taj Hotel celebrated 95 years as a beacon of Upper East Side glamour with a ‘Red Diamond’ gala that brought together residents, diplomats, stars and influencers for an unforgettable evening of vintage Manhattan magic.

    Nearly 500 guests, from silver-haired luminaries to fresh-faced Gen Z tastemakers, donned black tie finery to toast The Pierre’s storied history in its famous ballroom. Sipping champagne beneath glittering chandeliers, partygoers were transported to a more gracious era, when the hotel played host to everyone from Elizabeth Taylor and Aristotle Onassis to Audrey Hepburn.

    The entertainment was a love letter to old New York: A Marilyn Monroe impersonator cooed while Deanna First sketched partygoers and professional ballroom dancers swirled across the stage in a swish of satin and sequins. Historic treasures, like archival photos and a $195,000 0.6-carat pink diamond, were displayed without fanfare (or security).

    Getty Images Deanna First.

    But while the gala paid homage to The Pierre’s glamorous past, the crowd reflected its vibrant present. Among those spotted in the sea of tuxedos and gowns: hotel residents, foreign dignitaries, reality TV stars, Instagram celebrities and even the odd baby or two nestled in couture-clad arms. The evening proved that after nearly a century, The Pierre can still create indelible Manhattan moments.

    Courtesy of Lola Tash Lola Tash and Jessica Wang.

    “I was transported back to the galas of the Gilded Age,” Lola Tash told Observer. The Canadian actress and brains behind the satirical, relatable meme account My Therapist Says was “reminded once more why New York is magical.”

    Getty Images Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe.

    “The Pierre is my American Home away from home,” Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe told Observer. His godmother lived in The Pierre, the prince said, noting “the happiest of my memories are right here” and calling the historic property “the hotel love of my life.”

    Courtesy of Grace Aki Grace Aki.

    Experiencing the hotel’s cinematic history firsthand was a highlight for Grace Aki. The gallery of treasures glowing behind glass displays made the night “all the more special,” Aki told Observer.

    “Like stepping into history,” was how Viola Manuela Ceccarini described the event. “The elegance, the legacy and the energy in the room—witnessing generations of excellence converge under that red diamond, a symbol of timeless prestige and the enduring spirit of New York.”

    Courtesy of Lori Altermann The star of the show poses with Lori Altermann.

    “Everywhere I turn, I see New York’s elite—beautiful celebrities and even Marilyn Monroe!” quipped Lori Altermann. “The fashion, the food, the hotel—everything is fabulous!” Altermann told Observer. “It’s a celebration of luxury,” said Namani Shqipe.

    Getty Images A Rolls-Royce awaits.
    Getty Images Guests enjoyed ice-cold Grey Goose Altius.
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    Getty Images Monica Danae Ricketts.
    Getty Images Evie Evangelo.
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    Getty Images Daria Matkova.
    Getty Images ‘Queen of Versailles’ Jackie Siegel.
    Getty Images Lorna Luft and Jill Martin.
    Getty Images Ramona Singer.
    Getty Images Andy Yu.
    Getty Images Sara Fivessi.
    Getty Images Kate Saucedo and Dymond Veve.
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    Merin Curotto

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  • The Glamorous History of The Pierre: Manhattan’s Iconic Hotel Turns 95

    When The Pierre Hotel opened its doors in 1930, it instantly became a playground for Manhattan’s elite. Over the past 95 years, this iconic hotel has witnessed everything from the repeal of Prohibition to jewel heists and Hollywood scandals, all while maintaining its reputation as one of New York’s most glamorous destinations. From its $15 million debut to hosting Hollywood royalty and surviving the Great Depression, The Pierre has remained a beacon of glamour in the heart of New York City since 1930.

    A Complete History of The Pierre Hotel

    Image by Nextrecord Archives / G

    The Early Days: A Playground for Manhattan’s Elite

    When The Pierre Hotel opened on October 1, 1930, casting its 714-room shadow over Central Park, it instantly became the playground for Manhattan’s elite. Merely four months later, E.B. White’s Ballad of the Hotel Pierre was published in the New Yorker, describing it as home to “The little band that nothing daunts/this year’s most popular debutantes.” This was true. Prospective debutantes had started booking the ballroom for their November entrances in June, months before the luxury hotel opened. 

    Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel posing in her suite at The Pierre during her first visit to New York City, on March 10, 1931.
    Getty Images

    Within a year, the film and stage star Ina Claire was sinking into a club chair at the hotel as she discussed with journalists whether she would be divorcing John Gilbert. (She claimed she would not. She would.) In 1932, Coco Chanel called The Pierre home during her first visit to New York. And that same year, the famed “Tobacco King” Arthur Mower refused to leave his Pierre bed for his stepdaughter’s early morning wedding . 

    Little wonder no one wanted to leave. Every inch of the 41-story hotel offered an almost otherworldly spectacle. The 60-by-100-foot ballroom where those debutantes waltzed was paneled in mirrors flanked by rose marble columns imported from French quarries. The chandeliers above sparkled with traces of ruby crystals from the room that would become known for the “swankest presentation balls” given for the city’s “spoiled darlings.” Attendees might make their way to the Grill Room, which was decorated to resemble an “undersea garden.” Wall panels and ceiling murals replicated ocean foliage, and the carpet was woven with images of seashells and sea urchins. In the upstairs dining room, paneled in hand-carved French walnut, interspersed with gold brocade hangings, Auguste Escoffier, the father of French cooking, prepared the hotel’s first meal.

    Bettmann Archive Miss Elizabeth R. G. Duval, a prominent member of New York society, and Sidney Wood, a well-known tennis star, sit on the steps inside The Pierre in 1933.

    From Waiter to Hotelier: The Story of Charles Pierre

    But The Pierre didn’t begin in those gilded rooms. It began in a kitchen, with a Corsican waiter named Charles Pierre Casalasco, who learned the trade from his father. When Louis Sherry dined at the Savoy Hotel in London in 1903, the American restaurateur noted a young waiter watching him with eager attention. Casalasco was “awed by this former waiter who had become proprietor of a smart dining room in New York.” Sherry was so impressed with the waiter’s desire to learn more about the hospitality business that, when he returned to New York, he made Casalasco his assistant. There, the waiter quickly dropped his surname in favor of being known simply as Charles Pierre. At that time, it was almost a forgone conclusion that New York’s debutantes were introduced at Sherry’s ballroom. Charles Pierre, tasked with organizing these splendid events, became “the favorite of the younger set, married matrons and the dowagers.” 

    Smart set, Mrs. Robert Goddard and Mrs. Roland Hazzard, in front of The Pierre.
    Bettmann Archive

    When Charles Pierre opened his own Park Avenue restaurant in 1920, his devoted group followed him. In 1930, their social set husbands, like Walter Chrysler, Edward Hutton, and C.K.G. Billings, helped finance his dream, The Pierre Hotel, which reputedly cost a staggering $15 million to build. In retrospect, too much may have been spent on those underwater-themed murals. By 1932, during the Great Depression, a petition of bankruptcy was filed—but Charles Pierre was kept on as managing director to run the hotel. 

    Disciplined and knowledgeable with a European flair, Charles Pierre ran the hotel with aplomb.

    Penske Media via Getty Images

    The Return of the ‘High-Class Hotel’

    When the repeal of Prohibition came in 1933, he rejoiced. No hotel man was more excited by the prospect of liquor coming back on the menu again. He declared that Prohibition had destroyed American appreciation for wine—and really any liquor that did not come from a bathtub. Now, a “new generation will have to learn all over again how to drink.” He intended to outfit The Pierre with a wonderful cellar to teach them. He planned gala celebrations. People could now gather for cocktails at his newly opened supper club, the Corinthian Room. He promised, “The next few years will see the rejuvenation of the high-class hotel.” 

    A young woman enjoys the luxuries of room service at The Pierre in 1943.
    Getty Images

    He was correct. But sadly, Charles Pierre would never see the heights to which his hotel would climb. He passed away in 1934 at the age of 55 from appendicitis. He was too weak from an abdominal infection to be saved by medicine flown in from Florida in what was described as a “13-hour airplane race against death.”  

    But his legacy lived on in The Pierre Hotel.

    Bettmann Archive Joan Crawford at The Pierre on January 22, 1959.

    Celebrities like Joan Crawford and Claudette Colbert would flock there, as well as younger disciples. By 1938, following her father’s death, the 13-year-old heiress Lucetta Cotton Thomas was spending $1,416 a month (approximately $32,000 today) to live at the hotel. Eloise at The Plaza had nothing on her. By that time, the hotel belonged to oilman John Paul Getty, who quipped that it was his “only above-ground asset.” 

    In 1944, the hotel—and the room prices—were the subject of scandal. It was found that munitions manufacturer Murray Garsson had housed and paid the hotel bills for key personnel in the army’s Chemical Warfare Service in what was known as “Operation Pierre.” In 1942, the decorator Samuel Marx had redone the hotel’s dining room in red, white and blue, and commissioned murals of early American life for the Grill Room, so it was certainly a patriotic wartime pick. However, officers knew that, when traveling to New York City, they had a $6 daily stipend. As even young Lucetta Cotton Thomas could have told them, rooms at the Pierre cost somewhat more. Garsson may have received $78 million in government contracts, but was imprisoned for bribery in 1949. Still, no one at the trials said that they did not like staying at The Pierre.   

    Bettmann Archive Ginger Rogers gets her Daiquiri-toned French lace dress fitted by its designer, Richard Meril, in preparation for the “Prestige Award from France” fashion show at The Pierre Pierre.

    1950s Glamour and The Birdcage Bar

    By the 1950s, the hotel had reached new heights of glamour. Chief among the novelties was The Birdcage, a plexiglass bar suspended above the rotunda. It was splashily advertised as “a rendezvous for cocktails.” Charles Pierre, who once prophesied that people would flock to his hotel for drinks, would have been pleased.  

    In the coming years, the hotel would not only be home to the city’s toniest citizens, but Hollywood royalty. Joan Blondell noted that, when her dog “gave birth to seven puppies, the manager of the Pierre hotel assisted the vet in delivery.” Audrey Hepburn stayed there throughout the filming of that quintessential New York movie, Breakfast at Tiffany’s. During those years, she was feted at the hotel with a gala hosted by Countess Alexandra Tolstoy. The meeting would inspire one of her future roles in War and Peace.  

    Audrey Hepburn, who won Hollywood’s Academy Award for her performance in the film “Roman Holiday,” is ecstatic after finally receiving her Oscar at a special ceremony in at The Pierre. Sharing her enthusiasm is fellow winner William Holden
    Bettmann Archive via Getty Images

    The fact that in 1958 the hotel became a co-op, where guests could buy apartments, only added to its appeal. Especially as those apartment owners included Aristotle Onassis and Elizabeth Taylor, the thought of visiting New York from Middle America may have been exciting on its own. The thought of running into Elizabeth Taylor in the lobby of the hotel you were staying at was almost overwhelming.

    Penske Media via Getty Images Bill Buckley and Nan Kempner at an annual gala held at The Pierre.

    Jewel Heists and Fashion Royalty

    By 1967, the hotel underwent a transformation also fit for royalty. The new owner, Peter Dowling, commissioned Edward Melcarth to paint the rotunda’s iconic trompe l’oeil mural. Inspired by 17th-century palaces, Melcarth claimed that he wanted to “make people feel very special and important when they walk into this room. The figures are heroic in scale because I want to rehumanize man as an individual. We’re not digits on a computer card.” The people in the mural, accordingly, were not confined to the past. The painting features columns and Greek gods in recline, alongside “a hippie boy and mini-skirted girl” meant to depict a modern Adam and Eve. Rather to her surprise, Melcarth’s mural also boasted a depiction of former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. (Kennedy asked to be removed from the picture. Melcarth accommodated by partially disguising her, but a discerning visitor can still spot her image.)

    Pat Nixon leaving The Pierre to go shopping.
    Penske Media via Getty Images

    Visitors would get a less agreeable thrill when burglars broke into the hotel on January 2, 1972. On that day, four reportedly well-dressed gunmen pulled up to the hotel in a limousine. They handcuffed a variety of employees and guests. After, they proceeded to clean out 47 safe deposit boxes containing approximately $3 million in jewels, before departing, again, in a limousine. The men were arrested within a week, and the jewels recovered, though police recalled it as being one of “the biggest and slickest hotel robberies ever.”

    Penske Media via Getty Images Karl Lagerfeld at The Pierre in the 1970s.

    The flurry of reportage around the jewel theft only increased the hotel’s allure to the fashionable set. In 1970, the designer Karl Lagerfeld, a habitué of the hotel, would say, “I discovered New York from The Pierre . . . Distances in the city were measured only by how far they were from The Pierre.” He did not have to go far to see his friends. Givency, Yves Saint Laurent and Valentino were all regulars—Valentino even bought St. Laurent’s Pierre apartment in 2007. 

    Getty Images Andy Warhol outside of The Pierre in 1985.

    Pat Nixon, not to be outdone by Jackie, had designers bring their creations to her while staying in a suite at the hotel. In 1975, Betty Ford went to see the first Chanel Fashion show in the country, held, predictably, at the hotel Coco herself had loved. By 1976, Jackie Kennedy was on the premises once more, this time with Valentino for his show benefiting the Special Olympics. Television Dynasty star Joan Collins showcased her hats at the hotel in 1985, with Andy Warhol in attendance. The hats were lovely, but did prompt a reporter to wonder, “When, besides for lunch at the Pierre, would someone wear a large straw hat?” This seemed as much an inducement for many to lunch at The Pierre as it was for them to do away with hats.

    Getty Images Richard Nixon at The Pierre in January 1969.

    The Pierre on the Silver Screen

    By the 1990s, the hotel again found itself connected to Hollywood, although this time in front of the scenes. Al Pacino twirled in The Pierre ballroom for the famed tango scene in 1995’s Scent of a Woman. The penthouse served as the Anthony Hopkins character’s home in 1998’s Meet Joe Black. And, following the $100 million renovation The Pierre underwent in 2013, it was featured in the heist movie Ocean’s 8. Considering its legacy, there could certainly be no more fitting hotel for a film about a group of well-dressed female jewel thieves. 

    Jacqueline Kennedy with American diplomat/businessman Sol Linowitz outside of The Pierre.
    Penske Media via Getty Images

    Ron Galella Collection via Getty Dionne Warwick and Burt Bacharach at The Pierre.

    Today, the hotel is celebrating 95 years, an admirable accomplishment in a city where new establishments seem to pop up nightly. Perhaps part of its success has to do with the respect its owners have shown towards its storied legacy. Right now, the restaurant offers a tribute to Auguste Escoffier, and the mural, lovingly repainted in 2016, ensures that the rotunda is considered one of the most romantic rooms in New York. The details and owners may have changed, but The Pierre remains as glamorous and beloved as it was by those long-ago debutantes and Charles Pierre Casalasco himself. 

    Getty Images A view from Central Park of the Pierre (left) and Sherry Netherland hotels on Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, New York City. Both buildings were designed by Schultze and Weaver.

    Jennifer Ashley Wright

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  • Taylor Swift Increasingly Loses Touch with “The Commoner” on The Life of a Showgirl

    Although Taylor Swift has been famous for most of her life, one of the biggest keys to her success has always been “relatability.” Or at least the illusion of it. This has been done, more often than not, with lovelorn lyrics about being some “dowdy” girl who can’t ever quite get the guy/find love (most famously on “You Belong With Me”). With her twelfth album, The Life of a Showgirl, Swift loses some of that already dwindling “everywoman” cachet for the sake of a concept that’s centered on, essentially, living in a gilded cage. But it isn’t just the “poor me, I’m so rich” aura that makes The Life of a Showgirl frequently eye-rolling, it’s also the bathetic displays toward, unmistakably, Travis Kelce—whose podcast, New Heights, she appeared on to announce the album in the first place. Never mind that said podcast is aimed at discussing sports, not pop music.

    And yet, such “flouting of the rules” has been going on a lot during the “crossover potential” of Taylor and Travis’ (or “Traylor,” if you must) relationship. One that has even prompted the commissioner of the NFL, Roger Goodell, to gush about how she’s responsible for bringing in a younger audience to the games/generally drumming up interest in the sport ever since she started dating the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback.

    The very quarterback she does her best to wield within a Shakespearean context with The Life of a Showgirl’s first track, “The Fate of Ophelia,” with an effect that could very well have Shakespeare turning in his grave as Swift rewrites, you guessed it, the fate of Ophelia, by making it a “happy ending” for the erstwhile suicidal wreck. And who else should save her but the Hamlet stand-in of the song, “Prince” Travis? A man that Swift has the gall to sing of, “Late one night, you dug me out of my grave and/Saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia/Keep it one hundrеd on the land, the sea, thе sky/Pledge allegiance to your hands, your team, your vibes/Don’t care where the hell you been, ‘cause now you’re mine.”

    Cornball songwriting aside, “The Fate of Ophelia” is an insult to hallowed literature itself in that Swift would dare to touch Shakespearean scripture for the sake “Hollywoodizing” the ending—this further manifest in the lyrics, “No longer drowning and deceived/All because you came for me.” Mixing metaphors a bit, Taylor also talks of being rescued from a tower (hardly the first time she’s used that image in a song, with The Tortured Poets Department also mentioning it on “The Albatross” and “Cassandra”), in addition to the water in which Ophelia drowned. So clearly, she’s confusing Big O with Rapunzel, but no matter, Swift simply has a penchant for referencing other famous women.

    As she does on the second track, “Elizabeth Taylor.” And no, it’s not the first time Swift has mentioned this “fellow Taylor” in a song. She also name-checked the icon during 2017’s “…Ready For It?” (“He can be my jailer, Burton to this Taylor”), co-produced by Max Martin, Shellback and Ali Payami. It’s the former two that Swift reteams with for the entirety of The Life of a Showgirl, further distinguishing it from Reputation, which incorporated other producers apart from Martin and Shellback into the mix, including Jack Antonoff. The reteaming of Swift with just Martin and Shellback is, in fact, a primary gimmick of this album, and perhaps a subtle way to make amends for never getting around to Reputation (Taylor’s Version) after engaging fans in one of the biggest trolls in recent music history.

    Perhaps one of the peak examples on the record of “losing touch” with “the commoner,” Swift does her best to embody Elizabeth T. when she sings, “That view of Portofino was on my mind when you called me at the Plaza Athénée [said in a very non-French way]/Ooh, oftentimes it doesn’t feel so glamorous to be me/All the right guys/Promised they’d stay/Under bright lights/They withered away/But you bloom.” For a start, most of the football fans on “Team Travis” in this relationship would have no idea what the fuck she’s talking about, their limited sense of geography extending, at best, to what lies just beyond Kansas. What’s more, most Midwesterners are well over the constant favoritism given to New York and Los Angeles, yet Swift appears to have her own limited sense of geography when she says, “Be my NY whеn Hollywood hates me.” This statement feeling less like a nod to E. Taylor and more like one to Marilyn Monroe, who famously fled Hollywood for New York after getting into a contract dispute with Darryl F. Zanuck, the head of 20th Century Fox, at the end of 1954. No matter, Swift, like Lindsay Lohan before her, can be attracted to both legends’ stories—their tragic tales and love lives, intermixed with glitz and glamor.

    And, as if to highlight the cliches of “how lonely it is at the top,” Swift adds, “Hey, what could you possibly get for the girl who has everything and nothing all at once?” In many regards, this track is a “sequel,” of sorts,” to the question posed on 2019’s “The Archer”: “Who could ever leave me, darling?/But who could stay?” The answer, for the moment, is Kelce, who at least knows something about the pressure behind a sentiment like, “You’re only as hot as your last hit, baby.” If that’s the case, Swift might be in trouble with a song like “Opalite,” which trots out the same old color-related tropes she’s already overused in the past (though probably not nearly as much as Lana Del Rey mentions “blue”). In this case, the “onyx night” represents the darkness before the arrival of Kelce into her life, who provides the “opalite sky” in the wake of “the lightning strikes”—presumably a metaphor for Swift’s previous botched relationships and media scrutiny.

    Commencing the song with the verse, “I had a bad habit/Of missing lovers past/My brother used to call it/‘Eating out of the trash,’ it’s never gonna last/I thought my house was haunted/I used to live with ghosts/And all the perfect couples/Said, ‘When you know, you know and when you don’t, you don’t,’” it’s evident Swift is alluding to Jack Antonoff, Margaret Qualley and Lana Del Rey. The latter of whom wrote a song about Antonoff and Qualley’s relationship called, what else, “Margaret,” during which she sings, “When you know, you know” of the kind of true love that Antonoff found with Qualley. Later in the song, however, she does Swift one better by saying, “‘Cause when you know, you know/And when you’re old, you’re old/Like Hollywood and me.” Swift, of course, isn’t quite ready to refer to herself in such a way. For being an “aging showgirl,” as The Last Showgirl recently reminded, doesn’t generally bode well for one’s career.

    Even though Swift has made amply certain that she has plenty of other parachutes, as it were, should she need a graceful “out” from pop stardom. For she has her hands in numerous pies (many of which people probably won’t know about for years), as she’s keen to circuitously boast about via the mafioso theme of “Father Figure,” which dares to sample from George Michael, a big risk for anyone, but especially Swift. This because, when compared to the great pop musicians that came before her, particularly in the 80s, the ways in which Swift falls short become even more glaringly obvious. In other words, she has never “ate” the way that, say, Madonna, Prince, George Michael, Grace Jones or David Bowie have.

    Regardless, Swift does what she can with the interpolation of Michael’s 1987 hit (and, let’s just say that it works better than the interpolation of Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy” on “Look What You Made Me Do”), wielding it to throw shade at all of the male executives who thought they could manipulate and control her over the years. Indeed, in a sense, it acts as The Life of a Showgirl’s “The Man,” with Swift getting into the persona of a big dick-swinging executive (or mafia boss) herself, with many speculating that Scott Borchetta is the source of inspiration. After all, he signed her as his first artist on his then new label, Big Machine Records, when she was just fourteen years old. So it is that Swift sardonically flexes, as though channeling Borchetta, “When I found you, you were young, wayward, lost in the cold/Pulled up to you in the Jag, turned your rags into gold/The winding road leads to the chateau/‘You remind me of a younger me’/I saw potential.”

    The chorus then goes for the jugular with, “I’ll be your father figure/I drink that brown liquor/I can make deals with the devil because my dick’s bigger/This love is pure profit/Just step into my office.” The mafia motif is also peppered in throughout (as if The Godfather needs any more play in terms of fortifying a grotesque Italian stereotype), with Swift asserting, “Leave it with me/I protect the family” and “I got the place surrounded/You’ll be sleeping with the fishes before you know you’re drowning.” Elsewhere, another light Del Rey nod is made with, “Mistake my kindness for weakness and find your card canceled” (on 2019’s “Mariners Apartment Complex,” Del Rey sings, “They mistook my kindness for weakness”). As for another “unintentional” nod, it bears noting that Michael’s “Father Figure” has been having a moment this past year, with Harris Dickinson as Samuel offering a kinky dance in a hotel room to said track in Babygirl while Nicole Kidman as Romy watches before joining in (side note: Swift was sure to mention that she wrote this song before this movie came out).

    A title like “Father Figure” leads naturally into “Eldest Daughter” (which, yes, Swift is, with only one younger brother, Austin). A track that, incidentally, has a lot in common with Lorde’s “Favourite Daughter” from Virgin. Except that, unlike the catchiness of “Favourite Daughter,” which is something of a millennial anthem in terms of how said generation was conditioned to always achieve and strive for more, “Eldest Daughter” is a cheesy ballad that few Gen Z listeners could handle. After all, Swift is a millennial through and through (in case “as the 50 Cent song played…” didn’t also give it away on “Ruin the Friendship”) in part because of being fearless when it comes to being cringe. So it is that she addresses the current chicness of being callous and aloof in the first verse, “Everybody’s so punk on the internet/Everyone’s unbothered ‘til they’re not/Every joke’s just trolling and memes/Sad as it seems, apathy is hot/Everybody’s cutthroat in the comments/Every single hot take is cold as ice.” Apart from referencing some of her lyrics in “You Need to Calm Down” (e.g., “You are somebody that I don’t know/But you’re taking shots at me like it’s Patrón/And I’m just like, ‘Damn, it’s seven a.m.’/Say it in the street, that’s a knockout/But you say it in a tweet, that’s a copout”), the “hot take” line also seems to allude to that time she felt obliged to tell Damon Albarn off.

    The incident occurred in early 2022, when a written interview between The Los Angeles Times and Albarn went as follows:

    LAT: “She may not be to your taste, but Taylor Swift is an excellent songwriter.

    DA: “She doesn’t write her own songs.”

    LAT: “Of course she does. Co-writes some of them.”

    DA: “That doesn’t count. I know what co-writing is. Co-writing is very different to writing. I’m not hating on anybody, I’m just saying there’s a big difference between a songwriter and a songwriter who co-writes. Doesn’t mean that the outcome can’t be really great.”

    Swift was very quick to respond via Twitter, slamming Albarn about his “hot take” with the reply: “I was such a big fan of yours until I saw this. I write ALL of my own songs. Your hot take is completely false and SO damaging. You don’t have to like my songs but it’s really fucked up to try and discredit my writing. WOW.” But, to be fair, Albarn isn’t wrong. Swift does co-write most of her songs, with The Life of a Showgirl being no exception in that Martin and Shellback are her fellow collaborators. But it’s apparent that she is in total control of all themes, as unrelatable as they are. Granted, Swift pulls what Olivia Rodrigo and Addison Rae did with “vampire” and “Fame Is a Gun” respectively in that she insists everyone can relate to having a “public life” now thanks to the advent of the online persona. This being her inspiration behind “Eldest Daughter,” of which she commented,

    “[It’s] about kind of the roles that we play in our public life, because nowadays everyone has a public life. You have a life that you portray to other people or what you portray on social media, and then you have the you that everyone gets to know who has earned the right to be closest to you. And it’s really hard to be sincere publicly because that’s not really what our culture rewards. People reward you for being like tough and unbothered and like too busy to care. And you may be that about some things, but everyone has things that matter to them and people that matter to them.”

    For Swift, it’s always been apparent that being “the best” is what matters to her. This in addition to finding and securing her Prince Charming. It’s a variation on the latter theme that occurs in “Ruin the Friendship.” Yet another track that proves she’s sort of scraping the bottom of the barrel for “relatable material” in that she once again feels obliged to speak as though she’s still in high school. To be sure, Swift appears mentally stuck in that “era” in many ways, often writing from the perspective of an ostracized and/or lovestruck teenager (as she also does on TTPD’s “So High School”). And while that might have been her “core audience” once upon a time, many have been forced to leave such “childish things” behind.

    Nonetheless, Swift takes listeners back to a moment in time when she was friends with someone in high school (reportedly Jeff Lang, a man that died in his early twenties) who she had more than “just friendly” feelings for. Filled with regret over having never made a move, especially since that person later died (“When I left school, I lost track of you/Abigail called me with the bad news/Goodbye, and we’ll never know why”—apart from the “why” being, you know, drugs), Swift advocates for “ruining the friendship.” Or, more to the point, ruining a male/female friendship by breaking the “cardinal rule” and turning it romantic. For, as Vickie Miner (Janeane Garofalo) from Reality Bites once said, “Sex is the quickest way to ruin a friendship.” Looking back on her cautiousness now, however, Swift would have been only too willing to ruin it. Though probably not with sex. In fact, she is more inclined to mention a “kiss.” That’s the “sex act” she’s most willing to get on board with as she sings, “My advice is to always ruin the friendship/Better that than regret it for all time/Should’ve kissed you anyway.” Perhaps Joey Potter and Pacey Witter would tend to agree. Though Dawson Leery, not so much.

    Apart from discussing being “the best,” finding “Prince Charming” and dissecting “love lost,” Swift’s indisputable other favorite songwriting topic is her haters. Of which, of course, she has many. Though not nearly as many as she does lovers—that is, of her work. Even so, for Swift, it’s as Gaga (loosely quoting Madonna with, “If there are a hundred people in a room and ninety-nine say they liked it, I only remember the one person who didn’t”) once said: “There can be a hundred people in a room and ninety-nine don’t believe in you, but all it takes is one and it just changes your whole life.” For Swift, that person who “changes her whole life” by not believing in her is usually her hater (hear also: “Bad Blood,” one of her biggest hits inspired by none other than erstwhile “enemy” Katy Perry). If the “Easter eggs” of “Actually Romantic” are anything to go by, the latest hater that Swift is “taking down by taking to task” is Charli XCX. The shade is in the song title alone, which features “romantic” in it the way Charli’s “Everything is romantic” does. One of the many beloved songs that appeared on Brat last year. Along with “Sympathy is a knife,” which was speculated to be about Swift when Charli mentioned, among other things, “Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show/Fingers crossed behind my back, I hope they break up quick.”

    If Charli was, in fact, referring to Swift, she definitely got her wish about Matty Healy and Swift breaking up quick. As for the boyfriend Charli refers to, George Daniel, he’s since become her husband. A fellow “365 party girl,” though probably not nearly at Charli’s level. Something Swift shades when she opens the track with, “I heard you call me ‘Boring Barbie’ when the coke’s got you brave/High-fived my ex [Matty Healy] and then you said you’re glad he ghosted me/Wrote me a song [“Everything is romantic”] sayin’ it makes you sick to see my face/Some people might be offended.” Swift, though, not so much. Or so she claims in the chorus, “But it’s actually sweet/All the time you’ve spent on me/It’s honestly wild/All the effort you’ve put in/It’s actually romantic/I really gotta hand it to you/No man has ever loved me like you do.” In effect, Swift speaks on the fine line between love and hate, and how Charli (or any other chanteuse, really) might technically be showing her the former by fixating on her so much. So it is that Swift keeps ribbing, “Hadn’t thought of you in a long time [this channeling Lover’s “I Forgot That You Existed”]/But you keep sending me funny valentines [the song, one supposes?]/And I know you think it comes off vicious/But it’s precious, adorable/Like a toy chihuahua barking at me from a tiny purse/That’s how much it hurts.”

    Of course, Swift is lying to herself when she says it doesn’t hurt, otherwise she wouldn’t have written a song about it, digging the (unsympathetic) knife in as much as she can with other lyrics like, “How many times has your boyfriend said/‘Why are we always talkin’ ‘bout her?’” And yes, XCX does mention talking about “her” in “Sympathy is a knife” when she says, “George says I’m just paranoid/Says he just don’t see it, he’s so naïve.”

    What George—and just about everyone else—might see, however, is that The Life of a Showgirl is less about a girl who “puts on a show” and more about a girl who is obsessed with her boyfriend in the same way that she has been with every boyfriend before (as each album has evidenced). And when that meme of one of Taylor and Travis’ first dates came out with the caption, “Taylor taking her new album for a walk,” it was entirely accurate. For while the intent behind it was to emphasize that Swift always explores her breakups on her records (with Red and TTPD being a primary example), it turns out that the meme was right in a different way, because Kelce is the crux of her new album far more than being a performer is.

    “Wi$h Li$t” (which bears a similarity to Midnights’ “Glitch” in terms of Swift’s intonation and the sound of the track itself) is just such a beacon of that. During it, Swift details the different kinds of wishes that people have for themselves, many of them materially-oriented (e.g., “They want that yacht life, under chopper blades/They want those bright lights and Balenci shades/And a fat ass with a baby face [this somehow sounding like a jibe being made at one of Swift’s longtime nemeses, Kim Kardashian]).” Swift, on the other hand, claims, “I just want you/Have a couple kids, got the whole block lookin’ like you/We tell the world to leave us the fuck alone, and they do, wow/Got me dreamin’ ‘bout a driveway with a basketball hoop/Boss up, settle down, got a wish list.” A wish list, evidently, that not only one-ups Swift’s usual cringe factor, but also proves XCX “or whoever” right in calling her Boring Barbie.

    Try as she might to mitigate that nickname with the song that follows, “Wood.” An innuendo-laden ditty that makes all previous songs on The Life of a Showgirl come across as far less uncomfortable. And it’s not just because this marks the first time that Swift tries her hand at something like being “raunchy” (“Girls, I don’t need to catch the bouquet/To know a hard rock is on the way”), but because, well, she’s quite bad at it. Though, at the very least, she spared listeners from not being euphemistic (“The curse on me was broken by your magic wand”—oof). Because to hear her try her hand at something as sexually explicit as “WAP” would be so much worse.

    Nay, it might even get her “CANCELLED!” (spelled the British way, perhaps a residual side effect of being with Alwyn). A phenomenon that Swift insists she’s no stranger to, telling Time in 2023 that she was “canceled within an inch of my life and sanity” because of the “fully manufactured frame job, in an illegally recorded phone call, which Kim Kardashian edited and then put out to say to everyone that I was a liar.” Histrionic recounting aside, Swift was so affected by the backlash of that leaked phone call she didn’t bother releasing an album in 2016, let alone commenting on the election that year, even when her input would have been potentially invaluable, what with her influence on mass culture, right down to voting predilections. And, although she was never really at risk of “being put out to pasture” because of the incident, Swift commented that the experience made her have a new empathy for others who went through the same thing after her. As she stated via Amazon Track by Track, “I don’t naturally just cast people aside just because other people decide they don’t like them. I make my own decisions about people based on how they treat me within my life and their actions. And so, this is a song about all those themes.” Of course, such a comment leads one to wonder what her “hot take” on Woody Allen might be (especially since her bestie, Selena Gomez, once worked with him on the atrocious A Rainy Day in New York). And if there are others who have been “canceled” that she might side with sans publicly having the courage to say so.

    For the time being, however, she’ll have to leave listeners guessing on which canceled celebrities she’s still friends with (certainly not Blake Lively) by way of the generic chorus, “Good thing I like my friends cancelled/I like ‘em cloaked in Gucci [so much designer brand name-checking on this record] and in scandal/Like my whiskey sour/And poison thorny flowers/Welcome to my underworld [yes, it feels very deliberately Reputation]/It’ll break your heart/At least you know exactly who your friends are/They’re the ones with matching scars.”

    As are those who have been called “terms of endearment” in a condescending manner before. In this regard, “Honey,” the second to last song on the record (and not to be confused with Mariah’s iconic single of the same name), is probably the most “relatable” song on The Life of a Showgirl. Mainly because Swift, once again, taps into her rage against the patriarchy by recalling the times when people would call her “honey” or “sweetheart” in a derogatory sort of way. But, ever since she met her “Prince Charming,” the word has taken on a more positive connotation, prompting her to urge, “You can call me ‘honey’ if you want/Because I’m the one you want/I’m the one you want/You give it different meaning/‘Cause you mean it when you talk/Sweetie, it’s yours, kicking in doors, take it to the floor, gimme more/Buy the paint in the color of your eyes/And graffiti my whole damn life.”

    Unfortunately, that’s not even as saccharine as it gets on “Honey,” with Swift also singing, “Honey, I’m home, we could play house/We can bed down, pick me up, who’s the baddest in the land? What’s the plan?/You could be my forever-night stand/Honey.” This bearing certain correlations to Swift’s well-documented “nesting phase” on “Lover,” during which she also saw fit to make listeners nearly retch with the lines, “We could leave the Christmas lights up ‘til January/And this is our place, we make the rules [a.k.a. “playing house”],” along with, “All’s well that ends well to end up with you/Swear to be overdramatic and true to my lover.” These lyrics now no longer applying to Joe Alwyn, but to Kelce. Easily repurposed “in a pinch.” Not just in general, but when such sentiments are refunneled into other songs with similar “gushings” aimed at Kelce, with this particular one serving as something like the “Sweet Nothing” (one of many Midnights tracks directed at Alwyn) of the album.

    And for the grand, “show-stopping” finale, Swift pivots away from romantic love in favor of the love she has for performance (though, needless to say, her expression of this love comes nowhere near what JADE achieves on “Angel of My Dreams”—and, honestly, to gain insight into the life of a real-ass showgirl, it’s That’s Showbiz Baby for the win). Thus, she concludes with the eponymous “The Life of a Showgirl” featuring Sabrina Carpenter. And yes, tapping Carpenter to collaborate has a “full-circle” meaning in that Carpenter was one of the opening acts during The Eras Tour. In the time since, obviously, Carpenter has blown up to a level that might very nearly match Swift’s in due time—in fact, she now almost has as many albums, with Man’s Best Friend marking her seventh one (and arguably more listenable as “pop perfection” than The Life of a Showgirl).

    While the album is primarily a love letter to Kelce (whereas TTPD was a vinegar valentine to Matty Healy), there’s a telling line in “The Life of a Showgirl” wherein Swift declares herself to be “married to the hustle” (even if through a “character”). All while warning others aspiring to the life of a showgirl, through the lens of this famous broad named “Kitty,” “Hеy, thank you for the lovely bouquet/You’re sweeter than a peach/But you don’t know the life of a showgirl, babe/And you’re never, ever gonna/Wait, the more you play, the more that you pay/You’re softer than a kitten, so/You don’t know the life of a showgirl, babe/And you’re never gonna wanna.” But naturally, in both Swift and Carpenter’s case, they definitely wanna. And probably will “till the end of time” (as a more reluctant showgirl, Lana Del Rey, would put it). But while Carpenter is in an “era” that allows for more creative inspiration to flow, Swift seems to be indicating that her own “muse” is in the midst of some kind of “last gasp.” At least when it comes to being relatable to anyone other than tradwives.

    To that end, like the also Max Martin-infused Reputation before it, The Life of a Showgirl arrives at a time when things have never been more politically fraught. And yet, Swift has chosen to release one of her “fluffiest” records yet. For never has “glitz and glam” been more of an “in poor taste” sell than it is now (which is why Doja Cat had to feign going back to the 80s with Vie in order to do it). Further indicating that Swift seems to be more out of touch with reality/the common person than ever before.

    At the bare minimum, though, she seems to understand that she needed to keep this record breezy (read: short). Way more pared down than The Tortured Poets Department. This perhaps being a testament both to the critical feedback she encountered about that album’s length and the fact that, ultimately, she knows that froth isn’t something that can be explored too in-depth without really annoying people. And yes, if The Life of a Showgirl, as “superfluous” as it is, is an indication of where Swift is at now, it doesn’t bode well for where she’s going to be “artistically” once she’s actually married. If she gets divorced, however, well, that’s another story…

    Genna Rivieccio

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  • The Most Iconic Old Hollywood Restaurants in L.A.

    The Most Iconic Old Hollywood Restaurants in L.A.

    From its star-studded residents to its rich history, Los Angeles is a city of icons. The glitz and glamour of Old Hollywood never loses its charm, and several restaurants, hotels and bars have made it their mission to maintain that sense of timeless class and elegance. From restaurants with vintage-inspired decor and black-and-white photos to dim-lit bars that have been serving stiff drinks since the 1950s, L.A. is home to several historic hot spots that have long attracted loyal locals and first-time visitors alike.

    Many of L.A.’s most legendary eateries have welcomed icons such as Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart and Elizabeth Taylor, giving patrons the chance to enjoy a piece of the past as they indulge in comforting cuisine and fine wines. Several of these spots still attract modern-day celebs, so don’t be surprised if you catch a glimpse of your favorite actor or musician while sipping on a glass of red at Dan Tana’s or enjoying breakfast at Chateau Marmont. Whether you’re in the mood for the city’s best dirty martini or want to dine like Marilyn Monroe and Charlie Chaplin with a hearty plate of pasta or freshly shucked oysters, these are the most iconic Old Hollywood restaurants in L.A.

    Allie Lebos

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  • Everything To Know About Champagne

    Everything To Know About Champagne

    Weddings, birthday, boat launches and business deals all celebrate with it. It is the signature drink of New Year’s Eve and it is a vital part of the whole holiday season. Let us share everything you need to know about champagne. From rock stars, to Elizabeth Taylor to royals around the world, champagne has been a staple. The late queen mother loved Bollinger and it was the first champagne to receive the royal stamp of approval.

    In 2022, 326 million bottles of Champagne were shipped globally. The US cemented its status as the top export market for Champagne as sales soared by 19.4% in 2022. Producers sold 33.72 million bottles in the US market throughout the year, according to new figures released today (6th April) by the Comité Champagne.

    “Champagne, as the supreme wine of celebrations, has been the natural choice of the world’s consumers as they rejoiced at the end of lockdowns and rediscovered a taste for parties, for going out and for traveling.” added David Chatillon, president of the Union des Maisons de Champagne and co-president of the Comité Champagne.

    Where Was Champagne Developed?

    The oldest recorded sparkling wine is Blanquette de Limoux, which was invented by Benedictine monks in the Abbey of Saint-Hilaire, near Carcassonne, in 1531.They achieved this by bottling the wine before the initial fermentation had ended.

    Dom Pérignon (1638–1715) was a monk and cellar master at the Benedictine abbey in Hautvillers. He pioneered a number of winemaking techniques around 1670, being the first to blend grapes in such a way as to improve the quality of wine. He also introduced corks (instead of wood), which were fastened to bottles with hemp string soaked in oil in order to keep the wines fresh and sparkling. The famous French champagne is named after him.

    Where Do The Bubbles Come From?

    They tickled your nose, but why does champagne have bubbles? The answer is simple: fermentation. There are several different methods for trapping the carbonation, but in all cases the carbon dioxide is a byproduct of fermentation. Only in really cheap sparkling wines will you find artificial carbonation, and those are wines to avoid.

    What Is Champagne?

    A place, and a way of making wine. The place is in northeastern France, and is the only region in the world legally permitted to label their wine “Champagne.” The method involves making a still wine (or many of them and then blending them), bottling it, and adding more sugar and yeast.

    Photo by RondellMelling via Pixabay

    RELATED: Why You Should Skip Those Online Wine Clubs 

    This second fermentation happens in a closed bottle, meaning the carbon dioxide stays trapped until you open it. This method is now used around the world, and is more commonly called the “traditional method,” or “method traditionelle.”

    Wait, What Else Do They Do?

    Well, there’s this thing called the Charmat method, where larger vessels are used for secondary fermentation, and then the wine is bottled. This is how most Prosecco and Lambrusco is made, which is why it typically those are slightly less carbonated than most other sparkling wines. The other method involves bottling the wine before the initial fermentation has finished, resulting in a mildly effervescent wine typically called “petillant naturel,” or pet nat if you’re feeling frisky.

    Are There Other Champanges?

    Champagne wine is protected by an European regulation called Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). This european law protects the names of local products made in Europe.

    This law has been accepted recently by the American administration. However traditional makers of sparkling wine in the US who made this kind of wine before the administration accepted the European law can still call their wine Champagne. But new sparkling wine in the US cannot wear the name Champagne on the label any more.

    What About Other Bubbles?

    Cava, especially at the Reserva and Gran Reserva level, can also be a great option. Prosecco can really run the gamut from cheap and banal to less cheap and really tasty, so it’s harder to offer a blanket statement.

    Should I Drink From Flutes?

    Through the 1960s, the coupe was the glass for bubbles. Lately, coupes have fallen out of favor with wine experts as a champagne glass alternative. The almost unanimous recommendation these days is to use wine flutes (or tulip glasses) to drink champagne.

    But flutes are only good for one thing, and that’s showing off the bubbles. Just use a regular old wine glass, and you’ll actually be able to smell the wine, which is part of the appeal. Plus, you can fit a whole lot more wine in those glasses.

    Sparkling wine, be it Champagne or otherwise, is one of the most amazing and versatile wines on the planet. Try having a bottle with dinner the next time you dine out or cook at home, and you’ll be amazed at just how well it pairs with almost anything you throw at it. Cheers!

    Amy Hansen

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  • Inside Elizabeth Taylor’s Lonely Fight for AIDS Awareness

    Inside Elizabeth Taylor’s Lonely Fight for AIDS Awareness

    “I became so incensed and personally frustrated at the rejection I was receiving by just trying to get people’s attention. I was made so aware of the silence, this huge, loud silence regarding AIDS, how no one wanted to talk about it and no one wanted to become involved. Certainly no one wanted to give money or support, and it so angered me that I finally thought to myself, Bitch, do something yourself. Instead of sitting there getting angry. Do something.”

    In 1987, Taylor launched her first perfume, Passion, and followed it up in 1991 with White Diamonds, another enormous hit. She traveled around the country visiting the department stores that sold her perfume, and she vowed to visit AIDS hospices in every city that she could. But there were two caveats: She did not want any press to interrupt those private visits, and the perfume company and the department store would have to donate money to each of the hospices she visited. She vowed to match their contributions.

    At the Coming Home Hospice in San Francisco’s Castro District, nurses were told in hushed tones that Taylor was on her way. She stopped in each of the hospice’s 15 small rooms, and she spent several minutes talking with each patient. She asked them if she could arrange to have their dogs walked; she asked if she could call their mothers for them or write letters for them.

    Some patients cried when they saw her, said Guy Vandenberg, a health care worker and AIDS activist who was at the Coming Home Hospice when she visited. After she met with patients, he said, Taylor sat with the handful of staffers in their tiny kitchen and asked them how they were taking care of themselves. “How do you support each other?” she wanted to know.

    They averaged three deaths a week in the 15-bed hospice, he said. “Sometimes I would get off my three-to-midnight shift and I would come back the next day, and one or two people might have died during the night,” Vandenberg said, his voice cracking. “The need was so great that the bed would not be empty more than a day at most; sometimes the bed would be filled right away. We didn’t have time to process the volume of death.”

    Even amid all the darkness, there was joy. “A majority of our patients, as they were dying, were quite capable of laughter and gallows humor, and to an outsider that often felt really strange or inappropriate. When the hospice was taken over by a more corporate hospital, we got disciplined for too much laughter, and we were eating with the patients and that was not allowed,” Vandenberg said through tears. “She fit right in, she knew that was good. She joked with them. She hugged and kissed every single one of us, the patients and the staff.”

    After one of her hospice visits, a patient woke up and said, “I had a vision that Elizabeth Taylor came to me in my sleep!”

    “No, she was actually here,” a nurse told him.

    Taylor wanted to look perfect for every visit (“I hope I haven’t overdone it!” she’d joke), so she always arrived with full hair and makeup and the famous 33.19-carat Asscher-cut Krupp diamond on her left ring finger. She wanted the patients to see her the way they had imagined her to be.

    She told her assistant Jorjett Strumme, who would get emotional, that she could not come into hospices with her because she would start to cry if Strumme cried. She had to keep things light and happy, she said, but she’d get back in the car and she would bury her head in her dog’s soft white fur and be unusually quiet for a while.

    Ed Wolf was a counselor in San Francisco General Hospital’s Ward 5B in the 1980s. San Francisco was second only to New York in the number of AIDS cases, and 5B was the world’s first revolutionary inpatient unit for people with AIDS. It was created in 1983 and run by registered nurses who specialized in caring for AIDS patients. In 5B patients were treated with compassion.

    In the beginning nurses and doctors wore so much protective gear that they looked like astronauts. Food trays piled up outside of hospital rooms because no one wanted to touch them. But in 5B things were different. Nurses were not allowed to wear protective medical gear, including gowns and masks. They believed that physical touch was an important way to honor each patient’s humanity. They did seemingly little things, like re-creating the decor of patients’ living rooms in their hospital rooms, allowing their pets to visit them, and, of course, allowing their partners to stay with them. They even used Champagne glasses for water.

    Kate Andersen Brower

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