Kara Weisenstein

Want a half million dollars? On Snapchat, it might be as easy as filming your sister deep-frying a turkey or exploding a bottle of Coke, according to a story by tech journalist Taylor Lorenz, published on Friday in The New York Times. Contrary to…

When legendary actor and comedian Betty White turns 99 on January 17, she’ll be celebrating her quarantine birthday with a pair of unconventional party guests. “What am I doing for my birthday? Feeding the two ducks who come to visit me every day,”…

Remember how much trouble Trump had persuading talent to perform at his inauguration four years ago? When a member of his transition team boldly announced they’d booked Elton John, the Rocketman’s reps swiftly shut it down: “Incorrect. He will not…

TikTok is famously a hitmaking platform. You don’t have to look much further than the career trajectories of musicians like Lil Nas X, Megan Thee Stallion, and Doja Cat for proof of its power. So, it’s a little puzzling to learn that some of the…

Remember how desperate we were for 2021 just a few weeks ago? People were pining for the new year like it was going to magically fix all the stuff that went wrong in 2020 — though I think most folks did so with the begrudging acceptance that,…

The pandemic may have seismically disrupted moviegoing, but business is booming for the world’s largest streaming service. Netflix’s ability to keep releasing buzzy films and franchises has been mostly unhampered by the ongoing health crisis. Case…

Let the boundless energy of voting-rights champion Stacey Abrams be the proverbial fire under your seat to finish whatever creative project has been on your back-burner. I say this because not only did the Fair Fight Action founder spend 2020…

If you lost your phone on vacation, would you automatically resort to attacking random strangers? No, anybody with human decency and manners wouldn’t resort to tackling a teenager and accusing him of stealing their stuff. Unlike Miya Ponsetto, the…

“It was an interesting afternoon,” Gayle King said of her interview with Miya Ponsetto, conducted on Thursday just hours before the 22-year-old was arrested in Los Angeles. Ponsetto became known as the “Soho Karen” after she appeared to physically…

For over four years, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have been by Donald Trump’s side, whispering in his ear, undoubtedly helping to steer his presidency, a case of nepotism through and through. What else possibly qualified Kushner to be a senior…

We don’t know exactly why Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are getting divorced. (It’s definitely not because Ye cheated with Jeffree Star, as was recently rumored on the internet.) What we do know is that Kardashian has retained the services of…

On Wednesday, while Trump supporters were storming the Capitol in a shameful coup attempt, I found myself wondering what the late-night talk show hosts would have to say about this embarrassing moment in American history. Because when tragedy rocks…

So there’s good news and bad news, folks. The good news is that a record-breaking number of female directors helmed Hollywood blockbusters last year — 16 percent were directed by women, up from a dismal 4 percent two years prior. The bad news is…

In case you forgot about the biggest literary scandal of last winter, New York just delivered a deep dive into the controversy behind American Dirt. The piece charts how the novel went from one of the most-hyped books in recent history to a widely…

Scandinavia’s biggest film festival usually draws more than 160,000 people to the Swedish city of Göteborg, on the nation’s western coast. But in light of the ongoing pandemic, which has obviously disrupted moviegoing and gatherings of all sizes,…

It’s been a long, weird 12 months, hasn't it? Winter normalcy gave way to a pandemic-induced lockdown, which has stretched out interminably into this current season of dry air, frigid temps, and time spent indoors — you know, that wonderful time of…

Just last week, fashion elites were showering Alexander Wang with birthday tributes. But now, social media is flooded with allegations of sexual assault against the A-list designer. Wang's wild partying is as much a part of his lifestyle as his…

It’s certainly the first Broadway musical to originate on TikTok. When Ratatouille: The Musical debuts (on streaming, of course) this New Year’s Day, it’ll be brought to life by a bevy of musical theater celebrities and produced by an acclaimed…

Last week, Twitter user @lenibriscoe posted a whole lot of evidence suggesting that Hilaria Baldwin, influencer and wife of Alec Baldwin, orchestrated “a decade long grift where she impersonates a Spanish person.” There’s her cringeworthy debut on…