_________ (Holding Space for “Defying Gravity”)
The Friday Post.
FOUR YEARS OF HUNG UP 💌 Read more here. Also Wicked and Gladiator II chats in the Substack app now.
I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this you’ve held space with “Defying Gravity” today, and that you’re really taking power in that. If you haven’t held space with “Defying Gravity” go ahead and click out of this email and into power, which you should have been taking. You should be holding space with “Defying Gravity” every day. You should be taking power in that every hour. Holding space for “Defying Gravity,” and really taking power in that, of course, will benefit you in ways you can’t imagine. Have you held space for “Defying Gravity” today, because that’s very important.
Did that mean nothing to you? First of all: congratulations on protecting your peace so I can now ruin it. I like movies more than I like press tours, but sometimes, the act of selling a movie unlocks a mysterious, chaotic power in our universe. (Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga having hating each other-rumors but also fucking each other-rumors. Harrison Ford punching Ryan Gosling. Anything Robert Pattinson does on a late-night show. Oprah sitting through Reese Witherspoon being handed a doctoral thesis on Legally Blonde and just fully not following what was happening at that moment.) The Ariana Grande-Cynthia Erivo Wicked press tour has defied reason, language, boundaries, manicures. These two co-stars share such a tender friendship, the kind of tween sleepover closeness where not even choreographing dances together and eating too much candy together, and exchanging a hundred inside jokes in a row can capture the bigness of your friend-love. (My brilliant friend Chris Murphy captures it very well here.) On the one hand: I’ve been there. On the other hand: it is completely bizarre to witness.1
What began as a regular junket interview with Out.com’s Tracy E. Gilchrist turned into an uncanny display of this ferocity of feeling. Gilchrist’s interview starts out off as normal as any junket interview could, now that junkets are more “how much can I leave an impression on this famous person” and less traditional question and answer. Gilchrist has that kind of smooth, soothing English teacher you’d stay late after school to talk to-voice. She interviewed Erivo for an Out cover story, and directs her first question, about the beginning of Glinda and Elphaba’s friendship, to Grande. The answer is fine. But at some point she locks knuckles with Erivo:
Okay, so we’re ignoring that.
Next Gilchrist has a question for Erivo. “This week people are taking the lyrics of ‘Defying Gravity’ and really holding space with that, and really taking power in that,” she says. “Would you touch on that moment in the film where Elphaba has been banished, and yet she comes into her full power at that moment of the worst time.”
Erivo looks stunned. “Uh, I didn’t know that that was happening.”
Gilchrist assures her that “I’ve seen it, yeah.” Erivo smiles. “That’s really powerful,” she says quietly. “That’s what I wanted.” She’s near tears: “I didn’t know that was happening.”
Gilchrist nods. “I’ve seen it on a couple posts, I don’t know how widespread. But, you know, I am in queer media, so that’s my — you know.”
The hushed tones of this whole exchange, the way everyone involved is whispering and seemingly about to start crying should not be surprising to anyone who has been in a poetry seminar or lived the Girls episode “Beach House” or who has made a lifelong friend in the bathroom line of a club while on vacation that you never hear from or think about ever again. The “holding space” and “taking power” is what ATN would call “woke-speak” but what I would describe as the cuckoo vocabulary of being very online and also in the middle of a $100 million press cycle. Words. Wanted that. Gravity, defied. Stroking nails, holding space, taking power in all of it.2
I have come around on the Ariana Grande-Cynthia Erivo friendship. Before I thought it was strange, now I can only see their feral devotion to one another and think: good for them. I will hold space with it, and I will take power in that. I will stare down the barrel of their complicated hand-holds. To do anything less will erase the gravity this friendship has defied. That’s what I wanted, and I didn’t even know it was happening. Widespread. You know.3
ICYMI:
More more more
After four years and almost 500 posts of Hung Up, I’m not an expert on newsletters. This advice from
I loved this reflection on Twitter, X, Elon, and being too online. (
)
Despite my best efforts, Post Malone will headline Coachella. (TMZ)
One Woman's Opinion: Justin Bieber Should Headline Coachella
Beyonce will perform a halftime show at the Christmas Day NFL game:
What will she announce immediately following, if anything? An Act II tour or visuals?
Loved this quote from filmmaker Don Hertzfeldt that I found via
/Cup of Jo: “Not to sound like a curmudgeon, but when I was a teenager, I took the train to go to the record store to find rare stuff. Spotify is way more convenient, but that wasn’t the point. The point was to get out and to feel like you’re hunting, to feel like you’re living your life. I’m going to the movies, I’m going to this show.” (Cup of Jo)The “rare” here is sending me into the stratosphere:
Cher released part one of her memoir. There are so many actual important things I can’t wait to read her reflections on, but I must know if she says anything about Sharon Stone…
Storm Reid won’t be in Euphoria S3. (Deadline)
The catch is that you have to be flying out of Boston… (CBS)
Honestly a hall of fame/put our jersey up in the rafters “Lemme Say This” episode if I’m being honest … 5
That’s all this week! Thank you for reading. I’ve started Wicked and Gladiator II chats in the Substack app for those of you seeing either (or both!) this weekend. This, and Kendrick’s new album, have been playing in my apartment all weekend:
https://x.com/properdipwad/status/1860007564358090843
If I had to sit next to my best friend having the exact same conversation four hundred times a day, at a certain point I would cry as often as John Legend takes on a new job. (Every seven minutes.)
Gladiator II not bringing their best ... sorry, respectfully, I did not enjoy this: https://www.instagram.com/paulmescalpics/reel/DCkNO7vyQwd/ Ridley Scott is naturally funnier than any of this!
Except for the other night when one of my friends, complaining about me clowning him for choosing Threads over Bluesky, said “You think I’m gonna find someone to fly out? On Bluesky??”
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I was holding space for this in my inbox!!!!!
“Congratulations on protecting your peace so I can now ruin it.” Going to be saying this at the dinner table multiple times on Thursday as I explain pop culture things to my family