FAQ

A Hung Up glossary, primer, and Frequently Asked Questions

Hi! I’m Hunter, a writer/critic/screenwriter based in Brooklyn. I’ve written for New York magazine, the New York Times, GQ, and a lot of other places. I also wrote on HBO Max’s Gossip Girl.

This newsletter comes out twice a week (sometimes more) and is mostly about movies, TV, music, and pop culture. Hung Up has been mentioned by/featured in the New York Times, New York Magazine, “Las Culturistas,” Esquire, Refinery29, the Daily Beast, Elle, Lainey Gossip, the Washington Post, Digiday, Forbes 30u30, Office, The Creative Independent, and more.

The Friday Post
A weekly digest of celebrity mess and miscellanea. Here are some good ones, all without the paywall:

• If You See Me Dancing With Usher That’s Between Me And Usher

• Supreme Court Catching Flights Not Feelings

• Jeremy Strong Wears Many Hats (Two)

• “YOUR BOSS IS AT THE CLUB”

Tuesday night post
A close read of a new release (“There’s Some Wh0res in This House”), a particularly ear-wormy line reading (“This One Line From Barbie Plays on a Loop in My Head”) essay, a fun blog (“The Weeknd's Top 9 Humiliating Defenses of The Idol”) in your inbox, every Tuesday night.

Hung Up Chat
Think of it like a fun Slack-slash-Reddit thread where people actually know what they’re talking about. There are always ongoing conversations here, about TV shows, instant reactions to new movies or albums, live awards show chatter.

The Hung Up chat lives on the Substack app, or you find it below:

𝓺𝓾𝓮𝓼𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓬𝓾𝓵𝓽𝓾𝓻𝓮 💬
Discussion threads that happen once-ish a month, usually about current events (Oscar nominations, White Lotus predictions) or evergreen conversations (nepo babies, character actors, the Gap aughts commercials that I can never stop thinking about).

Other things: Monthly, I make lists of what I’ve been watching, and also playlists of what I’m listening to for the paid list. There are annual gift guides and a quarterly list of stuff I’m buying and think you might be interested in, too. There’s a lot of value in upping your subscription if you like Hung Up and want more of it!

If you want in on Hung Up but can’t afford it right now, I understand! Send me an email and I’m happy to give you a few months free with no questions asked.

A few frequently referenced inside jokes, if you will

Bradley Cooper’s Tethered: is Jake Gyllenhaal

Amy Adams will win an Oscar for: the Tree Paine biopic, and not a moment before

Tree Paine is: Taylor Swift’s publicist¹

Your Weekly Sharon!!!!!!: an occasional diversion to talk about what’s going on in Sharon Stone’s life. She’s just funny to me!

Leonardo DiCaprio: my fourth favorite celebrity. He is, I believe, always trying to be near Rihanna. But who isn’t!

Mother: Julia Roberts.

Hung Up, As Told By Some People Who Read It
Frequently, the funniest thing about this newsletter is what the people reading it have to say about it. Here are my favorites:

1. This is real, like not made up. Tree Paine is her name.