How Demure Were You in August?

It Ended With Them: Close enough — welcome back, Don’t Worry Darling. As soon as the stars of It Ends With Us hit the red carpet, the nonexistent dynamic between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni sent TikTok’s rumor mill running and Lively did not come out on top. In interviews, she appeared tone-deaf to the serious subject matter of the Colleen Hoover adaptation, and older problematic conversations with the actor began to resurface. Congrats on your little bump!

Ruh-roh, Rowling: Is that black mold on your walls, or am I just unhappy to see you? J.K. Rowling has spent the past few years nurturing both her transphobia and, seemingly, a growing colony of fungi on her walls. For the former, she may be facing justice, reportedly being named alongside Elon Musk in Algerian boxer Imane Khelif’s cyberbullying lawsuit over the hate campaign waged against her during the Olympics. If Rowling won’t use her Harry Potter money to shut up and live a quiet, non-hateful life, the least she can do is give it to someone who is.

DNC disappointment: If Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, and … Lil Jon are all in the same room, they’re not leaving without generating at least a few memes. But this year’s Democratic National Convention was more electric than most thanks to the rumor that Queen Bey herself was set to perform. At least, that was most people’s guess after a tweet about a “surprise guest� made the rounds. But by Thursday night, the best surprise we got were TikTokers Grant & Ash. Good enough!

Clueless: After Alicia Silverstone’s case of mistaken berry identity had the internet thinking she’d consumed deadly nightshade, the masochists are aware that she’s already back to tweeting. Listen to Alexis Nikole and stay out of strange gardens, folks.

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Megaflopolis

I too would like to preface all my accomplishments with a “fuck you� to the haters and losers who doubted me, but unlike Megalopolis, I actually have the receipts of four years of cyberbullying. Instead, the August 21 trailer reportedly used artificial intelligence to fabricate quotes from real film critics, all of which the trailer purported to be from reviews panning director Francis Ford Coppola’s previous works. After a Vulture report (you’re welcome) pointed out the discrepancies, Lionsgate recalled the trailer faster than a Cybertruck and severed ties with the marketing consultant behind it, Eddie Egan. Deadline then reported that an investigation had determined the quotes were generated using AI, which is a lot more work than just ending the movie with “If you thought this was bad, you’re wrong and we hate you.�

Why It’s a 2: While Megapolis is for the film nerds, hating AI is something we can all get behind — and the faster Hollywood realizes that, the better.

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Gunning for Raygun

Of all the memes to come out of the Olympics, Raygun’s breaking seemed like the silliest — certainly not the one anyone expected to turn into a scandal. While the Australian break-dancer kangaroo-hopped her way onto Twitter feeds on August 9 for her somewhat bizarre dance moves (which ultimately earned the 36-year-old zero points), the discourse soon turned. The moves were no longer funny; they were a slap in the face to the Australian breakers who weren’t selected for the Olympics. Perhaps this is why an ultimately unfounded narrative spread that Raygun, whose real name is Rachel Gunn and who has a Ph.D. in breaking, by the way, had manipulated her way to Paris through corruption. She did not judge herself at the qualifying championship, as a now-deleted petition claimed, nor did she and her husband found the Australian Breaking Association. In an Instagram video, Gunn described the online hate as “devastating,� but what she lost in Olympic medals, she’s sure to make up for in 2024 Halloween costume inspiration.

Why It’s a 2: Everybody say “Thank you, Raygun� for suffering international humiliation to put Australia back on the map!

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Bisan vs. Blair

On November 3, 2023, AJ+, the digital publisher of Al Jazeera, published “It’s Bisan From Gaza and I’m Still Alive,� a video report from Gaza filmed by then-25-year-old Bisan Owda. The footage was filmed in the final days of October as Gazans struggled for food, water, and survival in the face of the Israeli military’s response to the October 7 Hamas attacks. The eight-minute video was nominated for an Emmy, prompting an August 19 open letter from the Creative Community for Peace protesting the nomination, claiming Owda is affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which the United States classifies as a terrorist group. The letter was signed by actors like Selma Blair and Debra Messing, but the Television Academy defended the nomination and said it had found no evidence Owda was currently with the group. On Instagram, Owda continues to document life in Gaza under sustained Israeli attacks.

Why It’s a 2: No industry has been untouched by the crisis in Gaza, and Hollywood in particular has had a divisive reckoning. Earlier this year, actress Melissa Barrera was fired from the upcoming Scream 7 following her public support of Palestine, while a handful of celebrities like Mark Ruffalo and Ramy Youssef used the awards season to publicly call for a ceasefire. This open letter marks the beginning of what looks to be a similarly tense awards season.

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Brooke’s backslide

Brooke Schofield’s boomerang from TikTok hero to villain would give even the most hardy of drivers whiplash. After riding the high of her viral series airing out ex-boyfriend and singer Clinton Kane, the Cancelled podcast co-host crashed after racist tweets of hers resurfaced on Twitter on August 3. We’ve seen this story play out no less than a hundred times across various industries and their public figures, yet Schofield still left up a 2013 tweet in defense of George Zimmerman, who killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012.

On August 4, Schofield apologized for the tweet on TikTok and for others between 2012 and 2016 that contained gay slurs and support for Donald Trump. “I think they’re so disturbing, they’re wrong, they’re horrible, and they’re disgusting,� she said, citing her upbringing with her grandparents, who watched Fox News 24/7. “I’ve had so much time to learn and grow and formulate my own opinions, and they are nothing like they were when I was 17, 18 years old.�

Schofield has continued to post on TikTok but has not returned to the podcast. “I’ve made it very clear to Brooke that I condemn her for these tweets,� co-host Tana Mongeau said in the August 11 episode. Schofield may be struggling to recover from the tweets, but at least — unlike fellow influencer Alix Earle — she hasn’t (allegedly) trademarked them.

Why It’s a 3: While Schofield’s apology videos received tens of millions of views, her rise and fall happened entirely on TikTok. Over on Twitter, it was all “CURTAINS FOR ZOOSHA?� when PopCrave shared the tweets — but if you make it to PopCrave, you can make it anywhere.

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Franken-saga

Not since Zola have people been this locked into a Twitter saga — but to be fair, none had been written by Guillermo del Toro. The writer and director tweeted on August 20 that he was staying at a 19th-century hotel in Aberdeen, Scotland, during the filming of his forthcoming movie Frankenstein. He announced he was taking over the hotel’s “most haunted� room from a producer after “odd electrical and physical occurrences scared her into leaving asap.� Two days later, he echoed his producer’s assessment, saying, “Something is in that room with me.� He returned twice more, once for a mirror selfie and again for an EVP reading using what looks to be simply an iPhone app. By August 24, he was ready to leave the room behind. “Room #4 I shall return,� he wrote. “Life is unstructured — no grand finale.� Which is also how you might describe this blurb.

Why It’s a 3: While crowds will flock to GDT’s Frankenstein when it comes out next year, this story belongs to the couple hundred thousand followers who tuned in for the tweets — at least until Jimmy Fallon brings them up on the film’s press circuit.

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NYC girl, so confusing

Feeling bored, may start drama for no reason. That must be the motto of influencer Sophia La Corte, who dropped a video series on a random Sunday (August 18, to be exact) rehashing months-old drama from when she went on a date with fellow influencer Halley McGookin’s ex before the pair got back together: “Let’s do full red-carpet glam while I tell you about the time a girl I met maybe three times canceled me and got me destroyed on the internet.�

Now, McGookin has had a wild year — you may recognize her as a victim of the NYC puncher back in March. But last fall, she split with her boyfriend only to reveal in a now-deleted December video that he had gone on a date with a woman people figured out was La Corte. That’s the cancellation La Corte is referring to, but why she’s bringing it up now is anyone’s guess. Regardless, her three-part series and the subsequent follow-ups, all spoken in an eerily calm, transatlantic tone, made her the villain of the week. McGookin, for her part, has stayed quiet aside from a few indirect videos and has since moved on. La Corte is still riding this wave, but she has about one more video left before viewers’ patience thins and she gets something even worse than canceled: forgotten.

Why It’s a 4: The NYC TikTok girlies dominate a certain side of the app, but only a few have broken out into real headline-worthy celebs — though La Corte is certainly giving it her best try.

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Through the window, through the wall

Certain phrases just roll off the tongue, and “twink crashing through the skylight of a lesbian rooftop party� is one of them. On August 18, Twitter user @ratboyratboyrat attended a party in Brooklyn that, unrelated but necessary to point out, featured a “Clairo shade� cake. Sometime in the night — specifically, in between “Wind It Up,� by Gwen Stefani, and “No Broke Boys,� by Tinashe, according to the DJ — he fell through a skylight. Unfortunately, we don’t have video of the incident, though someone on TikTok did capture the aftermath. But let @ratboyratboyrat (who, for the record, says he doesn’t identify as a twink) tell you what happened himself: “tripped and fell and cut my leg and now have 43 stitches. there was a lot of blood and gore. it was over in about one minute.� Clairo shade?

Why It’s a 4: It’s a Twitter thread about an alleged twink who crashed through the skylight of a lesbian rooftop party in Brooklyn — but we wrote about it, so …

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The fleeing of Flightless Bird

Some TikTok sagas, like Reesa Teesa’s “Who the Fuck Did I Marry?,� are more compelling than even the most prestigious HBO dramas. That’s what followers of Flightless Bird, a creator on TikTok, thought they were witnessing when she began posting real-time videos of her experience with her husband having a manic episode. To cut a long, 11-part story short, the husband, triggered by starting Zoloft, began to believe AI was sentient, and he lashed out at his wife when she tried to make sense of his claims. He ended up being institutionalized, and her followers were with her the entire way, checking in and sending suggestions for how to help her husband while keeping herself and her children safe.

As soon as it seemed her struggles were coming to an end, she dropped a bomb: None of this had been happening in real time. The actual experience occurred in January, and her TikToks were “performance art� to raise awareness of mental-health struggles. Followers immediately revolted, frustrated that they had been put in the position of worrying about someone for no reason. “I was a theater kid,� she said by way of explanation. “I hope you can forgive me.�

They did not. Flightless Bird has since deleted her account, leaving behind so many questions as well as fears that the story she was retelling might never have happened in the first place.

Why It’s a 5: Yet another saga that has no business still taking up space in your brain.