The Golden Globes didn’t go quite as we expected for Lady Gaga and the cast and crew of A Star Is Born—they lost the majority of the awards they were nominated for—but Gaga still has a new trophy to add to her collection. She nabbed the award for Best Original Song for “Shallow,” making her a two-time Golden Globe winner (she previously won for her role on American Horror Story). And in true Gaga fashion she didn’t spend the night mourning her loss of Best Actress, Drama to Glenn Close—instead, she partied with her fiancé, Christian Carino.
Lady Gaga, her amazing Valentino dress that was an homage to Judy Garland, and Carino painted the town red. First they stopped by the Warner Brothers party, then InStyle‘s Golden Globes after party, where they shared a kiss for the camera.
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But the real celebration for her win was far away from the glamorous parties and celebrities. Gaga finished her epic night with a bowl of Fruity Pebbles in bed with Carino, who she first confirmed her engagement to back in October. Lucky for us, Carino snapped a pic of it for the ‘gram. Carino chose a black and white filter for the snap of Gaga clutching her trophy, under the covers, out of her dress, and cuddled up next to the box of cereal (in case she needed a refill, of course). He captioned the intimate shot with, “what a rager,” and added a red emoji heart for good measure.
In the midst of the festivities, Gaga also took to Twitter to thank her collaborators on “Shallow” and to congratulate Glenn Close on her win. She tweeted, “I am so beyond grateful for this Golden Globe & honored to have won it w/ @MarkRonson @Wyattish , Anthony Rossomando and to have sang it with Bradley Cooper. I also could not be happier for Glenn Close winning tonight. She is a true legend and deserves every award. Thank you HFPA.”
This is far from the last we’ll see of Gaga during the awards seasons. Next week she’ll appear at the Critics’ Choice Awards, where she’s nominated for Best Actress and A Star Is Born is up for six other noms.
“Things are about to get a little bit more stupider.”
If you watch TLC with any sort of regularity, you’ve probably heard this prophecy—preceded, ironically, by “They thought they met some stupid Americans”—countless times in promos for this season of 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After?, which wraps up this Sunday (July 29).
It is painfully true.
When the original 90 Day Fiancé premiered, in 2014, it offered an intriguing look at the K-1 visa process, whereby a United States citizen petitions to bring over their foreign fiancé; they then must wed within 90 days of their arrival or return to their home country. Since then, it’s become one of the network’s core franchises, spawning not one but three spin-offs: 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After?, which follows 90 Day Fiancé fan favorites after they’ve married; 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days, which follows couples in long-distance relationships as they decide whether or not to get engaged and pursue the K-1 visa; and 90 Day Fiancé: What Now?, which began its second season last week and seems to only differ from 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After? in name.
But the world has gotten “more stupider” since 90 Day Fiancé‘s debut, and now watching the show in our current political climate just…doesn’t feel right to me. There’s always been a certain cringe factor to the series as the couples navigate cultural differences and language barriers and deal with the assumptions of their families (most of the couples are true-love connections but still face the “They’re just marrying you for a green card” stigma from skeptical relatives). But what used to be easy to pass off as guilty-pleasure reality-TV tension now feels like a grim reminder of the xenophobia running rampant in our country these days. It’s hard for me to still enjoy a show that—however indirectly—presents the idea that immigrants are trying to scam their way into America when hundreds of children have yet to be returned to their parents.
PHOTO: TLC
Nicole and Azan
It doesn’t help that in recent years the show has placed more emphasis on its least believable couples. Danielle and Mohamed, who first appeared in season two of the series, were cast in two seasons of Happily Ever After? despite breaking up at the end of their original season; the current season of What Now? follows Danielle as she attempts to sue Mohamed for the money she spent bringing him to the States. Nicole and Azan, another couple whose relationship is implied to be a con, have appeared on two seasons of 90 Day Fiancé as well as one season of Happily Ever After? Next week, TLC will air a one-hour special devoted to their wedding. The show’s main promo shot on the network’s website is of Jorge and Anfisa, a Russian native who has openly admitted she is with her husband for his money and whom other cast members have referred to as a “mail-order bride.”
In the past, it was easier to explain away fascination with these couples—”How can someone be so oblivious?” “Are they that desperate for love?”—by focusing on the show’s “real” couples who were clearly in love and the odds they had to overcome to be together. “It’s not exploitative,” I’d tell myself. “It’s educational!”
And yet the couple whose story has convinced me to quit watching isn’t one of the fakes. Chantel met Pedro on a trip to the Dominican Republic, and over the course of their three seasons (one on 90 Day Fiancé and two on Happily Ever After?), her family’s cultural insensitivity and wild conspiracy theories about Pedro’s family—that his mother runs a marriage ring to “harvest the American dollar,” that his sister is actually his girlfriend, etc.—have left them trapped in a modern-day Romeo and Juliet scenario and contemplating divorce.
Chantel and Pedro
The show paints Chantel’s family as not exactly the brightest people (her mother is responsible for that “more stupider” quote), but never specifically calls out their ignorance. This gives their baseless concerns the same weight as those with a legitimate reason to believe their family member is being taken for a ride. All of their conflicts stem from miscommunications that could’ve easily been cleared up (Pedro’s sister Nicole emphasizes a point by saying “punto,” meaning “period,” and Chantel hears “puta,” thus setting off a multiseason “Pedro’s sister called me a whore” arc) or their refusal to open themselves up to another culture (they’re offended when Pedro’s mother serves them chicken feet; after his grandmother spends all day cooking for them, they refuse to get out of the car after seeing her modest home). And yet the disagreements are presented as two-sided because Pedro’s family doesn’t take kindly to that disrespect.
TLC clearly knows what they have on their hands with Chantel and Pedro. When Chantel’s brother, River, got in a physical fight with Pedro over dinner that culminated with Chantel’s mom threatening to get Pedro deported, yelling “IMMIGRATION PARA TI” at him, they held a special live aftershow that featured an interview with the cameraman who shot the scene and a host who mocked Pedro’s English by referring to Chantel’s family as “the family Chantel” like he does.
Before 2016 it was easier to gawk at this kind of thing. It felt obvious whose side we were supposed to be on, and any insensitivity felt outrageous in a “can you believe these guys?” kind of way. At the time, we weren’t being inundated with calls for a wall to be built or daily news stories about ICE raids and immigrant children being held in cages. But the world’s gotten uglier, and it’s become painfully obvious that it’s time to divorce myself from 90 Day Fiancé. Any show that furthers the narrative that immigrants are trying to deceive their way into our country—intentional or not—just isn’t one I’m comfortable watching these days. To be honest, I’m embarrassed it ever was.
PHOTO: TLC
Jorge and Anfisa
The xenophobia isn’t even limited to the Americans on the show. On the recent “Cast Tell All” reunion episode, Anfisa got into an argument with Paola, a Colombian woman who has been on the show since its very first season and had her green card for years now. “When are you getting deported?” she snapped. “Next season?”
I turned it off at that point because the answer to that question these days is “quite possibly.” We hear stories of legal residents being deported and families being separated seemingly every day. I watch reality TV to get an hourly escape from the horrors of our real-life news cycle. I can’t keep watching us get stupider.
Bonnie Stiernberg is a writer and editor based in Brooklyn.
Meghan Trainor is in love. In fact, she’s so in love with her fiancé, Daryl Sabara—yes, of Spy Kids fame—that the relationship has informed much of her new music era, which so far includes three bouncy, buoyant bops (“No Excuses,” “Can’t Dance,” and “Let You Be Right”). “I’m very in love, so you’ll hear these beautiful love songs, happy songs, and honest songs. It’s fun—and a lot of dancing,” Trainor tells us when asked about her upcoming third album. (A release date hasn’t been announced yet.)
Because Sabara is a major inspiration behind Trainor’s new music, she has no problem talking—gushing, even—about him. “I’m so confident about [our relationship],” she says. “I’m so in love, and I want to tell the world. I feel like it’s almost unfair how lucky I am, you know? Every moment of every day we always look at each other like, ‘How did I get you?’ I always say it’s better than the movies. They don’t talk about this kind of love in the movies. I love talking to people about it. I love bragging about it.”
One Trainor song in which Sabara is up front and center is “Let You Be Right,” a pulsating dance track with a slick, retro vibe. The title sums up the song’s message: Trainor typically comes out on top in an argument, but she’s willing to give Sabara a win—for just one night, of course. “I wanted to talk about my relationship with Daryl [in the song] and a cute thing we do,” Trainor says. “What I taught him early on was, you know, I’m always right. I really am. Daryl learned that early on, so any little fight we have he knows it ends with me being right. I wanted to put that in a song.”
The video for “Let You Be Right” just dropped today, and it’s a fun kaleidoscope of neon lights, choreography, and roller rink shenanigans. “I’m obsessed with lights—a lot of lights,” Trainor says of the video’s inspiration. “So I told [the video directors and producers], ‘I want lasers, and I want it to look cool.’ I wanted cool effects. I wanted it to look like we spent a lot of money, you know? I wanted to dance and show my body, and I did it. I looked bomb.”
Yes, she does. Check out the video for yourself, below:
Lyrically, “Let You Be Right” is more relaxed than Trainor’s recent single “No Excuses,” which feels particularly resonant in light of #MeToo. (The song is about Trainor checking a man for his behavior. In a previous interview, she says it came after an incident of mansplaining.) “I didn’t write ‘No Excuses’ because I was inspired by anything except a personal experience I went through,” she says. “I was really proud and really pushing this song to be first [single] because of everything going on in the world. I was like, ‘This is what everyone needs right now.’ Everyone will relate to this.”
“I had a personal experience with men in the industry and had to write about it,” she continues. “It was one of those—like, I have write this song or I’m going to freak out. As soon as I wrote it, I played the demo for the label and they were like, ‘Whoa, that’s powerful.'”
Trainor says #MeToo has caused her to reevaluate some of her previous experiences. “As a girl, I feel like you’re raised to just put your head down and be like ‘OK, yup. That happened. That’s normal.’ But when I look back, I’m like, ‘No, that was pretty messed up.’ I didn’t even think like that until everyone started speaking out and telling their truth,” she says. “It makes me feel so much better knowing you’re not alone. Everyone else feels this way too, and it’s not right.”
Though we still have a long way to go, Trainor does think the music industry is making progress. Above all, she just wants people in Hollywood to be kinder to each other. “I hope [the industry] changes, and I hope the younger generation comes up and comes in with kinder hearts and spreads the love more.”
Paris Hilton and her fiancé, Chris Zylka, landed at Los Angeles International Airport on Thursday night after their holiday trip to Aspen—and their commute home started on a bumpy, albeit hilarious, note.
The reality star, who’s pretty good at maneuvering around paparazzi at this point in her life, hopped into the backseat of her SUV right after leaving the airport. A few seconds later, the driver swiftly got into the front seat and drove Hilton and her new $2 million engagement ring away without Zylka in the car.
Back on the curb. paparazzi start to congratulate The Leftovers actor on his new engagement. He seems to be in pretty good spirits for what just happened to him in front of dozens of cameras—even shaking one of the photographer’s hands. Needless to say, the moment caused a little uproar—and more than a few headlines.
You can see 32-year-old Zylka left in the dust curbside in the video footage below.
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“I’m her fiancé, [they] might not want to leave me,” Zylka said lightheartedly to the photographers.
Luckily, the moment wasn’t a premonition of what’s to come in their relationship—or some huge public fight. The hotel heiress cleared the air on her Twitter account and explained that it was just a major mixup after all.
“The driver thought he was in the car with us,” Hilton commented. “He didn’t realize with all the cameras & commotion. As soon as he sped off, I said “You left my Fiance!!” Then he backed his car up right away & got him within a few seconds. #Beyond”
Hilton, 36, came home to a fun surprise that likely made her and Zylka quickly forget about the embarrassing airport moment. She shared the adorable balloon-filled gesture in a series of Instagram photos. Further proof that all’s well that ends well—especially when you’re Paris Hilton.
