It’s still winter. Politics sucks, the weather sucks, and we’re all sick of being inside. Our Winteritis stories are for women who can’t read another think piece, who’ve pushed the outer limits of time it’s possible to spend on social media, and who kind of want to shop online and hibernate until spring is here.
If you thought binge-watching shows on Netflix was a sure-fire way to eat up your day, just wait until you go down your first YouTube hole. OK, it’s 2019: You’ve already gone down a YouTube hole, so you know what I’m talking about. It starts out simple—just one cat compilation video—but before you know it the sun’s down, your phone’s dead, and that laundry you planned on doing remains untouched on the floor. “Where did the time go?” you ask yourself, dumbfounded. It went to Ina Garten’s double fudge brownies, that’s where!
YouTube holes are productivity killers, but they’re A+ if you’re bored and have exhausted every true-crime doc available. Consider the 10 threads, below, a starter kit of sorts. Just make sure all your work is done before diving in.
I don’t cook. I don’t bake. I don’t even order food over the phone—yet whenever I start watching one of Ina Garten’s cooking videos, that’s it for my day. She’s always a little bit shady with her direction, whether she’s imploring you to use the “good” vanilla abstract or assuring you that “store-bought” bread is just fine. (For the record: It’s not. If you’re not baking your bread fresh daily like James Corden in Into the Woods, then what’s the point?)
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Many cats, for whatever reason, are terrified of cucumbers. And someone—I’m not sure who—figured this out and turned it into a viral phenomenon. The eerie part about this is the cats almost all have the same reaction to the cucumber: They literally jump in the air and scatter off in horror. To be fair, that’s basically what I do whenever I pass a salad bar.
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Celebrities are way more relaxed on this British late-night talk show, which leads to funnier, more down-to-earth interviews. Plus, all the celebrity guests hang out on one couch, so you get lots of random pairings. One of my favorites? The Ocean’s 8 cast talking about how Rihanna travels to the Met Gala in her involved outfits. Not exactly a random group, but still iconic.
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The title of this series says it all: A pastry chef, Claire Saffitz, attempts to recreate our favorite junk food. Ina Garten might put you to sleep, but these 20-minute videos will keep you hooked until the end. Why, yes, I do want to see if Claire can make Pringles from scratch. Thanks so much for asking!
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All of your faves have done one of these videos: Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid..the list goes on and on. And the answers are always fun. Who doesn’t want to watch Bella Hadid answer rapid-fire questions while she plays with farm animals?
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YouTube is a gold mine for bloopers, but the Friends outtakes are particularly delightful. Watching Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow break character 15 times in the same scene may not seem addicting at first, but trust me: Just give it a chance.
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Or makeup tutorials of all kinds, really. Kim Kardashian’s how-tos are legendary because she says things like, “If I literally was stranded and only had this product, this is, like, exactly what I would do” in the most monotoned voice. The go-to desert island survival kit: water, flares, concealer.
All Rihanna wanted was a relaxing flight, but the people on board who were trying to watch the Super Bowl made sure that didn’t happen.
OK, that’s a joke. RiRi probably did have a nice first-class flight on Sunday evening going…wherever she was going—but her fellow passengers with football on the brain did annoy her. At least enough for her to write on Instagram about it.
The “Work” singer posted two slides to Instagram Story documenting her live reaction to someone asking if they could watch the big game at 20,000 feet. And her face truly says it all.
“How can we watch the Super Bowl on the flight? Me: [No comment],” she wrote alongside a video of her serving a blank stare and then a smirk.
She then called one of the passengers asking about the Super Bowl a “weirdo,” which isn’t the nicest comment. However, this probably isn’t shade toward people who watch sports. It’s most likely her way of supporting Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who kneeled during the national anthem to peacefully protest violence against Black people in America. He went into free agency the following year and his contract with the NFL wasn’t renewed.
“For those of you who thought I was watchin’ the Super Bowl…we beefin’,” Rihanna also posted to Instagram Story next to a photo of Kaepernick kneeling. The Fenty mogul reportedly turned down an offer to perform at the halftime show because of the Kaepernick controversy.
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“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color,” Kaepernick told NFL Media in 2016. “To me, this is bigger than football, and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”
In The Princess Switch, streaming on Netflix now, Vanessa Hudgens basically plays Meghan Markle before and after marrying into the royal family. One of her characters, Stacy, is a normal woman—a baker from Chicago—while the other is Margaret, Duchess of Montenaro. They look exactly the same and find each other when Stacy competes in a baking competition in the fictional kingdom of Belgravia.
When the two women switch places for a few days, it becomes a mashup of The Parent Trap, The Princess Diaries, The Holiday, and the royal wedding—all packed up in a sweeter-than-Stacy’s-cakes Christmas movie. So we rang up star Vanessa Hudgens to see just how in tune she was with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s romance, what the toughest part of being a royal would be for her, and how much she loved The Parent Trap. (No movie spoilers here, except that Vanessa definitely created a secret handshake that rivals Annie and butler Martin’s iconic one.)
PHOTO: Netflix
In America, a lot of people have become royal obsessed in the last few years. Did you follow Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s journey?
Vanessa Hudgens: I definitely watched the royal wedding when I was in hair and makeup. But for me, the whole princess obsession kind of came from growing up on Disney movies. I grew up with all the classics, and I always fantasized about being a Disney princess.
Was there one that you really looked up to when you were a kid of in the Disney princess realm?
Hudgens: I loved Princess Jasmine because she was so spunky and such a free thinker. And she had a pet tiger. That’s pretty baller.
Did it feel good, in that kind of vein, to see a mainstream Christmas movie about a princess who isn’t white, for kids of color to look up to? Do you hope that that makes kids who want to be princesses be able to look up to you like they would to Jasmine?
__Hudgens:__Yes. Wow, I mean I hadn’t even really thought about that, but that is very special and an incredible responsibility. As people who are in the entertainment industry get to give, I feel like these characters are such fun, free thinking characters that are great role models for an ethnic younger audience. It’s just very special.
You mentioned that you watched the royal wedding in hair and makeup. Did you draw any inspiration there at all? Or think about the parallels between Meghan and Stacy?
Hudgens: It was definitely something that had crossed my mind for sure. But especially now that she’s royalty, you don’t necessarily get the biggest inside scoop. It’s more of a sight from a distance. So I got to kind of put myself in her shoes and see what that would look like for me as an actual reality, and as the full picture what that would feel like.
What would be the hardest rule for you to follow as a royal?
Hudgens: As silly as it seems, I feel like no Instagram. It’s the way that I keep up with my friends and my family and get to connect with my fans. It’s also a place that I pull a lot of inspiration for, whether that be hair and makeup looks or Halloween costumes or Christmas present ideas. Weaning myself off of that would be interesting.
PHOTO: Gabriel Hennessey
Royals aside, there’s such a great Parent Trap vibe in The Christmas Switch. Was that something that excited you when you first read the script?
Hudgens: Yeah, it was one of my favorites! Me and my sister [Stella] would act out the scenes from the movie and watch it over and over and over again, as kids do. It was just like such a classic staple in my household growing up that I was like, “Oh my gosh! This movie is just like it it!”
Did you pick a twin that you were when you played out the movie? Were you Hallie from Napa, or were you Annie from the U.K.?
Hudgens: We would just go back and forth, because we watched it so often and knew all the lines so well. We would just kind of fall into whatever felt right at the moment.
What was your favorite scene?
Hudgens: Probably the fencing scene, where they take off their helmets at the end, and they’re looking at each other. Then the realization scene where they show each other the photo of their mom and dad, and then they fit together perfectly. Like [doing perfect Lindsay Lohan impression] “That’s my mom!” and “That’s my dad!”
There is a great secret handshake in The Princess Switch that is reminiscent of the scene where Annie gets dropped off at camp. Did it take a lot of practice to perfect?
Hudgens: No. [Laughs] It literally was like that day of filming. My director, Mike, said we needed to figure out a handshake, so I went up the little girl I was doing it with and was like, “Do you have any ideas?” She’s like, “No.” I was like, “Girl, come on. Help me out here!” So the night before, I, of course, watched The Parent Trap. I was trying to figure out what they were doing and trying to pay homage to that somehow.
Do you have any secret handshakes in your life? Like with your sister or with your friends?
Hudgens: I don’t. I’m so boring! I guess me and my boyfriend [Austin Butler] kind of have one, where we walk past each other and do the high-five and then do the low high-five as we’re walking away, like behind the back. It’s kind of hard because he’s taller than me, but we’ve got a magnetic connection.
You’re such a talented singer. You kind of sing in the movie, but just in the background at the end. Would you do a full rom-com original musical if someone pitched it to you?
Hudgens: Yes, of course. I love musicals. Musicals are like my home. Any time that I get to be on set and sing and act and dance, I am by far my happiest self. So I am always for a musical, never against it. I grew up doing musical theater and kind of found my own two feet through being on the stage. So if there’s like a new, original musical that is happening, I would definitely be the first to jump on board. But of course, there’s so many classics as well, especially on Broadway. To me, it’s always about timing. If the time is right, it feels good, I’m there for it.
Do you think there should be a sequel to The Princess Switch? If so, what would you like to see?
Hudgens: I honestly don’t even know where it would go, because we already got our happy endings. We’d have to create more conflict, or maybe there would a third twin. Spruce things up a little bit. I have no idea. I’m going to leave that one up to the writers, but I know that I had so much fun doing it. The characters are so sweet that I would definitely be on board.
As people gathered across the country to watch the once-in-a-century Blood Moon lunar eclipse on Frida night, one duo seemed to enjoy it the most of all: Riverdale stars Cole Sprouse and Lili Reinhart. Although there was nothing spooky, per se, about this utter astronomical delight, let it be known that Reinhart and Sprouse were ready for anything and everything, up to and including the end of the world (hey, better safe than sorry).
The costars and rumored couple hung out during the eclipse in Cole’s trailer on the set of Riverdale, and chronicled every last detail of their time together waiting for the moon on Instagram Stories. Or, shall we say, Reinhart (hilariously) chronicled every last detail of their blood-moon-observation sesh.
Reinhart was dedicated to showing her followers a total behind-the-scenes look at their moon-watching, starting off with a photo of them sitting together. “If the world really is gonna end tonight then I’m happy it’s with my best bud,” she captioned the photo.
She followed it up with. “Trying to squeeze in some great conversation on our last night on this planet — am I right Cole? Lolol. #bffs.”
“Asked him to tell me all the things he loves about me,” she captioned the next story. “He’s been silent for 30 minutes. Awww he must be thinking really deeply.”
The good-natured sarcasm continued with a Purge reference, followed by Reinhart trying to hang when Sprouse was decidedly doing his own thing. (Hey, it happens.)
Eventually, Sprouse “kicked [Reinhart] out” of the trailer. “Probs cuz he doesn’t want me to see him cry over the fact that the world is ending and he will miss me so much,” Reinhart wrote, adding three red hearts.
