CATCHING FIRE: Peptide maxxing, Maura Higgins and the billion dollar creator
Do keep up!
Hello from Los Angeles. I’m here for a few days on the unglamorous mission to fix a leaky roof. They say it never rains in the city of angels. They lie.
One benefit of my far-too-short trip is that my jet lag has given me lots of early morning time to work on and launch a podcast with Nicole James. It’s called The Special Relationship and we explore the cultural differences between Brits and Americans. I’ll be forever in your debt if you’d have a listen, subscribe and lavish us with a five star review. You can catch us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube. New episodes drop on Mondays and the next one will see me explain the deeply British phenomenon of hun culture.
In today’s letter we’re taking the temperature of the injectables that Goop girlies are obsessed with, Etsy’s witch purge, the tradwife raw milk scandal, food delivery extremism, unhinged sponcon, the AI agent tipping point, a Substacker’s wild wellness routine, the new sporting stars taking over social media, a hero in the Epstein files, the Love Island star who’s making a Hollywood pivot and so much more. Let’s get into it…
So hot right now
Khaby Lame… who just sold the rights to his content, image and brand for nearly one BILLION dollars.
The 25-year-old TikTok star, who blew up by making silent comedy videos, is getting the pay day from Rich Sparkle Holdings who want to leverage his 360 million social media fans. The company, who paid Lame $975/£719 million, believe they can generate more than $4/£3 billion in annual sales from his content and by creating AI twins of him.
Lame, who was born in Senegal and raised in Italy, has over 40 smash-hit videos on TikTok with more than 100 million views. His most watched TikTok has been viewed more than 358 million times…
Maura Higgins… is suddenly everywhere after giving herself a major fashion rebrand.
The Love Island star is getting plaudits for her style as she stars in The Traitors US, wowing on the red carpet of the Golden Globes after being dressed by Hailey Bieber’s super-stylist, popping up in Paris for couture week in head to toe Robert Wun and walking the streets of New York City in show stopping Jean Paul Gaultier…
Higgins is trying to pivot her reality show fame into an acting career and getting attention via fashion is a well worn path. Her plan appears to be working as she’s already landed a role in the comedy film The Spin, which debuts later this month.
Bad Bunny… has reached surface of the sun temps after making history at the Grammys when his album DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS became the first exclusively Spanish language record to win album of the year.
The honour came a week before he performs at the Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday.
Excitement for the gig has reached fever pitch, and social media platforms are packed with videos of English-speaking Americans learning Spanish, tutorials on how to sing along to his biggest hits and explainers on Bad Bunny lore. Meanwhile MAGA types are big mad that a Latin performer has been booked. To them I say, boo hoo.
RELATED I predict (my first mistake) that Justin Bieber will join Bad Bunny on stage
Melinda French Gates… after she gracefully handled questions arising from the partial release of the Epstein files that feature lurid claims about her ex-husband, Bill Gates, having affairs and possibly plotting to drug her. Interviewer Rachel Martin of NPR also deserves all the applause for how sensitively she handled the issue…
RELATED If you’re going to be in the Epstein files, be in the Epstein files like Tina Brown. She was a thorn in Epstein’s side long before he became known as the world’s biggest pedophile, and he hated her for exposing him. Another reason to love her.
ALSO RELATED Peter Attia, Brad Karp and David A. Ross may be facing the consequences of their associations with Epstein, but so many other high flying American men — including the Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick — are not.
Meanwhile in the U.K. the man formerly known as Prince Andrew has lost his titles, the police have opened a criminal investigation into Peter Mandelson, and the prime minister, Keir Starmer, is clinging to his job by his fingernails even though he’s not mentioned once in the files. Why? He appointed Mandelson to a plum job knowing he had ties to Epstein. It feels somewhat quaint that in Britain there are still consequences for not telling the truth, and for poor judgement.
Going viral
Winter Olympic athletes… They’re all over TikTok sharing their team kit hauls, showing us the food court and obsessing over a chocolate pudding (that might just be the new viral chocolate muffin from the Paris games).
RELATED The team uniforms for Haiti and Mongolia absolutely slap…
And a special mention for Ralph Lauren’s take on Team USA’s gear. They never miss…
Trends, trends and even more trends
Peptide maxxing… KLOW and GLOW are the new transformational peptide injection blends that the wellness girlies are obsessed with.
