CATCHING FIRE: TikTok's royal wedding, Dr Steven Levine and Rotten Mango
Do keep up!
Going viral
Jazmyn Smith… after she took over TikTok by posting all the way through her influencer-packed wedding in real time.
The tens of millions of views her big day got was no accident. The lifestyle creator, who has just under half a million followers on TikTok, plotted to make her wedding go viral by giving viewers a ring side seat and producing over 20 videos during the ceremony to keep them locked in.
To flood the zone Jaz hired two content creators and armed her personal assistant with her phones and a spreadsheet that listed out the pre-planned concepts for posts. She revealed her process the next day and explained why she was so committed to sharing so much of her wedding. “I genuinely felt like I needed to do this because I have the lifestyle that I have and I had the wedding that I had because of the fact this is my job and you guys care,” she said.
Jaz’s big moment was helped by an army of NYC influencer friends including her bestie and maid of honour Halley Kate, who herself has over 1.5 million followers on TikTok. She and other guests like Remi Bader (2.2 million followers), Brigette Pheloung, who is known as Acquired Style (1.6 million) Hallie Batchelder (585k), Bran Flakezz (1.3 million), Davis Burleson (586k) and Isabelle Graff (584k) also produced dozens of videos. They also popularised the idea that Jaz marrying Kevin Callari at the castle in Long Island where Taylor Swift filmed Blank Space was a “royal wedding”.
The end result was that the union, which some have speculated cost north of $300k, was almost impossible to avoid for many who spent time on TikTok over the holiday weekend. That was good news for Jaz’s sponsors like Lyft, who she says helped her get around as she planned the wedding.
Jaz also tagged multiple vendors in her wedding posts which suggests that they may have offered a discount or complimentary services in exchange for the credit. Even as she jetted off on honeymoon she leveraged the interest in the wedding to savvily challenge brands to get into her comments so that they could share the spoils. Dozens took the bait, including Estee Lauder, Gillette, Laura Mercer, Steve Madden, Tide, Saie, NYX, Living Proof, e.l.f. and Royal Caribbean.
Jaz follows in the steps of Sofia Richie Grainge who used her lavish nuptials in 2023 to rebrand herself and super charge her following. Just days after Jaz’s wedding, interest in her is still surging.
Jaz’s strategy has been so successful wannabe influencers are likely to adopt her playbook in a bid to grow their audiences. Established creators will be taking note too. I’m looking at “relatable billionaire” Becca Bloom when I say that. She weds her fiancé at Villa Balbiano in Lake Como, Italy, on August 28 and anticipation for her big day is already sky high. A video of her unboxing the wedding invites has over 20 million views.
Yassified faces… have been blowing up for some time. It started when Lindsay Lohan, Christina Aguilera and Demi Moore debuted refreshed and time-defying new looks, sparking speculation about what they’d done, and demands to know who they’d trusted to do the alleged work on their money-makers.
The same gossip cycle happened again when 69-year-old Kris Jenner showed off her taut new look in Paris earlier this month. But this time there was a big twist… Jenner actually admitted she’d gone under the knife AND revealed that it was done by Dr Steven Levine.
Page Six got the exclusive and I expect Levine’s been booked and busy ever since.
RELATED: Celebrities looking witness-protection-level unrecognisable seems to be happening with much more frequency thanks to GLP-1 weight loss drugs and increasingly sophisticated tweakments and surgeries. The latest transformation I’m fixated on is Kelly Osbourne. I would walk past whoever this person is on the street…
ALSO RELATED: Upper eye bleph surgery, where skin from the eyelid is reduced to give a wide-awake look, is trending. The lifestyle influencer Christine Barraco is the latest to admit she got it and she follows
, who wrote all about her £7,250/$9,800 eyelift in The Times and for her Substack Broad.So hot right now
Stephanie Soo… after her show Rotten Mango went to the top of YouTube’s podcast chart, dethroning Joe Rogan.
The true crime series has been popular for nearly two years but is currently experiencing a bump because of its coverage of the Diddy sex trafficking trial. Soo is posting regular hours-long updates, including on day one of the trial where she secured a spot in court. Her last six videos about Diddy have averaged 3.5 million views each.
Rotten Mango is also a hit on Spotify where it’s the third most popular on their podcast chart.
Alix Earle… Brace yourself for a larger piece on the TikTok queen’s remarkable rise but for now I wanted to let you know that not only did she make the cover of The Wall Street Journal Magazine she also bagged a spot on the new series of Dancing With The Stars which almost certainly guarantees her a path to mainstream fame.
Sleep Token… Who secured the number one spot on both the Official Albums Chart in the U.K. and the Billboard 200 in the U.S. with Even in Arcadia. The rock duo, who are fronted by a singer known as Vessel, have remained anonymous by wearing masks, and built a cult following despite mixed reviews from critics.
2025 has been a big year for masked rock bands, with Sleep Token following Sweden’s Ghost, who also topped the U.S. chart with their album Skeletá.
Merit’s tinted sunscreen… needs to give its PR team a bonus as the launch has seen the product be recommended by, check’s notes, everyone who has an audience and some heft in the skincare and beauty space. Some boasted about The Uniform’s 20,000 strong wait list, but Cosmopolitan saying that it was the IRL equivalent of Instagram’s uber popular Paris filter was possibly the best endorsement it could get. I’ll give you my hot take if I ever get to try it.
Trends, trends and even more trends
Men calling their besties to wish them good night… has prompted some very funny videos on TikTok, and shown how spontaneous check-ins are rare amongst male BFFs. If you can’t resist infectious laughing this one is for you…
I Ain’t Got No Panties On… may end up being a song of the summer contender after it blew up on TikTok, getting to number five on their music chart. A McDonald’s worker who goes by alysaaa111111 popularised the Wax-A-Million track by showing off her moves at a gas station. The same creator choreographed a dance to the track Blicky in 2023 while she was still at school.
RELATED: Another song all over TikTok is Married in a Year by Brendan Abernathy after a video of him singing it went viral and he became a meme. His enthusiatic performance in socks and on his tip toes, as people surrounded him with their phone lights on gave many the ick. But Abernathy is riding the wave of interest and embracing the mockery.
Propaganda lists… Young people are naming the trends, people and products that they’re “not falling for”. They’re labelling them “propaganda” and they include ChatGPT, Labubus, singer Benson Boone and capitalism.
They’re soundtracking their lists with the Charli xcx track I think about it all the time, and the trend is so popular the song is number two on TikTok’s viral chart.
Charli herself jumped on the trend and added her spin by listing the propaganda she IS falling for…
Need to know
Holyfuckingairball… You may be seeing or hearing the youths using this expression as it’s all over social media. Holy Airball, and the profane version, are being used as a way to say that you confounded someone’s expectations or that someone is far off base with their assumption.
One of my favourites is from a young women who told ‘him’ that she could sleep late. In her telling he said that’s cool ‘I can sleep to 11’, then she didn’t wake up until 4.27pm.
The saying has its roots in basketball as an airball describes a clear miss of the hoop. Visual learner? Here’s one for you…
Our girl Jordon Hudson might soon be Mrs Belichick… A New York Times profile claimed: “Ms. Hudson has told at least one person that she and Mr. Belichick are engaged to be married.”
Google’s Veo 3… is freakishly good at generating videos from text and will significantly blur the line between what’s real and fake. What could possibly go wrong?
RELATED: “Agentic web” is a term you’re going to be hearing more of as AI accelerates. It refers to tools that are designed to make decisions, find information and complete tasks without the need for inputs from humans.
This week I’m…
OBSESSED WITH
Steve Harvey’s immaculate style
Costco Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively
Alexander Skarsgård’s entire press tour wardrobe for Pillion
Liz Hurley’s new TV project which sees her play “The Deceased” in The Inheritance, a new show from the very clever people behind The Traitors
Fun fact: Rob Rinder (pictured above) goes to my local Barry’s Bootcamp in London and he really guns it during the treadmill sprints (complimentary)
The insane imagery attached to this Jony Ive and Sam Altman partnership announcement
This kid’s whole vibe
The case of the crypto millionaire who was allegedly held and tortured for three weeks at a swanky SoHo address in New York City. Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan, 28, eventually escaped and two men have been charged.
Justin Bieber’s unravelling on Instagram with cruel posts about his wife Hailey and multiple videos of birds. Not good.
READING
The New York Times’ piece on the wildly popular pre-school YouTuber Ms. Rachel who was accused of being funded by Hamas after she highlighted the plight of children in Gaza (gift link)
The sick blame game surrounding the tragic death of an influencer’s three-year-old son from MSNBC
James Bloodworth’s deep dive on the origins of toxic masculinity in The Times
In Australia, everyone has a hot take about the mushroom murder trial from The Washington Post
The Cut’s look at Liv Schmidt’s subscriber-only group, Skinni Société, where members are encouraged to eat as little as possible
WATCHING I’ve got one more episode of MobLand to go. Will Pierce Brosnan’s accent improve? I doubt it. I also started Sirens on Netflix and so far, so class warfare with excellent wardrobing.
COUNTING down the days until “presidents of tech” film Mountainhead from Succession creator Jesse Armstrong hits screens. It launches on whatever HBO Max is now called on May 31 in the U.S., and in the U.K. it’s on Sky Atlantic and Now from June 1.
EATING every single flavour of Bret’s crisps that I can get my paws on. These chip sauce ones are divine…
highly flammable is produced and written by me, Rachel Richardson
I’m a content creator, commentator and consultant at Beginning, Middle and End
Want more? Check out Threads, Twitter/X and Instagram. I’m also dabbling in some Bluesky thinking.
Email rr@bmend.com
I'm so curious to see how those "undetectable" face-lifts will look ten years from now...
I’m so exhausted (complimentary)