Can we all agree that Jada Pinkett Smith is the most confusing person in America right now? It's impossible to keep up with everything she's saying. One second she's not with Will Smith, the next she is. Then Chris Rock asked her on a date? What's going on?
And Jada is just the tip of the iceberg this week in celebrity news. It's almost like we had that solar eclipse thingy last week and celebrities somehow got out of wack and decided to embrace being fully unhinged.
But don't worry, I'm here to break it down for you, or at the very least make it make sense. Here are some of the top pop cultures you need to know this week.
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What is Going on with Jada Pinkett Smith?
Jada Pinkett Smith is making the rounds promoting her new memoir Worthy (out now), and I'll say this, one thing the book tour is worthy of is confusion. It all started last week with an interview on NBC's TODAY where she basically implied that her and Will Smith had been separated since 2016 (which was confusing because, well, we all saw that slap at the Oscars and they looked very much together then). Well, she came back to the TODAY show this week to clarify some things while also never actually clarifying anything. She wouldn't say they were back together, but that they were together, but not together together. (Insert head spin.) Gotta admit, never really cared about them to begin with, and this is making me care even less about them.
But if that weren't enough, she's also revealing that Chris Rock asked her on a date when he thought her and Will Smith were separated. Sure, this is a juicy little piece of gossip, but considering the situation the world saw between Rock and Smith at the Oscars, it feels more like a strategy to sell books.
Honestly the whole book tour feels messy and icky. But hey, isn't that what we love in our celebrities? So I guess she is worthy after all.
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce Getting Touchy
Well the romance between Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce is heating up, and they're just fine with showing it off to anybody who wants to watch. This past Saturday the pair dropped by an afterparty for Saturday Night Live (apparently unannounced), and while at the party the two were very touchy touchy.
All this happened after weeks of her appearing at his football games and the pair hitting up restaurants in Los Angeles and New York City.
Listen, I know very little about Travis Kelce. Apparently he's a two-time Super Bowl champ and one of the best tight ends in the league. He certainly isn't a scrub and famous in his own right. That said, any man willing to date one of the most famous women in the world and not try and compete with her, that's a good guy in my book. She just spent the year on her Eras tour, but it's clear now her new era is all about love. (See what I did there?)
The Passing of Suzanne Somers (1946-2023)
Can we talk about how cool Suzanne Somers was? A lot of people forget why she was fired from the show that made her famous, Three's Company. After years of making the show a hit, she had the audacity to demand equal compensation to her male co-star, John Ritter. What did ABC do in response? They fired her.
Of course, we know Somers bounced back from that. Not only did she continue to act (I loved her on Step by Step), but she also created a health empire with the Thighmaster.
On a personal note, I gotta say I loved her Instagram Lives during the pandemic. She'd do these weekly lives showing her products and just talking from her home. In one famous live she encountered an intruder on her property. Instead of freaking out, she just calmly said, "You're not supposed to be here." She politely asked him to leave and he did (while making wide eyes with the camera, communicating to us at home, "This is weird.")
What a queen.
Listen to H. Alan Scott on Newsweek's Parting Shot. Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. Twitter: @HAlanScott
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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A writer/comedian based in Los Angeles. Host of the weekly podcast Parting Shot with H. Alan Scott, ... Read more
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