The singer’s claim that she got the Pretty Woman treatment in a ritzy New York toy store has sparked a frenzy of heated opinions

By Stuart Heritage

A

s we all know, the Internet long ago devolved into little more than a crude disagreement machine. Nothing gets the world going like arbitrarily taking sides in an argument based on painfully incomplete information. We have seen this dynamic play out with everything from the recent Lindsay Clancy and Cornell cases to the color of a dress and the moral duty of photographing named men during food-delivery shifts.

But now it seems that the form has finally been perfected. An ideal dispute has landed in our laps. Nobody can say with any real certainty who is right or wrong, but based on gut feeling alone, the Internet has already drawn lines. To wit: Are you Team Kelly Clarkson, or are you Team Whimsical Artisanal Brooklyn Curiosity Shop? READ ON

Scotland’s centuries-old ball circuit comes with a strict set of rules: learn the reels, never hire a kilt, and whatever you do, don’t take a picture

By Katherine Pangonis

Somewhere in the middle of a foursome reel at the Northern Meeting in Inverness, the music quickens and all of a sudden I am lifted off the ground and spun round at speed by two sweating, kilted Scotsmen. Opposite me, another girl is likewise clinging on for dear life. The dance move is called “the helicopter,” and we women are the blades. It is perhaps the trickiest of the “reels” that are danced at balls across the Highlands, and it is not for the fainthearted.

The good news is that nobody is filming. Not the laird’s son currently spinning READ ON

With the baseball playoffs upon us, the strangest conspiracy theory is making its way through the nation’s dugouts

By Rich Cohen

T

his past July, on Kristin Cavallari’s Let’s Be Honest podcast, the Chicago Cubs’ star center fielder, Pete Crow-Armstrong, was asked to share an “unpopular opinion.” His answer: “Babe Ruth never existed.”

The man known as “PCA” credited the theory to Tayler Saucedo, then a Seattle Mariners relief pitcher, who reached this conclusion by way of deduction. Saucedo said he’d seen hardly any video of the Babe. If Ruth existed, where’s all the footage? From there, Saucedo reasoned Ruth right out of existence, consigning him to the same category as Bigfoot, a figment of the collective unconscious.

That the case against Ruth’s actuality is ludicrous is less important than why READ ON

The Outer Hebrides have weathered Vikings and Atlantic storms—but nothing could have prepared them for a litigious Hollywood scion and her dog, Lady Tarkina Snow Fire

By John Beck

The island of Great Bernera is eight square miles of rock, grassland, and white sand beaches buffeted by Atlantic wind and tide. It sits on the northwestern edge of Scotland’s Outer Hebrides—closer to Norway than to London—and has been inhabited for thousands of years, as a semicircle of megalithic standing stones can attest. Vikings once settled here, and the island has since endured pirates, mass evacuation, and tyrannical landlords. The latest disturbance, however, has come all the way from California.

Many of Bernera’s roughly 250 residents observe the Sabbath: buses don’t run on Sundays, and businesses often stay closed. READ ON

Having pulled Archie and Lilibet out of their new English school after just two days, Meghan faces fresh peril—yet another parents’ WhatsApp group

By Ashley Baker

It’s not easy being Meghan. Seriously. Oh, come on! First there’s the fledgling jam brand, which won’t be usurping Bonne Maman anytime soon. And who among us hasn’t suffered through her attempts at media domination, which began with megabucks deals from Netflix and Spotify but have since evolved into a guest appearance on MasterChef Australia? Now Meghan is back in Britain and surrounded by stony-faced adversaries. It’s not exactly happily (As Ever) after.

But if you’re still unable to locate a soft spot for the Duchess of Sussex, just wait, because her situation has further deteriorated. After just READ ON

First they came for our movies and catwalks. Now the offspring of rock royalty—Gallaghers! Martins! Grohls!—are taking over music festivals. And a Beckham shall lead them

By Stuart Heritage

If you have ever been a regular at British music festivals, first, I hope the trench foot has started to clear up. Second, you will probably be intimately familiar with the BBC’s Introducing Stage.

These stages, often tucked away from the noise of the headliners, tend to be a trove of delights, giving up-and-comers a chance to play to the biggest crowds of their careers. Selected and championed by regional BBC D.J.’s, acts who have benefited from Introducing over the years include Ed Sheeran, Florence + the Machine, Charli XCX, and the 1975.

But times change, and this year READ ON

A new biography on David and Victoria Beckham—Brand Beckham—reveals the devastating toll the couple’s fame has taken on their son

By Sarah Ditum

Alison Boshoff has two main beats as a show-business reporter at the Daily Mail: the Beckhams and the Sussexes. That in itself tells you something about the exalted position held by the Beckhams in British culture. Since David Beckham and Victoria Adams (as she then was) began dating in 1997, they have been the nearest thing to a celebrity version of the royal family.

There’s another, more bitter parallel as well. In January this year Brooklyn, the Beckhams’ oldest child, posted what Boshoff repeatedly refers to as a “bombshell” Instagram post in which he accused his parents of READ ON

Jon Bois makes documentaries about athletes named Bob, baseball brawls, and the worst team in N.B.A. history. Why are they so moving?

By Spike Carter

The most original filmmaker working in the United States today isn’t a Safdie, an Eggers, or an Aster, nor any of their A24-backed contemporaries. It’s an auteur who makes documentaries not on 35-mm. film but with the decidedly uncinematic Google Earth. His films don’t premiere at Cannes but on YouTube.

If you crossed Ken Burns with Adam Curtis and raised the result on a 56K modem, you might get a documentarian like Jon Bois, the 43-year-old, Brooklyn-based sportswriter and creative director at SB Nation. His métier is statistics, but his real talent is finding something unexpectedly moving beneath the statistical overkill of American sports. READ ON

Seventy-one years after Albert Einstein’s death, his face earns millions annually—and a Beverly Hills lawyer makes sure no one uses it for free

By Jonathan Margolis

T

here is a series of advertisements on British TV for smart energy meters, featuring an actor made up to look like Albert Einstein. The message is clear: Einstein was smart, so it would be smart to get a smart meter. But as each ad ends, a caption flashes on-screen: “ALBERT EINSTEIN rights licensed by H.U.J. / CMGWorldwide.com.”

This raises two questions. Why, 71 years after Einstein’s death, does anyone need permission to use his image, any more than they would Shakespeare’s or Jesus Christ’s? And what on earth is “H.U.J.”?

The questions led me to the Beverly Hills penthouse READ ON

Travel agents were supposed to be extinct. Instead, they’ve been reborn as fixers for the super-rich—retrieving forgotten jewelry, staging $80,000 scavenger hunts, chartering emergency jets, and ensuring that “No” is never the final answer

By Mark Ellwood

Late in 30 Rock’s run, Liz Lemon is confronted with the fact that her gig as a comedy writer might not last forever. After one stinging rejection, she’s wandering disconsolately down a gritty New York street when she hears a voice in the distance. “You are one of us now,” says the woman as she emerges, backlit, from a smoke-wreathed alley with two men flanking her.

When Liz asks who she is, the woman replies, “Better to ask who we used to be—people whose professions are no longer a thing.” One man is an American autoworker; the other READ ON

Private clubs are turning to Contra for beautiful, influential partygoers on demand. So much for exclusivity

By Alyson Krueger

On a recent Sunday night in Montauk, a party was raging at Mary Lou’s, a lounge and private members’ club that originated in Palm Beach and has locations here and in Miami. Twenty-something women in cutout dresses and men with their dress shirts unbuttoned sipped martinis on red banquettes and danced beneath a giant disco ball. Brandi Cyrus, the D.J. and older sister of Miley, spun the tunes.

Mary Lou’s has proved it can attract its share of boldface names. Michael Jordan threw a birthday party for his wife at the Palm Beach location. Rapper 2 Chainz, actor Terrence READ ON

What’s in your wallet? If you’re a 21st-century tech baron, a growing stack of passports

By Lucas Chancellor

In 2014, Pavel Durov, the billionaire Russian-born founder of the encrypted messaging app Telegram, faced growing conflict with the Russian Federal Security Service. Tensions had begun with his refusal to turn over personal data from Ukrainian protesters, who were using his Russian social-network platform, VKontakte. This was, to put it mildly, a bold move.

Consequently, he was swiftly removed as C.E.O. of the company by its board. Shortly after that, to nobody’s astonishment, major control of VKontakte shifted to pro-Kremlin, oligarch-linked entities. The whole thing didn’t sit too well with Durov, who promptly planned his departure from Russia. In READ ON

Perhaps for the first time, a major movie star is pursuing our attention as shamelessly as any other wannabe influencer

By Nancy Jo Sales

In June, James Franco joined TikTok to announce some startling news: there was an alien living in his garage. In a series of bizarre posts, a haggard and agitated Franco attempted to convince viewers that no matter how “crazy” he sounded, “this is real.” “I know how this looks,” he said, wearing a ratty blue T-shirt inexplicably adorned with two vertical lines fashioned with yellow masking tape, forming the “pause” symbol. “This dude’s, like, 48 years old and, like … get[ting] in on this Internet game. That’s not what’s going on.”

On July 13, Franco revealed security footage of the alien, which looked like a guy dressed up in an alien costume. READ ON

As the Beckham feud rages on, the private dramas of Brooklyn’s wife are threatening to eclipse her long-frustrated acting career

By Katie Hind

S

he’s the girl who appears to have all a teenager could desire—right down to plans for her very own beauty range, just like her mom Victoria. But Harper Beckham’s 15th birthday earlier this month was marred by the lack of public congratulations from her estranged big brother Brooklyn and his wife Nicola Peltz.

Parents Victoria and David were quick to celebrate their only daughter. David uploaded a sweet gallery of pictures to Instagram paying tribute to “my pretty lady,” while Victoria called her “my best friend.” Neither mentioned Brooklyn by name, but Victoria’s post initially appeared to show a READ ON

From thank-you letters and short ceremonies to sweetheart tables and weekday weddings, our list of dos and don’ts for this wedding season

By Carolina de Armas

Before you take any of the below personally, please don’t. Because we understand that you didn’t know any better—and that the algorithm, not you, is to blame for convincing you that you absolutely needed a saxophone to accompany your entrance as your guests twirled their napkins in the air like they just didn’t care. And they still don’t, by the way. At least not enough to tell you that your publicly distributed wedding Pinterest board was downright vulgar. But fortunately, we do. As arbiters of taste—and, yes, we do call ourselves that—it is our duty to stand in READ ON

In Montauk, a towering sculpture of stacked shipping containers has sparked a fight between local officials and an art-world scion

By Andrew Zucker

A few weeks ago, Rob Aaronson drove past the Ranch, a 26-acre horse farm and art space in Montauk. But it wasn’t Hamptonites on quarter horses that caught his attention. Instead, the local fisherman saw a dozen gargantuan shipping containers stacked on top of each other. “I didn’t like it in its environment, and I wouldn’t like it probably in any environment,” Aaronson says. “The ‘wow’ factor at first sight didn’t do anything for me.”

That 60-foot-tall sculpture by artist Matt Johnson, titled Meditating Figure, features decommissioned cargo containers as long as 30 feet, some appearing to hover diagonally in the breeze. And over the last few weeks, it’s become the source of much debate—and potential litigation—on the eastern tip of Long Island. READ ON

Joe Biden’s ever problematic son has launched a Substack featuring everything from Anchorman comparisons to open letters to Joe Rogan

By Stuart Heritage

Last month, Hunter Biden reappeared from the wilderness. For the better part of a decade, trapped in a whirlwind of nepotism accusations, crack addiction, sex workers, federal gun and tax convictions, and an abandoned laptop with a narrative so convoluted that it necessitated its own 7,800-word Wikipedia page, the younger Biden son attempted to stay as quiet as someone with his surname and flair for drama could hope to be. But then came an apparent change of heart.

After he announced almost seven years of sobriety in an X post on May 23, someone accused him of owning the READ ON

Madonna wants us to put “our fucking phones down,” but the algorithm is an intoxicating drug. As nightlife surrenders to the digital gaze, our columnist asks: Can the unrecorded night out survive?

By Camille Charrière

In May, I cashed in on my marital status to attend the premiere of the “raunchiest music video of all time being screened at the Tribeca Film Festival.” I was gagging to know what all the fuss was about. An NDA should never preclude you from telling your wife why you’re late for dinner on Christmas Eve. Being a disgruntled plus-one paid off, though. Madonna’s new album, Confessions II, is a banging return to form, wildly sexual and a little bit trollish, too. Cue 14 minutes of high camp, including a cut to Kate (Moss) that will go down in history. Every cameo was greeted with a cheer (loudest for Debi Mazar). MOTHER is back! READ ON

Scenes from the first 2:00 A.M. screening of Christopher Nolan’s 70-mm. epic at New York’s movie mecca: the IMAX at AMC Lincoln Square 13

By Jo Rosenthal

It’s 1:37 A.M. on Friday, July 17, and the line to get into the two A.M. showing of The Odyssey, at New York’s AMC Lincoln Square 13, is so long it’s beginning to look like an epic poem. Tickets for this 70-mm. IMAX screening were purchased weeks, months, and, in some cases, a year in advance.

With the city blanketed in smoke from Canada’s wildfires, those shuffling in to catch Christopher Nolan’s two-hour-52-minute film look less like moviegoers than they do soldiers emerging from the fog after a Homeric battle, armor swapped out for pajama pants. The crowd is mixed: old, young, dating-app date, mother and newborn child. READ ON

The traditional Jewish dance has become commonplace at gentile weddings. Is it appropriation or appreciation?

By Jeanne Malle

It’s midnight. Somewhere between their fifth and sixth gin-and-tonic, two young men whisper into a D.J.’s ear as the Isley Brothers’ “Shout” roars around them. Grinning like teenagers about to pull off a prank, they scurry to the long tables where, hours before, a bride and groom enjoyed their first moments as spouses. As they carry two chairs back toward the dance floor, the recognizable first few notes of the Hebrew folk song “Hava Nagila” begin to pour out of the speakers. While the rhythmic melody accelerates, the jubilant crowd hoists the helpless couple in the chairs, laughing as they grip their seats for dear life. READ ON

With collectors including Leonardo DiCaprio, Nicolas Cage, and Ken Griffin, dead dinosaurs have become supersize status symbols

By Simon Mills

There’s a scene in Woody Allen’s 1986 film, Hannah and Her Sisters, where Elliot (Michael Caine) takes newly minted rock star Dusty Fry (Daniel Stern) to see some drawings by brooding, miserable, uptight artist Frederick (Max von Sydow). “Dusty just bought this huge house in Southampton,” a caption explains. Frederick’s girlfriend, Lee (Barbara Hershey), suggests Dusty looks at the oils in the studio basement. “Are they BIG?” asks Dusty, who already owns “a big, weird” Frank Stella. “I’m looking for something big. Because I got a lot of wall space.”

The exchange was Allen’s way of acknowledging a READ ON

An $8 billion surveillance start-up is turning the roads on the eastern tip of Long Island into a searchable police database. Not everyone is grateful for the protection

By Andrew Zucker

Eric Striffler is a self-described “big fan” of following the law. That doesn’t mean the Southampton native is thrilled about the growing number of license-plate readers in his hometown.

“I’ve always seen it as a quote-unquote small-town area,” Striffler says about the summer enclave. “Now that this surveillance is being used, it raises an eyebrow for sure.” He adds, “Who is collecting the data? Is the data being sold to third parties?”

His concerns are gaining traction among a skeptical subset of the billionaire playground as the number of electronic eyes spikes. Since 2022, the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office has purchased 64 readers made by Flock Safety for its jurisdiction, which encompasses the eastern tip of Long Island, according to Christopher Brockmeyer, a deputy sheriff. READ ON

As the U.F.C. lands at the White House this weekend, young men are flocking to Thailand in search of authentic violence. What they’re getting is something oddly Trumpian: part spectacle, part grift, part fraud …

By Maggie Turner

When Calvin Cheng wanted to turn his Muay Thai hobby into something more serious, he moved from the Netherlands to Thailand. Muay Thai—Thailand’s national combat sport—is known as “the art of eight limbs” and is a punishing form of kickboxing in which fighters use fists, feet, elbows, and knees to batter their opponents. Long a core discipline of mixed martial arts (M.M.A.)—and a major part of the U.F.C.—it has recently found a new audience among young Western men chasing authentic violence, old-fashioned manliness, and social-media glory.

That audience has not arrived from nowhere. As M.M.A. has migrated from the READ ON

Dua Lipa and Callum Turner’s Sicilian wedding celebrations are bringing pop stars, private jets, and security cordons to Palermo—but some locals are fingering their knives

By Angela Giuffrida

Concetta Chillemi was chatting to friends outside her shop, next to Palermo’s gallery for modern art, which is housed in a sublime Baroque church in the city’s historic center. A few meters away, an Italian TV crew had its camera trained on the tiny square in front of the church, where event staff in black T-shirts scurried around in the heat. They were preparing for the arrival of the British singer Dua Lipa and the actor Callum Turner, who over the next two days are celebrating their wedding in the Sicilian capital after exchanging vows in London last weekend.

Dua Lipa is one of the world’s biggest pop stars, READ ON