From the Group Chat: The “Vanity Fair” Hollywood Issue, 2026 Met Gala News, and Sabrina Carpenter’s Final “Arrest”

EDITOR’S NOTE

Happy Sunday. Pre-Thanksgiving madness, we meet again. This is the moment when I start panicking about everything left to do, like book holiday travel (thankfully, I have this website), sift through stacks of paperwork (perhaps throwing “the lamest party ever” will help), and purchase holiday gifts. But not this year — I’m going to take a minute (à la Jonathan Bailey and Elmo) and get my act together. Or, I’ll procrastinate spectacularly by doing these things instead:

• Learn how to do this unexpectedly stylish, “curved” version of the manicure that’s evaded me since middle school. Fingers crossed, literally.

• Buy this legendary restaurant chain’s cheese grater, now available to the public. Honestly, I’ve spent too many years letting someone else decide “when” there’s enough cheese on my pasta. 

• Plan all of my holiday party outfits around the coat that’s been sitting in the back of my closet since 2003 — but has suddenly “reclaimed its place as this season’s go-to jacket.”

• Clear all the vitamins out of my medicine cabinet, and replace them with these…stickers? Here’s hoping they help me focus on the things I actually need to do.

— Jamie Feldman / Writer, Culture & Lifestyle / Brooklyn, NY

👖 No, it’s not a wardrobe malfunction: Celebs are bringing back Y2K’s most perplexing fashion trend, and we have to ask…why? 

🍴 The “war” between Gen Z and every other generation has found a surprising new battleground — and it involves restaurant seating.

💤 Is this impossible-to-mess-up eyeliner trick the secret to looking more awake? On behalf of sleepyheads everywhere, we’re willing to find out. 

✨ Don’t ask us to explain this fashion sorcery, but this small piece of fabric is the difference between looking frazzled and looking French Girl chic.

💍 Nothing could have emotionally prepared us for the news that our generation’s most beloved holiday movie is getting a sequel, without its iconic matriarch.

Well, friends, it happened. Somebody, for once, thought of the men. On Tuesday, Vanity Fair dropped the covers for its annual Hollywood issue, featuring a dozen men and zero women. The tagline? “Let’s Hear It for the Boys!” Specifically, Jeremy Allen White, Jonathan Bailey, Harris Dickinson, and other talented actors — who, by all traditional definitions, are far from boys. Naturally, the internet had opinions. Many made good use of the fire emoji, but others posed some (fair) questions: Where were Jacob Elordi and Timothée Chalamet? What was with A$AP Rocky’s questionable footwear? Could you really call three-time Hollywood issue cover star Andrew Garfield part of a “new class of leading men”? (No shade to Michael B. Jordan, but same.) And, most glaringly, as one Instagram commenter put it, “We were not hearing it for the boys before?” It’s not like there aren’t plenty of women to choose from: Dakota Johnson, Ayo Edebiri, Rachel Sennott, Kaia Gerber, Elle Fanning, Mia Goth, Lola Tung, and Aimee Lou Wood, to name a few off the top of our heads. Which is to say that featuring exactly zero of them feels like...a choice. Particularly given *gestures broadly at everything*.

Then again, maybe we shouldn’t be so shocked. This isn’t the first time the Hollywood issue has had an all-male cast, some with more success than others (see: the 1996 cover, featuring Jack Dawson and a bunch of question marks). It’s also not the first time the celeb yearbook has been scrutinized. People weren’t thrilled with what the women were wearing — or rather, not wearing — on the very first cover. In 2014, after years of featuring mostly white actors, the magazine finally got the hint and changed course. And while the 2006 cover wasn’t controversial, it was definitely too close for comfort. But perhaps we should take a cue from VF’s recently appointed top editor, who declared that the whole thing is “not that serious” (we know of a few Oscar campaigns that’d beg to differ). In which case, fine, we’ll focus on this clip of the guys revealing their favorite YouTube videos instead.

Gird your loins: The 2026 Met Gala theme was unveiled this past week, and it’s “Costume Art,” described as an exploration of the “dressed body.” So expect modern-day versions of Lady Gaga’s meat dress and a fight over Schiaparelli’s viral, beating heart necklace. The bigger headline, though? Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos will be the lead sponsors of next year’s prom for fashion people, prompting headlines like, “Bezos Buys His Wife the Party of the Year” (guess renting out Venice didn’t cut it). Gift or not, it got us thinking: What are some of the other absurdly over-the-top things celebs have given each other? Enter Kanye West presenting Kim Kardashian with a hologram of her late father (“thoughtful” isn’t exactly how we’d describe it); Ed Sheeran gifting Sam Smith a very erect, very NSFW marble statue; Eminem sending Elton John a pair of diamond rings (not the kind you’re thinking); Katy Perry reportedly buying Russell Brand an expensive ticket to space (looks like she beat him to it); and the Most Unhinged Gift Giver in History, Mark Zuckerberg (we fear we’ll never recover from Z-Pain). And, lest we forget, there were those Bennifer 1.0 rumors that Ben Affleck gave Jennifer Lopez a ruby-, sapphire-, and diamond-encrusted toilet. Puts your fuzzy slippers to shame, huh? 

Cue the “Tears,” Sabrina Carpenter is officially hanging up her fuzzy pink handcuffs. Tonight, the pop star wraps up her Short n’ Sweet tour in Los Angeles — meaning she has one last starry guest to “arrest” for being too hot. Some of the most iconic so far? A newly single Nicole Kidman (who sent this exceptionally chaotic text to her daughter), the Princess of Genovia, and Hollywood’s favorite set of sisters (no, not the Olsens). Now, clearly she doesn’t need our help planning her finale, but we pulled some potential suspects just in case: her tallest best friend Taylor Swift, two people all too familiar with ending up on a Jumbotron, or Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in full Wicked costume. After all, their schedule just opened up.

Let’s be real: We’re always in the market for an easy binge — but especially before, say, four straight days with extended family. So allow us to suggest season 2 of A Man on the Inside, the delightful Netflix comedy from Good Place creator Michael Schur about a retired professor turned unlikely private investigator. This time around, Charles (Ted Danson) goes from working undercover at a ritzy retirement home to working undercover at his daughter’s alma mater. The mission? To track down whoever stole the laptop of college president Jack Beringer (Max Greenfield), putting a $400 million donation from a sketchy billionaire, and some of Beringer’s secrets, at risk. Naturally, every faculty member is a suspect — including Mona, a music teacher and potential love interest, who happens to be played by Danson’s real-life wife, Mary Steenburgen. Immediate yes.

Between chasing toddlers, pushing strollers, and coaching soccer practice, parenting can be a workout. Turns out, 74% of parents say a day of parenting is “physically intense.”^† That’s why Quaker is leading The Invisible Workout movement to get parenting mode officially recognized on fitness trackers. Because if you’ve ever wrestled a kid into a car seat or hauled a sleeping child upstairs, you deserve the credit. Thankfully, Quaker protein products help fuel you for the workouts that count, even when they don't get counted. So before you put your fitness tracker on, sign the petition here to join the movement.*

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