Hello and happy weekend! It’s nice to gather with you here again. PS: If you’ve entered a book giveaway here recently, please check your spam and email! I’m waiting to hear back from some folks.

Over at Drinks With Broads this week, everyone got our salute to sci-fi Hate-Watches of yore plus a truly great celeb auction and some other stuff. Paid subscribers got Heather’s dispatch from the gift shops of France, and MY dispatch from…jury duty?? Similar!!!

Interested in Fug Nation’s top ten purchases from our shopping posts so far this year? Me too!

SALE KLAXON: J.Crew is doing — as I type this — up to an extra 60% off sale items with the code “SHOPSALE.” That’s a lot! Maybe I’ll pull the trigger on this striped button-down now! [Affiliate link]

At Vulture: Diddy’s Open Secrets: The rap mogul shook off decades of rumored bad behavior with wholesome PR revamps.

Fascinating: $17,000 to Watch the Masters? How Sports Entice Deep-Pocketed Fans. [NYT, gifted link]

Also fascinating, at Texas Monthly: What Is Alex Jones Doing in This Tiny Far West Texas Town? Spoiler: He’s not on a silent retreat giving back to the community. (Also, this town sounds pretty wacky?)

I love RHoBH and Applegate, but this was probably the right call: Christina Applegate Reveals Why She Turned Down the Opportunity to Join the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

Lainey takes us back down memory lane on the occasion of Suri Cruise’s 18th (!!) birthday.

Cathy Horyn reports: The Real Reason Taylor Swift Dresses Like That: A close read on a decade of outfits.

I talked about this in DWB this week, and hard agree: “Kelly Clarkson might be giving Bethenny Frankel a run for the title of ‘worst divorce in history’ after her ex-husband Brandon Blackstock recently fired back against a lawsuit she filed last month.” [Lainey]

Cosmo asks, Did Millennials Kill Astrology?

Sometimes I think the internet was a mistake. At Wired: The Real-Time Deepfake Romance Scams Have Arrived.

Wow: Huge Disneyland expansion to add new rides, restaurants and hotels wins OK. This is going to create a LOT of jobs in that area, but also I sympathize with the folks in Anaheim who are worried about traffic. [LA Times]

Mercury retrograde is retrograding. We had an impromptu chat about our worst tech nightmares. We also chatted about our favorite cookbooks! 

Related, at Eater: ‘The Vilna Vegetarian Cookbook’ Was Ahead of Its Time

Oooh, I’m so into this Le Creuset braiser that looks like a FLOWER. [affiliate link]

Ugh: Review: Look, You Knew ‘Back to Black’ Was Bad, BUT STILL! [Pajiba]

The Ringer dives deep on the 10 Most Memorable Dystopian Movies.

[Photo: Getty Images]

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