From the Group Chat: Patti LuPone’s Beef With Audra McDonald, Dianna Agron’s French Accent, and “Mountainhead”

EDITOR’S NOTE

Happy Sunday. Emotionally, I’m still recovering from the season finale of Hacks (please respect my privacy during this difficult time). While I continue to process that tragic twist, here’s what else threw me for a major loop this week:

• This preppy little necklace is secretly a status symbol. If you’re on Nantucket and not wearing one, consider yourself socially shipwrecked. 

• Gigi and Bella Hadid revealed that they recently learned of a secret half-sister and, spoiler, the genes are strong. 

• The “Boatkin” — aka the love child of an L.L.Bean tote and a Birkin — which, trust, you’re about to see everywhere. 

• Mary-Kate and Ashley’s ’00s uniform is making a comeback (oversized sunnies and venti Starbucks not included). 

• Finally, the bonkers former price tag of Carrie Bradshaw’s new apartment in And Just Like That… CB’s greatest fiction? Her income.

— Taylor Trudon / Writer, Culture & Lifestyle / Brooklyn, NY

📱 The millennial vs. Gen Z divide no one saw coming: This specific kind of text. 

👀 File this under Stories We Weren’t Prepared For: Mormon influencers are texting, scheming, and paying up to get their hands on this “sacred undergarment.”

🙃 Did you relate to Rory Gilmore a little too much? Congrats, you might be a “parentified daughter.” 

🧣 We didn’t have Pirates of the Caribbean on our summer style mood board, but thanks to scarf skirts, here we are. 

😬 Once again, we must ask: Are men OK? Exhibit A: the Speedo renaissance. Exhibit B: the rise of the “stay-at-home son.”

Someone call the stage manager — there’s drama on the Great White Way that Stephen Sondheim himself couldn’t have written. For the non-theater kids, we’ll explain: On Monday, the New Yorker published a profile of the Patron Saint of Pot-Stirring Patti LuPone, in which she declared that fellow Broadway legend Audra McDonald was “not a friend.” She didn’t elaborate on what the piece called a “long-ago rift,” but the tension seems tied to a separate conflict between LuPone and actress Kecia Lewis. That started last year, when LuPone complained the noise from the Alicia Keys jukebox musical, featuring Lewis, was bleeding into the theater for her play, The Roommate. (LuPone seemed so annoyed, she even refused to sign the musical’s Playbill because the show was “too loud.”) In an Instagram video, Lewis called LuPone’s behavior “offensive,” “racially microaggressive,” and “rooted in privilege” — which McDonald seemingly cosigned by dropping a string of emojis in the comments. 

Needless to say, that didn’t go unnoticed. After taking some strongly worded jabs at Lewis (“b*tch” was used) in the New Yorker, LuPone responded to the aforementioned emojis, saying: “I thought, You should know better. That’s typical of Audra. She’s not a friend.” And, because LuPone never leaves a stage unscorched, she couldn’t resist a not-quite-a-dig (but definitely a dig) at McDonald’s current turn in Gypsy. Now, what does McDonald think, you ask? In a CBS interview, the six-time Tony Award winner — who Time just dubbed “our greatest living stage actor” — said, “I don’t know what rift she’s talking about,” adding the two hadn’t seen each other in over a decade. Of course, this is all somewhat on-brand for LuPone, whose history of grudges is extensive — and proudly chose to eat a “death wing” rather than apologize to Madonna. But her latest comments, many say, crossed a line. Some entertainers (see: Reneé Rapp, Natasha Rothwell) voiced support for Lewis and/or McDonald on social media, while an open letter signed by over 500 Broadway artists is circulating to, among other things, disinvite LuPone from next week’s Tony Awards. That seemed to prompt, at least in part, a plot twist yesterday: LuPone issued a “career-first” apology, saying she agreed “with everything that was written in the open letter” and was “deeply sorry for the words” used in the article, which were “demeaning and disrespectful.” Guess Broadway’s Most Feared Belter couldn’t sing her way out of this one.

How does someone born in the state of Georgia and raised in Texas and California develop a French accent? Ask Dianna Agron. In a viral-for-the-wrong-reasons Vanity Fair video, the Glee actress kicks things off by casually speaking in French, which seemed innocent enough. Then comes the très confusing part: When she switches back to English, the accent stays on. (For the record, this is not what she sounded like previously, as evidenced by this 2018 interview.) Naturally, the internet was quick to point out the Eiffel Tower–sized elephant in the room — which, as one brutally accurate commenter put it, is giving “girl who spent a semester in Paris.” To be fair, like Madonna’s infamous case of accent by osmosis, Agron may have picked up the new lilt after spending time in Europe with her partner, artist Harold Ancart. Or, as one Instagram user joked, “This is a graduate from the Hilaria school of acting” — yes, Hilaria Baldwin. Whatever it is, Agron’s in good company. Who could forget Lindsay Lohan’s “vague European intonation”? Meghan Markle’s thoroughly divisive, possible British accent? And, of course, the Ultimate Vocal Rebrand Queen Ariana Grande? Which is all to say, the Accidental Accent Hall of Fame is alive and well — and Dianna, your beret and lifetime membership card are waiting.

Adorably cheering on the Cubs with Austin Butler? Check. Humbly agreeing with a stranger who says he looks exactly like Jeremy Allen White? Even better. Thank you, JAW, for your continued dedication to boosting public morale.

Corporate dysfunction, absurdly nice homes, soulless billionaires spiraling — it’s safe to say Succession creator Jesse Armstrong knows his niche. The new made-for-HBO movie Mountainhead, which Armstrong wrote and directed, follows a group of tech giants (Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Cory Michael Smith, Ramy Youssef) who gather for a fratty, alpha-bros-only poker weekend at Mountainhead, the massive mountaintop mojo dojo casa house that Hugo (Schwartzman) owns. But before they can even unpack their Rimowas, news breaks: Violent conflict is erupting across the globe, fueled by deepfakes and misinformation flooding Traam — the wildly popular social media platform from a company run by Ven (Smith), an Elon Musk-like algorithm overlord. As the world spirals, the guys do what any self-respecting tech billionaires would: doomscroll and figure out how to profit from the chaos. Darkly funny with satire so sharp it could slice a Patagonia puffer, consider us all in.

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Unleash your competitive side with today’s games and puzzles. Choose from an anagram word search, digital jigsaw puzzle, or crossword (with a twist). Better yet: Try them all.