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It’s list-making season, and this year, we asked 50 culture-makers to join us in anointing the best of 2025. For New York Magazine’s inaugural “Culturati 50” portfolio, the people who shaped entertainment this year evaluated the movies, TV, music, books, theater, and other amusing miscellany that shaped their years. Their lists are delightfully personal and idiosyncratic: Lorde has seen maybe “sub-150” movies in her entire life, but she reads one-and-a-half books per week (this year, that included Patricia Lockwood’s latest). Lindsay Lohan loves Peter Hujar’s Day for its “quiet beauty.” Claire Danes is a podcast fiend and works on perfecting her “I Don’t Think So, Honey!” in her spare time.
Introducing the Culturati 50
Read the Culturati 50’s ‘Year in Culture’ Lists
Certain trends emerged from their lists, the results of which are distilled below. Sinners, Adolescence, and Oh, Mary! were by far the most beloved film, TV show, and Broadway production of the year, respectively. Seventy-nine percent said there was a song of the summer, but no one could agree on what it was. The Rehearsal made people equally more and less scared to fly. And while not everything they consumed came out this year, Rachel Zegler, Supriya Ganesh, and Gabby Windey all found themselves turning to Joan Didion. A secondary pleasure of reading their selections is getting a sense of how and why they consumed the culture they did — when they fit it into their schedules, tucking an episode or album in between filming their own projects, or to hype themselves up for an audition (as Ben Ahlers did with Kendrick Lamar’s GNX). And as we were watching these 50 culture-makers, they were watching each other. Chase Sui Wonders loved Lola Tung in The Summer I Turned Pretty, while Tung cried watching Sadie Sink in John Proctor Is the Villain, who tuned into Severance season two between rehearsals … and on and on.
“A masterful fusion of meticulously calculated one-shot cinematography and direction that draws out the show’s core themes. It vividly exposes the fear and anguish experienced by both children in their formative years and the families who watch over them.” — Hideo Kojima
“In the spirit of diversity, the white boys have been killing it. Adolescence felt like a different side of the same coin as Forever. Both projects asked the audience to pay attention to the unique challenges for young men today.” — Mara Brock Akil
“It makes me anxious in a good way. They’re obviously heightened situations, but they’re relatable — what the studio cares about, who that random person is on set. As an actor, you don’t always want to know that side of it. Pulling back the curtain is scary.” — Brittany Snow
“I am very scared of flying. I’ve been on a couple close-call flights, and it’s left me paralyzed. But I’m also fascinated by the mechanics of flying. Now, I’m always looking out for the pilots before I board. I was so tapped in right after watching The Rehearsal that one pilot noticed I was interested in the cockpit and what was going on. He treated me like a 6-year-old kid. He was like, ‘Come on, buddy, come sit in the cockpit. Yeah, put my hat on!’ I asked if he’d seen The Rehearsal. And he was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ ” — Chase Sui Wonders
“Mike White continues to pour us delicious TV cocktails with umbrellas in them. He’s been a hero of mine for a good couple decades.” — Claire Danes
“When they take the bonding trip? They have clever ways of expanding the world. And Tramell Tillman is unreal.” — Sadie Sink
“The Pitt was perfect for my wife and I to watch in the weeks after our twins were born. A meaningful procedural is really a gift sometimes.” — Penn Badgley
“The single most important show is The Real Housewives of Salt Lake.” — Morgan Bassichis
“Too Much because I watched it while in London with a man I fell deeply in love with. I’m (basically) American, and he is English. I watched Girls as it aired when I was a teenager on my parents’ TV, and I was too young to relate to the very humiliating but totally commonplace things the characters experienced. Too Much hit me at just the right age.” — Stephanie Wambugu
“There’s a shot in The Chair Company where someone sees someone else through a hole in a desk that is so funny. And there’s also the line, ‘Fuck! You handed me that piece of paper too hard!’” — Zach Woods
“Is It Cake? The release you get when it goes through the cake … Oh, it feels right. It’s ASMR with texture. It’s an inside joke with me and my friends that I am always watching Is It Cake? when I’m cleaning or doing something. I feel safe because it’s not too much and they’re not doing anything, you know? It’s just cake. Or not.” — Brittany Snow
“The incest made me uncomfortable, but I was kind of annoyed that people were angry about it being in there. They were like, ‘Oh, it’s just too much. Why would he do that?’ Like, That’s fucking Mike White, guys. It made me uncomfortable, but I wasn’t like, I don’t want that to be part of this.” — Justine Lupe
“The fact he used that dirty blender.” — Heidi Gardner
“Everyone asking Gaitok, ‘How’s your head?’” — Jeff Hiller
“The family having to lock up their phones. Those people needed their phones.” — Bess Wohl
“Natasha Rothwell’s hot son.” — Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
“You know, game recognizes game. Jack is ambitious, and so is she. Jack wants to make something of himself, and George Russell was certainly self-made. The world is changing so fast, and I think you would want an entrepreneur and somebody who can see the opportunities rather than an Establishment figure like the Duke. I haven’t seen the scripts for season four, but I will continue to throw my hat in the ring any chance I can. Bertha’s going to end up missing Gladys, too — so far away! Instead, she could just walk down the block. Listen, I could see Jack with literally any person in the show. With Gladys, there’d be an interclass dynamic. With Bridget, he stays grounded with his first love. It wouldn’t be romantic, but I’ve been begging for an Aunt Agnes and Jack Trotter spinoff. Oscar’s spending all of her money. If we could team up, Jack and Agnes would get along really well.” — Ben Ahlers
RHONY: “I started watching from the beginning, and I will never be the same … Bring back Alex and Simon.” — Cat Cohen
@millionaire.diva: “It’s an Instagram account of this woman who lives in Dubai. She classifies things as either billionaire, millionaire, or normal people. Her assistant will say the name of a restaurant, and she’ll classify it. She works in real estate, and she also has tips like, ‘Don’t buy a studio apartment, because it’s too small. Consider buying a villa.’” — Julio Torres
The Hunting Wives: “It was so proud of what it was: bingeable and trashy. If I had Malin Åkerman’s tits, I would also have my top off every five seconds. God, and I loved the wigs too. Malin and Brittany had great chemistry. I’m not sure if I bought those characters as lesbians, but maybe one of them can get a pixie cut.” — Gabby Windey
Parker Posey Can’t Stop Recommending
“My Birdbuddy. It’s so exciting and charming — it sends you videos of birds feeding at your home. I have one of a goldfinch that had landed at the feeder and then about six seconds later a hummingbird comes darting up. Some people are like, ‘Wow, that’s great.’ But you’re like, ‘No, did you watch all the way through? It’s 20 seconds long. Don’t stop it!’”
Read Parker Posey’s ‘Year in Culture’ List
Girls: “I watched it this year for the first time. Very glad I did. I’m probably a Marnie. I love how distinctly 2012 to 2014 it is, the vibes and references. I mean I was, like, 12, but I still remember.” — Lola Tung
Hard Knocks: “There is no drama like an NFL training camp into preseason and through cuts. The show changes teams each year. This year, it was the Buffalo Bills, foregrounding Josh Allen and Sean McDermott but also the Buffalo fan base, revealing quite movingly how the team reflects the city itself.” — Tim Blake Nelson
“YouTube videos related to the former Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol’s alleged corruption.” — Park Chan-wook
Love Is Blind: “I started watching the show when I was doing a play, The Seagull/Woodstock, NY, and the younger people in the cast were really into it. We would talk about it like it was our soap opera.” — Parker Posey
“She reversed the punch line and started with the punch.” — Ramy Youssef
“Everyone treated Carolyn like shit. It’s ridiculous. She was playing a smart game and paid for it.” — Adam Scott
“Yes and no. I’m answering for both the Innie and Outie. Looking at it from his point of view, you have to remember, for all intents and purposes, he’s 3 years old. He’s in a sort of adolescence and rebelling a bit, but he’s also standing there, and if he walks through the door, he may cease to exist. He may die. And then the person he’s in love with is at the other end of the hallway. So what would you do?” — Adam Scott
“It’s a moral gray area, and that’s the beauty of it.” — Ethan Slater
“Well, see, Mark’s Innie isn’t really a pers — okay, I’m gonna get canceled if I say this. I love Mark. I love Mark’s Innie, but his Outie is the OG Mark, right? He had this whole life. So I find it a bit crazy of Mark’s Innie to kidnap his body. But I want to see what happens. So yes for the plot but no morally.” — Manon Bannerman, Katseye
“That’s not for me to say ❤️” — Benito Skinner
“My mom is at the blackjack table with Bryan Cranston. She came to visit me on set in Vegas. We were filming on the live casino floor because you can’t shut it down. So we’re around all these real people. There was a scene where Bryan Cranston is betting a lobster at one of the tables, and we needed people to fill in the scene. My mom was watching behind the scenes, and Evan Goldberg was like, ‘Why didn’t you get in there?’ She came up to me — I was about to do a scene — and she’s like, ‘Evan would like me to go into hair and makeup.’ I was like, ‘What, why?’ She got a lot of screen time. Then I come to the table and shout a bunch of expletives. She’s a diva now. A nepo mom at work.” — Chase Sui Wonders
“I’m never scared to go on planes! I love flying ☺️ ☺️” — Lindsay Lohan
“I think everything could be solved if more people talked to each other. Also, I’m a ‘Bring Me to Life’ truther—there is no way he wasn’t listening to that as the plane went down.” — Supriya Ganesh
“Ryan Coogler became one of my favorite filmmakers of all time during the sequence where the past, present, and future of Black music all come to life and blend together inside the juke joint. I wept from a deep place. I watched it alone, and I said to myself, This is a fucking work of art.” — Penn Badgley
“After seeing the movie, I asked Michael B. Jordan, ‘Did you guys do any kind of prosthetics on your face?’ He said ‘no.’ I was like, Wow, Stack’s got dimples and Smoke doesn’t, purely because he held his face so differently. He doesn’t smile as Smoke. He only smiles, I think, twice.” — Wunmi Mosaku
“The scene when Michael B. Jordan’s character opens the door and sees the vampirelike white guy? That proper disturbed me.” — Owen Cooper
“It touched me to watch a failed revolutionary onscreen, as someone who was a college student in Korea during the ’80s.” — Park Chan-wook
I barely watch movies. I’ve seen probably sub-150 movies in my life. I’m severely underwatched. But I’m rocked by one movie a year max, and I loved One Battle After Another. I felt awake. I’m a reader more than anything. So I’m really reading that script as I watch it: ‘Lunatics, haters, and punk trash.’ That’s so good.” — Lorde
“Gosh, Benicio Del Toro doing his sobriety test. I love to see actors make choices that I know were not in the script, that they took their liberties with, and then made a meal of. And ‘a few small beers’: absolutely iconic.” — Ego Nwodim
“I love Leo being funny and relate deeply to forgetting passwords.” — Jeff Hiller
“It puts Zach Cregger in a different league. A movie that’s so weird, so wild, both tonally and structurally, and yet so accessible. And truly scary.” — James Gunn
“There is a moment where Eva Victor’s character finds a stray cat, picks it up, looks at it for a moment, and says, ‘Yep, I love you.’ That’s how this movie made me feel about Eva Victor as an artist.” — Zach Woods
Frankenstein: “Jacob Elordi has an interesting approach to the character. In the beginning, he doesn’t say much, but he says so much with his eyes. I was very emotional about that.” — True Whitaker
The Voice of Hind Rajab: “The brilliant idea of building the film around the recording of the little girl’s real voice was done in a respectful, inspired, and harmonious way. It stayed with me for days. The sense of impotence is unbearable and made me feel sick.” — Sabrina Impacciatore
The Accountant 2: “I love this. Leave me alone.” — Adam Scott
Bugonia: “The way Emma Stone deploys speech in Bugonia. Her cruelty in it was arresting. She nails that unnerving thing pundits and politicians do — masterful gaslighting.” — Julio Torres
Black Bag: “It was fun, exciting, clever, and made me feel clever.” — Ethan Slater
Caught by the Tides: “There is a dance scene in that movie that I will remember for the rest of my life.” — Stephanie Wambugu
The Housemaid: “Gratuitous in the most self-aware way. And everyone in it is beautiful to look at.” — Chase Sui Wonders
My Father’s Shadow: “It follows a father and his two children on a journey through one day, from the village to the big city of Lagos. There’s an idea of ‘Nollywood movies’ being quite overdramatic. This was like an art-house movie.” — Wunmi Mosaku
On school shootings: “I just don’t know why else there would be a gun floating over a house.” — Justine Lupe
“It’s about Aunt Gladys. Which is clearly a metaphor for some sort of childhood trauma the filmmaker’s processing which co-opted his parental bonds as a young child.” —Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
“It’s about prioritizing a movie with a highly original plot to counteract all the reboots and sequels we’re subjected to year after year.” — Karly Hartzman
“It’s a movie about not letting family members you don’t really know stay at your house. That’s truly what it’s about. Boundaries.” — Brittany Snow
“I met David Corenswet. He’s wonderfully lovely and married and very kind. But I was not aware that he was that in person. I had to take a second. Camera’s not doing the man justice, I swear.” — Regina Hall
“I was walking through my aisle at the Marty Supreme premiere and a girl’s hair got caught on a button on my pants. The lights were going down, so people were like, ‘Sit down! It’s starting!’ Her friends were like, ‘Stop pulling! You’re hurting her.’ It was just an accident. Sometimes it’s the things that are not on the screen. But I thought it was a really awesome movie. It’s really gripping. Baby Bro was incredible. I’m so proud of everything he’s accomplished. I’m kind of passing the torch to Timothée. He’s going to win an Oscar. As well, he should. It’s his time now.” — Adam Friedland
“I watched Hot Spring Shark Attack while high on edibles. Incredible film.” — Supriya Ganesh
Jeff Hiller Recommends
‘Pee-wee As Himself’
“I have so much respect for Paul Reubens as an artist now. The film itself is so well done. By making Matt Wolf, the director, a character, we get to see Reubens’s unique (and, I would imagine, occasionally annoying) way of engaging with other people’s need to control his image.”
Read Jeff Hiller’s ‘Year in Culture’ List
“Seeing When Harry Met Sally … at Prince Charles Cinema in London surrounded by couples in a totally packed theater just after ending my own engagement. I haven’t wept like that since I was a child.” — Stephanie Wambugu
“It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley. I saw it in New York with my parents at the Angelika. It’s the first film I’ve ever watched that made me cry.” — Sombr
“Honestly, every movie I saw in the theater this year put me to sleep. Those Alamo Drafthouse seats make for good napping.” — Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
“The Last of Us is Pedro Pascal before he was fully, like, launched into it. All the other ones, that’s post-glow-up, right? This was his glow-up.” — Penn Badgley
“People always bring me Labubus to sign after my show, and I’m just like, Come on, man. I try to sign them, but they’re literally furry teddy bears. You can’t write Sharpie on fur. It doesn’t work.” — Sombr
“I bought Labubus for my three daughters and everyone was elated until they turned out to be Lafufus and my kids had a sobbing meltdown.” — Bess Wolh
“I think it’s a good cultural artifact for this year. Barbie, Brat, Labubu.” — Julio Torres
“His name is Chad.” — Amaya “Papaya” Espinal
“Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza, by Peter Beinart. One of the things money allows you to do is buy distance from the violence that underwrites your life. And when that violence becomes observable through social media, when it intrudes into your curated, comfortable bubble, it’s shocking. It can feel almost like a responsibility to keep taking it in. But the question of what is most effective is more important than the question of what is most horrifying and stimulating. That book felt like a way to not turn away from what was happening without getting into a rhythm of semi-lobotomized consumer of horrors.” — Zach Woods
“Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon, by Mizuki Tsujimura, which imagines meetings between the living and the dead at a Tokyo hotel.” — Megha Majundar
“I tore through Toni at Random, by Dana A. Williams, a study of Morrison’s years as an editor at Random House, the night it was released.” — Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
“Woody Allen’s What’s With Baum? I’ve seen all of his movies. I read his biography five years ago; I really liked it. I’m a completist, I guess.” — Adam Friedland
Lindsay Lohan on Joaquin Phoenix
In Eddington, Joaquin has this way of pulling you in without ever trying too hard. There’s so much emotion in the smallest moments with him.”
Read Lindsay Lohan’s ‘Year in Culture’ List
“107 Days, by Kamala Harris. An eye-opening look at the 2024 election that kept me hopeful during the highs and sank my stomach during the lows.” — Rebecca Yarros
“The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny — love Kiran Desai, and this was such a bold book. So sexy, so political, so raw. Parts felt almost exposing at moments.” — Supriya Ganesh
“I Do Know Some Things, by Richard Siken, a book of poems about his stroke and the deaths of his parents. Each poem makes you close the book for a while and think about everyone you love.” — Ramy Youssef
“A Beginner’s Guide to Dying, by Simon Boas, a British aid worker who died at 47. He found the time to write down his last thoughts about death and life to offer something useful and comforting for readers.” — Sabrina Impacciatore
“Meg Josephson’s Are You Mad at Me? I keep it in my bag as a constant check-in. I underline and make notes, especially when doing press. I become acutely aware I’m overthinking things I’ve said or should have said.” — Brittany Snow
“Heartwood, by Amity Gaige, for the way it combined a propulsive crime thriller with a mother-daughter story. I didn’t want it to end. Also, it allowed me to indulge in my fantasy of being a park ranger.” — Bess Wohl
“Lauren Rothery’s Television, Rob Franklin’s Great Black Hope, Anika Jade Levy’s Flat Earth, and Stephanie LaCava’s Nymph. They’re smart, self-aware, and elegant books.” — Stephanie Wambugu
“Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal, by Mohammed El-Kurd, invites us to resist narratives that in any way justify genocide or colonialism. Give this book to everyone you know.” — Morgan Bassichis
“Celebrity memoir is my favorite genre, and my faves this year were Uptown Girl, by Christie Brinkley; Say Everything, by Ione Skye; and When the Going Was Good, by Graydon Carter.” — Jeff Hiller
“I moved from New York to L.A. this year. During the move, I read Goodbye to All That on the subway, which was a mistake (had to have one more crying- on-the-subway experience). Then I moved on to The Year of Magical Thinking, which I knew nothing about. Reading that in public was another mistake.” — Supriya Ganesh
“I’m reading The White Album, which I’m halfway through. I love how cynical and dark she is. Things kind of just end, which feels real. Sometimes I skip the more esoteric ones — there’s one about a water plant, and I’m like, Girl … I don’t need to know.” — Gabby Windey
“I’ve read The Year of Magical Thinking three or four times. Grief is such a profound emotion to revisit when I’m acting. Most of the characters I’ve played have been either grieving a person or grieving who they used to be. In Evita, she is grieving the inability to have more years. That’s a really specific type of grief.” — Rachel Zegler
“I loved Ruth, by Kate Riley, and Wave of Blood, by Ariana Reines. Reines is one of those modern voices I would be bereft without. She does this heroic work of metabolizing our world for me. Alien Daughters Walk Into the Sun, by Jackie Wang, and The Motherload, by Sarah Hoover, for that pure tabloid high. I had never read Walt Whitman, not being from America, and I’m trying to understand the American project more, so I read some of him. I read so much Frank O’Hara. It felt good when I was away from New York to read these little compact poems. They’re exquisite and generative for me. I was constantly reading After the Ecstasy, the Laundry, which is a self-help spirituality text I’ve returned to the last couple years. I took a dip toward faith-based reading. I was feeling like I needed to reach outside of myself. I read A God in the House: Poets Talk About Faith. It’s fabulous. I got quite existential, and that’s when Whitman got in there. I bopped out of that and went to all the memoirs of New York women in their 30s and 40s. They almost scratch the itch of a blog or a magazine. Then I read the new Patricia Lockwood. I’m always happy to go into her zany vortex.” — Lorde
“It’s hard not to give it up for Sabrina Carpenter and the alchemy she’s found with Amy Allen and John Ryan. Excellent songwriting, and—I know it’s a dirty word, but I don’t mind it if you’re great at it (and Sabrina is) — excellent branding.” — Darren Criss
“I knew who she was, but it wasn’t until my daughter sat me down and played me her full album that I was taken aback. I was like, This sounds like Fleetwood Mac. This sounds like ABBA.” — Adam Scott
“Addison is bringing the pop star back. When she dropped Addison this summer, it was so good to be in L.A. I was driving around blasting it. These girlie-pops are giving us driving bangers.” — True Whitaker
“Love Lorde’s new album. It came out when I had just spent the last few years questioning my own experience of gender. ‘Favourite Daughter’ and ‘David’ are my favorites.” — Supriya Ganesh
“I’m increasingly impressed by people who are making work that feels distinctly human. And his album Baby felt like something it would take the algorithm a while to become human enough to imitate. I feel his blood flowing through it. It’s a guttural, raw, big, sexy swing.” — Lorde
“Justin Bieber really did something with Swag. I haven’t paid super-close attention to what’s happening with him or where he is in his career, but it seems as though he is in his IDGAF era. There’s a looseness to the album.” — Ego Nwodim
Rosalía, Lux: “I’ve been listening to it back and forth since it came out. It’s the most incredible thing I’ve ever heard.” — Lara Raj, Katseye
The Voidz, Męğż Øf Råm: “I love Julian Casablancas and the Strokes. The Voidz is cranked even further. Julian’s a master of finding these great hooks and beautiful melodies. You don’t know where the hell he’s grabbing them from, but they work. And with the Voidz, it’s put through an even more interesting food processor.” — Adam Scott
Taylor Swift, The Life of a Showgirl. “Sue me! I like it! The second it hits midnight, I like to smoke a joint and read all the lyrics in bed.” — Gabby Windey
FKA Twigs, Eusexua: “It somehow plays well in any context — working, cooking, cleaning, power walking. Patches of it give Ray of Light–era Madonna but also Choir Girl–era Tori Amos.” — Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Geese, Getting Killed: “Man, it’s just good. They say random shit. There’s one lyric where he’s like, ‘I was a sailor.’ I really thought that was funny.” — Sombr
Lily Allen, West End Girl: “There’s just something satisfying about a woman scorned.” — Justine Lupe
“I would hear ‘DtMF,’ by Bad Bunny, all over the neighborhood. That song is meaningful for the Latino community. It’s basically about taking more pictures and being present in the moment. Whenever I listen to that song, I get chills.” — Amaya “Papaya” Espinal
“The song of summer has to be upbeat. It has to be carefree. It has to be a song you can play in the car with the windows down, sun shining on your face. And it always boosts the mood. I had ‘A-Lister,’ by Romy Mars, on repeat.” — Chase Sui Wonders
Rachel Zegler on Lady Gaga
“There’s never been a Lady Gaga album I didn’t enjoy. I was there for Chromatica. I was there for Artpop. I was there for Joanne. Mayhem brought me back to the incredible experience of hearing every new release of hers for the first time when I was a teenager.”
Read Rachel Zegler’s ‘Year in Culture’ List
“It was ‘Sugar Sweet,’ by Mariah Carey ft. Shenseea and Kehlani, you guys, and, as a culture, we blew it.” — Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
“Alex Warren’s ‘Ordinary’ played in our home all summer. I’m not sure what it’s about, though. Are we supposed to be ordinary? Not ordinary? I’m confused, but it’s catchy.” — Bess Wohl
“When I went to Okinawa in early summer, I would gaze out at the ocean from the window of the hotel, absentmindedly listening to Fontaines D.C.’s ‘In The Modern World,’ waiting for the hot summer to arrive.” — Hideo Kojima
“Justin Bieber’s ‘Daisies’ was the closest we came. It ticked all the boxes for me. It has to be flirty! I should be so lucky as to make a song of the summer. I don’t think I really make that type of music, but maybe I do. I’m happy to leave that to others.” — Lorde
“For Zara Larsson’s ‘Midnight Sun,’ she filmed a video where she was literally in front of the midnight sun in Sweden. It was the coolest thing ever.” — Ariana Madix
“I know Lady Gaga’s album came out in March, but spiritually, ‘How Bad Do U Want Me’ was my song of the summer.” — Sadie Sink
Lola Tung on Audrey Hobert
“I’ll throw on Audrey sometimes if I’m strutting down the street and just having a little hot-girl walk.”
Read Lola Tung’s ‘Year in Culture’ List
“I don’t know why I know Yung Bredda’s ‘ The Greatest Bend Over,’ but I heard it a thousand times this summer. It plays in my head in the middle of the night.” — Wunmi Mosaku
“For me, it’s ‘This Summer,’ by Sleigh Bells, but I’m on my own set of tracks when it comes to this stuff.” — James Gunn
I’m obsessed with cheating, especially big CEOs. God was the Jumbotron that night. They were being watched by a divine spirit who was like, ‘We got your ass.’” — Gabby Windey
“My 5-year-old saw Kendrick Lamar and was like, ‘Who is that man on that cool car?’ He was talking about him for weeks after. We’d be walking, and he’d be like, ‘I’m thinking about Kendrick.’” — Penn Badgley
“Kendrick’s flare jeans! He’s never beating the cutie-patootie allegations.” — Ariana Madix
“I am down a rabbit hole of Taylor Swift theories. They are definitely all wrong, but I can’t stop.” — Brittany Snow
The Blue Origin space trip took me into my next social-media break.” — Sadie Sink
“Elon and Trump tweeting about their breakup.” — Adam Friedland
“Blue Ivy’s dancing specifically.” — Jeff Hiller
“I’ve been a fan of Oasis since I was 6. I was on the way to the Adolescence set, and I looked on Instagram. Oasis had posted a video saying, ‘We’re doing a tour!’ I went with my mom, dad, brother, and my friend. I was screaming at the top of my lungs. It was the best night of my life.” — Owen Cooper
“I love the sensation of human voices in my ear. I used to run a lot, and I run less now — children. But being a New Yorker, I can imbibe a podcast while doing other shit like running an errand or returning from drop-off. I discover them, I get obsessive, and then I have to take a break. It’s very loopy. I love Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History and Freakonomics Radio. Those social-science podcasts. I have relationships with these people, these poor people who have no idea that I exist. Las Culturistas is wonderful. That’s a very special pairing. I’m always working on my ‘I Don’t Think So, Honey!’ in my head, and I’m very bad at it. That thing where people write what they’re grateful for on a daily basis? That’s much easier for me than, like, exercising discernment or admitting my frustration with things. But that show is my treat when I’m cleaning the cat litter and I need to sweeten the experience.” — Claire Danes
Lorde on Kate Berlant and Jacqueline Novak
“I’m a longtime Poog listener. It’s everything I would hope someone was doing with a podcast. Can it really be explained? Those of us who know, we just know. It’s for us.”
Read Lorde’s ‘Year in Culture’ List
“Go Read Some Comics With Jenna. I rely on it for all my DC knowledge. And, as the co-head of DC Studios, that’s a big deal.” — James Gunn
“I think about the Ezra Klein Show episode with Ta-Nehisi Coates pretty often, as it’s the perfect distillation of what we need to understand about the future of our country.” — Ramy Youssef
“The self-help podcast Being Well With Forrest Hanson and Dr. Rick Hanson. It’s a father-and-son duo, which is thrilling, and you can give your friends subtle feedback based on which episode you send them.” — Morgan Bassichis
“The Telepathy Tapes. I’m into anything metaphysical. There’s something in me that wants to learn about ghosts, mediums, psychic energy, aliens. It gives me comfort and hope that there’s more to the story that we don’t know about.” — Brittany Snow
“Kai Cenat is very entertaining. When you watch his streams, you never know what to expect. He’s very in tune with Gen Z. He knows the right guests to bring onto his show.” — Amaya “Papaya” Espinal
“Sistas Who Kill, which my sister introduced me to. It is somehow both a celebration, evolution, and critique of true-crime culture.” — Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
“Amy Poehler is a damn pleasure to listen to weekly, but I love those StraightioLab boys too.” — Jeff Hiller
“Cole Escola is the voice of a generation. I think Oh, Mary! is my favorite thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I’ll think of moments from it randomly and laugh to myself.” — Benito Skinner
“If they let me play Mary, I’ll buy everyone in Ohio a car.” — Meg Stalter
“To see Nicole Scherzinger in the flesh performing — her vocals, plus her acting skills, plus dancing — I’m like, Baby, you could do it all. The OG Pussycat Doll, hello?!” — Amaya “Papaya” Espinal
On John Proctor Is the Villain: “A lot of people in that audience felt something, because the show ended and nobody stood up. Everybody sat there crying.” — Mason Thames
“Weer. Natalie Palamides is a true one of one. It was an incredible, physical, demanding performance. And it has one of the craziest sex scenes I’ve ever seen. You’re laughing and cringing and crying at the same time. I’m not normally into clowning, but she has expanded my mind in terms of what I believe it to be.” — Chase Sui Wonders
“The Brothers Size, by Tarell Alvin McCraney. I hadn’t seen it in so many years. It hit differently because now I live in America. I’m married to an African American man. I’m Black in America. When I saw it, when I was younger in the United Kingdom, there was distance.” — Wunmi Mosaku
“MJ: The Musical on Broadway was spectacular. The songs we all loved and breathtaking performances.” — Regina Hall
“Evanston Salt Costs Climbing, by Will Arbery. There’s a moment where a ghost tells someone who wants to make the world a better place that essentially we’re here to discover people. I’ve thought about that a zillion times since then.” — Zach Woods
Claire Danes on Julio Torres
I’ve never seen anything quite like Julio Torres’s Color Theories. Madcap, beautiful, challenging, LOLs galore. He’s a special one.”
Read Claire Danes’s ‘Year in Culture’ List
“One Night Only at Artists Space in June, from legendary writer, artist, and aids activist Gregg Bordowitz. It was part of an exhibition curated by Arnold J. Kemp. Gregg has a singular ability to weave together theory, history, neurosis, theology, politics, emotions, and interdependence, and I left feeling buoyed.” — Morgan Bassichis
“We Had a World, by Joshua Harmon. Liberation, by Bess Wohl. The Great Privation, by Nia Akilah Robinson. Bowl EP, by Nazareth Hassan. I felt like, this season, suddenly playwrights were taking risks again.” — Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
“Can I Be Frank? and Josh Sharp’s Ta-da! were both funny and tender. I fell in love with each of their beautiful minds. Prince Faggot made me think so many thoughts: What is power? Can we claim it? Cultivate it? Abdicate it?” — Jeff Hiller
“I felt like he was talking to me in Oh, Mary! It can feel a little hammy sometimes when people break the fourth wall, but for some reason, when he did it, it felt private.” — Wunmi Mosaku
On The Picture of Dorian Gray: “I was exhausted and I was just sitting there. Sarah Snook deserves an epic nap.” — Claire Danes
“Audra McDonald in Gypsy left me gasping for air. The way she unpacked the pain and terror of motherhood — while singing her face off — is something I won’t soon forget. I thought I’d never recover.” — Bess Wohl
“Rachel Zegler as Evita. Beyond it being a rigorous vocal performance, there is a sexiness and an innocence to her performance. There was also something effective about her going to the balcony of the Palladium and singing ‘Don’t Cry for Me Argentina.’ You see tourists gather around to see her become part of the production. It’s like, Oh yeah, this is what updating this piece of media is. This and Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha are both — maybe not deliberately — human responses to AI. These are things ChatGPT cannot replicate.” — Julio Torres
“Andrew Scott in Vanya. I keep saying he’s the hottest thing since sliced bread. He was able to distill all these characters into one system in Vanya—one person onstage soaking up so much humanity like a sponge.” — Parker Posey
“In the rare times when I have a moment to myself and I don’t have to tend to anything else that requires my attention, I will always relish diving back into Hyrule and knocking out side quests for as long as I’m able to with my guy Link and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom.” — Darren Criss
“The Binding of Isaac — you just collect items and become more powerful. You know, get to the next level. It’s 2-D, very old-school vibes. It’s so simple. That’s why I like it.” — EJAE
“When I’m stressed, I open my old Stardew Valley file and check up on my farm.” — Rachel Zegler
Katseye played Overcooked! 2:
Sophia: Yoonchae and I play. It’s a multiplayer game, but Yoonchae likes it so much that she plays it on her own. I don’t know how you did that — that’s so hard.
Yoonchae: I mastered it. On the airplane, I did. It’s stressful but also really fun. I get angry and I scream, but I still play.
Daniela: All six of us have never played a video game together.
Megan: No, remember when we would play Among Us? That was, like, three years ago. The last time we played was during Dream Academy, on our breaks.
Daniela: Oh my God, that was a lot of fun.
Photo: David Parry/PA Media Assignments
“The Spell or the Dream, a public art piece at London’s Somerset House, by Tai Shani. It’s a big open courtyard. There was this huge glass coffin with what appeared to be a sleeping but breathing blue woman inside. Her chest was rising and falling. I could not comprehend what was in front of my face. It made me feel glad I was there with her.” — Rachel Zegler
“I thought the Sam McKinniss “Law and Order” paintings at Jeffrey Deitch were excellent.” — Stephanie Wambugu
“Death Becomes Her. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed harder watching a musical.” — Ben Ahlers
Art: Courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art
“The Jack Whitten exhibition at MoMA was astonishing. I can’t believe he lived and worked in Soho, where I happened to grow up, and I’d never come across his paintings. 9.11.01 is the most effective representation of that event I’ve seen.” — Claire Danes
“John Ajilo, @jazzajilo on Instagram. I first encountered him in the wild and I was delighted. I needed more, constantly more. I stood there for a really long time with a huge smile on my face. Who doesn’t wanna see little guys dance around and wiggle their bodies in Penn Station?” — Julio Torres
Photo: Janus Films
“’The Wastive’ for how it turned waste into art, ‘Cybroc’ for being weird and playful, and Peter Hujar’s Day for its quiet beauty.” — Lindsay Lohan
“Conner O’Malley’s ‘Pipe Rocks’ video. Conner is the funniest and purest comedian. Years ago, when I lived in New York and I knew Conner a bit from the Upright Citizens Brigade, he would make these videos. He would ride his bike and roll up on guys with luxury cars, and he had this weird voice. You would never see his face. You would just hear him salivate over these guys’ cars to their faces at stoplights. In one, he goes, “God’s a pimp you’re an angel / I pray that I might die for you!” to some guy in a Mercedes. He would basically get horny for these guys’ cars in this completely unhinged way.” — Zach Woods
Photo: KATSEYE/YouTube
“‘Gameboy,’ by Katseye. The way this damn ‘American K-pop’ experiment is working on me is embarrassing. The alchemy of this specific song hits every pleasure center in my elder-millennial-assed brain and happily takes me all the way back to what I guess now is a goddamn “vintage sound” of turn-of the-century, naughty-aughty girl-group crossover pop, e.g., Blaque of “As If,” “I’m Good,” and “808” fame or Cherish’s “Do It To It” or 3LW’s “No More” or early Destiny’s Child or even “Case of the Ex”–era Mýa. I’m just here for whatever history might be repeating itself in this instance, and I think Lara Raj is the one.” — Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Production Credits
Portfolio by
Mark Seliger
Styling by
Daniel Edley
Additional Credits: Executive production by Ruth Levy; production by Madi Overstreet and Madison Shelpuk (Scott); postproduction by Rachel Crowe; tailoring by Susan Balcunas; style assisting by Grace Providencia Wagner and Lexi Lang; digitech by Will Foerster; photo assisting by Reggie Desilus and Jonas Søndergaard.
Owen Cooper: Grooming by Rheanne White using Bumble and bumble at Tracey Mattingly; wardrobe by Bottega Veneta (full look), Bulgari (jewelry).
Claire Danes: Hair by Peter Butler at Tracey Mattingly; makeup by Matin at Tracey Mattingly; wardrobe by Ferragamo (suit and shirt), Church’s (shoes), Calvin Klein (socks), Bulgari (jewelry).
Lindsay Lohan: Hair by Peter Gray using Oway USA at Home Agency; makeup by Hung Vanngo at the Wall Group; wardrobe by Jason Wu (dress), Bulgari (jewelry); special thanks to Waldorf Astoria New York.
Lorde: Hair by Eduardo Mendez using Oribe and Virtue Labs at A Frame; makeup by Maud Laceppe using Augustinus Bader at Home Agency; wardrobe by Calvin Klein (tank top and underwear), Bulgari (jewelry).
Wunmi Mosaku: Hair by Vernon François at the Visionaires; makeup by Keita Moore using Estée Lauder at the Only Agency; wardrobe by Fendi (slip dress), Pologeorgis (stole); Bulgari (jewelry); special thanks to Temple Bar.
Parker Posey: Hair by Peter Butler at Tracey Mattingly; makeup by Angela Di Carlo; wardrobe by Valentino (full look), Gucci (bag), Bulgari (jewelry); special thanks to Waldorf Astoria New York.
Adam Scott: Hair by Kim Verbeck using Balmain Hair; makeup by Elle Favorule; wardrobe by Dior (suit and shirt), Bulgari (watch); special thanks to Smashbox Studios, Los Angeles.
Lola Tung: Hair by Rebekah Forecast using Sisley; makeup by Misha Shahzada using Victoria Beckham Beauty at A Frame Agency; wardrobe by Miu Miu (full look), Bulgari (jewelry); special thanks to Fouquet’s New York.
Rachel Zegler: Hair by Marki at the Wall Group; makeup by James Kaliardos at the Wall Group; manicure by Mo Qin using Essie at the Wall Group; wardrobe by Hermès (shirt and shorts), Bulgari (jewelry); special thanks to the Box.
Photo: Getty Images (O’Brien, Glaser, Erivo, Einbinder, Bob The Drag Queen, Carolyn Wiger, Boston Rob, Scorsese, Polley, Carpenter, Rae, Lorde, Dijon, Lamar, Gaga, Gallagher, Culkin, Burr, Zegler); Apple TV (The Studio, Severance, Washington); HBO (The Rehearsal, The Pitt, The White Lotus, The Gilded age, Girls, Last of Us); Bravo (Real housewives); Netflix (Adolescence, Too much, The Hunting Wives, Frankenstein); Associated Press (Hard Knocks); Warner Bros. (One battle, Weapons, Sinners, superman); A24 (Sorry, Baby; Marty Supreme; Materialists; Eddington); 20th Century/Marvel (Fantastic four); Amazon Prime (Accountant); Focus Features (Bugonia); Marc Brenner (Scherzinger, Snook); Julieta Cervantes (Gyllenhaal, McDonald); Emilio Madrid (Escola, Clooney, Odenkirk); Matthew Murphy (MJ); Daniel Rampulla (Burgess, Monsoon, Gilpin, Krakowski);Instagram (Bieber, RosalÍa, Beyoncé, millionaire.diva); Retailer (Labubu)
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