Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez attend The 2024 Met Gala Celebrating “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 6, 2024 in New York City. The pair are funding the 2026 event. (Kevin Mazur/MG24/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)
Kevin Mazur/MG24/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
Anna Wintour and Lauren Sánchez Bezos attend the press conference for the 2026 Met Gala celebrating “Costume Art” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 4, 2026 in New York City. (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)
Roy Rochlin/Getty Images
Beyoncé performs onstage during the “RENAISSANCE WORLD TOUR” at MetLife Stadium on July 29, 2023 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Parkwood)
Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Parkwood
Jimmy Kimmel, winner of the Best Talk Show Award for “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”, poses in the press room during the 31st Annual Critics Choice Awards at Barker Hangar on January 4, 2026 in Santa Monica, California. (Amy Sussman/Getty Images for Critics Choice Association)
Amy Sussman/Getty Images for Critics Choice Association
Today, we’re introducing something new: “Culture Diem,” a weekly (ish) opportunity to seize the day’s latest pop culture news.
Why? Well, partly because I am a pop culture obsessive who thought this could be fun. My fixation, though, extends beyond simply being chronically online and following celebrities. It’s rooted in the fact that nothing in this life — be it “The Devil Wears Prada 2” or the rise of SkinnyTok and Y2K’s “heroin chic” — happens in a vacuum. Whether intentionally or not, art and entertainment react to the political, social, economic and, yes, cultural world surrounding them. Things deemed “pop culture” just happen to be an accessible way into these topics.
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Today, much of life’s news is scrolled by in a deluge of algorithmic Reels and TikToks about bread-making, GLP-1s, movie trailers for the latest remake/sequel/prequel/spinoff, war in the Middle East, Taylor Swift interviews, ICE pulling people from their cars, rent and grocery budgeting, and travel tips. I’ll pluck a few pop culture items dominating headlines — and social media feeds — and explain not only why it’s trending but why it matters.
Anna Wintour, left, and Teyana Taylor, right, attend the 2025 Met Gala. (Neilson Barnard/MG25/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)
Neilson Barnard/MG25/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
Met Gala Monday: Bezos, Mamdani and fashion’s biggest night
Not only does today mark the debut of this column, but it’s also Met Gala Monday, aka fashion’s biggest night. The event, presented in partnership with Vogue, serves as one of the biggest fundraisers for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, a fact that sometimes gets swept under the metaphorical red carpet. Individual tickets for this year’s “Fashion is Art”-themed party started at $100,000, and all the funds raised support the Costume Institute, as has been the case since the Met Gala emerged in 1948.
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The event has always walked a tense tightrope as the invited celebrities and 1% don extravagant designs and parade about, but this year hit a breaking point. Why? Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos are honorary chairs of the event alongside current chairs Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Vanessa Williams and Anna Wintour. Oh, and the Bezos are bankrolling a lot of the expenses for the gala and the Costume Institute’s partnering exhibition.
The news that Bezos, oligarch founder of Amazon and dismantler of the Washington Post, will step into the role of culture maker was met with outrage. Some activist groups are calling for a boycott, and posters denouncing the Bezos’ involvement have cropped up around the city, with many pointing to recent reports about unsafe working conditions at Amazon facilities and Amazon Web Services’ role as the primary data source for ICE. I expect protesters will greet the elite as they arrive.
Additionally, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is skipping the gala, news that is surprising only because it breaks with mayoral tradition. The democratic socialist framed his decision as a means to stay focused on “making the most expensive city in the United States affordable” in an interview with Hell Gate. Rubbing elbows with the wealthy — particularly as he attempts to increase the taxes they pay — seems out of place for Mamdani. When his peer Alexandria Ocasio Cortez attended in 2021, not even her “TAX THE RICH” emblazoned gown could shield her from criticism for supporting an event at odds with her progressive ideals (she also faced a House Ethics Committee investigation over her attendance).
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There’s another layer of unsettling intrigue to the Bezos ball: their involvement has revived rumors Jeff Bezos plans to buy Condé Nast, the parent company of Vogue and its international siblings, The New Yorker, GQ, Vanity Fair and other publications. The rumors first circulated in Daily Mail last year, with reports suggesting Jeff Bezos was going to buy the media company as a wedding gift for Lauren; the Bezos denied these rumors. There are allegations that one of the plot lines in “The Devil Wears Prada 2” was even inspired by this potential deal.
Tech moguls “rescuing” media companies isn’t new. Bezos bought the Washington Post for $250 million in 2013, only to lay off approximately 30% of the newspaper’s employees earlier this year. Media is struggling, but it’s hard not to see a Bezos-Vogue connection as a death sentence for Condé Nast publications. The Devil may wear Prada, but the Reaper comes with two-day shipping.
On my radar:
As for other pop culture happenings, here’s what else I’m keeping an eye on:
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Met Gala co-chair Beyoncé recently wiped “Cowboy Carter” merch from her site and has been posting a lot of purple and rock n’ roll content, including archival video of Stevie Nicks (Destiny’s Child’s “Bootylicious” sampled the rocker’s “Edge of Seventeen,” and Nicks made a cameo in the music video). All signs point to Beyoncé ‘s Act III coming soon. With rumors that it will include some tribute to the late, great Prince, one of Beyonce’s mentors, in the form of a posthumous collab or an unreleased song sanctioned by Prince’s estate, it’s bound to be another seismic addition to the cultural canon.
Jimmy Kimmel is again in Republican crosshairs for possibly being psychic. It started with a joke that First Lady Melania Trump had the “glow of an expectant widow” days before an apparent assassination attempt against President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Now he’s getting slammed for making a jab at Rudy Giuliani rising “from the grave to weigh in on the ongoing drama” during his monologue on last Tuesday’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” … which happened to be five days before Giuliani was hospitalized. Kimmel has long been a critic of Trump, which led to Kimmel’s show getting suspended last year over comments he made about Charlie Kirk’s assassination. I expect there to be another battle for freedom of speech waged in late night television.