Not So Fast: Cardi Seemingly Shuts Down Stefon Diggs Breakup Rumors With Workout Video
On July 7, Cardi B sent the internet into speculation mode after eagle-eyed fans noticed that the rapper had swiped photos of her new boyfriend, Stefon Diggs, clean from her Instagram account, instantly sparking breakup rumors. While the reason is unclear, love isn't lost for the 32-year-old Grammy-winner and her NFL boo.
As theories spiraled on social media, Cardi took to Instagram on July 8 to set the record straight. The mother of three reposted a video that captured her and the 31-year-old New England Patriots star working out together during an intense off-season training session in Europe, according to USA Today. Taken from Diggs' recent YouTube vlog titled 'Mental Reset,' the fun clip showed Cardi getting in a few chest flys with a resistance rope. Diggs cheered the Bronx native on from behind, shouting 'Okay, okay!' as she hit a few reps.
A source close to the couple also called the breakup rumors a flat-out lie. During an interview with TMZ , the insider claimed that Cardi and Diggs haven't officially called it quits, despite the 'Bodak Yellow' rapper scrubbing all traces of their relationship from her Instagram. So, no cause for concern just yet.
Rumors of the duo's romance began swirling in February, several months after Cardi filed for divorce from Offset in August 2024. The two were spotted together throughout the spring, including a high-profile outing at a Knicks playoff game in Madison Square Garden. They made their relationship Instagram-official in June.
As previously reported, the adorable lovebirds' romance reached new and luxurious heights on June 24, when Cardi revealed that the NFL athlete had rented a full-blown castle for them to stay in as they traveled abroad in France.
'Why this man got us staying in a castle? I'm talking about a real castle,' the femcee told fans, panning the camera to show a massive brick castle in the background. 'Look at this. This is a real f—— castle!'
The musician revealed that the wide receiver rented the lavish property after she mentioned she never had a chance to visit the Palace of Versailles while in Europe. Diggs didn't disappoint. The stunning estate featured a luxurious swimming pool, soaring arched ceilings with medieval-inspired details, and a massive dining room with a table big enough to seat over 15 guests. Total fairytale vibes.
What do you think about Cardi dumping photos of Diggs off her Instagram? Is she preventing an Invasion Of Privacy, or is it a 'Warning Shot' that a breakup is imminent?
The post Not So Fast: Cardi Seemingly Shuts Down Stefon Diggs Breakup Rumors With Workout Video appeared first on Bossip.
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Vox
16 minutes ago
- Vox
Little videos are cooking our brains
is a senior technology correspondent at Vox and author of the User Friendly newsletter. He's spent 15 years covering the intersection of technology, culture, and politics at places like The Atlantic, Gizmodo, and Vice. Before the next era of TikTok and its clones overwhelms you, it helps to know how we got here and how to run the other direction. Paige Vickers/Vox; Getty Images As an elder millennial, I've tried to avoid TikTok because of its documented brainrot potential and despite the fact that it means missing out on an endless supply of fun and strangely specific memes. But somehow, little short-form vertical videos keep finding their way to me. Whether they're on Instagram, Netflix, or Pinterest, swipeable smartphone-shaped videos have taken over the internet. They're also showing up in places you wouldn't expect, like Spotify, LinkedIn, and even the New York Times. And whether you enjoy these bite-size bits of content or not, the situation is about to get much weirder. 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Los Angeles Times
29 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
When Lena met Megan: How a DM blossomed into ‘Too Much'
This article contains some spoilers for Netflix's 'Too Much.' Sliding into someone's DMs — even with the purest intentions — can be a daunting move. Will they see it? Is it weird? Will they respond? Lena Dunham, the creator of HBO's 'Girls,' saw it as a shot for her latest creative collaboration. It began with a shout-out. It was 2022 and Dunham was fangirling over images of Megan Stalter, who was attending her first Emmys as part of the cast of 'Hacks,' in a sheer red lace slip dress. Dunham posted one to her Instagram stories, calling Stalter one of the best-dressed women in Hollywood. Stalter responded and before long, the exchange led to a message from Dunham about a project she wanted to discuss with her. Stalter didn't see the message right away. Not that Dunham was keeping tabs herself — she enlists someone to handle her social media footprint because, as she says, 'I don't shop in that aisle.' 'I kept saying to my friend, who runs my social media, 'Anything from Meg? Any word from Meg?'' Dunham says while seated next to Stalter recently. 'It's the first time I really shot my shot that way. But I thought, you miss 100% of the shots you don't make.' Now, they're joining forces in 'Too Much,' Dunham's big return to television since her semi-autobiographical creation 'Girls' drew both praise and criticism more than a decade ago with its intimate glimpse at the messy friendships, ambitions and sexual misadventures of four 20-something white women in New York. But 'Too Much' isn't a story about friendship or sex. It's about love — Dunham's version. It's loosely inspired by her move to London and eventual marriage to musician Luis Felber, who co-created the series with Dunham. In the series, which premiered Thursday, Stalter stars as Jessica, an eccentric and complacent but capable producer at a commercial agency who moves to London from New York — her pint-size scraggly dog in tow — after her seven-year relationship blows up. Her over-romanticized vision of life across the pond, fueled by love stories like 'Sense and Sensibility' set in pastoral England, starts out more bedraggled than charmed. But on her first night there, she meets Felix (Will Sharpe), a wayward punk musician who takes an interest in her fish-out-of-water vibe. After a bathroom meet-cute with confusing results — he walks her home, she makes the first move on her couch, he reveals he's seeing someone and leaves, then she accidentally sets herself on fire while making a TikTok video — they quickly form an attachment that turns into a swift and tender, albeit complicated, romance of two people trying not to let their personal baggage get in the way. It brings Stalter — whose profile has risen precipitously since her run of making viral character sketches on Twitter and TikTok led to her turn on 'Hacks' as Kayla, the seemingly hapless assistant-turned-Hollywood manager who is actually good at the job despite her daffy persona — sharply into focus as a quirky and relatable leading woman. Dunham saw that potential. 'I watched the show where she was hosting people making snacks,' says Dunham, referring to Netflix's 'Snack vs. Chef,' a snack-making competition. 'My nephew watched it by himself,' Stalter interjects with a laugh that turns wistful. 'He watched it by himself?' 'Yes, my sister said recently she found out he watched it by himself. He's 7. He's just an amazing angel.' 'I watched it and thought: 'She's a genius,'' Dunham continues. 'I just felt that she had amazing range that was — I'm not even going to say she wasn't tapping into it because it was there, even in her comedy. The biggest thing with centering someone in a show is, you have to want to watch them. You have to sort of be addicted to watching them. And that's how I feel about her. I just knew that she would inspire me as a writer and as a director.' Stalter and Dunham, both in trendy suit attire, are nestled on a couch at Netflix's office in New York City like two friends about to settle in for a night of 'Love Island' after work — except they're just video conferencing into this interview. Their bond and banter reveals itself early. Stalter says she is not someone who worships celebrities — 'I don't even know actors' names sometimes' — but stresses that she is a 'mega, mega, mega Lena/'Girls' fan' and is still processing their collaboration. 'It was always going to be Meg, it was written for Meg,' Dunham says. Stalter imbues Jess with equal measures of absurdity and charm, making the character as easy to rally behind as Bridget Jones or Sally Albright — whether she is waddling to the bathroom post-coitus or accidentally posting a series of TikTok videos, meant to stay in drafts, that take aim at her ex's new girlfriend. But the show illuminates how she is at her most alluring when vulnerability is in reserve. Midway through 'Too Much,' a flashback episode unravels Jessica's pain: It tracks the rise and fall of her previous relationship with Zev (Michael Zegen), from the sweet early days, to the growing pains and then brutal emotional withdrawal. Jess' attempt to discuss their troubles — after learning she's pregnant — leads to a devastating exchange and the end of their relationship. The epilogue to their union is a brokenhearted Jess having an abortion. 'It was important to me that we feel that they [Jess and Felix] have a past and that's the thing they're wrestling with — they're not wrestling with whether they like the other one or understand the other one or are attracted to the other; it's not external forces that are keeping them apart,' Dunham says. 'It's what we're all up against, which is our own pain and our own trauma and our own inability to move past it because it's hard.' The episode was also an opportunity to show a realistic and nuanced portrayal of abortion, Dunham says, where Jess wrestles with the decision but not because she feels guilty or believes she's doing the wrong thing: 'She's just sad because oftentimes when a person has to terminate a pregnancy, there's a lot of factors around them that are challenging — just because something is an emotional decision doesn't mean it's wrong.' Dunham says she considered the Jess-Zev breakup the central mystery of the show. 'It's funny because I acted like what happened between Jess and Zev was like me keeping a plot point from 'Lost' secret,' she says. 'And it's just that they broke up. It's a totally normal breakup, but to her, it's like her rosebud, it's her 'Citizen Kane.'' Stalter found it refreshing that Dunham wanted to show someone in their mid-30s still grappling with the pains of a past relationship while falling in love — and learning that love is not always the magical cure. 'I actually think that being in love is bringing up everything that's ever happened to you because you're finally with someone that's safe,' Stalter says. 'You're like, 'Wait, what if you knew this about me? Would you still make me feel safe? OK — what if you knew this about me? We still safe?' While 'Too Much' is another narrative inspired by her life, Dunham knew from its inception that she was not interested in being the face of the series. Even before 'Girls' premiered in 2012, the attention on Dunham, whose prior work was the 2010 indie film 'Tiny Furniture,' was intense. Over its six-season run, the buzz around 'Girls' — a series she wrote, sometimes directed and played the central character in — also opened it up to criticisms and commentary about representation, the privileged and self-absorbed behavior of its millennial characters and Dunham's prolific nudity. She largely retreated from television when 'Girls' ended — she co-created HBO's short-lived comedy 'Camping' and directed the network's pilot of 'Industry.' Dunham says the experience of 'Girls' — and the time away — gave her a clearer sense of who she is and her limitations as she approached this new series in her late 30s. 'There was a moment where it seemed like her [Meg's] schedule might not work and I remember saying, 'I don't know if I want to make this show if that's the case.' I wasn't like, 'I don't want to put myself through this, therefore it's Meg.' But separately, I don't really want to put myself through it.' In the beginning, with 'Girls,' Dunham says she was able to brush off the criticism. But the commentary was relentless, even in her day-to-day life. 'I was in a recovery room at a hospital and a nurse said, 'Why do you get naked on television all the time?'' she recalls. 'We live in a strange time where people act like they don't have power over what they're viewing. They act like you held their eyeballs open with a weird eyeball machine and force them to watch your show and they are living a trauma as a result. 'It created a lot of anger in me and I don't like to be angry. I think because I don't like to be angry, I really suppressed that. And suppressed anger has to come out somewhere,' she adds. 'And because I deal with chronic illness, it made it harder to bear that. I was swallowing down so much rage.' There isn't as much sex and nudity in 'Too Much.' But there's some. As someone whose success began online, where trolls are in high supply, Stalter has learned to navigate unsolicited feedback about her appearance. 'I haven't been on TV that long, but I have been a comedian that posts online for a long time,' she says. 'I love the way I look and I love my brain and my heart so much that someone calling me fat online, I'm like, 'Honey, there's a lot of Reddit threads about that. Who cares?' If you're not attracted to me, good thing we're not dating, I guess. I'm almost 35 — I'm so happy that I feel this way about myself.' While Stalter is the beating heart of the show, Dunham is among the memorable supporting players as Jessica's sister Nora. The character, who has moved in with her grandmother (Rhea Perlman) and mother (Rita Wilson), is confronting her own crossroads after her husband, played by former 'Girls' co-star Andrew Rannells, decides he wants freedom to explore his sexuality. The split leaves her bedbound, hardly attentive to the teenage son they share. 'Nora is proud of her sister, but she's also jealous — she is trapped in the very space Jessica deemed tragic and pathetic, at home with their family,' Dunham says. 'Even her son seems to find it fairly pathetic, and his father gets to be the hero, despite having left. I'm not a mother, but I can relate to feeling stuck because of obligation and also to wondering when it's going to be your turn to make the decision that's right for you. She doesn't get her 'next act' and has to live with the one she's got. If we get to make a second season, I have a lot to mine here.' It's unclear how much of 'Too Much' there will be. The season closes in romantic-comedy fashion, with its main couple, despite the road bumps, choosing each other and getting married. But Dunham has more to say. 'We don't always have control of how much we get to make,' Dunham says. 'I thought about this with the first season of 'Girls' — if this show never comes back, then I want to end with Hannah eating cake on the beach after her boyfriend got hit by a truck. That's what needs to happen. And we know how we wanted this to end. But as in life, a happy ending is just the beginning of a different life with someone. And so — ' 'Twenty more seasons!' Stalter cheerily interjects. 'It's going to run for seasons upon seasons,' Dunham continues. 'But I do think about marriage comedies. I'm really obsessed with 'Mr. Mom,' with Michael Keaton. And I love 'Mad About You.' I love a comedy that lets us see what's behind keeping a marriage going. I would love the chance to see them being parents.' 'Having triplets,' Stalter adds. 'I'd love to film Meg getting a C-section for the triplets,' Dunham says. Stalter quips: 'A whole episode is the whole C-section.' While 'Too Much' puts Dunham fully in her romantic comedy era, it wasn't originally intended to be a show about love. Before she met Felber, Dunham was mulling tapping into her experience of spending extended periods in England for work and the culture clash of a brassy American coming to the U.K. Then she met Felber, and 'it was the first time I ever felt like I was living in a romantic comedy,' she says. 'I always felt like I was living in a sad, gritty romantic drama where they don't end up together in the end, and someone falls asleep in a puddle.' 'Too Much' features episode titles that pay homage to romance films like 'Notting Hill,' 'Pretty Woman' and 'Love Actually.' Dunham says the rom-com genre was the first she ever loved, but developed internalized snobbery around it as she got older. 'I felt like I was having this innocent romantic forced out of me,' she says. 'By the time I was in my 20s, I felt embarrassed to be that romantic person. I felt as though to even feel that way was sort of naive and silly. I didn't feel like I was allowed to want the things that I wanted or ask for the things that I really needed.' As she got older and started dating again after a period of being single in her early 30s, that began to change. 'When I met my husband, I was kind of back in that place in my 20s, where I thought, 'This is not something that's going to happen for me,'' she says. 'And as a result, I was very honest and I was very blunt, and I think it ended up having a really interesting effect, which is that it actually made it possible for us to get to know each other, and in turn, created something that was more romantic than anything I'd experienced before.' Enough to approach him with a proposal about a month into their relationship: Will you make this show with me? He said yes. In the time since, they've collaborated on other projects — she worked on two of Felber's music videos and he helped score her 2022 film 'Sharp Stick.' Working on a TV show, though, was a big commitment early into their relationship. But it turns out it wasn't too much. 'I remember thinking we could make something really cool if all the universe and all the Tetris pieces of life fall into place,' he says in a separate video call. 'When you're at the beginning of a relationship and you feel like someone's taste matches yours, improves yours — that was Lena. I didn't understand what it meant — 'Hey, do you want to make a TV show with me?' I was like, 'What does that entail? Do I walk up and down the room just cracking jokes and you write them down?' She's like, 'Basically.' I was like, 'I could do that.'' It's not their story directly, but the show was a way for them to put their experiences together. 'Our love was the germ of this, or the nucleus of it; we always wanted to make something joyful. But when you're going on set every day with your partner, you learn a lot about them quickly,' he says. 'Most couples get home from work and are like, 'How was your day, my love?' We had that down. I think it was a catalyst to our relationship, in a way. To be able to see Lena direct, act and write was like, 'Wow.' It was so inspiring to be around someone like that.' Dunham's mark on the rom-com genre is still in progress. She's currently in production on the upcoming film 'Good Sex,' also for Netflix, about a 40-something couples therapist who reenters the dating scene: 'The film is very much an examination of what it is to exit your 30s and wonder if your exploration decades have come to a close,' Dunham says. 'It's a question we are always asking ourselves because the 30s were the new 20s, but what are the 40s, especially if you haven't chosen to, or been able to be, a parent?' The film boasts Natalie Portman, Rashida Jones, Mark Ruffalo and '90s rom-com queen Meg Ryan. There isn't an Instagram backstory involved with the casting of that Meg. Dunham says she approached Ryan while at Taylor Swift's Eras tour stop in London. 'I tend to let icons have their space, but she and I shared Nora Ephron as a guiding force in our lives, and so I really just wanted to talk about Nora because remembering her makes me happy,' Dunham shared in a follow-up email. 'It led to a lovely, nonwork lunch and burgeoning friendship and I wrote with her in mind. But I was still stunned and honored when she said yes. Watching her at the table read, Natalie and Rashida and I were just pinching ourselves. Afterwards, we all texted 'Meg f—ing Ryan!' What can I say — I may be long sober, but I'm addicted to Megs.'
Los Angeles Times
29 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Backstreet Boys' AJ McLean on bringing ‘Millennium' to the Las Vegas Sphere
AJ McLean is on Zoom on Monday afternoon from the dimly lighted living room of a house he's renting in Las Vegas. Known in the late 1990s as the resident bad boy of his pop group, Backstreet Boys, McLean, now 47, says he's getting accustomed to the area in the hopes of buying a place in town next year. 'Dude, everybody's leaving L.A. and coming out to Vegas,' he says. 'Taxes, mainly. But actually my mom lives out here, so that's an added little bonus.' At the moment, McLean's got more than family and finances drawing him east: On Friday night, Backstreet Boys will launch a six-week residency at Sphere, the state-of-the-art orb-shaped venue that opened in late 2023 and has hosted eye-popping gigs by acts including U2, Phish, Dead & Company, the Eagles and Kenny Chesney. Indeed, as we talk, McLean is due at the $2-billion building for a production rehearsal planned to start at 11 p.m. — after that evening's late screening of director Darren Aronofsky's made-for-Sphere 'Postcard from Earth' film — and set to wrap at 4:30 in the morning. 'The schedule is a little s—y,' McLean says. 'I foresee us doing a run-through and a half tonight before people start nodding off.' This isn't the Backstreets' first time in Vegas: In 2017 the group — whose other members are Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell and Kevin Richardson — began a residency at Planet Hollywood that ended up running for two years. But this one is tied to the 25th anniversary of 'Millennium,' the band's 1999 blockbuster that sold more than 13 million copies in the U.S. alone, spawned hit singles like the immortal 'I Want It That Way' and earned five Grammy nominations including album, record and song of the year. On Friday, the group will drop a deluxe reissue of the LP featuring outtakes, live recordings and a new song called 'Hey.' The Sphere show also comes as Carter has been accused by multiple women of sexual assault, which Carter has denied. Asked to comment, McLean said, 'Allegations — that's all it is. We will stand by our boy.' These are excerpts from our conversation. Very important: Sphere or the Sphere?I've been told it's Sphere Las Vegas, but I catch myself because that's not proper English. Let's just call it what it is. Which of the venue's shows have you seen?Myself, Kevin, Howie and Brian went to the see the Eagles. Kevin then went back and saw Anyma — I'm not a big fan of that kind of music so I'm not really bummed that I missed that. Just recently, Kevin and Howie went to see Kenny Chesney. I'd love to take my kids when 'The Wizard of Oz' starts, because I've seen some testings and it looks insane. It's like half the normal film, and then they've integrated pyro and stuff happening live on a stage. It's pretty freaking cool. Sphere started out as a place for classic rock acts to come rejuvenate themselves. Backstreet Boys have been billed as the first pop act to the play the building, but I think it's probably fair to call you guys a legacy act as well. Does your residency feel different than the Eagles or U2?It does because those are legendary rock bands — they stand, they sing incredible songs, they play instruments and allow the backdrop to kind of narrate this whole music experience. Don Henley literally says, 'We're just the house band playing for what you're watching on the screen.' Backstreet Boys, we're still doing what we normally do and that's what's never been in this venue. We're still putting on a proper concert like we would normally do in a stadium or an arena — 85% of the show is dancing, running around, doing our thing. We have a couple tricks up our sleeve, and we'll find out Friday if we can pull it off. If we do, it's gonna be insane — I mean, honestly, it's gonna be insane. You're doing 'Millennium' from beginning to end. Are there songs on the album that you hadn't thought about in 10 or 20 years?There's a couple deep cuts: 'Back to Your Heart,' 'No One Else Comes Close.' These are songs that we literally have not done since the 'Millennium' tour. I tried to verbatim name all 12 songs on the album, and I was off by like four. The idea of doing something around the 25th anniversary, I brought it up to the boys seven years ago and it's been in talks since then. Finally, everybody was on the same page and we sat with our team: 'What can we do to celebrate this amazing record?' At the same time there were talks about Vegas wanting us to come back and do a potential residency — we heard rumblings from different hotels. Then the Sphere came up, and it was like, 'OK, well, it doesn't get any bigger than that.' Does it matter that you're a year off the actual 25th anniversary?We actually joke about that during the show. Because it took almost eight months to put this thing together visually, we obviously missed the window. But technically the 'Millennium' tour did go into 2000. So we got a little wiggle room there. The consensus seems to be that 'Millennium' is the Backstreet Boys' best album. Is that your opinion?I would have to say yes just based on record sales and the phenomenon that happened around that record. But is it my favorite album? No. 'Never Gone' and probably 'DNA' are my top two now. There's something about 'Never Gone' that was just very raw — a departure from our previous records, which had a lot of synth drums and synth sounds and whatnot. This was more organic — a little more rock, a little more live instrumentation — and some great, great songs. What I'm excited about with this whole experience is that we're making another memory together. We've told everyone coming to wear white, and it sounds like everyone's gonna do it. It's gonna be incredible to look out at a sea of white and sparkles and all the things from 1999. I think it's gonna be emotional for some of us. Kevin lost his mom not that long ago, so doing 'The Perfect Fan' — he starts the song, and he asked us, 'Would you guys mind singing the opening line with me, just in case it doesn't come out?' We've never sung the opening line of any song together, so this is a really sweet moment we get to have with our brother. A little Backstreet Boys trivia: At the 41st Grammys in 1999, you all were nominated for best new artist. You didn't win. Do you remember who did?I want to say it was Lauryn Hill. Nailed whole time, we were up against Sting and we were up against Rob Thomas and Santana [in 2000] — you can't really get mad going up against legends. It would be insane if this album, when it gets rereleased, it gets nominated again. I told the boys — I said, 'I've done my research, and no artist that I know of has remastered and rereleased their biggest album and had it go to No. 1 again.' Taylor Swift's Taylor's Versions?Again, on a technicality, that's a rerecord. This is the same album, just remastered. I talked to Jacoby Shaddix from Papa Roach a few months my boy. He told me you guys traded numbers and said you should write together sometime.I was actually gonna reach out to him this week and see if he wants to come see the show because he said he wanted to. He's such a good guy, and we're both on the straight and narrow. It's a beautiful thing. Speaking of rap-rock: In the summer of 1999, 'Millennium' and Limp Bizkit's 'Significant Other' kept trading places at No. 1 on Billboard's album it was the 'TRL' generation. MTV was dominating, and honestly I'd say five videos per week were pretty much the same five artists — it just kept switching and switching and switching. You had Blink-182, you had us, you had NSYNC, you had Britney and Christina. Then you had Limp, and then Korn came in for a while. That was where everything was for like a solid year. What does it mean that these two very different styles — teen pop and nü-metal — captured the soul of America's youth at the same time?Whether you were a fan of one or the other or both, it was good music — it was fun. And even though Limp was rap-rock, the melodies were great, the production was great, the vibe was great. The videos were fun and hilarious, and it got people excited. Same thing with us. You've always struck me as a guy with a bit of rock energy. Was there ever a part of you that wished you were in Limp Bizkit or Korn instead of Backstreet Boys?So many people over the years were like, 'Dude, you look like you should be in Good Charlotte.' It's the tattoos. I grew up on CCR and Stevie Wonder and Three Dog Night and Bowie and Michael. My debut solo record that's gonna come out end of this year — sure, it's pop, but it's a lot of R&B and funk and '80s and just stuff that I love. But I might dabble down the rock road at some point. I talked to Jacoby about it, actually — about maybe forming a little mini-supergroup. Just put together an album and have fun with it. Who gives a s—?
