Laguna Beach Was Real to Me
New Nicstalgia ep, Seth vs. Ryan, Dakota coffee stunt, Mischa on CHD, Usher TV 🏝
Welcome to this week’s newsletter! I went to the S Club concert a few days ago! The band was great, Terminal 5 was an absolutely terrible venue (both for this particular show and in general), and the choreography is exactly how I remember it from when I learned it at 8 years old. An actor who starred in Miami 7 (aka. S Club 7 in Miami here in the US) was even in the audience.
I have soooo many thoughts about the aesthetic labor of aged pop stars, how to effectively leverage nostalgia marketing and refresh IP for an aged audience, and how a lack of concert etiquette makes me concerned for the millennial generation of Karens. But I’m gonna save that one for next time because we have a lot on the docket.
In this issue:
🍒 This Week on Nicstalgia, with Kelli from Laguna Biotch
🐰 Insider info about the specific Blue Bottle Coffee location (RIP) that Dakota Johnson (allegedly) locked people in on October 9, 2016
📲 New newsletters for you, Mischa on Call Her Daddy, Gangster Goddess Drea de Matteo’s take on Mob Wife aesthetic, Usher TV show, Jennifer’s Body potential TV show, The Devil Wears Prada musical, the Disney star to CEO pipeline
⏳ Opening this week’s time capsule: Mariah, Spice Girls, Celine, and of course, “Smooth” by Santana featuring Matchbox Twenty’s very own Rob Thomas
Support Nicstalgia with a paid subscription for less than the cerulean sweater that Andy Sachs, no doubt, fished out of some clearance bin at some tragic Casual Corner.
Huge thank you to Nicstalgia supporters who I will love forever: Janine, Marie, Liv, and Mitra!💐💐💐
🍒 This Week on Nicstalgia
Kelli Williams is featured on this week’s episode of Nicstalgia. Kelli shares how Laguna Biotch came to life, and we explore the sense of freedom that comes with shamelessly leaning into the things you like – including but not limited to Backstreet Boys and Celine Dion. We explore the undoing of societal conditioning around being a fangirl, revisiting things you loved when you were younger, healing your inner teenager, and creating a world where you can be *you*. Why aren’t people willing to be silly anymore?? We wouldn’t know.
Kelli and I talk about the wave of millennial nostalgia happening right now and how it’s not new, buying concert tickets instead of houses, Kelli’s experience of being in the crowd at TRL, and how in the 2000s, BSB had to do a whole media circuit with news vs. celebs’ Notes app posts today.
Speaking of celebs, we dive deep into the democratization of access to celebrities through social media, blurring of lines with parasocial relationships, how social media has changed the concept of celebrity and whose legacies are impacted (Justin), and how this affects us as pop culture researchers and lifelong fans. We explore how different celebrities are positioned as actors (Jennifer Aniston), entrepreneurs (Gwyneth), and even products or objects of consumption themselves (Britney, Paris).
Of course we talk about Laguna Beach!! Reality TV has evolved and is more produced, but there will always be conflicting stories about what’s “real”. Wanna know what 2000s fashion was REALLY like? Watch Laguna Beach and you’ll find out everything you need to know. We also explore who the best/worst One Tree Hill character is and our initial reactions to The OC vs. our reactions during the rewatch. California, here we come!
Watch/listen: YouTube • Spotify • Apple Podcasts
🐰 Down The Rabbit Hole
Madame Web, starring Dakota Johnson, is a recently released Marvel movie (Sony-Marvel not Disney-Marvel, if that means anything to you) about a paramedic who develops psychic abilities. It was a box office flop that got scathing reviews, described as both “junky” and “janky”, “shlocky”, a “hilariously bad, embarrassing mess”, and “a torturous saga that haplessly spins about in circles trying to fashion a competent tone or coherent action sequence”, among other things. In my opinion, the fact that Sarah Michelle Gellar went to see it at 3:30pm with a glass of red wine and an espresso martini is more interesting than the release of the movie itself.
Since I usually consider oddities, backstories, connections, and random facts more intriguing than movie releases – I physically cannot watch anything without looking up every actor on IMDb or Wikipedia, jumping immediately to the Personal Life section – I was excited to come across a resurfaced tweet/article by Rebecca Alter for Vulture: Did Dakota Johnson Lock Customers Inside of a Blue Bottle Coffee in 2016? An Investigation. I don’t need action movies, I don’t need true crime, I need this esoteric, absurd brand of investigative pop culture journalism!!!! Plus I love Blue Bottle Coffee, so naturally I needed to know more.
Background: Dakota is a famous nepo baby. When asked by Hoda what she thinks of the “nepo baby sitch”, she said she found it “incredibly annoying and boring”. (Idk I feel like I wouldn’t get bored having parents with a combined net worth of ~$100M? But to each their own, I suppose.) She’s the daughter of actors Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson and has famous grandparents as well. Among the many related Saturday Night Life guests, Griffith and Johnson are the second mother/daughter to host, after Blythe Danner and Gwyneth Paltrow. Interestingly, Dakota is dating Gwyneth’s ex-husband Chris Martin of Coldplay fame. (He has a type?)
Dakota is best known for her leading role in the 50 Shades of Grey movie franchise, for telling Ellen that’s not the truth, you were invited, and for her Architectural Digest home tour where she very sarcastically said she loves limes because they are prominently displayed in her kitchen. Because of the collective irreparable brain rot and imperceptibility of nuance that social media has caused the general online population to endure, she had to clarify on national television that she is allergic and that yes she was, in fact, joking. She has a very deadpan sense of humor and detached demeanor, but I think because she’s not known for acclaimed or comedic roles and is not good at press, she’s not endeared like Aubrey Plaza or Jenna Ortega.
Okay, back to October 9, 2016. New York City. Milk Studios. I’m inside of the building on the 4th floor working my corporate fashion job. (This is my authority on the matter; I have taken many meetings, taken countless lunch breaks, and cried a river of tears from this – now defunct, RIP 🥺 – Blue Bottle Coffee location.) Dakota was there filming Dakota Johnson Finds Her Inner Supermodel for Vogue. TLDR on the article linked above, Vogue wanted to do some kind of schtick of her making coffee, but the Blue Bottle staff didn’t want to do anything without corporate approval. She’d already walked behind the counter, pretending that she was making drinks while her people tied the front doors shut from the outside and started filming her. Apparently, this left the other patrons “locked” inside while this stunt was being documented.
This story is absolutely ridiculous and totally spun up from nothing, but that’s kinda why I love it. I don’t think Dakota making coffee would have really contributed to the overarching narrative of the Vogue video, so I’m glad it didn’t make the final cut. Finally, the piece of insider info I want to give you is that even if random Blue Bottlers were actually stuck inside, they would still be able to escape! Because that location was inside of Milk Studios, it had two separate entrances: one on 15th Street and one connecting to the lobby of the building. If I was inside of that Blue Bottle, avoiding going back to my desk at the tail end of an unusually long lunch break, trust that I would have shepherded everyone to safety.
📲 I’m Just a Simple Girl in a High-Tech Digital World
My fav things from the internet rn:
I’m so excited to share that some of my amazing friends have launched newsletters!!!!! (early Nicstalgia guest!)
The latest episode of ultra-popular podcast Call Her Daddy has a very special guest star – Mischa Barton!!! I don’t usually watch this show, but if Mischa is involved, I’m in. I also loved this video from The Sunday Times where Mischa looks back at some of her iconic noughties looks. Yes, she talks about that amazing sequined tunic top over jeans. She seems so down to earth, and I love her so much.
Drea de Matteo aka. Adriana from The Sopranos not only saved her iconic tiger suit from a fire, but she prefers the term Gangster Goddess to Mob Wife. I did a deep dive about this trend last month and although yes, not everything needs to be named and labeled (in general; on algorithm-driven social media, it does), this is a nice reframe to center a badass woman vs. centering her non-law-abiding significant other.
Usher Raymond IV has been BUSY! He just wrapped his Vegas residency, held his own concert where people happened to play football before and after, is going on tour this summer, and is developing a TV drama about “Black love in Atlanta and individuals looking to find a place to call home. The series will explore music, style, sex, romance and secrets that threaten to tear relationships apart.” Okay Usher baby!!!
Diablo Cody said in conversation with Zelda Williams there’s a possibility to develop the Jennifer’s Body IP for TV. I would be down for this. (Sidebar: I wrote about Lisa Frankenstein ahead of its release and didn’t realize Zelda is Robin Williams’ daughter!)
Vanessa Williams is starring as Miranda Priestly in a new musical adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada. The music is from Elton John, and the show opens at the Dominion Theatre in London in October. I liked the movie, and I would watch it again, but I’ve only seen it once or twice. It hit a little too close to home LOL.
Ready or not (sorry I had to) – Bridgit Mendler, former Disney star and singer, is CEO of a new satellite startup. She co-founded Northwood Space with her husband in 2023 and raised $6.3M of venture capital from a16z and the Founders Fund. After appearing on Wizards of Waverly Place, Lemonade Mouth, and other Disney things I was too old to have seen, she studied anthropology at USC, got a Masters in media arts and sciences at MIT, and received a JD from Harvard Law School in 2024. Wow!!!
⏳ Let’s Go Back, Back to the Beginning
A time capsule of this week:
1991: Mariah Carey wins her first two Grammy Awards, Best New Artist and Record of the Year, and performs “Vision of Love”.
1997: Spice Girls win Best Video for "Say You'll Be There" and Best Single for "Wannabe" at the BRIT Awards. Geri wears her famous Union Jack dress during their performance.
1997: At the 39th Annual Grammy Awards, Celine Dion's Falling into You wins Album of the Year.
2000: Santana tied MJ’s record of 8 Grammy wins in one night, including the Song of the Year with “Smooth” featuring Rob Thomas. (I still love this song lol. It has 361M views on YouTube, so I can’t be the only one.)
2000: Italian motorcycle manufacturing company Aprilia won a lawsuit filed against the Spice Girls for a brand partnership deal that fell apart because Geri left the band.
2004: The Sex and the City series finale premiered.
2004: Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, starring Lindsay Lohan and Megan Fox, premiered. You know what I always say…life is a work of art…
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LOVED this read, thank you so much for the shoutout, angel! You are the best! 🥹💘✨
Thanks for the shoutout, friend 🫶🏾