You need Adderall because you're not cut out for the job.
+ you hate to see a brand delete a feed post, I saw Babygirl.
Last night, my friend Audrey brought me to a screening of Babygirl at The Whitby in Midtown. Both Nicole Kidman and director/writer Halina Reijn were present. Both are gods.
Ahead of the screening, Reijn said she was aiming to explore if it was possible for someone to love all parts of themselves, including the parts they don't show to others — she explored this in the film, but said she still doesn’t have an answer.
I loved that the movie was shot in New York, something you don’t always see because of how expensive it is. The shared intimate moments on corners between the monstrous skyscrapers created a special tension. It was a Christmas movie (cigarettes shared at the office holiday party became more than cigarettes shared at the office holiday party) and a fairytale (Reijn told The New Yorker that she took “pleasure in folding over-the-top circumstances and ‘airport novel’ flourishes into her screenplay”).
This quote in The New Yorker’s profile summarizes the range of Romy’s character (played by Kidman) well: “This movie is about identity and role-playing,” Reijn said. “As a woman, you feel so much pressure to be the mother, the lover—all these archetypes. I wanted to take this almost literally with Romy. At the beginning, you see her sexually. Then you see her as the mother with the apron. Then she’s the C.E.O.”
I went to bed thinking about Don Draper and Tony Soprano, both of whom had affairs and powerful careers that spanned seasons of television. I would’ve watched Babygirl — the Botox and the board rooms and the second home in Bedford — for at least two seasons.
Have any of you seen it? What did you think?
Bankers are using study drugs to to get through long hours.
And water is wet.
The perceived benefit of using Adderall? According to one source WSJ spoke to, “Making managing director and pulling in a seven-figure salary. I felt that I had to have an edge to make it.” And it’s not just bankers.
I have friends in almost every field who are paying doctors to write scripts for amphetamines to teach classes, or creative direct, or make their podcasts. One of them, a 26-year-old who works in accounting, told me that he saw a spike in usage of study drugs during and after college. “I saw my friends shred their personalities beyond recognition with unprescribed/over use of Adderall and its peers. It’s gross, I hate it, and if you really have to inflict that on yourself to do your job, either you’re not cut out for it or the job is too much. Probably both.”
Another friend told me that the more interesting story (for another day) is the rise of Ketamine clinics on Wall Street. Bankers leave in the middle of the day and pay $1k to safely go in a K-hole for 90 minutes and go back to work. It appears that Nushama, one popular clinic, was founded by the husband of the medical director at the clinic inside of Goldman Sachs — Steven Radowitz used to work at GS Health himself and still sees many of their employees as patients.
For the month of December, Feed Me will be featuring a daily holiday gift — usually suggested by Emily, sometimes suggested by someone else — some might generate affiliate revenue. In addition to this advent calendar-style gift guide, there will also be the occasional Christmas surprise.
I like giving gifts that people will use daily.
We all love Crown Affair (and
), but a lot of you sleep on the haircare brand’s Cleansing Scrub. I’ll admit, I was hesitant to jump on the Crown Affair bandwagon. I now use their mousse, clips (they’re so strong), and towel daily. But the Cleansing Scrub has transformed my tiny bathroom in a pre-war Park Slope walk-up into something far more luxurious. The pink salt scrubs away buildup from Christmas party hairspray and whatever is in the New York City rain. Once it washes away my hair is clean, and smells like lemongrass and bergamot. It’s a treat — I use it once a week in rotation with my regular shampoo. But when I air dry my hair the next day, it always looks healthy and clean.Zara opened a cafe. Over the weekend, I wrote about Alaïa and Prada’s new restaurant concepts.
In November, Alex Cooper’s Unwell network opened applications for a new program called Unwell University. The idea was that Unwell would feature college-aged students who submitted “unwell” content (blacking out, hooking up, crazy campus stories) and reward those creators with merch, views, and maybe opportunities to attend events. The Unwell Instagram account posted a launch video today featuring user-generated videos of women partying, hungover, and one concerning clip of a chick sticking her fingers down her throat. A “Barstool Blackout” promo video from 2012 would probably be worse, but that specific clip crossed a line — the account deleted it, edited that clip out, and re-posted it. It will be interesting how Unwell toes the line of chaotic partying culture, and angry comment sections. My friends made a good point that the business is really leaning into a single definition of Unwell, and they should consider more ways college is weird besides walks of shame and hangovers, such as: jumping off a cliff, hanging out with locals, playing pranks, pulling all nighters...
Khloe Kardashian joined the varsity league of influencer networks. She’s launching a video podcast that will debut on X (Twitter) in January, called Khloé in Wonder Land. Alrighty. What I’m more interested by is the collaboration with Dear Media, the network which will be distributing and monetizing the podcast after the debut on X. In term’s of true influencer’s influencers, Dear Media is stacked: Pia Baroncini, Jackie and Claudia Oshry, Lauryn Bosstick. These are the podcasts I listen to when I’m cleaning my kitchen and want to passively learn about Botox and collagen, and I assume 50% of the chicks below 14th Street are listening to one of these shows when they have headphones in. According to a Washington Post story about the network, “Since its launch in 2018, Dear Media has quietly become one of the most prominent names in women’s media. The podcast network’s social media channels reach a combined audience of more than 120 million... Dear Media’s shows were downloaded more than 200 million times in 2022, and the company has launched more than 50 lines of influencer merchandise and doubled its annual revenue in each of the past four years.” The Kardashian podcast universe will definitely take up a lot of space on our newsfeeds in 2025.
Paige Lorenze’s Dairy Boy is now available on Revolve. I think influencer-founded brands are going to get a lottttt more exciting, sophisticated, and mainstream. I’ve had several investors ask about influencers whose brands I’d suggest incubating and investing in this year, so I’m sure we’ll see some of that come to fruition in 2025.
“No matter how well your kid tests, the billionaires are going to get the first look.” If you are an aspiring screenwriter, I implore you to subscribe to Town & Country. The way they report on the .01%’s relationship with education is incredible and I need a White Lotus-type show about 4-year-olds competing to get into private school in New York City.
New York Magazine says martinis are getting filthier and filthier. And a few hours after that story came out, The Corner Store announced their matzah ball martini.
Grace O’Malley, one of Barstool’s star podcasters, is leaving her job. Grace co-hosted a show called Plan Bri, and hosted tours across the country that I’m guessing brought in millions for Barstool. I think she’s going to dedicate more time to comedy.
Maybe I’m too old but I am deeply turned off by unwell university
The wait for Babygirl… has been tough for me. Glad to hear you enjoyed it. I think Nicole Kidman is the best actress working today. Nobody takes bigger swings and lands them as often as she does. Birth, Dogville, Moulin Rouge, The Others, Destroyer, To Die For… I could go on, but you get it. I read her interview in NYT and was so annoyed with all the comments about her face. I actually think she’s a better actress than Meryl, but because she is beautiful and has a different approach to her appearance, people downgrade in her. Not that Meryl isn’t also gorgeous, but they have obviously approached aging differently and play different types of characters. I don’t think Meryl has taken as big of risks artistically in long time… Nicole is still going.