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The Brunch round-up for August 8: The week and how it made us feel
This week, we’re avoiding Tangled spoilers, cancelling Jared Leto (again) and hard-launching new marriage rituals
Fangirling. We can barely keep up with the Skarsgårds. Bill made us hot for Nosferatu. Stellan’s pulling off drag at 75. Now, Alexander is playing a sexy wicker husband, handwoven by a basketmaker for Olivia Colman, in the raunchy flick Wicker. Of course we’re seated. Till then, can we get a livestream of the Skarsgård family WhatsApp?
Filming this. The Tangled live-action film is being shot in Spain. And everyone in the country has decided it’s their mission to leak BTS clips online. We’ve seen Teagan Croft getting her hair braided by little girls. We’ve seen a puppet Maximus face-off with a mustached Milo Manheim. There are even vids of the reunion with the king and queen of Corona. Wait, there are live action leak accounts posting spoilers?! At this point, release the whole movie on Reels.
Asking for justice. Picture this: A couple of masked intruders break into the office of a mega corporation in the dead of night, furtively ransack the company’s off-limits storage facilities, then make off with a hard drive containing important data. Sounds like a typical Nicolas Cage movie. Except that isn’t… not yet. Someone stole the master copy of Cage’s unreleased WWII spy thriller, Fortitude, from Netflix’s LA office in June. Life imitating art imitating Cage imitating life — the man’s oeuvre has officially eaten its own tail.
Feeling inspired. London’s Royal Academy of Arts is back with its summer kids’ showcase, and we’re revising our list of fav artists, immediately. Jake, aged 11, created the Peaaa Man – a surreal, grotesque clay impression of the melancholy you feel when your mum tells you to finish your peas. Liza, aged 5, drew a Sunset Pigeon contemplating its existence at sundown. There are six-legged unicorns and stinky cheese skies, snails brushing teeth and chips getting married. Art is hard to understand. But this makes so much sense.
Casting spells. The job market is so bad, it’s hard to stand out even if you have 10 recommendation letters and personally interned under Narayana Murthy. On Etsy, young, desperate graduates are buying job spells for luck – “extreme” spells to advance in their career; ones that get them the job they want, or spells that throw new opportunities their way. Will this help us get a promotion? Asking for a friend.
Veto-ing Leto. Ten women have accused Jared Leto of sexual misconduct and assault in the new BBC documentary, Jared Leto: Hollywood’s Dark Secret. We’re not surprised. For years, there have been rumours of Leto pursuing underage girls. Also, remember when he started a cult? And the time he mailed his Suicide Squad co-stars rats and used condoms as “gifts”? The only real surprise is that he still has an agent.
Saying ‘yes’. Jennifer Winget just tied the knot with William Ishmael in Wales. The best part of her look? Her wedding veil, which had the names of Winget’s dogs, Oliver and Breez23er, embroidered on it. That’s the kind of personalised detail we can get behind. It’s sweet, heartfelt and so much better than hiding your partner’s name in your mehendi.
Staying far, far away. We thought we’d seen every kind of collab. Even Nike x Tiffany and KFC x Crocs. But then Swarovski dropped its Shrek collection, featuring glittering crystal baubles of our fave ogre, Princess Fiona and Donkey. We kinda love it... though not enough to drop ₹68,000 on it.
From HT Brunch, August 8, 2026
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