The Brunch round-up for February 07: The week and how it made us feel

The Millennial’s fav party girl is 44, still skinny, still chill and still unbothered about being a nepo baby. Paris Hilton became a punchline when her sex tape was leaked in 2004. To go from THAT, to campaigning for victims of AI deepfakes to be able to sue the creators? That’s hot. She’s the penthouse of Hiltons.

Mexico’s Universidad de Londres is offering a seven-month diploma course in Neon Genesis Evangelion. Would you sign up to study a Japanese sci-fi classic? Fans of the anime keep saying that the show’s psychological and queer themes need to be studied. Looks like the professors agree. Yay!

We Are Young (by fun.) was everywhere in the 2010s. On the radio, in clubs, at reunions, even on Gossip Girl. Then, the band vanished. Lead singer Nate Ruess hit pause to focus on his kids. Now he’s back, with another band, The Format, and a new album, Boycott Heaven. We’re no longer young. But we’re still pumped.

In China, the fashion flex of the moment is to dress up your Labubu handbag charm in a mini Uniqlo puffer jacket. The little coats are freebies you get only if you buy a full-size one from the brand. What is this? Black Mirror: Retail Edition? We don’t need a Labubu. We don’t need put a coat on it. And it doesn’t have to come from Uniqlo. Would grandma approve such frivolity? Think of her before you splurge.

You know what’s truly metal? Megadeth just scored their first-ever No 1 on the Billboard 200 — four decades after their debut. The band topped the chart with their self-titled album (their final studio recording). We knew it: Old metalheads don’t rust. They just lie in wait, like sleeper agents, to chart decades later. Rock on, Boomers!

Moleskine, the Italian notebook brand, just did a baffling collab with the Shanghai Mental Health Center. The diary looks like a little bed, with a detachable pillow and blanket, in hospital stripes. We’re not anti-whimsy, but let’s be honest: You can’t journal your way out of burnout. Stationery isn’t healthcare.

Steamy fanfic isn’t the strangest place Draco Malfoy’s name has turned up. In China, he’s the surprise New Year mascot. It’s the Year of The Horse. And “Malfoy” can be read as mǎ (horse) and fú (good fortune), or literally “a horse that brings luck”. Everyone’s pasting smirking Draco pics on their front doors. Our fav Slytherin is going far.

There’s now a humanoid version of Fang Chengyi from the mobile game Justice Online. It mimics the divine hero’s arrogant smirk, smooth skin and luscious hair. If the bot takeover looks like this, we’d surrender so fast. Being dominated by a handsome C-drama character or a Korean oppa isn’t a nightmare, it’s a fantasy. And a better one than having billionaires ruin the world.