The Brunch round-up for October 4: The week and how it made us feel

In 2017, Nicole Kidman announced that she’d work with a female director at least once every 18 months. Eight years on, the collab count is 27, and just look at the roster. Babygirl, The Perfect Couple, Expats, and (can’t wait!) Practical Magic 2. Along the way she’s perfected playing the Rich White Firebrand With A Secret. We don’t mind. Sip wine, Nicole. Wrap your cardigan tighter against the breeze. We’ll never give you up.

Put the gua sha away. Take the red-light mask off your wishlist. Skims just released a bra for the face. The Seamless Sculpt Face Wrap is made with the same material as their bodysuits and promises to lift our chins, cheekbones, and jaw as we sleep. Is it worth looking like an Egyptian mummy in bed? Would someone post a review?

Ralph Lauren believes he can dress you up. Or at least, an AI avatar of him. Ask Ralph is trained on decades of the designer’s archive looks and lookbooks and hopes to help American users with styling advice. But wait. Who wants to look like they walked out of those preppy catalogues? That’s not the kind of help we need, Ralph!

Hinge shminge! The best spot to find a partner these days is the grocery aisle. In Spain, singles are placing pineapples in their shopping baskets to indicate to other shoppers that they’re open to dates. Now, supermarkets are holding grocery raves. What’s the playlist: Black Eyed Peas, Smashing Pumpkins, The Cranberries or Honey Singh?

The FIFA World Cup is nigh. We love what they’ve done with the ball. It’s called the Trionda (Spanish for “triwave”) and its panels are a geek’s dream. Each has three points but is connected by curves that fit together to make the ball more perfectly round. Now, the a six-panelled ball Brazuca from 2014 made gameplay unpredictable. Will the triangle triumph?

So, the spot where Julius Caesar was assassinated is now, 20 centuries later, a cat sanctuary. It all started when the site was excavated in 1929 and stray cats began showing up. (Who told them?) Today, the Rome Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary is a huge tourist attraction. We always felt that old Julius had tabby energy.

Remember when it didn’t take nine years to put out 34 episodes of a TV show? The first season of Stranger Things was in 2016. We’re only getting the final season this year. The monsters are scary. The grown adults playing little kids is creepy. Meanwhile, Wednesday, which released in 2022, with release S2 this year. Poor Pugsley Addams looks like someone fed him a growth potion. Why can’t they film two seasons side-by-side?

Ssh, don’t let the gym bros and girls know, but a new fitness trend just dropped. Quadrobics involves getting down on all fours and moving like an animal. The furry community started it, now it’s mainstream. Enthusiasts have been spotted crawling in parks and clambering up stairs like dogs, scaring children. There are tutorials on how to leap like a cat, gallop like a horse, and climb rocks like mountain goats. If Charles Darwin could see this, he’d be very disappointed.