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

Yeah, yeah, yeah, The Tortured Poets Department crossed over 300 million Spotify streams on the day of its release. Its going to make money, break records. But good to see Taylor Swift fans clap back at the questionable parts of the album – the lyrics to I Hate It Here, in which she wishes she were in the 1830s without the racism; and her references to emotional cheating (Ouch, Joe Alwyn). Swifties are not sheep, after all.

Content creators Siddharth Batra and Komal Pandey have built their own home, Mumkin, in Delhi-NCR over two years. They’re not married, jointly own the property, and are doing a couple-style house-warming ceremony. Of course, people have questions. Of course, they’re judging. Let them. Meanwhile, we’re cheering this beautiful partnership.

Isn’t it strange how every actor who plays Spider-Man’s love interest goes on to star in a tennis movie? Zendaya’s slaying it in Challengers (2024) as Tashi, a tennis coach. Emma Stone hit the court as Billie Jean King in Battle of the Sexes (2017). Kirsten Dunst played an up-and-coming sportswoman in Wimbledon (2004). Do these women have a WhatsApp group?

We’re usually thanking the Lord for sending us David Beckham. This time he’s done the Lord’s work himself. Beckham uploaded a clip of all five Spice Girls at Victoria Beckham’s 50th birthday bash, dancing and singing along to their 1997 hit, Stop. It’s the closest we’re going to get to a Spice Girls reunion. Slam your body down and zig-a-zig ha!

Baby Reindeer on Netflix starts off as a dark comedy about a stalker, but ends up as something with much more humanity. The aspiring comedian/bartender doesn’t even realise that being nice to chubby, loserly Marge, a woman claiming to be a lawyer, ultimately ends up with her stalking him. The series shows how broken we all are inside. Plus, isn’t Marge giving Susan Boyle vibes?

Help us, for the trailer for One Hundred Years of Solitude is out. The 16-episode series is based on Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s 1967 masterpiece that follows seven generations of the Buendía family. It defined magical realism. It broke all our hearts. Marquez uses colours as symbols, deliberately jumbles up his narrative. We only hope this isn’t another Persuasion or Anne of Green Gables. No pressure, huh Netflix?