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

Critics have hated on Rihanna for such random reasons as appearing in public through two pregnancies, not releasing music, naming her sons RZA Athelston and Riot Rose. Now, they’re cheering her decision to not hire a nanny. RiRi, 37, and worth $1.4 billion can afford her choice. Let’s not shame mums who have help. You do you, mommies.

Nostradamus is so yesterday. Our new prediction guru is manga artist Ryo Tatsuki. Her work predicted the 2011 tsunami. Now, fans are putting their faith in her 1999 comic, The Future I Saw, which mentions a deadly earthquake and mega tsunami that strikes Japan in July 2025. Travel agencies are bracing for a lull in demand. For the not-superstitious, summer in Japan just got cheaper!

When Connie Francis recorded Pretty Little Baby 63 years ago, she didn’t know it would go viral on Instagram Reels in 2025. Parents are playing the song over baby vids and pets. Even Aubrey Frances Anderson-Emmons (little Lily from Modern Family), all grown up now, has done a cute Reel cover. ‘90s kids are feeling real old RN.

The Dark Materials fandom went wild recently when projections of alethiometers (compasses that answer life’s every question, if you know how to ask) appeared on buildings in Oxford. Philip Pullman’s The Rose Field, the final in the Book of Dust series, is out this year. Does Lyra Silvertongue end up with Will Parry? What does the compass say?

Weddings are fun, but those rituals and speeches go on and on, and relatives are nosy. Jumma, an event company, now throws sangeet-style parties, even if there’s no bride, no groom. The party has dhols, Bollywood bangers, photo booths, and a guest list free of familial obligations. Fake wedding? Nah. It’s the realest party idea we’ve seen.

At the Cannes press con for Die, My Love, Robert Pattinson and Jennifer Lawrence’s film about a mother with postpartum depression, Pattinson was asked how having a baby helped him understand the condition. Instead of mansplaining, he kept it real: “This question is impossible for a guy to answer correctly.” A man who is moisturised and stays in his lane? 10/10. No notes.

Gwen Stefani got flak for wearing a kimono and using Asian backup dancers. Katy Perry caught heat for her geisha costume. But these 1987 pics of Michael Jackson as a samurai, which surfaced last week? Different story. Sensei MJ has got drip. Didn’t he sing something about how it don’t matter if you’re Black or White?

Step aside, George Clooney. There’s a new salt-and-pepper diva in town. Meet the “salty licorice” cats of Petäjävesi, Finland. A rare gene mutation gives them their speckled black-and-white coats, and their nickname, after the Finnish treat, salmiakki. Why so cute and not in scritching distance?