The daily gossip: Lena Dunham wants her casket driven through pride parade, Kanye West wears a 'White Lives Matter' shirt, and more

1. Lena Dunham wants her casket driven through pride parade

It's been a while since we've had a good old-fashioned "everyone's mad at Lena Dunham" story. But the Girls creator was apparently sitting around this weekend and decided she missed getting ratioed on Twitter, so she fired off this questionable post: "When I go, I want my casket to be driven through the NYC pride parade with a plaque that reads 'she wasn't for everyone, but she *was* for us' — who can arrange?" Well, the brutal replies suggested she might not actually be for anybody. "She died as she lived: in a ploy for attention that was as puzzling as it was desperate," read one harsh reply that racked up far more likes than the original tweet, while others blasted her as "insanely self-absorbed" and told her she "can't just declare [herself] a gay icon." In response to the backlash, Dunham can just dig into her massive file of past apologies and change a few words at this point.

Twitter

2. Kanye West wears a 'White Lives Matter' shirt

Won't somebody please think of the white people? That's the message Kanye West sent at his Yeezy fashion show in Paris, controversially wearing a black T-shirt that says "White Lives Matter" on the back in white letters. Not only that, but some models in the show, which was dedicated to his Season 9 collection, also wore "White Lives Matter" shirts, according to Page Six. The front of the shirt had the pope on it, so good luck trying to work that one out. Ye's daughter North West was in attendance for the show, during which the rapper ranted "about how Elvis would fare in 2022 if he was alive," TMZ reports. The Atlantic writer Jemele Hill blasted Ye for the "dangerously dumb message" his "White Lives Matter" shirt sent, while The Daily Beast columnist Wajahat Ali called it a "billboard for white nationalists." Sounds like someone's 2024 campaign is already well underway.

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TMZ Page Six

3. Kim Kardashian charged by the SEC over crypto promotion

It seems like nobody wants to follow federal securities laws these days. The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Kim Kardashian for touting cryptocurrency on social media "without disclosing the payment she received for the promotion." The Kardashians star promoted EMAX tokens on Instagram, declaring to followers, "This is not financial advice but sharing what my friends just told me about the Ethereum Max Token!" She linked to the EthereumMax website but failed to mention the tiny detail that she was paid $250,000 for this promo, so the SEC said she violated federal securities laws' anti-touting provision. SEC Chair Gary Gensler said the case "serves as a reminder to celebrities and others that the law requires them to disclose to the public when and how much they are paid to promote investing in securities." Kardashian has agreed to pay $1.26 million — and the fact that she flunked the "baby bar" three times is starting to make more sense.

The Week

4. Taylor Swift teases new song about 'not feeling like a person'

I don't know about you, but I'm feeling existential dread. Taylor Swift is continuing to tease the tracklist for her upcoming album Midnights, most recently by revealing the third track will be titled "Anti-Hero." In an Instagram video, she described "Anti-Hero" as "one of my favorite songs I've ever written," explaining she hasn't "delved this far into my insecurities in this detail before." Those insecurities include the "idea that my life has become unmanageably sized," Swift explained, adding, "Not to sound too dark, but I struggle with the idea of not feeling like a person." So the song is a "real guided tour throughout all the things I tend to hate about myself." Sounds like a real bop, right? As part of an ongoing TikTok series, Swift has revealed numerous song titles from Midnights ahead of its Oct. 21 release, including one called "Vigilante S--t." So between that and "Anti-Hero," we're not convinced the album isn't one long admission that she is Batman.

Entertainment Weekly

5. HBO defends last night's (literally) dark 'House of the Dragon' episode

Did you see last night's House of the Dragon? No, really, could you see it? Game of Thrones fans are once again freaking out that a new episode was way too dark — as in, literally too dark to make out what's happening. Sunday's House of the Dragon featured many scenes set at night, leading fans in need of better TVs and curtains to voice frustration. "Can I get a little light in this episode?" one tweeted, while writer Brendan Hodges said the show was "so dark it's almost unwatchable." If this sounds familiar, Thrones was previously dinged for an infamous episode in its final season, "The Long Night," that also drew widespread complaints for being absurdly dark. But the official HBO Max account replied to fans that "the dimmed lighting" was an "intentional creative decision." So maybe if we just turn the brightness up on our TVs, the explanation for how ​​Criston Cole still has a job is in there somewhere.

Variety