The daily gossip: Grimes cuts X Æ A-Xii's hair, Ja Rule is very mad at Robinhood, and more

(Image credit: ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)

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1. Grimes is not sure X Æ A-Xii's Viking haircut 'went well'
2. Fyre Festival co-founder Ja Rule is mad about supposedly getting scammed by Robinhood
3. Police claim Rita Ora paid a London restaurant nearly $7,000 to host her birthday party during lockdown
4. The Weeknd is spending $7 million of his own money on this year's extra-long Super Bowl halftime show
5. The second daughter just signed a major modeling deal

published 28 January 2021

1. Grimes is not sure X Æ A-Xii's Viking haircut 'went well'

X Æ A-Xii has a new haircut, although his mother, Grimes, admits it might not have gone quite the way she'd envisioned. "Not sure this haircut went well but he's a Viking now," the singer shared on Instagram, along with pictures of her 8-month-old sporting something faintly resembling a mohawk, with the hair on either side of his head trimmed short. Grimes explained that the look was "inspired by The Last Kingdom on Netflix, which is a masterpiece." Seeing as Grimes once gave herself a haircut she described as "elf demon [with] a pronounced mustache," Little X probably got off easy.

A lot of people were very, very angry on Thursday when the trading and investing app Robinhood restricted transactions for certain securities, including AMC and Gamestop, after Reddit users banded together to drive up the usually failing stock, and sent the hedge funds that short the stock into a spiral. Among the incensed Gamestop stockholders was Ja Rule, who called Robinhood's actions "a f---king CRIME" in multiple tweets and urged people to "HOLD THE LINE … WTF." Ja Rule's offer of financial advice puzzled some, since the rapper notably helped found Fyre Festival, which landed his co-founder, Billy McFarland, in prison for fraud. Quipped The Athletic's Zach Harper, "Ja knows a scam when he sees it."

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Celebrities continue to act like they'll spontaneously combust if they can't host a dinner party during the pandemic. Take Rita Ora, who was reportedly so set on throwing herself a 30th birthday bash in November that police claim she offered a London restaurant almost $7,000 to provide "drinks and nibbles" for her party. Though Ora supposedly told the restaurant owner to expect seven guests, by 9 p.m. some 20 people had arrived, including sisters Cara and Poppy Delevingne. The celebs' security apparently wanted no footage of the event, so the restaurant shut down their cameras, but news got out anyway, prompting Ora to issue an apology for her "serious and inexcusable error of judgement" — though whether she meant throwing the party or getting caught, who's to say.

Things that will take less time than watching the Weeknd's Super Bowl halftime show: baking cupcakes, a rerun of Seinfeld, and saving 15 percent or more on car insurance with the company known for its funny commercials starring an anthropomorphic gecko. According to Billboard, this year's Super Bowl performance will be twice as long as usual, clocking in at 24 minutes, because the halftime show sponsor, Pepsi, is cutting down on its commercials during the game. "We've been really focusing on dialing in on the fans at home and making performances a cinematic experience, and we want to do that with the Super Bowl," the Weeknd said, and his co-manager revealed that the singer personally put up $7 million of his own money to "make this halftime show be what he envisioned."

America's second daughter is the newest face of IMG Models. Ella Emhoff, the 21-year-old stepdaughter of Vice President Kamala Harris, signed with the prestigious agency after wowing at the inauguration in her embellished Miu Miu coat. "It's not really about shape, size, or gender any more," Ivan Bart, the president of IMG Models, told The New York Times. "Ella communicates this moment in time. There's a cheekiness and a joy she exudes." Emhoff, who's modeled in the past for a smaller agent, said she was "pretty surprised" by the offer because "when I was younger, I never saw that as being part of my timeline." Emhoff joins Amanda Gorman at the agency, which also picked up the 22-year-old poet in the wake of the inauguration.

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.