The daily gossip: Daft Punk breaks up, Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama start a podcast, and more

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

Jump to category:

1. Daft Punk drops 'Epilogue' video announcing retirement
2. Obama and Springsteen chat about feeling like 'outsiders' growing up in new joint podcast
3. Golden Globes voters enjoyed a swanky trip to France ahead of Emily in Paris' surprise nominations
4. The queen will deliver an address hours before Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's interview with Oprah
5. Azealia Banks is both engaged and 'Jewish now'

published 22 February 2021

1. Daft Punk drops 'Epilogue' video announcing retirement

After 28 years, Daft Punk are hanging up their helmets. The French duo announced their retirement on Monday by way of an eight-minute video called "Epilogue," which, according to Pitchfork, was excerpted from Electroma, their 2006 film. In it, the "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" performers slowly walk into the desert in total silence before one of them blows up and the other walks into the distance, with "1993-2021" appearing on screen. Daft Punk's publicist confirmed to Variety this indeed announced their break-up. Fans quickly flooded social media to pay tribute and express sadness over the news — not to mention concern that, after Daft Punk's unforgettable work on the Tron: Legacy soundtrack, Tron 3 just won't be the same.

Spotify has launched a new podcast centered around chats between two good buddies: one a music legend and the other a former president. "Renegades: Born in the USA" features "personal, in-depth discussion[s]" between Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama as they explore "their pasts, their beliefs, and the country that they love." In the first of the two episodes available Monday, Obama and Springsteen discuss feeling like outsiders when they were growing up. The two also explain how they met during the former president's 2008 campaign, and Obama recalls that they "grew to trust each other." Springsteen agrees, telling the former president that "I felt really at home around you." Six more episodes are set to be released in the coming weeks.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

When Netflix's Emily in Paris earned several major Golden Globes nominations earlier this month, even fans of the show were shocked. But perhaps it's not as surprising as it sounds: according to a new report in the Los Angeles Times, there's a "culture of corruption" within the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the 87-member group that votes on the Golden Globes. Evidently: Emily in Paris' creators reportedly flew 30 Golden Globes voters to the show's set in France, where they enjoyed "a two-night stay at the five-star Peninsula Paris hotel, where rooms currently start at about $1,400 a night, and a news conference and lunch at the Musée des Arts Forains, a private museum…" As one member admitted, "They treated us like kings and queens." Justice for I May Destroy You, indeed.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's highly-anticipated sit-down with Oprah Winfrey is being upstaged — by the queen. On March 7, the U.K.'s Queen Elizabeth will deliver a pre-taped address in honor of the canceled Commonwealth Day, which would have taken place on Monday, March 8 were it not for the pandemic. As a result, though, the broadcast — which will also feature Prince Charles, Prince William, Kate Middleton, and Sophie, Countess of Wessex — will now take place mere hours before the couple speak with Oprah. Last year's Commonwealth Day was the final royal appearance of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and while Buckingham Palace recently confirmed Harry and Meghan will no longer work as royals, the family saltily insisted that the pair "remain much loved."

Rapper Azealia Banks is engaged to Ryder Ripps, news she shared with the world on Monday by writing "I'm a Jew now!" over an Instagram photo of her left hand, with a gold menorah ring on her significant finger. In the caption, Banks — who's previously vowed never to return to Israel following "rude" treatment in Tel Aviv — added "MAZEL TOV B---HES!" Banks and Ripps have only been public with their relationship for a little over a week; Ripps, notably, is an artist known for "doing design work for such zeitgeist-y brands as Soylent and Pornhub," and he's collaborated with both Kanye West and Banks' enemy, Grimes. Many people also pointed out that one does not simply become Jewish by getting engaged; Banks, evidently, still needs to convert.

Explore More

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.