In this chapter we will talk about Bad Bunny, his selfie with Salvador Illa, his snub to Shakira and Kylie Minogue. "And is this news?" is the question we often see in comments on articles about gossip magazines and pop culture. And, obviously, they are not news that occupy newspaper front pages, but they are issues that we often discuss with friends or family around a table or at the bar counter. And this is what we do in this podcast: move to a venue to review some social chronicle news that serve not only to keep up with the most prominent gossip, but also to talk about love, friendship or breakups.

John Travolta has had a new face and they've messed it up. And I'm not saying that because it looks bad, let's not jump to conclusions. In fact, it's the opposite. They've performed a complex exercise in aesthetic medicine and have managed to make this screen legend, at 72 years old, turn back the clock a few years in terms of facial sagging without losing much naturalness. Or without losing as much as would have been predictable... The problem has therefore been that this new face they've given him has stolen all the spotlight from an artist who had no need to go through this media show at this stage of his professional life.

The second Sunday in May was Mother's Day in the United States, and that brought Debbie Rowe back into our lives. Precisely her, yes. None other than the woman who, in the mid-nineties, was world-famous and from whom we had heard almost nothing since. A woman who, in the eyes of an entire generation – very possibly unfairly – is the one who least comes to mind when we think of the concept of mother.

Montjuïc mountain was dressed in red tonight with the arrival of almost 800 guests for the People In Red Gala, which celebrated its sixteenth edition this year. As is tradition, the event brought together at the MNAC representatives from sponsoring companies, institutions, and celebrities from the social, cultural, and political world of Barcelona and Catalonia to rally for a common cause: to raise funds to finance the research of the Fundació Lluita contra les Infeccions, an internationally renowned institution in clinical research of infectious diseases. The initiative, whose alma mater is Doctor Bonaventura Clotet, president of the foundation, has once again demonstrated its intact power of attraction and its fundraising capacity, which reached 838,769 euros, a very notable figure that makes this solidarity gala the most powerful in Spain.

There is nothing worse than success. This would be the summary of what is happening with the Met Gala. When something as niche as this, which until not so long ago only a few fashion enthusiasts knew about, ends up being a topic of interest for people who the rest of the year do not consume any other type of content about this discipline, it means that the end of the genuine version of this event has arrived. A spectacle that the mainstream does not have the tools to understand, because it does not know the references of each aesthetic decision that is produced there – or even because it opines that fashion is not art... – , cannot be the property of the mainstream. At least if the will is for this spectacle to continue being what it has always been.

Willy Bárcenas and the haunted house could perfectly be the title of a new installment in the Harry Potter saga. Unfortunately, however, it is only the summary that best defines the contribution of the son of Luis Bárcenas to current affairs in recent days. And it is that this young man of little media shame and generous loquacity has starred in a double appearance in the media this week. A double contribution that in both cases has revolved around his parents' house, located on the very posh street Príncipe de Vergara in Madrid. From what he has explained, it seems that in that very Salamancacore enclave, very strange things have happened over the years. Some, according to his testimony, could have been the fault of spirits, and others, of the Popular Party. Presumably in both cases, obviously. Well, surely in one case more presumably than in the other. But I wouldn't dare to say which one...

Queen Elizabeth II, who would have turned 100 this week, was in office for so long that everyone has a particular anecdote or image stored in their mind. Both inside and outside the United Kingdom. Some remember her starring in a state visit to their country, others by how she was dressed at the wedding of one of her four children, others inaugurating a new political year in the British Parliament, others enjoying the Ascot horse races, and others simply accompanied by her corgis... And it is that the continuous exposure in the media throughout her life, the particular image of a normal, everyday woman that she projected, and her adherence to all the most Victorian traditions – to which she never gave up –, made her a person who was equally approachable and unattainable. That is to say, someone memorable, one of the greatest assets a monarch can aspire to.

Apparently, it is a music festival. But, if we are honest, Coachella is much more than that nowadays. This veteran Californian desert festival has become a physical hub for brands and media attention thanks to its instagrammability, which greatly surpasses what happens there from a musical point of view. If not, you only need to look at how many news items related to this festival you have seen in the last week and, above all, how many of them were about music. There are no further questions, Your Honour. In this absolutely commercial magma, in which brands from all over the world pay between half a million and one million dollars to have a stand there, and in which these same firms pay up to $20,000 per day for a billboard on the road from Los Angeles to the festival grounds, a Kardashian couldn't be missing, grabbing attention. As often happens when there are spotlights, flashes, and excited algorithms, one of the world's most famous sisters – or sometimes all of them – has become global news. In this case, the lucky one has been Kendall Jenner, who, so we all understand, is the model Kardashian, who went there last weekend.

When in a relationship the older one is the man, that age difference is transparent in the eyes of society. In fact, it is something so normalized and so insignificant in terms of social controversy that people don't even notice it unless someone specifically points it out to them. Fortunately, nowadays, some feminists with some standing on social media raise their voices when some rich/famous/powerful man –or all three at once– starts dating a young woman who is the same age –or younger!– as his own daughters. But, well, the percentage of people who publicly complain about that age difference is infinitesimal. And mind you, there are angles from which to criticize it... From the secular heritage of machismo that the relationship represents to the inequality in terms of power it embodies or to the medium-term harm that it will cause her, to name just three examples.

In this chapter we talk about a space Easter. And is this news?" is the question we often see in the comments of news about the pink press and pop culture. And, obviously, they are not news that occupy the front pages of newspapers, but they are issues that we often discuss with friends or family around a table or at the bar counter. And this is what we do in this podcast: move to a place to review some social chronicle news that serve not only to keep up with the most outstanding gossip, but also to talk about love, friendship or breakups.

Seen from a perspective, the 2022 Oscars ceremony can be described as a source of monumental gossip. Because, as we have just learned, on the same evening that became tragically historic because Will Smith went on stage to slap Chris Rock for making a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett, a betrayal was cooked up for none other than Liza Minnelli. As the artist explained in her memoir, which she very skillfully titled Kids, wait till you hear this! –Children, wait till you hear this!, in Catalan–, Hollywood's last historical muse does not have a good memory of that night, in which the Academy had invited her to present the most prized Oscar of the night, that for best film, which she did alongside none other than Lady Gaga.

If throughout the 20th century many European monarchies could be politically justified as guarantors of democratic values – for example, for not having cooperated with fascism during the world wars –, now this situation has changed. The refinement of the meaning of democracy in the minds of European citizens means that the thrones that have reached our days have become misaligned with the concept of democracy that large segments of society now hold. This society demands that the representatives of its highest institutions not only formally adhere to democratic values, but also live a life consistent with those values. A tangible adherence. Adapting to this new phase is infinitely more complex for monarchies than any previous reform, since these institutions are intrinsically contrary to what meritocracy and equality mean, the two essential pillars upon which a democracy is indefectibly built today.

An institution as little accustomed to changes, and even less so to rapid changes, as the British Royal Family has finally understood that it has no choice but to adapt to new rhythms when making decisions if it wants to survive. This is demonstrated by the management of the Beatrice and Eugenie of York case, who have gone from being treated as victims of their parents' relationship with the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein to being seen as active participants in the tycoon's corrupt relationship with their parents. It is for this reason that in recent times, the princesses have suddenly disappeared from the official agenda of events of the Windsor family, who have let them fall to save themselves before it was too late.

In this chapter we investigate an emerging concept: Ortega Yoga. "And is this news?" is the question we often see in the comments of news about the gossip press and pop culture. And, obviously, they are not news that occupy the front pages of newspapers, but they are issues that we often discuss with friends or family around a table or at the bar counter. And this is what we do in this podcast: we go to a venue to review some social chronicle news that serve not only to keep up with the most outstanding gossip, but also to talk about love, friendship or breakups.

In July, it will be 27 years since John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette died. These two style icons and absolute celebrities for an entire generation were already completely unknown to young people born after the year 2000. However, the series that Ryan Murphy has dedicated to them, Love story (Disney+), has resurrected them from the oblivion into which they had fallen. As often happens with celebrities who die prematurely and leave a beautiful corpse, there is always a latent fascination for them that makes social interest very easy to revive. The fact that they haven't had time to make mistakes and that aesthetically they are a fossil of an era places them in people's minds as shining icons, which enhances them being looked at with a certain extra dose of affection and interest. Obviously, if on top of that an omnipotent platform like Disney brings them back into the spotlight, the global impact is served.

A Catalan person can't help but click on a headline that says Britney Spears has been arrested for DUI. The pity is that they click on it only to discover that in English, DUI means driving under the influence (i.e., drunk driving) and not a unilateral declaration of independence. The truth is, the idea of ​​Britney becoming independent from something—whatever it is—was very appealing to me. After having been held captive for 13 years by an absolutely abusive legal conservatorship in front of the whole world without anyone doing anything about it, the artist will always have my full support if she wants to become independent, whatever it is. She has the right to want to escape from everything and everyone forever. She has a supreme right to have an infinite thirst for freedom. They already stole her childhood and then the entire first part of her adulthood. She has the right to never want to know anything about anyone again. Not even the fans who were constantly writing the hashtag #freebritney everywhere. And that they had been doing so since before the trial began until she left it with a sentence in her hand that freed her from her father – and incidentally from her entire family of leeches – and that stated that her father had stolen up to 6 million dollars from her while took care her estate.

In this episode of "A Matter of Image," we explore the question, "Is this news?"—a common refrain in the comments sections of celebrity gossip and pop culture stories. While these aren't headline news, they are topics we often discuss with friends and family around a table or at a bar. This podcast delves into the world of celebrity news, offering a unique opportunity to explore themes of love, friendship, and breakups.

I've always said that rich people are the best at recounting their misfortunes. They're so unaccustomed to the inherent miseries of being alive that they speak of their misfortunes with such emphasis, from a place of strangeness and surprise that we working-class people find magnetic. You see adults absolutely traumatized by having experienced things that you discovered—and also overcame—before finishing high school. Sometimes, they even lament things you hadn't even internalized as negative. Just normal. In fact, since they've never experienced any misfortune before, they're much more frustrated than usual, they get very angry, and their situation seems utterly horrible to them. This also amuses us poor people because, when we see it, we think that if we got so angry every time something negative happened to us—the kind of thing that irritates millionaires so much—we'd have chronic ulcers, since it's our daily bread.

Some royal accounts say that the current King Charles III once told his ex-wife, Diana, Princess of Wales, before their separation, that she could learn a bit more from Sarah Ferguson, who had great charisma and was very pragmatic about palace matters. More of a smile for the outside world and less vulnerability behind closed doors was what he demanded of the mother of his children, a woman who suffered greatly at his hands not because of his own personality but because of the way he treated her. This statement resonates more than ever these days, now that we've learned that the cheerful and pragmatic Fergie was even worse than we imagined: a ruthless woman capable of acting without any principles to achieve her goals, which were almost always material. Just to give one example: after Epstein was convicted of pimping and attempting to prostitute a minor in 2008, she took her two daughters to meet him at the Florida mansion where he was under house arrest. As if to ingratiate herself with the millionaire who we now also know supported her for almost a decade. Like a kind of offering. If Diana had been like Ferguson, as her husband asked her to be, Charles III might not be king today, just as his brother is no longer a prince...

In this episode, we offer a pink requiem. "Is this news?" is the question we often see in the comments on celebrity gossip and pop culture stories. And, of course, these aren't headlines, but they are things we often discuss with friends or family around a table or at a bar. And that's what we do in this podcast: we go to a bar to review some social news stories that serve not only to keep us up-to-date on the latest gossip, but also to talk about love, friendship, and breakups.