Hey bessies, Hello Sunshine. Today on the bright side, we're talking about the met Gala. It is right around the corner. And who better to spill all the tea on the glitz and glam ahead of fashion's biggest night than Blake Lee Thornton, internet sensation and pop culture anthropologist. It's Friday, May third. I'm Danielle Robe.
And I'm Simone Boye and this is the bright side from Hello Sunshine.
Y'all.
Danielle, we made it to Friday. We did a girl.
We barely made it this week Oh god.
You are absolutely right. What are you up to this weekend?
Simone? I feel like you because this weekend I have no plans.
It's a social battery weekend.
It is a social battery weekend. How about you? What are you doing?
I have a baby shower this weekend. I'm so excited for my friend. It's your first baby, so can't wait to shower her with love.
Mazzle tub that's exciting. I'm so curious what you're getting her. I'm really interested in baby shower gifts.
I got her a couple of items from her registry, mostly pertaining to breastfeeding, like nursing bras, nursing ointments, that sort of thing.
The essentials are important. I don't want to take that away, but I do have like a secret weapon baby gift that gets rave reviews, so I'm gonna share it with everybody. I always get Levi's Denam baby jacket and then I have it embroidered with either the baby's name on the pocket, or if they don't know the name yet, I'll do the last name of the family on the back of it and they pass it down from baby to baby, which is cute.
I think that's really sweet. That's really cute. I would love that if I received it. The thing with registries is baby gear is really expensive, especially as a first time mom. And I can remember us being in a small apartment and we didn't want other people buying like these huge baby things that we didn't have room for. We just wanted the essentials. Yeah, but a jacket, that's I think that you can make an exception there.
No, but you actually make a really great point, like you usually need a lot of the things that you're asking for, so it's important too.
Yeah.
See money bumble. The dating app is making some news because after ten years of having women doing the initiation. They're switching it up. They're having guys make the first move.
Now, okay, so let me get this straight. Bumble was all about putting the power in women's hands, allowing them to initiate contact first, and now they're reversing that stance opening it up to men so they can initiate as well.
So the new feature is called opening Moves, and it lets men respond to prompts on a women's profile even before she reaches out. But I like that they called it opening moves because that's kind of my philosophy in dating. I like to open the conversation and then let the man make the move. I used to never go up to guys. I would never initiate, Like my idea of initiation was like accidentally spilling a drink on somebody at the bar and being like, oops, I'm sorry. I initiate
conversation classic. The key is really to make contact like two or three times with your eyes, or open the conversation quickly with like a hey, I love your shoes, or how's your day or something really low stakes, and then it opens the conversation for them to jump in. Okay, because I think a lot of people don't want to initiate because they're worried about like being turned down or rejected. I would feel that way too. Yeah, before you met Michael, did you ever initiate?
I honestly didn't have that much dating experience. I was kind of a late bloomer. But I don't think, like, in hindsight, if I were to have dated for longer, I don't think I would have had a problem with initiating. I'm a very bold person.
I used to never initiate, Like I didn't want to go up to someone and be like, Hey, do you want to go out? You're cute, So I'll just go up and say like, oh I love your shoes, or like great shirt, or what's the book you're reading or something, and if they're open to the conversation, then it's like I feel like I initiated.
Hey King, I love your shoe.
Sure, oh my god, you're so married.
That's not how it goes down.
You know, half of adults in the US under thirty are on a dating app or a dating website. So it's a thing.
They're on the apps, but are they working.
I don't love them. I'm an in person person. They don't work great for me.
You're a pickleball meet cute yeah kind of girl.
Yeah, I totally. I need to meet someone at a coffee shop or something or through work. But yeah, I don't know. They're not my favorite, but people really do find success. I have a lot of friends who are married from the apps.
You know what this makes me think of. We are going to have a flirting expert on the show soon, and I think we have to ask him about this. We should about initiating flirting.
It's kind of the evolution of the feminist in the dating space. We need to ask an expert totally.
So if a man were to initiate on Bumble or any dating app, what would work on you?
Okay, so I just opened my phone. I'm going through my dating apps to see my hossage.
Yes, I love doing this. I love swiping on my friend's apps.
Do you want to read them?
Yeah? I do.
There's just a lot of emojis. People say hi with an emoji, which is horrible in my opinion. I get a load. Yeah, you know, I love when people say, like, hey, you're from Chicago, Like right, I like like a geographical intro. Yeah.
We also like a little research too. Right, someone who's taken the time to read the details.
I'm going to be embarrassed and my mom's going to be mad at me because you're going to read these and I don't reply. I need to meet someone in real life.
All right, we have a very important investigative follow up to share with you all about his hard core journalist. This is a hard core, bright side journalism about Lenny Kravitz's leather pants gate at the gym. So, there was a viral video of Lenny Kravitz doing crunches in the gym and he looked like a rock star. I mean he had on the mess shirt, the leather pants, the sunglasses. And he spoke to Variety about that viral video and he said, listen, people like, don't worry about me in
the gym with my leather pants. I know what I'm doing. Okay, here's his rationale. Lenny says that he doesn't wear the pants for cardio, So everybody calmed down. He's not sweating profusely in the pants. He's just doing lifting and he doesn't sweat as much there. So he went on to say that a lot of times I'm coming from somewhere or I'm going somewhere and I just don't care. I'm gonna pop in. You know, I got forty five minutes. We're just gonna hit it, and then I'm gonna run to where I'm going.
Can you imagine working out in leather pants and then getting to where you're going? Like you smell so bad?
That is problematic? He also, I think this is interesting, he says. I don't do it for effect. I just do it for practicality, Like this is my lifestyle, and I sip love that it's practicality. In what world is leather pants practical? I feel like we need an expert to settle this.
Well.
I'm so glad that you brought that up, Danielle, because we have the perfect pop culture fashion expert coming on our show today. You know Blakelee Thornton.
Oh, I know Blakelee.
You know Blakeley.
The internet knows Blakely.
He's gonna come on. We're gonna ask him about Lenny. We're gonna ask him about the met Gala. So grab your favorite bevy, whether it's a coffee, a latte, or maybe even a glass of wine. It's Friday. You deserve your Friday juice.
I mean he's gonna spill the tea.
He really is. Welcome back, everybody, Well, Fashion's biggest night is fast approaching, Danielle twenty twenty four met Gala is happening on Monday, and to help us get ready for the explosion of couture, style and grace, We've tapped the internet's favorite rich gunkle. It's Blakely Thornton.
Y'all, Blakelee is a pop culture anthropologist. He's breaking down fashion, pop culture, and of course celebrity news with equal parts SaaS and smarts. So Blakely, welcome to the bright side.
Thank you, thank you for you have the most regal name. Are you like a descendant of royalty? Blakely Thornton.
I talked to my parents about that all the time because my middle name is Neeman. My name is Neman Thornton.
It's stripping in luxury the whole thing.
Who did they want you to be?
I mean, I hope very wealthy.
I think my options were to be either an incredible success or just mired and failed. I think there's no in between.
Fo me.
I was almost named Danny Miami. My mom put the kabash on.
That that sounds like a Mary Kate Nashley Olsen character.
I was thinking it was an exotic dnswer or both.
I mean, it's a long life, it could be both.
It could be both.
Okay, More importantly, Blakely, we need you to settle a long lasting debate that we've been having on this show about Lenny Kravitz and leather pants.
Always.
Have you seen him working out always out forever?
Oh? Yes, I've talked to people that know him about that.
Is it real?
That's just him, That's just Lenny. It's Lenny twenty four to seven, Lenny twenty you know, twenty five eight. Lenny's being great. It's awesome.
Isn't it a little unhinged to work out in leather pairs?
Foolishness when people are not wearing moisture waking materials in the gym? I'm like, what year are you in? Or like when you see a bro at the gym like that, like works out in like a flannel.
Oh have you seen this silver lake?
Mmm? Carl, It's everywhere. It's making its way west.
Just get ready, okay, Blakelee. I don't think we're gonna be seeing a lot of leather pants or leather anything on the red carpet for the Mecala this year because the theme is the Garden of Time, which I am. I am so here for that theme. How about you? What do you what do you think about it?
I am both here and queer for it because I think it allows everything, because I feel like the Garden of Time sleeping beauties. You can give us gorgeous, gorgeous gowns floral for spring and you're still on theme. I want dead roses sown on to a corset that like explode at the top of the stairs. Like that's what I want.
You want the drama, Yeah, I want drama.
And can you explain to any of our bright side bessies who aren't familiar with the Met Gala, because it's a very New York thing. Can you just explain what the whole thing is and why the dresses are so dramatic and over the top.
So the theme is supposed to be in sync with the actual exhibition going on in the costume institute portion of the METS, So it's actually a fundraiser in the theme of the next year's exhibition. So when you had like China through the looking Glass or the Carlographella theme when last year that is representative of the exhibition that will be going on in the museum that the public can see for the next several months.
And from what I understand, it's like very campy or it's supposed to be.
Right, It's just supposed to be like dramatique, like with an iQue, like you want the girls and the gays to come doing their thing.
And is it because Anna Wintour is in charge of it.
I think it's just a conglomeration of like fashion, media, tech and social like it's just it's almost like a one plus one equals fourth. Like before it was like old money blue bloods. Then you had like the eighties and nineties that were like the Naomi Campbell era where you see a lot of them, the amber Villettas of
the world. And now it's just like a mixture of like little Nasa stress as a cat, Jared Little holding his own ahead, and like you know, Lady Gaga with a hold in a wagon with the Bronz panties.
Like it's just become over the top opulence in.
Carnivorans too, because and people are wearing essentially costumes on the red carpet, like it's a step beyond gowns. And I think that's because the actual pieces that are on display are also very over the top and also kind of feel like costumes exactly.
I mean, it's it's clothing as wearable art if you think about it, because it's the costume Institute, Like they're showing the clothing that is worthy of museum display, and so everybody has to really like come to play. I know I didn't mean to rhyme that, but it worked.
So I had been covering the met Gala for years and only last year did I learn how people got inside, Like this is a whole different thing. So you walk the red carpet as a celebrity or a designer, and then what.
Happens, like how do you get invited?
I mean the grace of God otherwise than is handled in a win tour or you're just wildly famous.
What's your sense of what goes on inside?
My sense of what goes on inside is it it's like you see, like it's like Timothy shallow May drunk in a corner with Billie Eilish and like some chicken.
Okay, who are we excited to see this year?
Oh?
I mean obviously it's Indaya coming off the Dune Challengers press tour. Overall, I just I gotta know like I went, because there's I feel like there's three queens of the met in my mind and it's kind of like a Zindeia, Rihanna, Beyonce Ye, and they kind of rotate.
I think last year none of them went, so I was kind of like for why God?
But do you remember when she dressed like a sparkly pope.
Yes, that was amazing. That was the Catholic themed year.
Do you have any favorites Rihanna?
The China through the looking Glass which she wore that like fifty foot gulpei like marigold, one hundred pound, like yellow for a jacket. It took like a year to create or something. I mean andre Leon Talley had no words. Wow, she had andre Lee on Tally speechless, which to this day like that should just be on her gravestone.
I thought it was really cool when Blake Lively was it last year when she like changed her dress mid carpet?
Oh she took off the bottom part of it.
No, it turned into a whole different dress.
Oh, Like that was art Patina, like the statue of Liberty. Yeah, she like because like the Statue of Liberty was originally Teal and as it overtime at Patina, So her dress Patina.
Like that's art. You didn't like it, Hunt, why I think I agree with me. I like it.
I think Blake Lively is always kind of like playing it safe. I want Lady Gaga. I want the dress to explode. I wanted to transform, I wanted to light up.
So I want to learn more about that. What do you think makes a great Matt Gala outfit?
I think it is a combination of performance in like almost like an inversion of the theme and then just confident. So that's why I feel like trying to through the looking glass with Rihanna or Lady Gaga.
At the camp No notes on camp was.
Amazing because that was out and she walked in with full a full bodice gown like it flowed out. Then she had another dress on underneath, and then she's pulling a wagon and then she's rolling around with an umbrella and like that's camp.
She actually gave us like performance art.
She had a whole ensemble with her too, carrying the umbrella.
Yes, it was almost like Mary Poppin's on Acid or like the year winds in Days dress lit up Zach po it was Cinderella.
I keep thinking about that. Or you know, Katy Perry is a chandelier.
Like Katy Perry is almost camp incarnate, you know, so she's always doing that.
I love that she also went as a Hamburger one year. I don't know if that was to.
The after Scott to the after party went as a chandelier and then as a Hamburger.
That was one for all the goofy girls internationally. Like I was just like, you go girl, yeah, to be a Hamburger.
So one of my favorite parts of the carpet is seeing the up and coming people that are like really making waves and fashion. Is there anyone that you feel like we should keep our eye on right now?
Ooh, who's going to be?
Like that's the thing. I was like, who's going to be the new queen out of the Meggala?
Like last year I loved was it Jacques Moose? Yeah, dress bad bunny they did.
Anybody wearing Jacques Moose or Tom Brown is always kind of that girl.
I love what.
Emma Chamberlain wears honestly, Yeah, like she als like she's a very she's internally you can tell she's internally driven and is thinking about the theme and not just like getting dressed like a paper doll. I really really like Taylor Russell. She's a young actress. I think she's dating Harry Styles right now. She's always doing the thing Tiana. Taylor, Yeah, is always she just always comes from the specific point of view, and I think she should be given more fashion cred.
Who else.
I also think watching for the emerging designers is really cool because they are the ones who are often pushing the enveloace, really innovating, really trying to make a statement.
I love that, And I think it's also harder for them to break in because so many, it was, so much of the space is taken up by the lvmhor caring owned brands and have the money to spend eight figures and dress all these people.
Okay, dreamscape right now, you get invited to the met Gala. Okay, who do you want dressing you right now this year?
Well, I have to say, o, MEZ gave me stuff to wear this year. But if we're doing a dreamscape and they are not available because I'm that's already happening. I guess I would probably say Zanya. I really like what Zania does. I feel they they exist outside the system of like the Lvy Madge caring of the world, and they're doing really cool innovative stuff with their men's wear, which is another thing. I'm excited for them to be
like a prince of the Met Gala. I think only in the past four to five years we've seen manually play with the theme. To this point, it's been like I think, because of heteronormative standards, they've just worn tuxedos. But like now we get the bad bun, you know, the little nasaca dress is a cat on the carpet, you know, like I'm looking for like.
I'm looking for a hero. Guys, So somebody step up.
Wait, who would be at your dream Met Gala table?
How many do I get to pick?
You get to pick five? Five, six total?
We're drafting a team, right.
I love this. Wow, this is a great question.
Okay, obviously Rihanna, because she's gonna turn up, it doesn't matter.
You know, she's got a babysitter. It's on Pedro Pascal.
Because I do think, hey, Pedro, that we are gonna at least go on on date one day. Oh okay, so Rihanna, Pedro, Pascal. I'll say Anna, because I just want to pick her brain. Anna win Tour.
I don't know if she even talked to you.
I mean, I'm gonna make her.
I'm gonna talk to her, so unless she wants to be thoroughly annoyed, she'll talk back.
Okay, So we get Rihanna, we got Pedro.
You gotta put Zendaia at the table. I think, yes, I'm getting.
I'm because I'm thinking who do I want to like turn up with? Yeah, like you know what it was in day. I want to go to a single dinner one on one or a quiet lunch. We're both lucid and point. I'm thinking about who do I want to like take that bathroom selfie with and be out till four am? And I don't think someday is that girly. You know, friends are contextual. I think she has more sense than I do, and I don't need her to see me that way.
It is classy.
Honestly, she's too classy for me after seven, So you know, like we're good.
Okay, So we got Rihanna Anna, Ricky Martin to that.
Oh wow, yeah, that was really a curveball.
Vita loca, you know, and then round it out.
I would say, share, okay. I mean that conversation at that table would be I.
Want the generations, I want the identity. Okay.
Let's get your take on some other pop culture stories that are on our radar this week. First up, Share was on Jennifer Hudson's show, talking about why she dates younger men at seventy seven years old. She says, all the men her age are dead. That's what she said, so believe, And she said that young men are not afraid to approach her, that men her age don't come up to her.
I mean, honestly, what she said is just mathematically true, because I think the average person may have lived to seventy six. So she's not like, not no, share, not no, I love it. I say, more power to her. I would like to see more older women date younger men.
The kind of younger straight man that goes for an older woman wants somebody who's more seasoned in life and is more open to criticism, so you get to like shape them and mold them to be a fully functional human beinger as close as a straight.
Man can be.
Here's the thing, Okay I am for first of all, I love that older women are dating younger men because men have been doing it for years, so flipping it on its head makes me smile. The only thing is, when I was twenty, I dated a thirty three year old, and now I'm thirty three and look back on that relationship with kind of an ick. I'm like, why was he ever interested in me? I was so young?
Where were you at though in your life?
Where?
Like?
Mentally, like, what was appealing to you about dating a man that much older than you?
I didn't have a lot. I was always really goal oriented. I didn't have a lot in common with people like college age like I was. So I was like, this man's in the workforce, he knows things, and I.
Loved that he makes his bed.
Yeah, well, I don't even think he made his bed. Let's be honest. He was straight.
Yeah true, I mean I barely do it.
I'm getting he needed supervision.
Honestly.
I had to think about it this morning. I was like, oh, no, be better than this.
Fun fact. I didn't know this, but there's research that shows that age gap relationships with older women and younger men experienced more longevity and satisfaction.
H M.
I mean my mom is always like wanting to get out of the house and go dancing and go do stuff, and my dad wants to stay home. Like I get the appeal younger men want to go out with you.
I don't know, I just personally think women are better. I'll just say I'll just say it so like I was going to say it.
I want to see them happy, go forth and prosper.
It's literally the ethos of the show. We just want to see women happening.
I want to see women. Just let's close the wage gap. You know.
I'm literally wearing something about like reproductive rights on my shirt, Like I just come on, guys, what are we doing?
This is so dumb.
That's it, whether or not you're in a relationship with someone older than you or younger than you. There is a new date night spot, dining hotspot in Los Angeles that I have so many questions about. So this is a restaurant where celebrities like Justin Bieber, Harry Styles, and Taylor Swift are going for dinner. And it's called Sushi Park. But here's the catch with this place. It's in a strip mall in West Hollywood. It's so unassuming and low key.
Can you can you explain me why is this such a celebrity hot spot?
Right? This has been my latest, like this is my Roman empire, this is my this is my empire. I looked into it, but there's like a Starbucks and like a sketchy massage place.
Next to it.
Yeah, it's above my fat X.
Yeah.
I was like, let's go look at this, like, try to book a dinner. It can't book it's booked. It's it's like a four hundred dollars om case. I was like, what in a strip in a strip mall and a strip mob So people are having like thousand dollars dinners in a strip mall right now? But I was, I was like, what's going on?
So here's one of the things that is attracting actors and musicians to the spot. It has a no photography policy, but I guess that's one of the things that people love about it. Probably it's low key, you know, unassuming, Okay, the.
Thing is, but I think it's been featured in like teen Vogue and like Cosmopolitan now because like I think once I saw that balcony the tenth time. I was like, there's somewhere everybody's going yes, And I think also, if there's no photos aloud inside, you're gonna get photographers outside. So at this point, like is the sushi that good?
We're hitting that.
I don't know she's actually been there, so I was about to jump in. I originally went because like years ago before all these people and the Kardashians were photographed. Jay Z used to go there all the time, and I was dating a guy who loved jay Z, and so I was like, let's go and see if we can run into him. So we went at like five thirty pm and just walked in because we couldn't get a reservation. Walk in, there's like three or four tables in a sushi bar, old tiles on the floor, like
old wood chairs. It's not super beautiful or posh, and like you said, it's super expensive. I think the Oma kasse was like six hundred bucks for two people, and it was like we didn't He just kid his coffee.
I just choked my coffee.
I don't totally get it. I have to be honest, I don't get it. I think club's just like going there because they know that a lot of people like aren't going to bother them and aren't there because it's in a strip mall.
But I think this is funny. A lot of tourists, I think, come to Los Angeles thinking that they're gonna like see celebrities on Hollywood and Highland or something. No, you need to find a strip mall and find the most unassuming restaurant that you can see, and they're probably there.
Okay, we have to take a quick break, but we will be right back, and we're back with pop culture anthropologists. The man that says what's on his mind, Blake Lee Thornton. So Blake Lee. We've been talking about tennis core because of Challengers. Zendaya was in that film and she's been rocking such great outfits courtesy of law Roach. I kind
of love that there's a theme happening here. It does feel kind of met galat to me in a way that other, like movie premieres outside of Barbie haven't felt like. Do you like that celebrities and designers are doing like themed outfits for these premieres?
Now, I love it.
I kind of again, but I'm gay, So I love occasion dressing. I love a theme, but I also think there's a marked financial effect on it. I think Barbiecore drove a lot of box office to that movie. People dressing up like Barbenheimer. I think I think Oppenheimer actually had the biggest bump up effect from being with Barbie because the opportunity for like a man to dress in
the hat and the girl to dress in pink. And I think you've seen that continued with like this tennis core Tashi made me wear a hashtag like I did a video where I kind of calculated what I thought was the actual financial value of them doing this, because nowadays, the impetus to go seem to pay thirty dollars to go see if I'm gonna go out of your house when you're getting cinema quality films in your home is a lot. So I think you have to create this
tangible moment. And there was one dress which I knew was a recreation of Venus William's two thousand Wimbledon rebox dress where she won her first Grand Slam. But she's recontextling all these like black tennis luxury historical moments that get people excited about it. And when I did the video, I saw law created that hashtag and said go out
in your Tashi core do it. They even created a fake magazine interview with her that like was on this gorgeous gowns that like Krolina Haware addressed her like Venus Williams from nineteen ninety eight. And the movie is also really really good.
I loved it. It was so good. But I think that Zendeya is brilliant. I think that the movie business is lucky to have her because she actually has the potential, I think, to revitalize an industry that has really been struggling, you know, since COVID and now with the popularity of watching movies at home. She really is drawing in this younger gen Z audience and she knows that fashion is
a way to connect with this audience. And it's a messaging that like disperses on social media and like you said, it just catches on and there's so much engagement around it. It's really really smart from a strategic level.
Yeah, I think just millennials and especially Gen Z value experience. Yes, I think you have to create an experience because really sitting and watching a movie to them is not an experience, but like getting dressed up, having the hashtag possibly having loans and day a repost you having this thing that becomes a lot, going to get in shop for it, and again like if you were think about it's a
tennis movie. I think she is the generation's like Reese Witherspoon or Julia Roberts in a way that they just had a glavi toss of, like cruel intentions or my best friend's wedding. Like she's doing it on that level where like these movies that aren't really getting made, like a mid range non superhero film is probably gonna do seventy five to one hundred million at the global box office, and that's where movies used to like eat no pun intended, she ate four plus four.
Okay, this brings me to my next topic because I need help. Okay, I looked at my closet the other day and I thought, you're dated, Danielle. Your clothes are out of fashion, your jeans are not fitting. Right. If I start to redoce some things this summer, what do you think I should be looking at? Like who's summer fashion? Are you into? What trends are you into? What should my jeans how flared or not flared?
Should they be well, I feel like it's just so much more confusing for women, Like.
You're being told every day what's in and what's out.
Honestly, just go back and look at what you wore in like the nineties, and wear a more tailored version of that. Go back and look at an old picture of the Spice Girls and wear a subdued version of what sporty or posh wore.
That's such a good tip. Actually, what do you.
Think when you look at your closet? Are you like, yeah, I have good stuff right now?
Why do you think I'm wearing a Kmart white tank top Target? Why am I wearing this? Because I have nothing to wear in my closet.
I just look at the trends now and I'm like glad that there's so many more choices, because I feel like when we were growing up, there just wasn't a lot of choices. I was always a little curvier, so I never like felt like I fit into clothes. Now I do, but there's so many trends that I don't know what to pick.
I suggest always just do tailored basics. If your clothing fits you well, you're beating ninety five percent of the crowd and This is one thing I always tell me in like, you have to tail like I have, you know, I'm you know, slim slim waistick in the hips what Like I have to get my jeans tailored otherwise I look like buckwhat And I have to like tie them together because I have thick thighs, like Mom blessed me with those.
Yeah.
But I just do think like well tailored basics and with like one accessory.
Like today I'm wearing like.
Literally Haynes Mother jeans, but like I have like a little like blood red Chanel boy bag.
People like you're well dressed. It's like, no, this is baby, this is barely pajamas.
I like that because like just black and white T shirts, tanks, jeans, and then you kind of dress it up with jewelry or.
One jewelry pop color of bright yellow sweater, like the accessory like sweater bag shoes one of one to three of those, and people are like you're doing it when reality you're just you rolled out of bed.
I really like that.
I also think monochromatic dressing is such a great shortcut color do it all over. I go on pinchers all the time for a fashion inspiration. Because I like that. The algorithm just feeds me more images that look like that one image, and then I can kind of build off of.
That just to feel good. Honestly, it's such a cliche, but it's so true, Like if you feel good in what you're wearing, it just kills everything else.
I've decided my fashion inspiration for my thirties is Diane Keaton, like all of her nineties wardrobe, and.
That's called Coastal Grandma. That's got the gen Z calls. It's called Coastal Grandma.
Who was watching book Club, which is her movie with Jane Fonda, on an airplane to New York. And then I get off the plane and she was right there wearing her suit and her hat, and I actually went up to her. I love that baggage claim. The problem is that like a gremlin when I travel, and so I was so embarrassed.
Who does it?
Thank you so much, Blakelee, who doesn't The airport is a lawless place, okay, So don't you ever fault yourself. There's no other place where you can see somebody drinking at seven am and be like, I feel you. You're not a grandma. You're in the airport.
Mm hmm.
Do you guys want to hear my embarrassing Mecala story before we go?
Yes, we have to.
So I covered Metcala a couple of years on the red carpet and one year I was walking across the street to get into my position and I had my hair in corn rows and I was like really proud of my hairstyle, and somebody from across the street goes, I don't like your hair, I don't like your face.
Yeah, I hate your general being.
I was stunned.
I was just like horrible, Okay, was he like?
Wait? Was he like an unhinted stranger? Was he?
Who is this man?
Truly, she was totally an unhinged New York stranger, because you know, they all like congregate outside of the Metcala, and New Yorkers will just say anything. They'll just say whatever's on their mind.
Did you not scream back? I did.
I forget what I said, but I scrumped something.
Yeah, okay, that's horrifying. I'm so sorry that happened. But I also I've never been to the met Like, what is it like to be on the carpet?
First of all, you think it's going to be so glamorous being a red carpet reporter at the Met, but you are packed in there like sardines. There are probably fifty sixty reporters on either side of the steps going up to the Met, and you're on an incline the whole time, so you're always yes, so you're always trying to gain your balance. You probably have about two feet of personal space to yourself. You have to bring snacks,
you have to bring hydration. You are literally screaming at celebrities to try to get their attention and get them to come talk to you. Most people didn't talk to me. I got like a couple of people. Shout out Eatris Elba, he was really nice. Shout out Katie Kuric, she came to talk to me. But it is really it is rough. It is like a gauntlet.
How long are you on the carpet for?
Oh my gosh, you're on the carpet for six hours.
But how do you even go about thinking what you're gonna wear at the Met? Gallop because like it's hard to find an outfit for anything.
Girl, I was so broke. I was I was a local news reporter. I was accepting charity so I had a friend who was a designer who dressed me. So I was so grateful for that. But yeah, it's a lot of people don't realize a lot of times when you're a reporter, you got to spend your own money to buy.
I literally DM Dormez I did for a clothes mouth doesn't get fed. I saw that a lot of like just fashion pr people are like heads of brands will follow me just because I talk about fashion. Yeah, and then the same day I got the gig to do the Instagram party, I got like an accidental butt dial call from Instagram from the head of like RAMZ Celebrity Dressing.
So I just DMed him like hey, could.
I have some pieces and like send him like four outfits from like the fall collection and they're like.
Yeah, So I just asked because I was.
Not buying something, you got to ask, I think. Listen, it is a really grueling experience. There's a lot of character building that takes place, but it is really cool to have a front row seat to all of that, and you get to see all the behind the scenes machinations of like how it all comes together, and then to see the dresses and the spectacle in real time?
Is it's cool it's as show exactly?
Speaking of iconic movies in movie fashion, let's take a trip down memory lane, shall we. Did you guys know that Janet Jackson was supposed to play Storm in the X Men franchise and I didn't know that?
Why did you turn it down?
Okay? She recently told Drew Barrymore that she passed on the role because she was going on tour, and then of course it went to our girl, Halle Berry. Okay, but I can't decide who. I mean. I think both of them. Obviously, Halle did an amazing job, but I think Janet Jackson could have done an amazing job too.
Well.
Honestly, I wanted Angela Bassett because because based on the X Men cartoon, that voice Angela Bassett's tone was the most like Storm is very like a Baroque Shakespearean person like out here, like dropping like you know, Elizabethan language on haters. Yes, and I feel like Angela Bassett and like seeing the basket with the white hair and black panther too kind of like brought that full circle for me. Yes, But I think if we cast Storm today, i'd want it to be Cynthia Evo, I think we.
Should just right now recast I love it us okay, because there's a bunch of others, right, Like Christina Applegate said no to playing Elwoods in Legally Blonde, which honestly may have changed the course of my and Simone's career because obviously Reese Witherspoon played that role.
To Christina Applegate, thank you, I can do this. Man. Who else can you think you could have done Legally Blonde? Except her?
Oh no, we cannot recount that movie.
What if we rebooted it? What if we rebooted it? Actually?
Yes, I want her daughter to do it.
This one blows my mind. Bette Midler was almost Sister Mary Clarence in Sister Act.
How do you do that?
No?
No, I could Bette Miller's like vaudevillian, like Sister Mary Clarence.
I could definitely see Bette Miller being in Sister Act.
I love that word.
She's just you know, I think jazz hands every time I see her.
How about John Travolta was going to be Forrest Gump. I hate that instead of Tom Hanks.
I hate that so much.
I know Tom Hanks was meant to be Forrest Gump.
I just yeah, John Travolta is a very specific actor, and I think that this is spanning the decades would have been very like it would I think Forrest Gump would have been water worlded if John Travolta.
Was in it. I don't think it fits.
Can we talk about an undervalued John Travolta film for a second, and that is Phenomenon? Yes, Eric Clapton's sound track.
Oh good, so good.
I was literally just thinking about Phenomenon before you said that.
It's kind of my It's like my mini Roman Empire.
I think Phenomena.
I watched some time about at least once a month. I was SI, it's my comfort movie. Phenomenon Stream six.
Oh, scream sex is your comfort movie.
I love it.
I don't know why I've talked. I've actually talked to my therapist about it. I think it's because they survive, Okay. I think it's just these girls just getting through, and they're just getting through in New York City.
Yes, you know, shit keeps happening. Six gram six is like life. Life comes at your fast. It really must. We're a helmet and.
It really does. Blakely, it has been so much fun having you with us. We cannot wait to have you back.
Think I will be back with a Vengeance.
And we cannot wait to watch your met Galla watch party this Monday. Yes, where can people watch it?
I believe it will be on the Instagram Creators channel and also possibly Instagram's feed, so we'll see, I'll tell, I'll DM you guys.
You can find the Blakelee almost Nieman Thornton on Instagram and TikTok at Blakelee Thornton.
All right, bright Side, besties, we are out of here. Thanks so much for listening and hanging out with us. Have a wonderful weekend.
Yes, please do something that brings you joy. We'll be back on Monday to talk women in Tech with author and entrepreneur Brook Marcovicis. The bright Side is a production of Hello, Sunshine and iHeart Podcasts and is executive produced by Reese Witherspoon.
Production by Arcana Audio. Courtney Gilbert is our associate producer. Our producers are Stephanie Brown and Jessica Wank. Our engineer is PJ. Shahamat, and our senior producer is Itsy Qinthenia.
Arcana's executive producers are Francis Harlowe and Abby Ruzika. Arcana's head of production is Matt Schultz.
Natalie Tulluck and Maureen Polo are the executive producers for Hello Sunshine.
Julia Weaver is the supervising producer, and Ali Perry is the executive producer for iHeart Podcasts. Tim Palazzola is our showrunner. This week's episodes were recorded by Graham Gibson.
Our theme song is by Anna Stump and Hamilton lighthauser.
Special thanks to Connell Burn and Will Pearson.
I'm Simone Boyce. You can find me at Simone Boyce on Instagram and TikTok.
And I'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok. That's r O b A.
Y See you Monday fam. Keep looking on the bright side.