More influencers in cults, the Vatican's metaverse & one-click deceptions 👀🍿🧃
Also if Goop's Conference got religious
Hi Wrecklings! Authoring The Wreck List has made me realize that joining a cult actually is, apparently more common than I’d have ever imagined. Meanwhile, contrary to what I was warned about as a kid, the Bermuda Triangle has never been a problem. Then again, school also taught us how to square dance but not how to file taxes, so...
Anyway! Here’s this week’s scamdal:
“A Top YouTube Beauty Guru Has an Ugly History of Peddling Pseudoscience Bullshit”- Michelle Phan appears to have possibly, maybe joined a cult (no, not referencing her crypto shilling) which I guess for those familiar with her career, isn’t surprising.
“Inside the colossal failure of VENN, the ‘MTV of video games’”- This piece is WILD, a real corporate 🗑️🔥, if you’re into those kinds of things.
“Bolt Built $11 Billion Payment Business on Inflated Metrics and Eager Investors”- What’s going on with these one-click payment startups? Here’s an article about the shady background of Fast’s founder— which was shut down less than two months after the NPR piece ran.
“I Went To Former Fitness Influencer Brittany Dawn’s Conference And I Guess I Understand Her Now”- This basically sounds like the religious, less fancy version of the Goop Conference. Which, Fast Company did an amazing piece on a few years ago— and then again a year after that when the conference “got even weirder, but somehow more professional.”
“It's a Hot Mess': Why Influencers Are Ditching Bella Thorne’s OnlyFans Company”- Explaining that your “mom runs day-to-day operations and is our creative director” is a really strange way of not taking accountability for a company you founded.
“A Texas Tale of Tinder, Millions in Stolen Crypto and Murder”- Let’s 👏 not 👏 send 👏 strangers 👏 off 👏 the 👏 internet 👏 money 👏 anymore!
“Patriots Traded Jimmy Garoppolo Because He Allegedly Got Owner Robert Kraft Girlfriend Ricki Noel Lander Pregnant”- Love when tips spilled on DeuxMoi get coverage. Who knows if any of this is true but the Patriots seem to have a penchant for scandal.
“Miami Grand Prix felt ‘like the Fyre Festival of F1 races’: attendees”- Idk if one of the Spice Girls really almost got run over by cops but the response to this tweet still has me chuckling two days later.
“Vatican Offers, Mysteriously Rescinds Interview About Pope’s Metaverse Plans”- From a former publicist' perspective, this is 100% the case of a PR team trying to buy time… Why they’re doing this, is the question. Looks like you can get cold feet in the Metaverse.
“Dancing in the Name of the Lord The ‘cult’ claims about a TikTok-famous set of performers shocked everyone — except L.A.’s dancefluencer community.”- We flagged this Gawker piece a couple months ago and the buzz about 7M have gained in traction since— including pieces in The Daily Beast and The Daily Mail.
“Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control: Inside Shein’s Sudden Rise”- I’m proud I haven’t ordered from Shein yet but there’s clearly something amiss if their prices are so suspiciously low.
“Defamation suit: Influencer Rachel Wong fails in bid to find woman, who accused her of infidelity, in contempt”- This story is… messy messy. Much like with the Depp vs. Heard trial, seems like there are just a lot of skeletons being dragged out of closets for the public to see. No winners, everyone loses.
“Russian influencer could be jailed over nude Instagram photoshoot by sacred tree in Bali”- All these bad choices but luckily isn’t being tried for treason… 🥁💥 So sorry, I’ll see myself out.
More Serious Stories
We realize some of these can be triggering for some readers, so feel free to skip!
“NXIVM sex cult guru wants new judge to decide evidence-planting claim”
“Israel: Turkish flight aborted as passengers get plane crash pics”
“Gina. Rosanne. Guy. What do you do the day after you storm the Capitol?”
Because the article title is gonna trip some email spam filters: this piece covers how the writer’s dad was in the cult that was featured in the Wild Wild Country documentary. The whole thing is INSANE but the part I remember most was the rumor about blended up beavers being put in the water supply to poison the Wasco County residents.
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P.S. While we’re obsessed with these stories, we don’t endorse any of these insane behaviors. 💋