The Substance starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley has fast become the most talked-about horror of the year, with audiences divided on whether it’s a feminist masterpiece, or a ‘vile and disgusting’ exemplar of the male gaze. We get into how the film taps into our own fears around ageing and how Demi’s role was influenced by career-long toxic media scrutiny. Also this week, we deep-dive into the horrific allegations and rumours that have come to light since Diddy’s arrest, from his ‘freak offs’ and disturbing relationship with a young Justin Bieber, to the music mogul’s careful curation of a ‘legit’ celebrity persona. Is all of Hollywood as dark and sinister a place as it seems? As part of our conversation about male sexual assault, we also discuss the No1 show on Netflix right now, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.

Huge thanks to our sponsor Yonder, the incredible lifestyle credit card packed with rewards you’ll actually *want* to use, from points to use towards your bill at the trendiest restaurants and bars in the UK, to world-wide travel insurance and no FX fees for your hols. Find out more at yonder.com/straightup

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We're also thrilled to be partnered with brand new quarterly newspaper The Pass, the only publication bold enough to ignore food influencer hype and give us properly honest London restaurant reviews. ⁠Subscribe here⁠ to receive the new issue and find out what to cross off, and put on, your list.

DM us your thoughts on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠@straightuppod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or email us at ⁠hello@straightuppodcast.co.uk⁠ and as ever please, please, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and a rating on Spotify, lysm!

Reccs/ Culture discussed

• The Substance (in cinemas)

• I’m a 50-something woman and nothing about Demi Moore’s anti-ageing body horror rings true, Telegraph

• ‘We can be violent to ourselves. Brutal’: Demi Moore on body image, reinvention and her most shocking role yet, Guardian

• Real Ageing is scarier than what’s going on in The Substance, The Cut

• Helter Skelter by Ninagawa Mika (2012)

• Once More From The Top by Emily Layden

• Blink Twice (2024), Apple TV

• I Survived Diddy’s White Party, YouTube

• Yummy, Justin Bieber (YouTube)

• The staggering fall of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs – from music mogul to criminal charges, Guardian

• The Powerful Celebs Who Acted as Diddy’s Human Shield, Daily Beast

• Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, Netflix

• The Wild, True Tale Behind Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, Vanity Fair

• Behind every Al-Fayed and Diddy there is a small army of enablers, Guardian

Jacqueline Wilson's GIRLS books were a defining part of our childhoods, so how does the author's 20-years-on sequel (for adults!) match up? We discuss whether the books were a good influence and how her real life inspired her writing. Also this week, we dissect all the juiciest bits from Anna Wintour's Vogue doc, and question how 'guilty' Matthew Perry's long-time assistant was in his death. Plus, a round-up of our fave TV shows, and whether star ratings matter.

Huge thanks to our sponsor Yonder, the incredible lifestyle credit card packed with rewards you’ll actually *want* to use, from points to use towards your bill at the trendiest restaurants and bars in the UK, to experiences from the theatre to flights. Find out more at yonder.com/straightup

Subject to eligibility. 18+ and UK Residents Only. T&C's apply.

We're also thrilled to be partnered with brand new quarterly newspaper The Pass, the only publication bold enough to ignore food influencer hype and give us properly honest London restaurant reviews. Subscribe here to receive the new issue and find out what to cross off, and put on, your list.

DM us your thoughts on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠@straightuppod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or email us at ⁠hello@straightuppodcast.co.uk⁠ and as ever please, please, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and a rating on Spotify, lysm!

There are still virtual tickets to our event next Thurs (26th) with the Trouble Club! Use our code STRAIGHTUP50 for 50% off!

Reccs/ culture discussed:

• Think Again by Jacqueline Wilson (the ‘Girls’ series follow up)
• Jacqueline Wilson: the children’s author who’s now writing graphic sex for adults, The Times
• Jacqueline Wilson’s girls seem depressingly unable to grow up, The Telegraph
• In Vogue: The 90s, Disney+
• In Vogue: The 90s review – Anna Wintour and pals offer up hour after hour of fabulous nothingness, Guardian
• In Vogue: The 90s review — proof of Anna Wintour’s pulling power, The Times
• Anna Wintour: The Biography, by Amy Odell
• Confessions of former Vogue assistants, Amy Odell’s Back Row (Substack)
• Did Matthew Perry’s Assistant Have a Choice? Hollywood Veterans Aren’t So Sure, Vanity Fair
• Why being a celebrity assistant is truly the worst job in Hollywood, Telegraph
• The Assistant, BFI Player
• Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, Disney +
• How To Die Alone, Disney +
• We Might Regret This, BBC
• Nightsleeper, BBC
• Colin from Accounts, BBC
• Slow Horses, Apple TV
• English Teacher, Disney+
• Cooking for People, Mike Davies
• Cook As You Are, Ruby Tandoh

Nicole Kidman’s badly-behaved-billionaires thriller The Perfect Couple is no1 on Netflix but we are divided! Kathleen loved it, Ellie didn’t, so we hash it out…(no spoilers!) and look forward to Kidman’s VERY racy film Babygirl. On that note, is The Times right to say that women’s ’dirty talk’ has become big business in pop culture? Gillian Anderson might agree: the star has just published an anonymous collection of sexual fantasies from women around the country, and Ellie reads out her, um, favourites. Plus: we dissect whether that viral Travis/Taylor ‘breakup contract’ can possibly be real, and Kathleen recommends a heartbreaking but empowering new podcast about fertility from our fellow pod hunnies at Shameless.

Reccos

• Kaos, Netflix
• Jeff Goldblum is a tracksuit-wearing Zeus in Netflix’s Greek myth series, Financial Times
• Shifters, Duke of York theatre
• Little Violet Door, Soho
• The Bear S3, Disney +
• How Kylie Jenner Won At Fashion, Family And Dating On The DL, British Vogue
• The Perfect Couple, Netflix
• She just unravels so beautifully’: how Nicole Kidman conquered the world – then kept on going, The Observer
• A Family Affair, Netflix
• Babygirl (out Jan 10)
• Substance (out Sept 20)
• WANT by Gillian Anderson
• Kinky sex — what a turn-off! Gillian Anderson’s sexual fantasy bookCat Brushing, Jane Campbell
• How women talking dirty became big business, The Times
• Submit, anon
• All Fours, Miranda July
• Cleavage, Cleo Watson
• Erotic audio platforms Quinn and Dipsea
• Living With Yourself, Netflix
• Glass podcast, Shameless Media

If you're a London foodie you NEED lifestyle credit card Yonder, which allows you to collect points for every pound you spend and then redeem them at some of the most amazing restaurants and bars in the capital, as well as against London theatre tickets (such as Ellie's recco Shifters!), and more. Thanks to our amazing podcast partner Yonder for sponsoring Straight Up.

We didn’t think celeb breakups could get bigger than Maya and Stormzy, or Bennifer, but now Molly Mae and Tommy Fury have just proven that this very much is the year of the celeb breakup (and it’s killing us!!). We try to understand why we’re all taking it so personally, and assess the very icky rumours surrounding Tommy’s recent trip to Macedonia as well as the friction between Molly’s boss bitch success and the Fury’s traditional values. We’re also devo to report that our faves Barry Keoghan and Sabrina Carpenter may have joined the heartbreak train. Plus, Ellie gives us the verdict on Zoe Kravitz’s buzzy directorial debut Blink Twice, a sinister horror film seemingly inspired by Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘paedo island’. And of course we had to debrief on Dolly Aderton’s interview with the Sunday Times (anyone else have a Dolly Google Alert..?).

Enjoy hunnys! And we're on a one-week break next week but back straight after - dive into our archive while you wait!

DM us your thoughts on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠@straightuppod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or email us at ⁠hello@straightuppodcast.co.uk⁠ and as ever please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and a rating on Spotify, lysm!

Thanks so much to our amazing partner Whitebox Cocktails, who make the tastiest canned cocktails we have ever tried, from Maragritas and Negronis, frozen Martinis to Old Fashioneds. GET 20% OFF with our code SU20 at⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠https://whiteboxcocktails.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠

Reccs

• Short N’Sweet by Sabrina Carpenter
• Chicken Shop Date with Sabrina Carpenter, YouTube
• At Home with the Furys, Netflix
• Dolly Alderton on fashion: There’s more fun to be had in heels, The Times (and have a listen to our big Dolly Alderton deepdive from Nov 2023!)
• Blink Twice (in cinemas)
• Blink Twice is guilty of a vile horror trope, Slate
• Promising Young Woman, Amazon Prime Video
• The Lost City, Netflix
• Inside Out 2, Disney +
• Big Boys, Channel 4
• The Conversation We Should Be Having Around It Ends With Us, The Cut

We are so excited to have finally announced our live event with The Trouble Club on 26th September at The Dally in Islington. Get your ticket for £15 with the code STRAIGHTUP50 here, or a virtual ticket for £7: ⁠⁠https://www.thetroubleclub.com/events/straight-up-live-podcast-recording⁠⁠

We’re talking books this week, hunnies, as what better time of year than to get stuck into some summer reads than holiday szn? From the hottest books of 2024 (think: Butter, Blue Sisters and Brotherless Night) to the all-time faves we're still thinking about years on, these are the titles we suggest adding to your bucket-list immediately. Thank you so much for your reccs so far, we've added the ones we didn't get a chance to talk about today below and will keep on ploughing through, please do send more!

We are so excited to have finally announced our live event with The Trouble Club on 26th September at The Dally in Islington. Get your ticket for £15 with the code STRAIGHTUP50 here: https://www.thetroubleclub.com/events/straight-up-live-podcast-recording

DM us your thoughts on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠@straightuppod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or email us at ⁠hello@straightuppodcast.co.uk⁠ and as ever please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and a rating on Spotify, lysm!

Thanks so much to our amazing partners:

Whitebox Cocktails, who make the tastiest canned cocktails we have ever tried, from Maragritas and Negronis, frozen Martinis to Old Fashioneds. GET 20% OFF with our code SU20 at⁠⁠⁠ ⁠https://whiteboxcocktails.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠

Incite Nutrition, a UK based supplement company making our favourite Vitamin D spray and biotin (plus marine collagen and lots more). Incredibly reasonably priced and amazing quality. GET 15% OFF via Amazon with the code STRAIGHTUP at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠https://amzn.to/4eY4odu⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Books / culture discussed:

• Butter by Asako Yuzuki
• Slutty Chef column, Vogue
• Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors
• Banal Nightmare by Halle Butler
• Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan
• A Little Dust on the Eyes by Minoli Salgado
• Anil’s Ghost by Michael Ondaatje
• The Island of the Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
• 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak
• Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
• Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart
• Sociopath: A Memoir by Patric Gagnee
• Kill Your Friends by John Niven
• The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson
• Reach For the Stars by Michael Cragg
• Educated by Tara Westover
• How Lucky Blue and Nara Aziza Smith Made Viral Internet Fame From Scratch, GQ
• The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
• What Tweens Get from Sephora and What They Get from Us, Jia Tolentino for the New Yorker
• No one is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
• The Unwilding by Marina Kemp
• You Are Here by David Nicholls
• Us by David Nicholls
• The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
• Sandwich by Catherine Newman
• A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
• Margot’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe
• Caledonian Road by Andrew O’Hagen
• Doppelganger by Naomi Klein
• Experience by Kate Young
• Mrs S by K Patrick

Everyone’s talking about ‘It Ends With Us’ atm, huns, as some very bizarre things seem to be going down on the film’s press tour, with rumours of a feud between stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. We get into it all, from the Colleen Hoover book it’s based on, to the allegations of bad behaviour from both Blake and Justin. And what’s with the way it’s being promoted? Also this week, we recommend a fab new show about a woman who travels to parallel universes when she orgasms, Slip. We review ‘Babes’, a pregnancy comedy that was touted as the ‘new Bridesmaids’ (wtf?). And debrief on Hunter Schafer’s Call Her Daddy Interview. Given her Euphoria update, we dissect the recent Hollywood Reporter investigation into what’s really happening with the show and its controversial creator Sam Levinson.

Head to ⁠pfeffersal.com ⁠for more on the world-leading facials we review in this episode, with packages that save you money on your treatments. Buy 3 treatments, receive the fourth half price. Buy 5 treatments, receive the sixth for free.

See Pfeffer Sal's ⁠FAQ page⁠ for more. Find Pfeffer Sal on Insta ⁠@pfeffersal⁠ and the gorgeous clinic at The Stables, 10B Warren Mews, London W1T 6BY.

DM us your thoughts on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠@straightuppod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or email us at ⁠hello@straightuppodcast.co.uk⁠ and as ever please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and a rating on Spotify, lysm!

Thanks so much to our amazing partners:

Whitebox Cocktails, who make the tastiest canned cocktails we have ever tried, from Maragritas and Negronis, frozen Martinis to Old Fashioneds. GET 20% OFF with our code SU20 at⁠⁠ ⁠https://whiteboxcocktails.com/⁠⁠⁠

Incite Nutrition, a UK based supplement company making our favourite Vitamin D spray and biotin (plus marine collagen and lots more). Incredibly reasonably priced and amazing quality. GET 15% OFF via Amazon with the code STRAIGHTUP at⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠https://amzn.to/4eY4odu⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Reccos/culture discussed:

• Babes (2024)

• Passages (2023)

• Slip, ITVX

• The Instigators, Apple TV

• It Ends with Us (in cinemas now)

• It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover (book)

• Hunter Schafer on Call Her Daddy

• How Hunter Schafer Became ‘A Badass Thriller Bad Bitch’, Rolling Stone

• What’s Ailing ‘Euphoria’? Tragedy and Trauma Inside TV’s Buzziest Show, Hollywood Reporter

• Stealing Girlhood: The Legacy of Women's Work Being Stolen, Final Girl Studios YouTube

• Inside The Cult of the Far Right, The Newsagents

• What Do The Riots Say About Britain? Ash Sarkar, Aaron Bastani and Rivkah Brown Discuss, Novara Media YouTube

• Death of England: The Plays, Soho Place theatre

Charli XCX and Billie Eilish’s new collab might just be the hottest song of the summer – and we are here for it! We get into all the discourse surrounding the pop culture-dominating duo: from BRAT and Charli’s birthday party to Billie’s insane charisma and those absurd queer-baiting allegations. Next, we debrief on the Suki Waterhouse Vogue cover and Ryan Reynolds on Chicken Shop Date, before running through some of the best new TV series we’ve seen. My Lady Jane, a hilarious revisionist comedy recommended by lots of you lovely listeners, Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam, about the con-man behind the Backstreet Boys and N’Sync, and, of course, a quick debrief on the House of the Dragon finale. Also this week: we return to one of the most inescapable topics of 2024, age gap relationships, as Leonardo DiCaprio appears to have broken his ‘25 and under only’ rule with Vittoria Ceretti, and a 21-year-old British influencer comes under fire for having a 16-year-old boyfriend.

DM us your thoughts on Instagram⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠@straightuppod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or email us at ⁠hello@straightuppodcast.co.uk⁠ and as ever please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and a rating on Spotify, lysm!

Thanks so much to our amazing partners:

Whitebox Cocktails, who make the tastiest canned cocktails we have ever tried. We keep drinking our fave classic Margarita on air, but they stock everything from frozen Martinis to Old Fashioneds. GET 20% OFF with our code SU20 at ⁠https://whiteboxcocktails.com/⁠

Incite Nutrition, a UK based supplement company making our favourite Vitamin D spray and biotin (plus marine collagen and lots more). Incredibly reasonably priced and amazing quality. GET 15% OFF via Amazon with the code STRAIGHTUP at⁠⁠ ⁠https://amzn.to/4eY4odu⁠⁠⁠

Culture discussed:

• May December (see our age gaps ep from Nov ‘23 for more)
• Glen Powell’s meteoric rise proves audiences don’t actually care about age gaps, Independent
• Guess (remix) featuring Billie Eilish by Charli xcx
• Twisters (2024)
• Amelia Dimoldenberg What’s in My Bag, Vogue
• Miranda Kerr, What’s in my Bag, Vogue
• Phoning It In, Billie Eilish, Elle
• Suki Waterhouse On Her Wild Ride From London It-Girl To LA Mum, British Vogue
• Chicken Shop Date with Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, YouTube
• He’s So Annoying: For years, being “sexy” didn’t work for Ryan Reynolds, Vulture
• Longlegs (2024)
• It Follows (2014)
• Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam, Netflix
• My Lady Jane, Amazon Prime Video
• House of the Dragon, HBO
• How House of the Dragon’s Ewan Mitchell became TV’s most chilling villain, the Times

How much should a journalist impose their own judgement in an interview? That’s the row raging on social media this week, after the Times published a profile of mega-influencer Hannah Neeleman, better known by her handle and business name ‘Ballerina Farm’. Writer Megan Agnew spent a day at Ballerina Farm in Utah with ‘queen of the tradwives’ Hannah, her eight kids, and husband Daniel, exploring the complexities of her ‘homemaker’ life as a Mormon mother. Is this important journalism exposing the underbelly of the ‘tradwife’ movement and a blatant case of coercive control? Or is it, as some have argued, a ‘hit piece’ with a ‘toxic’ faux-feminist agenda? We examine the many contradictions at the heart of this conversation, along with the rise of the Mormon influencer and the pro-natalist movement (ew, Elon Musk). Also, our verdict on the new Netflix Simone Biles documentary in time for the Olympics, Josh O’Connor’s incredible film La Chinera, which has just landed on streaming, and Apple TV’s Lady in the Lake starring Natalie Portman.

Ps: Please leave us some recommendations for uplifting books for August! We need happy content!!

DM us your thoughts on Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠@straightuppod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or email us at ⁠hello@straightuppodcast.co.uk⁠ and as ever please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and a rating on Spotify, lysm!

Thanks so much to our amazing partners:

Whitebox Cocktails, who make the tastiest canned cocktails we have ever tried. We were drinking our fave classic Margarita on air but they stock everything from frozen Martinis to Old Fashioneds. GET 20% OFF with our code SU20 at https://whiteboxcocktails.com/

Incite Nutrition, which is a UK based supplement company that makes the best and tiniest biotin which has given Ellie the healthiest nails of her life. Incredibly reasonably priced and amazing quality. GET 15% OFF via Amazon with the code STRAIGHTUP at⁠ ⁠https://amzn.to/4eY4odu⁠⁠

Reccs discussed:

• Simone Biles Rising, Netflix
• Meet the queen of the ‘trad wives’ (and her eight children), the Times
• My day with the trad wife queen and what it taught me, the Times
• Trad Wives: The influencers selling 1950s house-wife life, The Story podcast for the Times
• Meet the influencers repackaging the Mormon dream, Hunger
• La Chimera, Amazon Prime
• Lady in the Lake, Apple TV
• Land of Women, Apple TV