By Grace Howard
TikTok is putting us through a rollercoaster of emotions
Unless you live under a rock I am sure you have heard of the TikTok ban.
On April 24, 2024, President Biden signed legislation requiring ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, to sell the app to a U.S. owner or else it would be banned in the U.S.
Very overdramatic, in my opinion.
January came, we all knew that time was about to expire but no one thought the ban would actually go through. Well at least I didn’t, maybe I was in denial.
On Jan. 18 as I was scrolling my for you page, an alert came on my screen that read, “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.” That is what the top section reads. The bottom section was a little odd, it said “We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!”
I say this is odd because Trump was the person who originally wanted TikTok banned back in April 2020 because he said China was at fault for COVID-19. I don’t know what those things have to do with each other, but who knows what goes through that man’s mind.
I had accepted the fact that TikTok was gone, kinda.
Twelve hours later, I tapped on the app out of pure habit, which is embarrassing, but it had a new alert that read “Welcome back! Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.! You can continue to create, share, and discover all the things you love on TikTok.”
I went through all five stages of grief in 12 hours just for it to come back from the dead. I’m not complaining but it was kinda annoying and unnecessary in my opinion. I am just happy we all have one of the best apps ever made back in our hands.
Unless you deleted it, that really sucks if you deleted it. Let’s hope it’s back in the App Stores soon!
Who is suing who?
This lawsuit between Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds and Justin Baldoni is so confusing I can barely keep up. Ever since the movie “It Ends With Us” came out, there has been nothing but drama surrounding them.
The first thing that created drama with this movie was Lively being canceled on social media for being “tone deaf” by marketing her new hair care line during interviews about a movie focusing on domestic violence.
It was rumored that Baldoni and Lively were feuding on set while filming due to Lively taking control of scenes even though Baldoni was the director of the film. They also were not seen together in any press for the movie which is very weird due to the fact that they are the stars of the movie.
What is it with grown celebrities acting like they have middle school drama?
On Dec. 21, 2024, Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni for alleged sexual harassment. Wow. I did not see that coming. Lively expressed that Baldoni caused her “severe emotional distress.” She also claimed that he began a campaign to “destroy” her reputation when the lawsuit got out to the public.
Kinda wild on his part.
Baldoni ended up being dropped by his talent agency “WME”, who also repped Lively and Reynolds. Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, released a statement saying “Audiences found Lively’s own actions, interviews and marketing during the promotional tour distasteful, and responded organically to that which the media themselves picked up on”.
Oh also, their co-star Brandon Sklenar sided with Lively on this whole situation, sharing the lawsuit on an Instagram post with the caption “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD READ THIS” with a red heart and tagging Lively. As you can tell he was very passionate about this situation.
Baldoni also got sued by his old publicist for a breach of contract, his podcast co-host Liz Plank left their podcast and had his Vital Voices “ally to women” award taken away.
Extremely rough couple of months for this guy.
He then decided to fight back. Baldoni countersued Lively and Reynolds for $400 million dollars claiming they wanted to “destroy” his reputation. Ironic because Lively said the same thing about Baldoni.
This is going to be a crazy trial to hear about and I honestly cannot wait for it to start. I will keep updating as the trial moves forward because this is just the start I fear.
The king and queen are engaged
TOM HOLLAND AND ZENDAYA ARE ENGAGED. We have all been waiting for this. If you weren’t then just admit you are a hater because these two can do no wrong.
The rumors that Holland and Zendaya were seeing each other started when they were filming “Spider-man: Homecoming” back in 2016. After the movie came out in July 2017, I didn’t know a single person who didn’t ship these two together.
They denied the dating rumors for a while and it was rumored that they even broke up and started dating other people until July 2021, when the paparazzi got photos of the two kissing in a car. A couple of months later, Holland posted for Zendaya’s birthday with the caption “My MJ, have the happiest of birthdays. Gimme a call when your up xxx” confirming the relationship we have been waiting for.
I remember exactly where I was that day in my car freaking out over an Instagram post, I think that’s when I knew I had an addiction to social media.
After years of seeing this relationship be unproblematic and the cutest thing ever, Zendaya walked the Golden Globes red carpet on Jan. 5 wearing a gorgeous ring on her left hand, showing the world that she was engaged. The couple has yet to comment on the engagement but sources have told TMZ “He popped the question between Christmas and New Year’s … dropping to one knee in a very intimate setting in one of Zendaya’s family homes in the United States.”
They are the cutest couple ever and that’s all I have to say on that.
Women are funnier than men
Nikki Glaser. The icon that she is. Glaser hosted the 82nd annual Golden Globes on Jan. 5, 2025, being the first woman to solo host the show and she killed it.
After last year’s host, Jo Koy, the bar was set pretty low for the host this year. He made some interesting comments at the show last year but that is not what we are here to talk about.
Glaser is so funny without even trying. She clocks people, but without being too mean. She is a very hard person to dislike unless you’re Tom Brady.
Something different about Glaser was that she actually seemed like she wanted to be there which made others feel the same way. In my opinion, Gen-Z cares about two award shows, The Oscars and The Grammys, so for the Golden Globes to now be entertaining was a change of scenery.
Glaser knows how to make a crowd laugh and keep them engaged which is a hard thing to do especially with TikTok around, if I were a celebrity at an award show I would be on TikTok the whole time.
It has been reported that Glaser has already been asked to host next year’s Golden Globes and I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw her host other award shows as well.
