Keke Palmer and Addison Rae: Redefining Reinvention
Reinventing yourself isn’t an easy task…unless you’re Keke Palmer and Addison Rae. Let’s dive into the ups and downs of shaking your past self and why harsh realities can lead to brighter futures.
What a week it’s been for America. If this inauguration was any sign of what the next four years in this country are going to be like, someone grab me a bottle of prosecco. Let’s take a moment to reminisce on what we once had:
*sigh*
Anywho…before we dive into this week’s podcast topics, I need to take a moment to give Cole Escola and the entire cast of ‘Oh, Mary!’ their 10’s because WOW. I have never laughed as hard as I did last Thursday at the Lyceum Theatre. Take my word for it and go see this show. You will not be dissapointed.
All of that being said, let’s get into this week’s episode!
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The word of the week is reinvention, and I’m looking directly at you Keke Palmer and Addison Rae.
Keke Palmer opens up about being left out of the childhood star conversation
One thing about Keke Palmer? She’s going to be booked and busy and I’m going to be glued to every single piece of press she does. While promoting her new movie ‘One of Them Days’, she chatted with The Cut, and discussed how she was “left out” of conversations as a young star that her peers (Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, and Victoria Justice) were apart of due to the color of her skin and being “the black girl of the network.” As someone who grew up obsessed with Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, I couldn’t help but think about the way when I think about the stars I listed above their childhood projects are always part of the conversation. When I think of Keke Palmer? True Jackson VP doesn’t even scratch the surface of my brain, and I think (correct me if I’m wrong) this is the case for most people. Keke has done such an impressive job at separating herself from her childhood acting gigs and creating so many different avenues in her career that forces the conversation to focus on everything but her role in ‘Jump In!‘ with Corbin Bleu.
Where this conversation gets sticky is thinking about how her being left out of the conversations mentioned above lead to a seamless transition to her “adult” roles. On one hand, it breaks my heart to think about a 15-year-old facing racism in the workplace. On the other hand, we’ve been able to watch Keke transition into more adult roles without the conversation of “Wasn’t she on Nickelodeon? Why is she acting like that?” With that, I also think looking at Miley Cyrus or Demi Lovato’s attempts to “break free” from their childhood acting careers, there was such a dramatic change. Miley went from ‘Party in the U.S.A’ to ‘Can’t Be Tamed’ in nine months. NINE MONTHS! There was such an abrupt shift in these attempts to shake Mickey Mouse that it became impossible to not bring Hannah Montana up when discussing Miley’s new image.
Addison Rae is Rolling Stone’s February covergirl
On the topic of reinvention, Addison Rae sat down with Rolling Stone to discuss what’s next for her blossoming pop music career that I, for one, am extremely seated for. They described her music as “hypnotic, trance-like pop songs, pulsating and lush, which will no doubt accomplish the primary goal of Rae and her collaborators: to make people dance” which is exactly what the world needs right now: to dance.
When you think about Addison Rae and the way she’s transitioned off TikTok and into pop music, she did it in such a unique way that’s working incredibly well for her. When her music began leaking, she saw a niche group of people (gay people + online girlies) begging for her to release it and she completely perfected her new image by niching down and catering directly to the limp wrist community.
By finding her audience and knowing what they wanted, she’s gained a cult following who eat up everything she does which is questionably more valuable than the masses liking one of your songs and not sticking around for the ride.
We also chatted about….
Justin Bieber claims he was hacked after unfollowing Hailey Bieber
…which seems completely impossible. Maybe if it was 2014 I’d believe that Justin Bieber’s Instagram could be hacked, but not in the year 2025. Justin’s Instagram activity has been so strange lately; between unfollowing the entirety of his old team, to sharing half naked photos, to now “getting hacked” and unfollowing his wife…it just seems strange. Dare I say this is a PR stunt for an upcoming album? I guess time will tell.
Chappell Roan chats with BBC about not wanting to please everyone
After having an absolutely insane 2024, I was wondering how long it would be into the new year that we would hear from Chappell Roan. Turns out, 20 days! She was awarded the BBC Sound of 2025 Award and sat down with Jack Saunders to discuss the whirlwind of a year she had last year and how she likes when people hate what she’s doing.
“If I can look back and say, ‘I did not crumble under the weight of expectation, and I did not stand for being abused or blackmailed’, [then] at least I stayed true to my heart.”
What I love about the way Chappell views 2024 is that she’s not looking at her hot mic press moments (yelling at the paparazzi, mispronouncing Kamala, etc…) as bad moments. She’s saying she didn’t crumble in these moments and stayed true to her heart which isn’t an easy feat when your monthly listeners grow 1,491% in under a year.
Wendy Williams calls into The Breakfast Club to discuss her conservatorship
When I saw this headline, I audibly gasped: Wendy Williams giving an interview in 2025!? It seemed too good to be true! She called into The Breakfast Club to chat with longtime friend Charlemagne and his co-hosts about the “luxury prison” she’s in and how she's locked in this place against her will. In short: this interview was heartbreaking and really opened our eyes to the severity of her conservatorship. It’s giving Britney Spears and not ‘...Baby One More Time’ era, unfortunately.
It’s clear that she’s able to form coherent sentences and knows what she can and can’t say from a legal standpoint, which any cognitively impaired person would not be able to do. Something’s up and I hope this opens the door for her to get the freedom she deserves.
Jen Shah's prison sentence was shortened again, now set for a 2026 release
Jen Shah getting arrested outside Beauty Lab + Laser has got to be one of the top 10 moments on reality TV, ever.
She was originally sentenced to 6.5 years in 2023, meaning she’d be out by 2029. Due to good behavior, her sentence has come down for a third time which means by next fall, she’s a free woman. The question on everyone’s mind? Will Bravo have Jen Shah back on RHOSLC!? To be fully transparent, I don’t know if we need her back on the series. I think these ladies have created television gold without her and they’ve all been able to shine without her on the cast. However, I can Bravo or some other network creating a limited series of Jen coming home and getting her life back together after prison with her family. After all, the word of the week is reinvention.
And that wraps up this week’s episode! Hope you all have a fabulous week, and I’ll talk to you all soon! 💖