STwenty years ago tonight, a sixteen-year-old from Pennsylvania put out her first album.
EAnd the music industry just... let her? Bold move, in hindsight.
SVariety dug up an old Q&A from back then. She said, quote, 'I want to be here for the next twenty years.'
EMission accomplished. A little too well, some would say.
SOh, here we go. The guy who owns every Steely Dan record is gonna lecture me about Taylor.
EI'm not lecturing. I'm saying the album was fine. 'Tim McGraw' is a genuinely good country song. But nobody in 2006 had 'biggest artist on Earth' on their bingo card.
SI think a lot of people did. She wrote every song on that record at fifteen and sixteen. The label wanted her to record other people's material, and she refused.
EThat's the part I respect. She bet on her own writing when every Nashville exec told her not to.
SAnd she was right. Twenty years, eleven albums, re-recordings, the whole empire. Built on that first bet.
EFine. I'll admit it. The kid had a plan.
SSpeaking of people who had a plan and it got weird... Variety has a story about 'Young Sheldon' that is making people very uncomfortable.
ELet me guess. The kid who played Georgie is now older than the mom who played Mary?
SClose. Emily Osment, who played Mandy, requested an intimacy coordinator on set.
EFor a CBS sitcom? Was there a particularly aggressive hug scene?
SThat's the thing. Her character was in a relationship with Georgie, played by Montana Jordan. She was in her late twenties. He was... a teenager.
ERight, because Georgie knocked up an older woman on the show. I remember now. So she looked at the script and said, 'This needs a third person in the room.'
SExactly. There's a new book about the making of the show, and she says the age gap made her uncomfortable. She literally calls him 'a baby.'
EI think that's a woman doing her job and protecting a kid. Good for her. There was no sex scene, but the implication hung over every episode.
SAnd you know what? This is exactly why intimacy coordinators exist. It's not just for HBO dramas with nudity. It's for a family sitcom where the story itself is uncomfortable.
EFine, I'll give you that one. It's weird, but it's a smart kind of weird.
SDifferent world entirely: tonight in San Antonio, a legitimate boxing war. Navarrete against Foster.
ENow we're talking. Three belts on the line. WBO, IBF, WBC. Winner walks out with the whole junior lightweight division in his pocket.
SVariety's got the streaming guide, but the matchup itself is the story. Navarrete, the Mexican slugger with two belts. Foster, the American technician with the third.
EFoster is slick. He'll box from the outside, make Navarrete chase him. But Navarrete has that awkward, long-armed style that smothers people.
SThe winner becomes the undisputed champion at one hundred thirty pounds. That's a career-defining night.
EAnd you know what nobody's talking about? Both of these guys are in their prime. No washed-up legends cashing checks. Two real fighters, one real fight.
SWhich is more than we can say for some of the 'title fights' we've seen lately.
ENo, no, wait— boxing is in a good place right now. You've got young champions actually fighting each other. This card is proof.
SI'm not arguing. I'm just saying the bar was on the floor for a while.
EYou're a tough crowd, Sloane.
SMeanwhile, over in the UK, they apparently have a version of SNL now? Variety says the cold open spoofed Andy Burnham on 'Gogglebox' and Prince William on 'Graham Norton.'
EWait, back up. Andy Burnham as Prime Minister? That's the premise?
SThat's what the article says. No official word yet, but the sketch treats him as PM.
EOkay, that's actually funny. Burnham's the mayor of Greater Manchester, and he's been gunning for the top job for a while. If they're spoofing him as already in Number Ten, that's a whole alternate universe.
SAnd look, a British SNL doing 'Celebrity Traitors' and 'The Graham Norton Show' bits? That's cultural satire we simply do not get over here.
ESpeak for yourself. I've watched enough British panel shows to know exactly what they're sending up.
SOf course you have, Eric.
EThe Graham Norton couch is iconic. You put four people who've never met, give them wine, and watch chaos happen. A spoof of that writes itself.
SOne more from X before we go. Ole Miss fans are having a moment, and it is not a good one.
EI saw this. Somebody posted a clip and wrote, 'This is the Ole Miss defense we know and love.' All caps. LMAO.
SAnd another account, Walnut MMA, said 'the way his head snaps back lmao' about the same clip.
ESo what happened? Did somebody get absolutely trucked?
SI don't have the play in front of me, but the reaction says it all. Ole Miss defense got cooked, and the fans are roasting their own team.
EThat's the beauty of college football Twitter. Your own fans will turn on you faster than anyone.
STo be fair, when you claim to have a championship defense and somebody's head is snapping back on a highlight reel... that's a rough Saturday.
EHey, better to laugh than cry. Those fans have already moved to the acceptance stage.
SAnd on that note, we'll let Ole Miss lick its wounds.