Celebrity social media moments I still think about

For the love of god, log off!!!

Not long ago, I rounded up some celebrity scandals and embarrassing moments I still think about. But! I realized there’s a rich subcategory of gaffes that also deserve a moment: their ridiculous social media activity. Like other common folk, I swear that if I had fuck-you money, there’d be no reason for me to be on Instagram. I’d be like Dua Lipa. Constantly on vacation, running a book club, and concocting a pickle-jalapeno Diet Coke tincture. Except you wouldn’t see it.

When I talk about celebrity social media moments, I’m not referring to J.K. Rowling being obsessively transphobic or whatever’s going on with Britney lately (love you, Brit). I mean like when Nicki Minaj tweeted during Covid, “My cousin in Trinidad won’t get the vaccine cuz his friend got it and became impotent. His testicles became swollen.” Hmm. Fun stuff like that!

Kirstie’s “condolences”

When Stephen Hawking died, Kirstie Alley (also RIP) paid tribute to him on Twitter. Or did she? When someone passes away and you say “You had a good go at it..thanks for your input,” that’s pretty passive aggressive to me. Is this a Scientology thing? I know they hate psychiatry, maybe their wrath extends to all science.

While I did watch the boring Eddie Redmayne movie in which he played Steve, I can’t tell you exactly what Hawking did for the world. I can tell you that Kirstie Alley was in the Look Who's Talking movies and It Takes Two, but at the end of the day, I’m going to side with science over a cult.

If I’m buried in a cemetery (please no, I’d be frightened even when dead), I would love for my gravestone to read: “You had a good go at it..thanks for your input.” Maybe a good go at it is the best any of us can hope for.

“Good luck with bookin that stage u speak of”

I love Rihanna, but she used to be a menace on Twitter. Constant clapbacks back when we still said “clapbacks.” There was her back and forth with Teyana Taylor and the time Kendall Jenner said she’d be upset if Rihanna didn’t perform “Complicated” at her concert. To that, Rih responded, “well don’t come.”

Her most memorable quarrel was with Ciara, after Ciara called her out on an episode of Fashion Police (remember Fashion Police!!), by saying, "I ran into her recently at a party, and she wasn’t the nicest.”

Rihanna hopped on Twitter to respond “My bad ci, did I 4get to tip u? #howrudeofme.” Ciara had a comeback, then Rihanna tweeted the instantly iconic:

It’s still up! She never deleted it. Luckily, the ladies made up fast. Rihanna apologized, Ciara accepted, and they finally took a photo together at the 2025 Met Gala.

Sooo many political ones

Where do I even start? Politicians and the people who work for them are freaks. You’ve seen Veep.

There’s of course Sean Spicer’s one-sided feud (more like fixation) with Dippin’ Dots, an unimpressive but harmless treat. I guess it is a little MAGA-coded to be ultra-protective of “traditional” ice cream.

Dippin' Dots eventually responded to Spicer's hate and offered to throw him an ice cream social, which never happened.

And who could forget deeply uncool Cory Booker’s sensual relationship with coffee. Sadly, there are way more than four tweets where he makes this “joke” but I got crippling secondhand embarrassment looking at all of them.

Everyone knows about Trump’s intense public shaming of Kristin Stewart for cheating on Robert Pattinson in the 2010s. It’s classic projection to obsess over someone else’s relationship to distract from your own, and we know his marriage has probably been over for a long time.

The most disturbing of all: When Ted Cruz liked Twitter porn on 9/11. Yeah, it’s funny and embarrassing but yet another example of the call is coming from inside the house. A year before, Ted called porn a "public health crisis.” That man stays embarrassing himself and his family.

Demi’s plane threat

Celebrities really don’t know what to do with themselves on 9/11 (more on that to come). Demi Lovato, who often finds herself in a pickle, must’ve been served some lukewarm chicken on Delta or something. So as celebs often do, she took to Twitter to complain and she’s lucky her choice of words didn’t land 🛬 her in trouble with the FBI. The FAA? All of them. This was on September 11th of all days.

Adam Levine’s DMs

I’ll admit it. I thought Adam Levine was hot from the Songs About Jane era through “Moves Like Jagger.” Now, not so much. A few years ago, a woman named Sumner posted her DMs with Adam, claiming they had an affair while he was married. He reached out to her after their affair ended to ask if it was cool to name his new son Sumner. Crazy. Other women then shared their messages with Adam and we learned just how cringe his sexting style is. Don’t say “booty” in a serious way, omg.

Adam and his wife stayed together through the scandal and we still don’t know the name of their son. I hope it’s Sumner.

Rita Ora gets “hacked”

Back in 2014, the Who Queen Rita Ora tweeted that she’d release new music if her tweet received 100K retweets. When she got less than 2K, ouch, Rita followed up to say she’d been hacked. Babe, come on.

“Mama let’s research”

I don’t know what the right response to this would’ve been because I don’t think celebs are required to give away their money to anyone and everyone, but Gina’s response is just so…condescending? Suggesting the scholarship fund is somewhat helpful but “mama let’s research,” okay well maybe she already has!

“Mama let’s research” is what I tell myself every time I create a new Google Doc to plan an upcoming trip.

Martha Stewart doesn’t know Jonathan Cheban

Jonathan Cheban is the self-proclaimed Food God. I don’t know what his credentials are to earn such a title, but there’s something off about his energy. He’s best known as a close friend of the Kardashians and proof that men can also have vocal fry.

I love imagining Jonathan approaching Martha Stewart to say “I promise I’m famous,” and Martha being skeptical and taking to social media to get answers while humiliating him in the process. Please don’t overlook her use of the hashtag #seriouslypopular.

Halsey wishes for another 9/11

Ope, we’re back to 9/11. In January 2020, Halsey released her album Manic. It has a few underrated tracks, like “3am” and “You should be sad,” and received a not-bad Pitchfork score of 6.5. Manic is no Future Nostalgia, which came out shortly after, was an instant classic, and even that received a 7.5.

Like many artists, Halsey is sensitive and expressed her disappointment in the score by tweeting:

That’s darker than your average snark, since at the time, Pitchfork’s office was in One World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. You know, the skyscraper that was built as a symbol of resilience after the Twin Towers collapsed. Halsey apologized and her next album received a 7 from Pitchfork.

Bow Wow’s pretend private jet

In 2025, we’re really on rich people’s asses about the environmental impact of private jets. But in 2017, Bow Wow decided to brag about flying private by sharing a pic on Instagram. Inconveniently for Bow, he was spotted on a commercial flight that same day. And because we’re all haters and sleuths nowadays, someone even reverse image searched his pic and discovered it was a stock photo from a limo company's site.

In the words of the Black Eyed Peas, “don’t lie.”

Lorde’s tub trouble

Lorde isn’t much of a social media user these days unless she’s promoting something. Can’t blame her for staying off socials after this mishap in 2018. She posted a pic of a bathtub with a caption quoting Whitney Houston’s classic “I Will Always Love You.” I’m sure our favorite Kiwi pop girl meant no harm, but Whitney was tragically found dead in a hotel room bathtub full of water so this comes off extremely tone deaf.

Bebe nooo

No hate but I can’t name a single Bebe Rexha song. I know her fans are called Rexhars and I know one time a Rexhar tweeted at Bebe to ask where she’d go if she could time travel. Bebe responded with this:

K well that’s famously like the worst time to be in Paris. Bit of a Nazi problem. To her credit, Bebe had an endearing response ("Girl I failed history. I just googled it"). Yet another indictment of the American school system.

Etc.

• This week, I read Taylor Jenkins Reid’s new book, Atmosphere. According to BookTok, which I never agree with, it’s the best thing ever written. I thought it was pretty average until the final third, which was incredibly gripping.

• Saw The Materialists and I have mixed feelings. Love anything filmed on location in New York, love Dakota Johnson, love looking at beautiful restaurants and apartments. But it took a turn halfway through and I left the theater in a weird mood. The writing got repetitive. At points, it was excellent! Idk. Anyone else see it?

• My favorite show, America's Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders is back for season 2 on Netflix! Not as good as season 1 but still totally worth watching. I blew through it. The entire time, I’m thinking mamas let’s unionize!!

• Anything big happening in geopolitics rn??