Written by: Angel Campey

Selling Sunset is one of the most binged series on Netflix. Whether you watch for the real estate, the fashion or the drama (we know it’s really for the drama)

Selling Sunset had us all chattering with their most recent season dropping, and then the reunion episode that had jaws dropping!

But, for those of you who’ve never watched it – one twitter user has provided this handy summary:

 

 

I’m unreservedly team Chrishell, but that Boss romance was a strange pairing

We do all take away life lessons to also drive Ferraris and be decked in designer wares:

Everyone loves a frenemy:

And what is reality TV without villains, Christine and Davina stay slaying.

Written by: Angel Campey 

The much anticipated season 2 of Bridgerton is finally here! Season 1 was the most-watched series on Netflix at the time of its premiere, and remains the second most-watched series by total watch time on the platform. (There might be some spoilers below if you haven’t watched it yet.)

It is based on Julia Quinn‘s novels set in the competitive world of Regency era London‘s ton during the season, when debutantes are presented at court. It is  Shonda Rhimes’s first scripted Netflix series.

But the plot is less important than the, ahem, actors…

 

Season 2 is summed up as ‘more love, less lust’ but is it going to prove as popular?

Many say ‘yes’.

 

The broody (never want to marry for love) lead character, Anthony Bridgerton. Is a man of many contradictions:

 

But he’s still seen as perfect:

He had some of us questioning our own ideals:

Like, REALLY questioning our lives…

 

The show continued to serve us with wonderful looks from a reimagined, more diverse, history.

 

And many characters aside from the main love-plot shone

Some unexpected plot twists:

 

Now we are all left longing for the next installment – why can’t we time travel!?

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Written by: Angel Campey 

Oh the great annual hot-cross bun debate has started.

Armed with a butter knife, we march forward to argue with our keyboards, from them being on the shelves too early, too late – too many or too few. The wrong flavours, the wrong colours, and Happy Easter to you! Do we toast them? Do we jam them? Or just butter through and through?  Hot weather, cold weather – There are even those that hate them all together!?

At the risk of sounding like Dr Seuss, let me quickly move on.

Those little buns have somehow ALWAYS been enshrined in controversy… making people hot and cross. (That’s how they got their names… )

And, oh boy – remember when they made us ‘Drunk’ in 2019

Over in the UK Kellog’s has launched Hot Cross Bun Cereal

And they are VERY angry about the different flavours…

But not EVERYONE is angry (hence the ‘debate’)

Meanwhile the Aussies have an annual debate about Hot Cross Buns hitting the shelves too early! (Apparently BOXING DAY is when they see them? Sign me up!) And now they are angry, as only Aussies can be, leaving notes on packets in Supermarkets – spurring debates that they should be available ALL YEAR.

 

 

I, for one am glad they are not available all year, dear reader, and that is only because I would eat them every day and not only would the excitement leave them a little – but I would certainly never get back into my jeans, ever again (some say a small price to pay)

 

Whether you love them for Easter reasons or for tastebuds (why not both!?) enjoy this time of year, and the hot cross fun.

 

Want a cup of coffee to go with that Hot Cross Bun? Read Maurice Carpede’s instructions on how to make the perfect French Press Brew.

 

Step aside Tinder Swindler, Inventing Anna has taken the Netflix watching community by storm – and I binge watched it when I was off work with a stomach flu, so that I can bring you my ill gotten (if you’ll excuse the pun) opinions.

First of all, the scope is much more grand, the show is much more watchable, the acting is lovely.  The heists are much more cunning, or are they even heists at all?!

The Netflix series was inspired by a New York Magazine article, “How Anna Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People,” written by Jessica Pressler and published in 2018. In Inventing Anna, Anna Chlumsky plays Vivian Kent (not Anna, despite her name) a journalist based on Pressler, who becomes involved (probably too involved) with  Julia Garner’s fake heiress who is the titled Anna.

Netflix Poster Inventing Anna
Netflix’s ‘Inventing Anna’ is based on the real life of Anna Sorokin. Images via Instagram: @InventingAnna/AnnDelveyCourtLooks

Straight off, her accent is supposed to be weird and jarring, and those of you who know Garner from Ozark are going to be very thrown by this German/Russian mashup, but you’ll get used to it. It’s the latest blessing from  Shonda Rhimes, the first show the Bridgerton producer herself has written for the platform. If you’ve watched Grey’s Anatomy or Scandal (The Fixer), you can expect to see all your faves from the ‘Shonda-verse’ of actors.

Now all the entertainment aside, it’s based on a true story – and the ‘victims’ are mad-mad at how the series seems to walk a tightrope between innocent and guilty. In a Men’s Health article, Rachel Williams, the real-life ex-friend of Anna Delvey/Sorokin, who appears as “Rachel” and who was, in fact, swindled for $62,000 by Sorokin on 2017 trip to Marrakech, recently lambasted the Netflix series.

“I think promoting this whole narrative and celebrating a sociopathic, narcissistic, proven criminal is wrong,” Williams told Vanity Fair in a recent interview. “Having had a front-row seat to [the Anna circus] for far too long, I’ve studied the way a con works more than anybody needs to. You watch the spectacle, but you’re not paying attention to what’s being marketed.” Williams criticized the series for portraying Sorokin heroically—as a savvy and inspiring hustler, and not as a convicted felon. (Sorokin is currently in ICE detention, facing deportation.)

And what’s more – the real Anna got PAID for the show. Netflix reportedly paid Sorokin $320,000 for the rights to adapt her story. (That’s almost R5 million!) Now before you throw your computer across the room in a rage, wait till you hear how she spent the moolah.

She apparently used the money to pay off her debts, according to Insider.

Anna Sorokin used $199,000 to pay restitution to the banks, $24,000 to settle New York state fines and more than $75,000 in attorney fees, Insider reports, leaving not very much of that Netflix money at all. The state of New York had frozen her funds in May 2019 under the “Son of Sam” law that prevents criminals from profiting from their crimes. However, a judge ordered her accounts unfrozen ahead of her February 2021 release from prison so that she could pay off her victims. She still maintains that she never stole, but her appeals attorney Audrey A. Thomas said Sorokin still believed she owed the money. According to Thomas: She said, ‘You know, I want them to be paid. I didn’t steal the money, but I do owe money, so I’m not going to fight it. That’s not who I am.’

The coin is up in the air, was she a hustler trying to prove that the rich only help the rich – and she was on the verge of getting through, or was she just a scammer who didn’t know when to stop? The whole Marrakech trip certainly was extreme. We all learnt a big lesson about not picking up the tab for a friend if they invited you somewhere, (looking at you, Rachel.)

Watch for yourself and let me know.

 

Anna Sorokin was released from prison in February 2021 but arrested again just six weeks later for overstaying her visa. She remains in ICE custody as she waits to learn if she’ll be deported to Germany.

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Written by: Angel Campey

The popular Netflix documentary – The Tinder Swindler has captivated the world since its release on the 2nd February 2022. Most of us left enraged and bemused at how he’s still at large, and then left wondering ‘who are these “enemies”?’ Who even has enemies!?

The basic story of Tinder Swindler is: A suave Israeli man, going by the name Simon Leviev posing as a diamond billionaire, jet-setting playboy, woos women with lavish dates before turning the tables and sending pictures of his bodyguard, Peter – who has been injured “by his enemies” and now he needs money – and lots of it. Forcing women to take out multiple loans, even suggesting one pawns their car. Leaving them in financial ruin before he hops on the popular dating app to con the next one. The Tinder Swindler is basically an elaborate pyramid scheme where one woman essentially funds the lavish lifestyle of the next one.

Genius, ballsy, evil and sociopathic – scam artists are not a new trend, but they seem so much more insidious when love is exploited.  Those of us on the outside, find it impossible to imagine a scenario where we would give money – but ‘love is blind’.

Your first red flag should be “what would a billionaire be doing on Tinder”?! And more so – why can’t he ask his Dad for money? There are some people who are dissecting the philosophy of who he targets:

Simon definitely had a knack for convincing women to dig deep into their savings, even our own mothers are more sceptical…