Celebs (and brands) have not held back their thoughts on Monday’s Blue Origin mission that sent Katy Perry, Gayle King, Lauren Sánchez, and three actual scientists who deserve it to space for 11 minutes. What was the point of the billion-dollar trip besides being an ad for Jeff Bezos’s rocket company and Perry’s already-failing world tour? The rich and famous seemed as stumped as the rest of us.
The backlash originally kicked off last week, when Olivia Munn criticized the trip on Today with Jenna and Friends, saying, “I know this probably isn’t the cool thing to say, but there are so many other things that are so important in the world right now… Space exploration was to further our knowledge and to help mankind. What are they gonna do up there that has made it better for us down here?” (That is cool to say, Olivia! Believe in yourself.)
Following Blue Origin’s touchdown on Monday morning, Emily Ratajkowski posted a TikTok calling the trip “end times shit,” and calling out the women for “saying that you care about Mother Earth…and you’re going in a spaceship that is built and paid for by a company that’s singlehandedly destroying the planet?”
And where Munn and Ratajowski go, other celebrity cool girls who “get” it will follow. Another famous Olivia—Olivia Wilde—reposted a meme of Katy Perry kissing the ground after landing (reminder she was in space for less than 15 minutes) with the caption, “Billion dollars bought some good memes, I guess.” Amy Schumer also got in there.
But you know things are really dark when sassy brand accounts dust off their 2018-era understanding of what’s funny and decide to get involved. On Monday morning, PopCrave tweeted, “Katy Perry has returned from space,” to which Wendy’s official Twitter account replied, “Can we send her back?” This prompted its own set of discourse about whether or not this is funny and if we need brands making fun of actual human women for likes. (The answer: probably not.)
One person who did (seemingly) find the Wendy’s tweet funny was Kesha, who posted a photo of herself drinking out of a Wendy’s cup shortly after the fast-food chain’s comment. Many fans took this to be a subtle endorsement of their tweet (or, at least, the idea of sending Katy Perry back to space) since the two are presumed to have beef over Perry’s ill-advised decision to keep working with Dr. Luke—who Kesha finally settled a decade-long legal battle with in 2023.
So, now we must ask…do our wonderful women of space know, or even care, about the criticism? At the very least, King and Sánchez do. “Anybody that’s criticizing it doesn’t really understand what’s happening here,” King told People. In that same interview, Sánchez says the criticism gets her “really fired up,” and challenged critics to “come to Blue Origin and see the thousands of employees that don’t just work here but they put their heart and soul into this vehicle.” No one’s shitting on the workers, Lauren, (who hopefully have an above-livable wage and excellent benefits), they’re shitting on you….
As for Perry, who made good on her promise to unveil her Lifetimes tour set list in space, she hasn’t said a peep. Though, after this and “Woman’s World,” I’m not sure what there is for her to say except, “sorry.”
- “I had a whole dream about this burrito that I wanted so bad and I was at this taco truck, and I was waiting and waiting, and then they couldn’t make them, and then they couldn’t remember which burrito was mine…”–Billie Eilish to SZA [British Vogue]
- Benson Boone went on TikTok to shade his Coachella crowd for not getting excited enough when he brought out Queen guitarist Brian May. What did he expect from a crowd of Benson Boone fans? [Parade]
- Speaking of being mad at Coachella, Charli XCX, who was billed below Green Day on Saturday night, wore a “Miss Should Be Headliner” sash at her afterparty. Guess somebody is on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams…[Page Six]
- Melinda French Gates went on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to talk a little shit on her ex and hype up her “pretty great” new relationship, as is her right. [People]
- Molly Ringwald finally broke her silence on Ally Sheedy’s Breakfast Club makeover: “I am not responsible.” [Entertainment Weekly]
- Travis Kelce made his first official public appearance since losing the Super Bowl by joining a (so) high school football practice. Can’t explain it, but this is very 2014 Taylor Swift-coded. [Page Six]
GET JEZEBEL RIGHT IN YOUR INBOX
Still here. Still without airbrushing. Still with teeth.
