The ‘Strangers’ Backlash Has Begun, Plus Taylor Swift Isn’t Married Yet | Jam Session

Key takeaways

• The New Yorker's Bell Burden exposé complicates Strangers but doesn't break it. Reporter Jessica Winter obtained divorce filings showing Burden had a net worth of roughly $63 million at the time of the split—including trusts she never mentions in the book. The hosts find this unsurprising given the gilded milieu Strangers describes, but they understand why others feel betrayed: the marketing positioned the book as a personal-finance cautionary tale, spawning seminars and financial-podcast appearances the author leaned into after publication. Juliette compares the narrator-trust collapse to James Frey's A Million Little Pieces. Amanda's read survives the news because she engaged with Strangers as a structural horror story to observe from a distance, not a financial warning from someone relatable. Both hosts agree the practical lessons—like reading your tax return before signing—remain valid regardless of Burden's balance sheet.

• Taylor Swift is not getting married on July 3rd in New York City. Page Six published a supposed wedding guest list (Zoë Kravitz is apparently out; Blake Lively's status is unclear) alongside a source flatly denying the July 3rd date. The hosts find the case for a New York indoor venue logistically sensible—drones and helicopters make outdoor ceremonies impossible to protect—but note the Kelsey side of the guest list poses the real secrecy risk. Donna Kelsey's visible discomfort when asked about Taylor on the Today Show, and her performance on The Traitors, suggest she is constitutionally unsuited to holding secrets. Swift is reportedly calling guests personally instead of issuing written invitations. Juliette is emphatic that a Friday wedding is off the table: she describes a Tuesday ceremony as more plausible.

• The Strangers backlash is specific to who read it and why. Juliette observed that virtually every person wanting to discuss the New Yorker piece was a woman; her male colleagues either hadn't read it or, in the case of fellow Ringer host Sean Fennessy, hadn't realized during an entire film festival's worth of plot updates that Strangers was a memoir rather than fiction. The hosts argue the book functions as a self-contained conversation among women, one where men's absence feels natural rather than pointed. Amanda notes that the women most stung by the exposé were those who connected emotionally to losing yourself in a marriage—a feeling Burden conveyed through structure and mounting dread, even if the financial stakes turned out to be overstated.

• A new literary scandal is attaching itself to Nick Laird. A short story in The Drift literary journal is circulating in London with whispers that it fictionalizes an affair with Laird, the poet and husband of Zadie Smith. The hosts remembered the older, unverifiable rumor—dating to 2018—that Sally Rooney's Conversations with Friends drew on the same relationship, a theory bolstered for Amanda by the fact that Zadie Smith blurbed that novel at publication. Both treat this as interesting gossip rather than confirmed fact, note that Smith appears to be doing fine, and close the topic by asking in unison when the Nick Laird rumors will finally end.

• Off Campus on Amazon Prime is worth knowing about. Juliette watched all eight episodes of this hockey romance in a single weekend and is convinced lead actor Belmont Cameli is going to be a significant presence—based less on still photos than on his press-tour warmth and the genuine charm he brings to the role. The show is graphic for its genre (explicit sex scenes, locker-room nudity that Heated Rivalry avoided), decidedly millennial-coded, and structured more like a rom-com than a melodrama. The female lead is 19; her co-star is 28; a supporting actor also appears on The Pit. Juliette puts the show's star-making ceiling closer to Outer Banks than Euphoria—it will probably produce recognizable faces, not household names, at least initially.

• The Cannes glam economy runs on beauty brand partnerships. After weeks of wondering who funds the elaborate looks worn by jury members like Demi Moore and Ruth Nega at every premiere, Amanda found confirmation through Ruth Nega's makeup artist Melanie Inglesis, who posted a thank-you to Dior Beauty after two weeks in Cannes. The model: brands sponsor the talent and travel alongside the makeup artist, covering the costs in exchange for implicit or explicit association. Financial specifics between brand and artist remain unclear, but the basic structure is now confirmed.

People, organizations, products, and links mentioned

• Bell Burden, Strangers (memoir); The New Yorker; reporter Jessica Winter
• James Frey, A Million Little Pieces
• Taylor Swift; Travis Kelsey; Donna Kelsey; Zoë Kravitz; Blake Lively
• Page Six; The Frick Museum (debunked venue rumor); Louis Vuitton cruise collection (the actual Frick booking)
• Nick Laird; Zadie Smith; Sally Rooney, Conversations with Friends; The Drift (literary journal)
• Off Campus (Amazon Prime); Belmont Cameli; showrunner Louisa Levy; Heated Rivalry; Hudson Williams
• Hilary Duff (Las Vegas residency); Mandy Moore; Whitney Wagner Hartley (Hello Whitney)
• Demi Moore, Chloe Zhao, Ruth Nega (Cannes jury); Melanie Inglesis (makeup artist); Dior Beauty
• George Karloftis (NFL player; private Greece wedding reference)
• Lauren Sherman, Line Sheet (Substack, Paris); Caitlin Phillips's gift guide (Substack)
• Comme des Garçons; Charvet (Paris bespoke shirts); Monoprix; David Mallet (Paris hair salon)
• Emily in Paris; Luca Bravo; Agence Grotto (Paris filming location)
• Jeff Bezos (unconfirmed Cannes yacht)
• Gwyneth Paltrow (rumored for Strangers adaptation); Ben Affleck (Juliette's casting suggestion for the husband)
• The Traitors (Donna Kelsey appearance); Outer Banks; Euphoria; The Pit
• Jam Session (moving to its own dedicated podcast feed)

Notable moments

• Jet-lagged in the shower, Amanda developed a theory: one of Taylor Swift's perpetual stadium-suite friends might secretly be a licensed esthetician, quietly handling glam on the road. It would explain why no fan account tracking celebrity makeup artists has ever identified Swift's team.
• Juliette describes Swift's Cavs courtside look as "Connie Britton in season one of Nashville" and concludes it looks like "the person from the You Belong With Me video got the guy and is now at the game."
• Sean Fennessy didn't realize Strangers was a memoir—and not a novel—for roughly half of Cannes, during which Juliette was giving him live plot updates between film screenings.
• Amanda wandered directly past the Paris storefront used as the fictional Agence Grotto in Emily in Paris. No one around her had any idea; she was the only person who recognized it.
• On the Cannes yacht mystery: a massive three-masted vessel dominated the bay all week, and the unverified rumors pointed to Jeff Bezos. Amanda's verdict: "Not tasteful cool."
• Juliette rules out a July 3rd Friday wedding with unusual certainty: "She's more likely to have a Tuesday wedding than a Friday wedding. Like, no way."
• Amanda's husband immediately forwarded her the Bell Burden New Yorker link—understood its significance at once—and then admitted he never read the piece itself, neatly illustrating the hosts' observation that the entire Strangers conversation has functioned as a closed space for women.

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