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In just a few days, 2024 will officially be over and we’ll have another 12 months of celebrity-fronted chaos to endure – but there are some headlines from this year that we won’t be forgetting in a hurry.
Over the last 52 weeks, we’ve faced everything from Wicked stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo holding space for Defying Gravity to a Timothee Chalamet lookalike getting arrested at a Timothee Chalamet lookalike contest.
That’s not forgetting all the showbiz splits, pregnancy announcements, bizarre feuds and Ryan Gosling performing a beautiful rendition of I’m Just Ken at the Oscars.
Some of the news has left us feeling like the Oompa Loompa trapped at that nightmare-inducing Willy Wonka experience, while other headlines have had the world jumping for joy.
With just a few days until whatever 2025 has in store for us, take a walk down memory lane and reflect on some of the wildest moments of the year.
Bennifer confirming love is not real
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck took the entire world along with them on their love story when they reunited in 2021, two decades after they famously broke off their engagement – and, after a whirlwind romance, they finally walked down the aisle the following year.
However, just two years into their wedded bliss, and after the Love Don’t Cost A Thing singer dedicated an entire album and feature-length film to their bond, she filed for divorce in August.
J Lo submitted paperwork to officially end their marriage on August 20, coinciding with their second wedding anniversary, and reportedly listed their official date of separation as April 26, 2024, in documents obtained via TMZ.
Although they have gone their separate ways, they have been pictured together at various events with their combined family, as there is still said to be ‘a lot of love’ between them.
Ben has yet to speak publicly about the way their relationship ended, while Jen conceded to Interview Magazine that it was a ‘hard’ experience.
When asked whether she has any regrets after experiencing pain, she declared: ‘Not one second. That doesn’t mean it didn’t almost take me out for good. It almost did.’
‘Being in a relationship doesn’t define me,’ she vowed. ‘I’m not looking for anybody, because everything that I’ve done over the past 25, 30 years, being in these different challenging situations, what can I f**king do when it’s just me flying on my own.’
Lookalike contests
The end of the year has been met with a surge of lookalike contests, which gained popularity when YouTuber Anthony Po plastered fliers around New York City, welcoming anyone who has a passing resemblance to Timothee Chalamet to come down.
Entrants were quizzed on their romantic intentions with Kylie Jenner, and their French skills, in the hopes of winning a $50 prize.
Things took a turn when one participant – who looked startlingly like the Wonka actor – was arrested, before actual Timmy turned up himself to check out the competition.
This sparked many copycats to get in on the action and, in the last few weeks, events dedicated to Harry Styles, Paul Mescal, Heath Ledger and many more have sprung up around the world, to varying degrees of success.
More than 500 people turned up to a San Francisco competition for Dev Patel, after which he joked: ‘I’m surprised more than five people showed up.
‘I was quite overwhelmed by it and very touched. I’ve also got to say that I think most of the men who showed up were far more handsome and qualified than I am. I think I would have lost at my own lookalike contest, for sure.’
Glen Powell took matters into his own hands and blessed his lookalike, Maxwell Braunstein, with the chance to have his parents or another family member cameo in his next movie – which is more a gift for his loved ones than him, but it’s still a sweet move and sparked a lot of joy, nonetheless.
Anna Delvey on Dancing With The Stars
The Dancing With The Stars line-up left many jaws dropping because of one name in particular – Anna Delvey.
The contestant was previously jailed in 2019 after pretending to be a German heiress and deceiving people out of huge amounts of money. Her crimes were dramatized in the Netflix series Inventing Anna, starring Julia Garner and Laverne Cox.
Anna’s official portrait for the show immediately caused a stir when she posed with her ankle tag, confirming that she would be dancing with the ‘accessory’ throughout the competition.
DWTS viewers were up in arms that she was given a platform to compete for the trophy, beside Tori Spelling, Die Hard star Reginal VelJohnson and Julia Roberts’ brother, Eric Roberts.
Unfortunately for Anna, who was partnered with Eric Sosa, she didn’t get much of an opportunity to show off her dancing prowess as she was part of the first elimination, booted out with Tori and Pasha Pashkov.
She stunned viewers when she told co-host Julianne Hough that she would take ‘nothing’ from her early exit, and later admitted on Good Morning America that her favorite part of the experience was her elimination.
Charming.
Oasis reuniting
More than a decade after their split, brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher came together to reveal that the impossible was finally happening, and that Oasis would be reforming for a string of performances.
This sent music-lovers around the world into a spin at the thought of hearing Wonderwall, Don’t Look Back in Anger, Champagne Supernova and many more live again – or even for the first time.
Unsurprisingly, people flocked to Ticketmaster and jumped through hoops in the hopes of securing tickets, but were frustrated by long queues, short supply and website crashes. Those lucky enough to get onto a booking screen after all the faff were then presented with ‘dynamic pricing’ options, which meant that costs increased dramatically.
General admission passes were priced around £148, but as demand surged, so did the prices, with some reportedly reaching higher than £355 on official websites, and surpassing £10,000 on unofficial sites.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised to investigate what went wrong while Oasis received hundreds of complaints about the mayhem – leading to two more Wembley shows being announced with a ‘special’ selection process, as well as a string of dates across the US, and performances in Australia, Mexico, South Korea, Japan, Chile, Brazil and Argentina.
We’ll definitely maybe see you at one of those…
Drake v Kendrick
Drake and Kendrick Lamar spent weeks of 2024 giving us drama that we didn’t even know we needed, by trading fierce blows in various diss tracks – leading to a very awkward lawsuit.
Humble rapper Kendrick featured on Metro Boomin and Future’s Euphoria, which appeared to be a direct response to Drizzy’s First Person Shooter track from last year.
He followed this up by taking even more personal shots at the One Dance star with 6:16 in LA, after which Drake accused him of abusing his wife in track Family Matters.
Kendrick subsequently popped up with Meet the Grahams and Not Like Us – which included allegations that his fellow musician had a secret daughter, and also claimed that he is a ‘certified pedophile’.
Not too thrilled with the lyrics, or Not Like Us becoming one of the biggest hits of the year, Drake released Heart Part Six, furiously rapping: ‘Just for clarity, I feel disgusted, I’m too respected. If I was f**king young girls, I promise I’d have been arrested.’
If that wasn’t enough, he recently launched legal action against the record label that he and Kendrick share, claiming that the rapper ‘falsely’ accused him of being a ‘sex offender’, while also accusing UMG and Spotify of illegally boosting the popularity of Not Like Us.
In a statement, the label responded: ‘The suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue. We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns.
‘No amount of contrived and absurd legal arguments in this pre-action submission can mask the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear.’
It seems as though Kendrick might have the last laugh as he will be performing the Super Bowl Halftime show in February. Considering an estimated 123.7million viewers tuned in for this year’s game, we can imagine the entire country will have Not Like Us stuck in their heads.
The fever dream that was Joker 2
In 2019, Todd Phillips’ masterpiece, Joker, was met with huge acclaim while Joaquin Pheonix earned an Oscar for his take on Arthur Fleck. So, when a sequel was announced, no one batted an eyelid – in fact, people were excited to see what they could come up with next.
It’s fair to say that a jukebox musical starring Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn wasn’t quite on anyone’s bingo card, but we forged ahead with excitement over the singer’s compilation album and her truly stunning selection of promo tour outfits.
Unfortunately, despite all the fanfare, the sequel – titled Joker: Folie à Deux – fell completely flat, and currently has a dismal critics score of 31% on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to an audience rating of 32%.
The reviews were scathing as the follow-up was branded ‘lifeless’, ‘dull’, ‘irritatingly smug’, ‘crushingly boring’ and ‘pointless’.
One particularly biting comment from Cinema em Cena’s Pablo Villaca suggests that it ‘makes the original film worse in retrospect’.
If that wasn’t quite bad enough, even those who starred in Joker 2 made their feelings known about just how bad it was. Tim Dillon – who starred as an Arkham Asylum security guard – described it as ‘the worst film ever made’ during an appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast.
In a rant, he claimed that the ‘terrible’ movie is ‘not even hate-watchable’ for entertainment value, adding that it has ‘no plot’.
So… Joker 3, anyone?
Kurt Cobain sadly missing out on GPS
Dame Helen Mirren left everyone truly confused in October when she namedropped Kurt Cobain in an interview, sharing her devastation that he never got to experience certain things that many of us take for granted today.
The Nirvana vocalist died by suicide in 1994, at age 27, and his body was found in his Seattle home.
While his death still has an impact on the music industry, and he is often mentioned in discussions of the pressures of fame on mental health, Dame Helen decided to shift the focus onto aspects of present-day life that he missed out on.
Speaking to The Evening Standard, the Queen actress declared: ‘I always say, it’s so sad that Kurt Cobain died when he did because he never got to see GPS.
‘It’s the most wonderful thing, my little blue spot walking down the street. I just find it completely magical and unbelievable.’
Of course, this sparked a wave of social media users following suit with comparisons to other late superstars.
Edward Jenkins tweeted: ‘Such a tragedy that Notorious B.I.G. never got to enjoy the benefits of contactless payment.’
TomTayon penned: ‘It’s a terrible shame Mozart died before he could experience the wonders of MP3s.’
As BakedTurboFlash added: ‘Every day I think about how much Tupac would have enjoyed the little miracle of Duolingo. Just a little owl, teaching you words every day.’
They do make some good points…
Justin Timberlake ruining his world tour
The world was shocked over the summer when Justin Timberlake was arrested for driving while intoxicated in June, after being pulled over by police in Sag Harbor, New York.
In court documents, an officer alleged that his eyes were ‘bloodshot and glassy’, and claimed that a ‘strong odor of an alcoholic beverage was emanating from his breath’.
After the incident, the Can’t Stop The Feeling singer’s mug shot went viral, as did an alleged conversation he had with the arresting police officer – who was reportedly ‘too young’ to know exactly who he had pulled over.
According to Page Six, they ‘didn’t recognize’ Justin ‘or his name’, leading to an excruciating exchange.
The Social Network actor is said to have muttered the infamous statement that sparked millions of memes: ‘This is going to ruin the tour.’
‘What tour?,’ the baffled officer replied, to which he reportedly added: ‘The world tour.’
Justin eventually pleaded guilty to driving while impaired and was ordered pay a $500 fine and $260 surcharge, as well as 25 hours of community service.
His tour also still managed to go ahead mostly as planned…
Jake Paul beating Mike Tyson
If you’d said 30 years ago that sporting legend Mike Tyson would be getting into the ring with a YouTube star, not a single person would have believed you – but that is exactly where we ended up in 2024.
He earned around $20million after coming out of retirement to face off against pro boxer Jake Paul and tickets for the event were snapped up immediately, while the main event also streamed live from Arlington, Texas, on Netflix.
In shocking scenes, Jake eased to a comfortable win in the eight-round bout as his opponent landed just 18 punches, leading to speculation that the fight was ‘fixed’.
He later admitted that he took it easy on Mike in the ring, before hitting back at ‘fix’ allegations on his brother Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast.
‘People don’t realize my power, and my jab and my speed and my ability, and my footwork to get out of the way of those punches, so then all of a sudden he’s throwing at air,’ he said, via CBS Sports. ‘He was hard to hit.
‘He was elusive. I was missing a lot of punches. I don’t know how he gets off to the side like that… I wish he had put up a better fight so that I could’ve risen more and done more, and he was surviving.’
Amelia Dimoldenberg’s Chicken Shop Date with Andrew Garfield
Ask any Chicken Shop Date viewer who they want to pop in for a snack, the only name on their mind will be Andrew Garfield – and, in October, that is exactly what we were served up.
After having insane amounts of chemistry in several red carpet meetings, Amelia Dimoldenberg finally found herself sat across from Spider-Man, and it was almost too much for the world to handle.
The sparks were well and truly flying as Andrew announced that he was ‘flirting with’ the host, going so far as to suggest that they could give things a real go without all of the pesky cameras in the way.
‘I’m scared for what this could turn into, and I’m not ready for that kind of thing,’ he giggled before they attempted to get the conversation back on track.
The pair gave us no further clarity over where things stood but that particular date currently has more than 9.6million views at the time of writing, becoming one of Amelia’s most-watched videos so far – which means we could get a second helping on our hands.
Elmo served as her next guest in the Chicken Shop and spent some time teasing him, and all of us, about her feelings towards the Oscar-nominee, confessing: ‘I met someone recently… I really like them.
‘I feel like it went well but I feel like I was in my head again and maybe I friend-zoned them before we could even begin.
‘It was a great date though. We’ve got a real chemistry… I don’t know, we’ll see how it goes.’
What could this possibly mean?!
The It Ends With Us saga
It Ends With Us fell victim to the Don’t Worry Darling curse where the constant speculation of a feud seemed to completely derail everything else about the film.
The movie, an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestseller, starred Blake Lively as Lily Bloom, who found herself trapped in an abusive relationship with Justin Baldoni’s Ryle Kincaid.
It faced an immediate backlash when the first trailer dropped, with many calling out the depiction of abuse and the use of a love triangle trope – things didn’t get any better in the lead up to the August 9 release as the cast were met with rumors of animosity on set and secret feuds.
Speculation only grew when fans noticed ‘tension’ at multiple red carpets when none of the cast took pictures with director Baldoni, and no longer followed him on social media. Eyebrows were raised further when Jenny Slate appeared to ignore a journalist’s question about working with him.
Lively then found herself at the center of the drama when she was slammed for using the press tour to promote her various range of products and focusing on her character’s wardrobe.
Online sleuths dug deep into the archives and uncovered a series of past interviews in which she made reporters feel ‘uncomfortable’, leading to a wave of fan fury as upset fans rushed to the filmmaker’s defense.
In a shocking twist last week, Lively sued Baldoni for sexual harassment, while his publicists and Wayfarer Studios are also listed among the defendants.
According to a lengthy New York Times article, legal documents accused them of embarking on a ‘multi-tiered plan’ to damage her reputation.
Among the many allegations listed, it is claimed that the director let his ‘friends’ watch Lively film sex scenes, which created a ‘hostile working environment’ – the atmosphere on set reportedly became so uncomfortable that an all-staff meeting was called
The filing claims the resolution was that Baldoni obliges by alleged cast and crew demands to stop showing Lively nude videos and images of women, and no long talk about sexual interactions in front of the actress.
This was in addition to stopping all talk of her weight, and her deceased father, as well as no discussions of the cast and crew’s genitalia.
It was also noted that there were to be ‘no more adding of sex scenes, oral sex or on camera climaxing by BL [Blake Lively] outside the scope of the script BL approved when signing onto the project.’
‘I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted,’ she said in a statement to the publication.
Bryan Freedman, a lawyer representing Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, said the claims were ‘completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious’, adding that the studio ‘made the decision to proactively hire a crisis manager prior to the marketing campaign of the film.
‘There were no proactive measures taken with media or otherwise; just internal scenario-planning and private correspondence to strategize, which is standard operating procedure with public relations professionals.’
Holding space for the Wicked press tour
Amid all the excitement of Wicked finally being released at the end of the year, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande really took us on a journey of their own – worthy of a film itself.
The pair – who play Elphaba and Glinda The Good Witch respectively – broke down in every single interview when discussing their time on set, lovingly held on to each other in front of every camera, unveiled several matching tattoos and generally just had a blast in each other’s company.
However, the chaos reached new heights after one journalist informed Cynthia that people were ‘holding space for Defying Gravity’, with those five words – and everyone’s reaction to them – taking on a whole new meaning.
During a chat with Out Magazine, journalist Tracey Gilcrest told the stars: ‘This week people are taking the lyrics of Defying Gravity and really holding space with that, and feeling power in that.’
Overcome with emotion, the Elphaba actress replied: ‘That’s really powerful, that’s what I wanted. I didn’t know that was happening.’
Not quite knowing how to react, Ariana clutched her castmate’s index finger and tried to remain in the conversation.
‘I’ve seen it on a couple of posts, I don’t know how widespread it is,’ Tracey continued. ‘But I’m in queer media so…’
Suddenly, we were all holding space for Defying Gravity, as well as everything else in the world, while memes sprung up within seconds, making light of the delicately bizarre way Ariana tried to comfort her friend.
In another interview, the Thank U, Next singer reflected on the dainty finger hold, confessing that she actually had no idea what was happening.
‘So I didn’t know what any part of it meant,’ she told Variety. ‘I didn’t understand the first sentence. And then I definitely didn’t understand how [Cynthia] responded. I was like “oh what did she say? What did you hear?”
‘And I just wanted to be there because I knew something big was happening and I didn’t know how to be there.’
If you need us, we’ll be holding space for all of the above well into 2025.
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