Cinderella Story and Mall-Era Pop Nostalgia

It's the second coming of Hilary Duff... but real ones know she never went anywhere. This week we're so lucky to have Allie Jones — author of the superb Gossip Time newsletter and Hilary Duff superfan — on the show to answer all your questions about how Duff managed to avoid her peers' timeline, her professionalism, her relatable lack of stage presence, and the crafting of her millennial mom image. (Melody fans will also appreciate her appearances in this episode touting bottomless Duff knowledge). If you want the podcast equivalent of going to the mall in 2005 and walking around doing nothing but somehow having a great time, this ep is for you.

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Thanks to the sponsors of today's episode!

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Show Notes:

• Go subscribe to Gossip Time! https://gossiptime.substack.com/

• Allie's breakdown of the mom drama: https://gossiptime.substack.com/p/ashley-tisdale-mom-group-drama-mandy-moore

• Allie's breakdown of Haylie vs. Hilary: https://gossiptime.substack.com/p/hilary-duff-haylie-duff-feud-explainer

• The original With Love choreography from The Today Show

• Hilary doing the 'With Love' choreography on the new tour

• The That's So Gay PSA for those who'd like to re-live

• The problematic sexy pilgrim costume from 2016

• The music video for Roommates, from Hilary's new album luck... or something

  We're currently looking for your questions for future episodes about:

• HISTORICAL GOSSIP! We're talking with Nichole Hill, host of Our Ancestors Were Messy, about hot, messy, ideologically fascinating world historical gossip (and how gossip works today). We really want to make this episode happen but we need your questions!

• WHITE LADY HAIR! Cultural critic Sarah Mesle will be joining us to talk about her new book Tangled: Seven Iconic Moments in White Women's Hair and What They Tell Us About Power, Pleasure, and Complicity. If there's a white lady whose hair interests you, I guarantee you it interests Sarah, too. We can talk about specific celebrity/actress haircuts but also specific styles/trends. I cannot wait for this one.

• EMILY BLUNT! (and secondary characters becoming primary ones!) with Xochitl Gonzalez — obvi we're gonna talk a lot about Devil Wears Prada and 2000s-era striving but you can take this in so many directions

• BOOMER MOMS! Tracy Clark-Flory and I need your questions about why boomer moms (very broad designation here, I realize) are the way they are — we're specifically going to talk about the constrictions of growing up in '60s/'70s U.S., particularly around femininity, race, education, body image, employment, and motherhood. This one's gonna be really good, I know it.

• Anything you need advice for/want musings about for the AAA segment. You can ask about anything, it’s literally the name of the segment.

• As always, you can submit your questions (and ideas for future eps) here

  For this week’s discussion: Gonna make it easy this week... just give us more of your Hilary Duff thoughts!!