| MATTHEW LYNCH,
EXECUTIVE EDITOR |
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Remember those heady days of the first Trump administration when you couldn't swing a stick without hitting a pretty decent (or decently distracting) cult documentary on your streaming provider of choice? It seemed as though our desire to interrogate systems of belief that rolled up to an all-powerful, obviously daft leader was limitless. Made a lot of sense timing-wise! Our cultural taste for such stories has maybe ebbed a little of late, but in many of these stories there are still chapters being written. Today, staff writer Dan Adler brings news of a criminal trial against the former principals of OneTaste, the orgasmic meditation outfit that was the subject of a Netflix documentary, and the challenges it's making for prosecutors.
Speaking of belief, the world continues to react to news of a new pope: Leo XIV in your missals; Bob from Chicago in your heart. The first American pontiff, and his Midwest roots, have produced a digital tonnage of memes and reactions in the last 36 hours. Some of them have even been funny!
Finally, we turn our gaze to the French Riviera, where next week the Cannes Film Festival gets underway. VF's own Richard Lawson and David Canfield will be there, and were kind enough to lay out a little preview before they leave. (Spike and Denzel together again. Praise be.) |
Nicole Daedone cofounded the sexual-wellness company OneTaste in San Francisco in 2004. Over the following decades, a period during which alternative health ideas were reaching mainstream saturation, she became the face of orgasmic meditation, a mindfulness practice in which a partner, typically a man, strokes a woman's clitoris for 15 minutes. In press coverage of OneTaste, the word cult appeared intermittently. Participants sometimes lived together in communes devoted to Daedone's teachings. Until a 2018 Bloomberg report on the company was published and a criminal investigation began, though, she was largely treated with a shifting mix of fascination and skepticism. Now, OneTaste is at the center of an unusually fraught criminal trial in Brooklyn. |
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BY DAVID CANFIELD AND RICHARD LAWSON |
Denzel Washington, Emma Stone, Jennifer Lawrence, Josh O'Connor, and Wagner Moura highlight just a few of the most anticipated movies set to premiere on the Croisette next week. VF's Cannes correspondents break down the most unmissable titles. |
From 2010's squirrel nest to today's Instagrammable deportation raids, Kristi Noem's journey through MAGA beauty is a study in the power of dress and conservative ideals. |
The career right-wing provocateur is coming for Jessica Reed Kraus and Trump's new surgeon general nominee, Casey Means. |
Twenty-four-year-old Mia Threapleton, who gives a revelatory performance in The Phoenician Scheme, talks to VF about being raised by an Oscar winner, landing the biggest part of her life, and establishing a blossoming career on her own. |
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Not quite four years ago, I had a long conversation with my friend Craig Coyne about a weird sport I'd never heard of that he swore was the next big thing. It was called pickle…something? Or something ball? A few days later, he sent me an email naming some of the people who he said were "obsessed with the sport": Leonardo DiCaprio, Kim Kardashian, Larry David, and Bill and Melinda Gates. (This was so long ago that they were still a couple.)
It reminded me of a story I'd edited way back in 2005 about Hollywood's obsession with poker, but it was better. This was a brand-new sport, and it wasn't only being embraced by billionaires and celebrities. It was, Craig assured me, the hottest thing at his parents' YMCA in Georgia. Pickleball, apparently, was everywhere. Long story short, we assigned the story, it ran in the fall of 2021, and now Craig tells me that people in pickleball circles say it marked a key moment in the sport's rise.
Craig went on to join forces with director-producer Ashley Underwood to make the documentary Dreambreaker: A Pickleball Story, which is now streaming on Max. The film is an absolute delight, and captures professional pickleball's gold-rush era in real time. "Looking back at Craig's article, it's amazing to see how much has changed—and how much has stayed the same," says Underwood. "With top players now making over $3 million a year, our film captures a pivotal and chaotic time in the birth of a pro sport." Do check it out, but not before you read the article that started it all!
—Mike Hogan, Executive Digital Director |
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