A FERTILE YEAR
2017 could also be seen as a very fertile year
Love was just one of the things in the air in 2017, says pop culture columnist
You shouldn’t look back unless you are on a red carpet and want a dramatic over the shoulder paparazzi shot, but before we fully immerse ourselves into 2018 let’s look back at the best and worst pop culture moments of 2017.
This past year was a fertile year – Beyoncé gave birth to twins, Sir and Rumi Carter, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West found a surrogate to carry their third baby, Khloe Kardashian announced her first pregnancy, and Kylie Jenner is allegedly pregnant. Serena Williams gave birth to a baby girl and at four months old she’s already more athletic than me. In other pregnancy news, I’ve given birth to at least four food babies in the month of December alone.
It was also the year of the celebrity scandal. Hundreds of
powerful Hollywood men were accused of sexual harassment. The avalanche started with Harvey Weinstein and soon followed with Kevin Spacey, James Toback, Chris Savino, Brett Ratner and so many others. The 2017 Oscars also had a scandal (more awkward than illegal,
though), when Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty mistakenly announced La La Land as best picture when the award was actually intended for Moonlight. I know how they feel, someone once said, “How are you?” And I replied, “Not much, you?” And I still wake in the night crippled with embarrassment.
Chris Pratt and Anna Farris got divorced and all of Twitter went into a mild depression. Love was alive because 2017 brought us a new couple, Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez. To the delight of fans and the despair of her parents, Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber rekindled their romance. Jenny Slate and Chris Evans got back together just in time to celebrate Christmas together. Sam Smith and Brandon Flynn and Britney Spears and Sam Asghari became Instagram official. I also fell into a deeper, more committed love with cheesecake, so there’s that.
The creative juices were flowing in 2017 (and the actual juices, because cold-pressed juice became very trendy), Taylor Swift released her new album, Reputation. Cardi B became the first female rapper since 1998 to have a solo song hit #1 on the billboard charts. Chance the Rapper not only has the most literal name of all time, he defied odds by winning 3 Grammies as an unsigned artist who released a stream-only album. I had two Grammies, but unfortunately they passed away (RIP).
Selena Gomez received a kidney transplant from her best friend. Meanwhile, I won’t even drive my best friend to the airport.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their engagement and every other former Deal or No Deal suitcase girl got some hope.
The true hero moment of 2017 was when 16-year-old, Carter Wilkinson, took a chance and tweeted Wendy’s asking for free chicken nuggets for a year and he got them. Carter’s tweet beat out Ellen DeGeneres’ Oscar selfie as the most retweeted tweet of all time, proving just how much we all love chicken nuggets.
Keely Turner takes a look at pop culture through the eyes of an Island girl with a big city attitude. She’s also a pretty rad entrepreneur, marketing specialist and writer. Her column, Keelywood, will appear monthly in The Guardian. Reach out to her by email at keelymturner@gmail.com or on Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat. Search for Keely Turner.