Hello October! It’s Dolly’s favourite month of the year. If she were reincarnated, says Pandora, it would be as a knee-high boot. 

This week we discuss MeToo’s infighting - as Asia Argento unveils a new bloody dagger tattoo aimed at Rose McGowan; Pret’s tragic error and the 14 allergens that all foodstuffs should be labelled with; and why the Nobel peace prize should be taken away from Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi despite the organisation’s novel explanation as to why it hasn’t. 

Masses of recommendations from us both, including Lily Allen’s memoir, the film Tully, a beautiful piece on grief by Alice Edwards, and a series of accounts on what it was really like to work for Harvey Weinstein, in The Guardian magazine. Are NDAs protecting the wrong people? 

We couldn’t *not* talk about Brett Kavanaugh - the Republican judge who looks set to enter the Supreme Court, the highest law-making body in the USA, despite the accusation of sexual assault lodged against him by Dr Christine Ford. Do men (and women) of a certain age - and political view - still subscribe to the belief “that if it isn’t rape, it doesn’t count”? And are we surprised that Trump is still endorsing Kavanaugh?

Also this week, we discuss a brilliant piece by the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, Farrah Storr, for The Times Magazine - about why women can’t (and maybe don’t want) it all. Dolly and I talk about the ‘splintered woman’ (domestic, professional, sexual) and get personal on the subconscious pressure to have it all; why we don’t have it all; and why having different things, at different times, is actually even better. 

Links:

Tully (2018) film 

Kavanaugh v Ford is a litmus test for our times, by Janice Turner for The Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/kavanaugh-v-ford-is-litmus-test-of-our-times-6xrmt5v7w

Suzanne Moore on Brett Kavanaugh: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/28/brett-kavanaugh-christine-blasey-ford-senate-supreme-court 

Why women can’t have it all, by Farrah Storr for The Times magazine https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/you-can-t-have-it-all-admits-cosmopolitan-editor-farrah-storr-kt89pqm37

Episode #149 of Ctrl, Alt, Delete podcast hosted by Emma Gannon, with Farrah Storr https://www.emmagannon.co.uk/2018/09/27/ctrl-alt-delete-podcast-149-farrah-storr/

Jackie Onassis and Lee Radziwill: the truth about their rivalry, (extracted from a book) by Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger for The Times magazine 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jackie-onassis-and-lee-radziwill-the-truth-about-their-sibling-rivalry-w60cvzl9m

Life as a Harvey Weinstein employee, three accounts for The Guardian magazine https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/sep/29/harvey-weinstein-three-former-employees-on-working-for-him

‘I carry your hearts with me’ - an essay on grief by Alice Edwards for the current print issue of Porter magazine 

‘My anxiety was a tool to survive’, Claire Foy interview by Tom...

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