It’s a week of controversy: Rachel Dolezal, the white woman who says she’s black, is back in the public eye thanks to a Netflix documentary, The Rachel Divide. What trauma led to her fraudulent ‘transracial’ identity? And why does Rachel refuse to back down? We called up gal-dem deputy editor and Guardian writer Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff to discuss the documentary - and whether or not Netflix were right to air it. 

Also on today’s agenda: the glitzy annual Met Gala and it’s ‘Catholic’ theme, courtesy of Andrew Bolton’s ‘Heavenly Bodies’ exhibition. From Rihanna’s papal mitre to Lena Waithe’s politically charged rainbow cape, via Jared Leto dressed as Jesus (God complex, much?) the dress code might have been crassly interpreted and as camp as Christmas, but does that make it offensive? We run the full gamut of opinions.

Last thing - the Chuckle Brothers have not fallen out. We repeat: rumours of a feud are false. 

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Links

The Rachel Divide review by Doreen St Felix for The New Yorker 

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-rachel-divide-review-a-disturbing-portrait-of-dolezals-racial-fraudulence 

The Rachel Divide on Netflix 

https://www.netflix.com/title/80149821 

Does Anyone Have The Right To Sex? By Amia Srinivasan, for The London Review of Books

https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n06/amia-srinivasan/does-anyone-have-the-right-to-sex

Sean Penn interview, by Emma Brockes for The Guardian 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/may/05/sean-penn-some-of-my-best-laughs-have-come-out-of-the-worst-reviews

You Think It, I’ll Say It, short stories by Curtis Sittenfeld

https://www.amazon.co.uk/You-Think-Ill-Say-Stories/dp/052552777X/ref=nodl_

Patrick Melrose, starts on Sunday on Sky Atlantic

How The Met Gala Guests Tackled “The Heavenly Bodies” Theme, by Osman Ahmed for Vogue.co.uk

http://www.vogue.co.uk/article/how-met-gala-guests-tackled-heavenly-bodies-them

Radio 4 Soul Music on God Only Knows 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b01jsk

Abi Morgan’s Desert Island Discs 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b01jsk

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