This week:
- The Coldplay affair heard ’round the world.
- The shocking Stephen Colbert news.
- The week’s best social media trend.
- The feud I can’t believe is back.
- A cranky journalism rant.
What Were These People Thinking?
A billionaire tech CEO and his head of HR were outed for their alleged affair on the Jumbotron of a Coldplay concert. That is the most heterosexual nonsense I’ve ever heard.
As has gone viral a million times over in a matter of days—to the giggling glee of us ingrates on the internet—during a Coldplay concert in Foxborough, Massachusetts (home of the stadium where the New England Patriots play and marriages are destroyed), what seemed to be a loving couple was beamed onto the venue’s giant screen.
He was cradling her from behind. She was nestled into his chest. They swayed lovingly. Then they noticed they were on camera, and the vibe didn’t so much shift as much as it peeled off like a F1 racecar in the opposite direction.
He stopped, dropped, and rolled like he was participating in an elementary school demonstration of what to do if you catch on fire. She turned her back to the camera, employing the classic delusional move: “If I can’t see them, maybe they can’t see me.” Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin quipped from the stage: “Either they’re having an affair or they’re very shy.”
The clip was posted online, and the internet sprang into action and did its thing: The “couple” was immediately identified as Andrew Byron, CEO of tech company Astronomer, and Kristin Cabot, the “Chief People’s Officer” (aka head of HR). Digital sleuths also discovered that each appears to be married to other people—hence Byron’s attempt to crash through the back wall like the Kool-Aid Man and flee the situation.
It led to a banner day in the world of 2025’s internet. Memes and jokes rained down like comedic manna from heaven. (Let’s face it, how often these days are we united on social media about news that makes us laugh instead of scream from the depths of our soul?)
The fun then led to buzzkill (though valid!) discourse about privacy and surveillance. And through all of it, I think we can glean a few lessons:
Social media can never go away because it’s where the funniest people alive are working their magic.
You have to be pretty rich and entitled to think that you can be the head of a company worth over a billion dollars and openly engage in an affair in front of 70,000 people—including your coworkers—and not get caught. (In other words: F— around, and find out.)
At this point, when you’re in public, your privacy is gone.
And finally: Being a Coldplay fan can ruin a person’s life.
Poor Coldplay seems to be collateral damage in this media frenzy, catching strays from cynics and haters mocking how embarrassing it is to be at a Coldplay concert in the first place—let alone have an affair exposed there.
Sometimes society just collectively decides something and it becomes a fact you just have to accept, like at some point Coldplay became a cringe act and liking them is decidedly uncool.
It doesn’t matter if, like me, you were at one point obsessed with them, went to their concerts, loved their music, and had a great time. Now they’re corny and lame…for some reason.
I reject the Coldplay fandom-shaming aspect of this story. But I did wonder: What would be the most embarrassing concert to have your life ruined at?
I’m thinking back to all the concerts I’ve been to where I would have been mortified to see adulterers outed on the Jumbotron. I went to a Justin Bieber concert once. That would’ve been rough. I used to go to Z100’s Jingle Ball Concert each year. Would’ve cringed at that. Probably the worst would be at the exhibition showcase for the Team USA gymnasts I went to after the 2016 Olympics.
But the “imagine being outed at the Coldplay concert” aspect to this raises the real point: Imagine being outed like this at any concert!
The buffoonery of this PDA is wild at any time, but especially in today’s world where by merely going outside you essentially are under surveillance. That’s been a real talking point in the wake of all this.
Did Byron and Cabot and all of their company’s information deserve to be immediately exposed like this? Should they have expected privacy? Do the very funny memes excuse the instantaneous crowdsourcing of every detail of their lives? That’s the very current debate.
Every single one of us is potential fodder for viral exposure these days. Not just rich tech executives committing flagrant HR violations at Coldplay concerts. Not just Karens on their miscellaneous tirades. Not just the various people we encounter in our daily lives who are “asking for it.”
It’s a hot guy whose photo was taken on the subway. It’s a person who’s eating a weird meal on an airplane. A random person in the background of a viral video making a funny face. Figuring out the ethics of this kind of behavior can’t keep pace with the rate at which it veers closer to the norm.
That’s what I find so interesting about this duo’s Viva La Vida Loca escapades. The jokes and the virality of this is because people can’t fathom how astronomically stupid you’d have to be to behave the way these people did at such a public event. Maybe they didn’t expect to be put on a Jumbotron in a video that then goes viral online. But to expect total privacy and anonymity?
As we grapple with the lessons to glean from all this, an exciting fact has emerged: Truly, Coldplay has never been more relevant.
This Is Dismal News
It’s rare that I get as many “omg did you hear?!?!” messages from people about entertainment news as I did when it was announced that CBS is canceling The Late Show for good after Stephen Colbert completes the upcoming 2025-26 season.
The abrupt ending of an institution is shocking in its own right. That it’s the one late night show that’s actually doing well in the ratings is the real disarming blow.
It’s a depressing death knell of the entire late night genre, as live viewership struggles, digital video competes with all kinds of social content for relevancy, networks are slashing budgets, and, um, presidents are attacking hosts from the White House.
I may have nostalgia for staying up late to watch Dave Letterman’s Top 10 list, or seeing in the TV Guide that my favorite actor was going to be on Leno and making plans to tune-in live, but I’m aware that’s not how television is widely consumed anymore—including by me. But the thought of this entire category of television disappearing?
It seems implausible, but then also not: That’s precisely what CBS did with The Late Late Show when James Corden left. It’s what they’re doing with The Late Show when Colbert leaves. Who knows what will vanish next.
My Favorite Social Media Tradition
My favorite thing that happens on social media is when a person posts something along the lines of “what is your favorite moment from [insert TV show],” tons of tons of people then post moments from said TV show, and I spend hours and hours scrolling though my phone watching each clip and giggling like a demented goblin.
So imagine my glee when a kindred-spirited goblin did just that week: “I love it when somebody tweets ‘what’s the best 30 rock joke’ and everyone replies with their fave 30 rock joke. Can somebody pls do that? I would but I’ve done it too many times in the past and I should let somebody else have the engagement this time.”
My answer: This flashback to Liz and Jenna doing improv. Click here to see everyone’s picks. Enjoy, my goblins.
Is My Ridiculous Paraphernalia Safe?
I can’t believe we’re back at Donald Trump vs. Rosie O’Donnell yet again, and that this time it’s a matter of international relations.
But what I really want to know is, if Rosie fandom is under attack by the government, does this mean I have to give up the Rosie O’Donnell Barbie doll I purchased from an antique shop a few miles away from Real Housewives of New York star Dorinda Medley’s manor in the Berkshires?
She’s real, folks:
Is This for Real?
It is so hard for entertainment journalists to land interviews with talent from major projects because the press time is being instead taken up by actors playing with puppies, taking lie detector tests, talking to TikTok-ers, and answering questions like this:
I get the idea of having fun. But seriously???
More From The Daily Beast’s Obsessed
We talked to the people who bought tickets to Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey a full calendar year in advance. Read more.
I interviewed Lamb Chop, Shari Lewis’ iconic sock puppet, and learned some juicy secrets. Read more.
The biggest snubs and surprises from this year’s Emmy nominations. Read more.
What to watch this week:
Billy Joel: And So It Goes: The “Piano Man” himself gets candid about his own life and music. (Friday on HBO)
Eddington: A COVID nightmare-fuel move that will tick off both sides of the aisle. Fun! (Now in theaters)
I Know What You Did Last Summer: A fun reboot to watch. So what are you waiting for, huh? (Now in theaters)
What to skip this week:
Untamed: A yawny new crime thriller set in a national park. At least it’s pretty? (Now on Netflix)
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