The Perfect Pop Star for a Dumb Stunt

Katy Perry is exactly the kind of celebrity to go to space.

Produced by ElevenLabs and News Over Audio (Noa) using AI narration. Listen to more stories on the Noa app.

Katy Perry climbed aboard Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocketship with a smile on her face. She held a daisy, in tribute to her daughter, Daisy. She wore a skintight cobalt spacesuit custom-made by the designer Monse; the look had prompted her to say she and her mission-mates—an all-female crew that also included an accomplished aerospace engineer and a onetime nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize—“were putting the ass in astronaut!”

And then she traveled to the edge of space, where she gazed down at the blue marble before her and did the thing she’s been doing since she was a child at her parents’ Pentecostal church: She sang from her heart, about the bounty before her eyes. To paraphrase: She thought to herself / what a wonderful world. She was in the air for 10 minutes and 21 seconds total, and when she landed back on Earth, she kissed the ground like she’d been lost at sea for months. Afterward, when a reporter asked her how she felt about being “officially an astronaut,” Perry said that the experience showed her “how much love you have to give and how loved you are.”

Enjoy a year of unlimited access to The Atlantic—including every story on our site and app, subscriber newsletters, and more.

People have been finding this extremely funny. They’ve been mocking her for not being up there long enough, and for being too solemn about the experience, and for reportedly studying string theory to prepare for it. “What an incredibly dumb woman,” someone wrote on X. “As a woman I’m annoyed. As an engineer I’m disgusted.” The fast-food company Wendy’s, of all entities, asked, “Can we send her back”?

Katy Perry slammed over ’embarrassing’ $175 dolls after divisive space trip

George Clooney Says ‘I Don’t Care’ If Trump Calls Me a ‘Fake Movie Actor’ Because ‘My Job Is Not to Please the President of the United States’

George Clooney is not bothered by Donald Trump slamming him. Appearing on “CBS Mornings” to promote his Broadway debut in “Good Night and Good Luck,” the Oscar winner was asked by host Gayle King about the time Trump branded him a “fake movie actor” on Truth Social.

“I don’t care,” Clooney said. “I’ve known Donald Trump for a long time. My job is not to please the President of the United States. My job is to try and tell the truth when I can and when I have the opportunity. I am well aware of the idea that people will not like that… people will criticize that. Elon Musk has weighed in [about me]. That is their right. It’s my right to say the other side.”

Trump launched a social media attack on Clooney last summer after the actor published an op-ed for The New York Times in which he urged Joe Biden to step down as the Democratic nominee for president. Clooney wrote that Biden had saved democracy before and could do so again by stepping aside and giving Democrats a better shot at beating Trump given Biden’s old age.

“So now fake movie actor George Clooney, who never came close to making a great movie, is getting into the act,” Trump posted in reaction. “He’s turned on Crooked Joe like the rats they both are.”

“What does Clooney know about anything?” Trump then asked. “He uses the Democrat ‘talking point’ that Biden, the WORST President in the history of the United States, has ‘saved our Democracy.’ No, Crooked Joe was the one who WEAPONIZED Law Enforcement against his political Opponent, who created the most devastating INFLATION in the history of our Country, who Embarrassed our Nation in Afghanistan, and whose crazy Open Border Policy has allowed millions of people to illegally pour into our Country, many from prisons and mental institutions. Crooked Joe Biden didn’t save our Democracy, he brought our Democracy to its knees. Clooney should get out of politics and go back to television. Movies never really worked for him!!!”

Clooney appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” shortly after Trump’s post against him, where the late night host read aloud Trump’s quote requesting Clooney get out of politics. The actor simply clapped back at the time: “I will if he does. That’s a trade-off I’d do.” The studio audience roared in approval.

Clooney recently sat down with CNN’s Jake Tapper and said it was his “civic duty” to go against Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election and champion an alternate Democratic nominee.

“I don’t know if it was brave,” Clooney said. “It was a civic duty because I found that people on my side of the street – you know, I’m a Democrat in Kentucky so I get it – when I saw people on my side of the street not telling the truth I thought that was time to… some people [are mad], sure. That’s OK, you know, listen the idea of freedom of speech is you can’t demand freedom of speech and then say, ‘But don’t say bad things about me.‘”

“That’s the deal, you have to take your stand if you believe in it,” he continued. “Take a stand, stand for it and then deal with the consequences. That’s the rules, so when people criticize me – they criticized me for my stance against the war 20 years ago, people picketed my movies and they put me on a deck of cards – I have to take that, that’s fair. I’m OK with that, I’m OK with criticism for where I stand. I defend their right to criticize me as much as I defend my right to criticize them.”

Watch Clooney’s full “CBS Mornings” interview in the video below.