Shots have been fired in pop culture this week… metaphorically and literally. While pop culture has been mostly stable and chill this past week, TikTok foryou pages have been flooded with ex-couple and podcaster drama. Read more below!

Ellen DeGeneres' departure from the public eye 

Ellen DeGeneres, who used to host the Ellen DeGeneres show, announced that she will be retiring after her Netflix special is completed. She said that “after my Netflix special, I'm done.” She also said that she was being kicked out of show business for being mean. 

This follows rumors that have circulated since 2020 about Ellen's treatment to her guests and those who worked for her on the Ellen DeGneres show. It should be noted that Ellen's friend once asked for proof of her being mean, which received over two thousand responses. 

Whether or not she was truly mean to the people around her, Ellen has been in the show industry for decades — perhaps it is time for her to properly retire.

Central Cee creates fan beef

Ice Spice, Central Cee and Madeline Argy fans have been fighting after Madz (Madeline) posted a few videos addressing Central Cee's latest actions. While Central Cee was reportedly showing Madz his new song, which he later made a promo for by starting a dating rumor with another girl (assumably Ice Spice) — all right before they were supposed to go to Nigeria together. 

Photos from their Nigeria trip were posted, despite Madz requesting them not to be posted. Madz later was trying to break up with him, although he apparently wasn't being cooperative with talking, when Central Cee posted new photos/videos with Ice Spice. 

Since Madz made her videos, Ice Spice and Central Cee have posted TikToks together and even performed on stage together. Fans are curious if the entire thing is a PR scandal or if there actually is a cheating scandal going on. 

The internet takes Brooke's side

The main drama from the week: the internet is taking Brooke Schofield's side in her recent drama with Clinton Kane. It began when Brooke went on her podcast “Cancelled” with Tana Mongeau to talk about how Clinton Kane, a singer who got his fame from promoting music on TikTok, was essentially constantly lying to her throughout their relationship with each other. 

The real beef, however, began when Clinton made a video about how his ex-girlfriend “won't stop yapping” about him — referring to Brooke.

After the podcast episode with Tana, Brooke made around 12 videos on her TikTok explaining everything. Here's a short rundown of the highlights: Clinton apparently lied about his mother and brother dying, lied about having an Australian accent, would love bomb her (think big spurts of love at random times), lied about his age and much more. Brooke went into how the relationship occurred before she was properly medicated for her Borderline Personality Disorder, and how she had been really hurt from Zach Sang (another podcaster… kind of a journalist) and his involvement in the situation. Zach apparently pressured Brooke into spilling the tea about Clinton before she was ready to. 

On July 13, Clinton decided to post his own responses to the situation through around 25 videos addressing all of the things he thought Brooke lied about. He focused on very niche details, such as how their dinner was two hours instead of four. He also made a Google Calendar of all the days they had seen each other to support his argument. He additionally provided a lot of screenshots of their reported conversations, which many fans have speculated to be fake or further evidence that Clinton was, in fact, the problem. 

Clinton also posted a video called “taking accountability,” where he admitted to cheating on Brooke, love bombing her and several of his exes, saying that his mom was dead when it was really a “close maternal figure” in his life and more. 

Fans, Tana and Brooke have not been shy about their opinions on his responses: people are calling him a narcissist, claiming that his response just supports Brooke's original video, asking where his accent is and more. They also highlighted how Clinton wasn't really responding to any of the claims but rather just defending himself by nit-picking small details of Brooke's videos. 

Now, a small portion of fans are also speculating that Clinton has autism. I personally don't believe that would be an excuse for any of his alleged actions, so I'm not really sure why it's being brought up as an argument.

Additionally, several of Clinton's other exes have spoken about the situation as well, essentially agreeing with Brooke and adding their own stories. 

Will Brooke respond to Clinton's videos? Likely. It will only be a matter of when. 

Dance Moms threatens reboot

Hulu is teasing a new show in the works, “Dance Moms: A New Era,” which will have a whole new set of dancers, moms and dance coach. The former dance mom Gloria ‘Glo' Hamptom will be replacing Abby Lee Miller as the dance coach. 

There has been a lot of discourse on whether or not this reboot will be successful and whether or not it will be ethical. As many people know, the original “Dance Moms” showed a lot of traumatic moments for the dancers — which have been reported to be heightened a lot because of the producers of the show. Will this show have a lot of unhealthy yelling between the mothers, a dance coach who is constantly screaming at her children dancers or music competitions that are rigged for the production? We will have to see when it is released.

Julia Fox comes out as lesbian

Julia Fox, actor and author, has come out as lesbian in a recent TikTok video. She also has previously revealed that she's asexual and wasn't ever intimate when she was dating Kanye, so perhaps this isn't as much of a shocker as some people think. 

Zach Justice called out

Zach Justice, content creator and “Dropouts” podcaster, has been under fire recently for his past relationship with Indiana Massara. The two knew each other when Indiana was still underaged, with him reportedly even living with her and her mom. He also apparently left comments on Indiana's Instagram when she was fourteen — which is rubbing people the wrong way. 

Since then, people have been calling out Zach for his relationships with much younger women, even if it's just platonic. People have specifically looked at his relationship with Tara Yummy, a TikToker who co-hosted a bunch of “Dropouts” episodes. 

Tara left the podcast right when Zach started to get called out, Zach has been cleaning his old comments out and Indiana has remained silent on the whole topic. 

Ariana Grande is accused of being a cannibal 

Ariana Grande has recently been accused of being a cannibal. She hasn't spoken about it, but her brother Frankie Grande claimed that the rumors were incredibly untrue and that Ariana is vegan. 

The accusations came from an old video resurfacing of Ariana saying that she would want to have dinner with Jeffrey Dahmer, serial killer and cannibal. While it's pretty obvious it's just trolls trying to create a wild rumor about Ariana, it serves as a great reminder that your past words will stick with you forever.