S1E55: Rebecca Lim gets engaged, Britney Spears is free and Taylor Swift revisits Red (and Jake Gyllenhaal): #PopVultures Ep 55

Nov 19, 2021

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#PopVultures Ep 55: Rebecca Lim gets engaged, Britney Spears is free and Taylor Swift revisits Red (and Jake Gyllenhaal)

28:37 mins

Synopsis: The Straits Times examines the ins and outs of pop culture in the Asian entertainment and Hollywood scene.

This week, #PopVultures host Jan Lee runs down note-worthy entertainment news for listeners. In local news, Mediacorp actress Rebecca Lim gets engaged to her mystery fiance. She announced the happy news on her Instagram and while she received congratulations and blessings from celebrities and fans alike, fellow actor Ian Fang did not seem as thrilled. Fang and Lim were linked for years but Fang and fellow Mediacorp actress Carrie Wong were caught exchanging sexually suggestive messages to each other in 2019.

Meanwhile in Hollywood, pop star Britney Spears is finally freed from her conservatorship after 13 years. She was previously placed under the conservatorship, which stripped her of her ability to make financial, medical and other personal decisions for herself, in 2008 after she suffered a highly publicised mental breakdown. Jan discusses how there's still more to the case, including Spears' allegations that her father, who was in charge of her conservatorship for years, exploited and surveilled her.

Finally, Jan goes into Taylor Swift's re-recording and releasing Red - an album first released in 2012. Swift added previously unpublished songs into the re-recorded album, including an extended ten-minute version of one of the album's most popular songs All Too Well. This album has reignited interest in Swift's brief relationship with actor Jake Gyllenhaal. Many of the album's breakup songs are said to be about Gyllenhaal. Jan also provides a primer on why Swift is re-recording her own music.

Here's what she talked about:

Rebecca Lim's engagement and how Ian Fang's response has shifted the focus away from her happy news (0:49)
Britney is finally free and how the conservatorship system is ripe for abuse (12:15)
Taylor Swift's re-recording and releasing her album Red (19:05)

Produced by Jan Lee (janlee@sph.com.sg) and Penelope Lee

Edited by: Penelope Lee & Hadyu Rahim

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