When reality TV becomes too real – and why we can’t look away

In today’s newsletter, a reality TV academic – and former Bachelor contestant – speaks with us about the attachments we form with romance reality participants in the wake of a domestic violence charge against a former star. We also recommend Troye Sivan’s new album, a five-star play and some excellent reads Good morning. This week my social media feed has been filled with people expressing shock and even betrayal following the news that fitness influencer and former Bachelor star Sam Wood has been charged with domestic violence . His lawyer said in court on Thursday that Wood denied the allegations. To understand the specific attachment we form with romance reality stars, I’ve spoken with Dr Rebecca Trelease – Alyx 10 Chaotic Questions with Juliet Stevenson: ‘Do I have a nemesis? Where do we start?

Putin, Musk, Trump, Erdoğan, Modi, Netanyahu’ Moment I knew: We were babysitting my younger siblings and he wore a tutu to make them laugh Leading questions: A good friend brings her dogs when she stays with me. I kind of dread it. What can I do? Headline act: ‘You think you’re invincible, and you’re not’: Gretta Ray on sickness, surviving and finding her new sound What to watch | Speaking of reality TV, Wendy Syfret’s Stream Team column on House of Stassi (Disney+) had me so immediately addicted to the Vanderpump Rules spin-off – about insanely watchable hyper-villain Stassi Schroeder – that I almost took a fake day off to binge it. “You don’t need to be a reality TV producer to understand what this show was supposed to be,” Syfret writes. Reader: it does not go well – Steph Harmon, culture editor What to play | “There seems no reason whatsoever why Troye Sivan [pictured above] should still be a relative cult figure within pop, rather than an actual multiplatinum star,”…