Margaret French

I made this Lenox Spice (Christmas) Village and it’s the best thing I’ve ever made.

I swear it came to me in my sleep. I envisioned Patti with a vaguely French/European accent combing her hairless poodles wisps and telling 14 year old Mia princesses never chase men.

As I am using my new Bluesky account exclusively to post hot takes on a series I read 15 years ago: fan casting for a Princess Diaries TV show that stays faithful to the books, especially in Grandmere being an absolute villain and played by… Patti Lupone.

Or it’s just a series written for children and not 🍃 31 year old women searching for comfort in a piece of media from her childhood.

Luigi has serious Michael Moskowitz vibes btw.

Her best friend, who was staunchly anti-royalist until she started getting perks, picks up and drops causes like TikTok fast fashion trend cycles. Lilly’s parents are psycho-analysts who can afford an apartment on 5th Ave and whose patients all have absurd diagnoses/issues/trauma.

It revels in watching these people wallow in their privilege while doing nothing of consequence. Mia’s the leader of a country whose parliament can spend WEEKS to an argument about parking meters. Mia’s mom, whose bills are paid by her royal baby daddy, regularly FORGETS to pay the phone bill.

They all get so close to being socially conscious (by the standards of the early 2000s) before turning it into something ultimately self-serving. But the author, through Mia’s narration, seems to lean in and highlight how unserious these people are.

I’ve decided that The Princess Diaries (YA book series) is actually a satirical anti-capitalist manifesto criticizing the wealthy ruling class. Every. Single. Character. is part of the 1% and they’re all performative liberal, wildly disconnected idiots. Not just the teenagers, but the adults as well

Selling out my third retreat feels a lot like this.

Helen Thermopolis never fails to be an impressively terrible mother.