For your VIP pleasure, I have a couple of stories covered by Rolling Stone. I'm proud to say that I only ever purchased one issue of Rolling Stone in 1985 for the Prince interview. SPIN was the magazine to read about music.
I hate the term "influencer," but I have to admit that it's a real thing. Some people are famous millionaires for the influence they have on their TikTok and YouTube followers. I guess I could call them content creators, but influencer really is the most appropriate word.
What I refuse to believe is that there are American Girl influencers on social media. I bought an American Girl doll or two for my daughter back in the '90s, but apparently, there's an American Girl doll "culture," and adults are dressing up their American Girl dolls in homemade "F**k ICE" T-shirts. Rolling Stone is hot on the story:
Meet the American Girl Doll Influencers Protesting ICE
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) February 12, 2026
Some may find it surprising, but for those creating the content, it makes perfect sense: "We've been radicalized since the Nineties!"https://t.co/JKORWF7ckT
Actually, that one in the middle dressed as an ICE agent looks pretty cool.
Lorena O’Neil reports on Caitlyn Cordova, who created a viral meme of a bundled-up Kristen doll and the caption, "Kristen will be happy when ICE gets the f**k out of Minnesota":
Cordova was a childhood collector of the dolls in the 1990s and 2000s and says she brought them back out of storage when her eldest daughter was about seven years old. Cordova lives in New Jersey and has two daughters, now 10 and five, and says she enjoys reading the books with them to learn history and show how these characters stood up for others. She’s a photographer and also sews historical dresses for the dolls, setting up scenes and taking pictures for her social media account. She said at the end of January, while watching ICE take over Minnesota, it made her think of Kirsten.
“It clicked in my head, I knew that if she was real and in some weird time warp, she would be against ICE,” says Cordova. “The girls would not be tolerating what is happening in this country.” (Mattel, which owns American Girl, did not respond to an interview request.)
Look at O'Neil doing journalism and stuff, contacting Mattel for an interview.
She also got hold of "Jo," who has an Etsy store where she sells American Girl doll clothing. "On June 13, 2025, she dressed her dolls in anti-Trump clothing she had made and then staged them in a No Kings Day protest."
Sorry, but the online American Girl doll influencer community sounds about as valid a group as furries.
And one more from Rolling Stone. Last August, Twitchy reported that conservatives online were having fun with the trailer for a new Apple TV show starring Jessica Chastain as a woman who infiltrated domestic terror groups. Here it is again:
The official trailer for ‘THE SAVANT’ starring Jessica Chastain.
— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) August 26, 2025
The series follows an undercover investigator and mother who infiltrates hate groups online to detect and prevent domestic extremists before they act.
Premieres September 26 on Apple TV+
pic.twitter.com/fHqVRdyCq0
Premieres September 26? Why haven't we heard about it at the Emmys? As we reported a month later, following the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk on September 10, Apple TV had postponed the rollout of "The Savant." No one noticed, except Rolling Stone, which is wondering what happened to the "highly anticipated" show. Cheyenne Roundtree reports:
Questions around the miniseries resurfaced after Apple held a press event earlier this month in Santa Monica announcing a slate of new shows, original films, and returning series for the upcoming year. The Savant was absent from the list.
It’s an unusual and near-unprecedented months-long delay, especially for a project backed by an A-list star in Chastain, whose production company Freckle Films spent five years developing and making the show.
…
Chastain previously voiced frustration with the decision, writing on Instagram the day after the postponement that she was “not aligned on the decision to pause the release.” She noted the” unfortunate amount of violence” in the U.S. that appeared to have no effect on if a show aired — including hundreds of school shootings, the attempted kidnapping of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, the failed assassination attempt on President Donald Trump, and the political assassination of two Minnesota Democratic representatives.
Credit to Chastain for remembering that Donald Trump was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania, on the campaign trail … right up there with the "fednapping" of Gretchen Whitmer.
Again, I doubt "questions" arose at the press event earlier this month. Maybe one question, in the mind of Rolling Stone's reporter.
"highly anticipated"
— JWF (@JammieWF) February 16, 2026
It lives as a meme
— Bleu Cheque (@VERBAL_CHANCLA) February 15, 2026
It does! I see the still of Chastain's character staring into a computer screen pop up now and then and get a good laugh out of it.
"Nearly 5 months later, they still remember Charlie." pic.twitter.com/4JVOAwXybt
— Admiral Quality: Music-Software/Flight/Space/Sci (@AdmiralQuality) February 16, 2026
The show was going to feature a Charlie Kirk stand-in as a villain, and then the real-life Charlie Kirk was murdered by a leftist with a troon boyfriend. So Apple panicked and canceled the show.
— Cis Siberian Orchestra (@CisSiberian) February 16, 2026
"this modern audience we made the show for, it does not actually really exist?" pic.twitter.com/ctICXRp7vx
— meme bastard 💚 (@mask_bastard) February 16, 2026
It was based on a real-life Cosmopolitan article.
"Highly anticipated" 😂 😂 😂
— Mike Moss (@_MikeMoss) February 15, 2026
99% of people just think it's a meme
Nobody would be happier for this show to be released only to be pilloried harder than Starfleet Academy than I would.
— Guy (@GuyIsReborn) February 16, 2026
The only anticipation we had was to watch it flop
— 𝕲𝖊𝖗𝖒𝖆𝖓𝖎𝖈 𝕱𝖗𝖊𝖓 🇺🇲 (@GermanicFren) February 17, 2026
Good riddance
“Now they’re saying they want to see my show. Don’t they know they’re the bad guys?” pic.twitter.com/BXCczmcGFN
— Mamaluke (@RealMamaluke) February 16, 2026
But we needed this show to be released so we could make memes from screen caps
— James Rozell (@Rozell6James) February 16, 2026
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