It’s the Sunday Roast, and today it’s four times throbbier than normal! Not that we’re ever normal around these parts. These parts right here… Where was I? Oh, right! Throbbing. In the 60’s you had The Monkees (who were musically under-rated IMHO). In the 80’s you had Milli Vanilli, who were at least stunning to look at. And in 2026, we have BoyThrob, which may actually be nothing more than a four-headed practical joke. Yes, in These Trying Times™ even manufactured bands have evolved. Morphed. Mutated.  These pleasant-looking lads come to you from the hellmouth known as TikTok, where they have gone viral, more for their backstory than for their music (which is pleasant enough, I guess). For four part harmony you need, yes, four people. And BoyThrob IS four people, but there’s a problem. Three of them are American:  Anthony Key, Evan Papier, and Zachary Sobania.  One of them,  Darshan Magdum,   is Indian. And trying to bring him to the US to perform with hi...

Do you remember your first Japanese crush? Was it an early manga, perhaps Jason or (edgier) Mark from GForce ? I remember mine.  Who could forget him? Berkley Publishing Group And he wasn't even Japanese. He was Filipino actor Mark Dacascos , who dominated the Iron Chef theatre in North America, as a dramatic, sensual, and invigorating host. For a man whose whole job is to pull a blanket off mostly vegetables, he's managed to make it a pretty sexy gig.  Mixed Asian Media The myth of the American show is that it's a relative of the Japanese OG. The chairman announces the start of each battle with: "So now America, with an open heart and empty stomach, I say unto you in the words of my uncle : 'Allez cuisine!'" And allez they do, although really the money shot has been spent, Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. The Big Reveal is key, and frankly, all the rest is fallout. But occasionally there's an upset worth hanging on for.  Instead of fortune t...

Doctor Younan Nowzaradan, aka Dr Now, is the cold-blooded and seen-it-all central figure of My 600 Pound Life and the 6000 Pound Diaries . He and his blinged-out stethoscope have heard all the excuses, and the key to his appeal is the fact that he's seen all of it and is over 99% of it.  As befits a global legend, he grew up in an exciting time in an exciting nation, ie 70's Iran , and then moved to the US. He specialized in bariatric surgery, doing gastric sleeve and gastric bypass operations just as obesity exploded across the USA.  At some point his son Jonathan recognized that not only was there a market for bariatric surgery, there was a market to WATCH it as well, and thus a dynasty was born. This son created a media company which filmed his father from a single special program, which attracted enough attention that it evolved into multiple different series. My 600 Pound Life begat the 6000 Pound Diaries (a vlog-based version). And it spawned imitators: we have 1000 Po...

Greetings, Peckerites! It's that time again, time to do a shallow dive into the life of a celebrity or would-be celebrity. This week we feature the literally dashing Jogging Jack Sparrow . Now that's staying in character! Runners are weird people. Some are smug, some are serious, some are vegans, and some, it seems, are pirates. Racing in costume has a long and amusing history, but nobody does it better, more thoroughly, than Jogging Jack Sparrow.  With 340,000 followers on Instagram, Jack is a regular at RunDisney events, with fans spotting him year after year. That's genuine celebrity cred. He even has his own scandal: apparently some Disney Adults think consuming alcohol sets a very un-Disneylike tone. One has to ask: have they seen the movies? Do they even know who Jack Sparrow is?   Every runner knows hydration is crucial to performance. What kind of performance definitely depends on what kind of hydration. Best to stock up! Photo Credit: Getty Images

Greetings, Manorites, this is Raincoaster, and I'd like to welcome you to Peckerwood's very first Sunday Roast! This week we feature that darling of darkness, Vincent Price: He was a Yale man and a frustrated Shakespearean who was typecast early (and very lucratively) as the ultimate horror villain. But he was also an art connoisseur, Francophile, and gourmet who briefly hosted his own cooking show; yes, in the old days celebrity chefs were actual celebrities. There’s also a cookbook , which is highly recommended if you like French cuisine. Bonus points to anyone who guesses the second celebrity chef in the photo. Photo Credits: Shutterstock, TransAmerica