Zendaya Is the Moment. Here's Why.
Little Gold Men by Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair
4.2 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 23 April 2026
⏱️ 49 minutes
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Summary
In an age of handwringing about the lack of "real movie stars," Zendaya has entered the chat in style. The multi-hyphenate star is having a packed 2026, with the already-released Euphoria and The Drama — not to mention her high-profile collab with stylist Law Roach and sportswear brand On — and three of the year's most-anticipated blockbusters (Spider-Man: Brand New Day, The Odyssey, and Dune: Part Three). And we're still excited to see her every time, both on screen and on the red carpet. So what makes Zendaya such a star of the moment? Rebecca and John are joined by Staff Writer Chris Murphy and Style Correspondent José Criales-Unzueta to get into it.
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Little Gold Men, Vanity Affairs podcast for film, TV, and awards lovers. |
| 0:11.0 | I'm Rebecca Ford. |
| 0:12.0 | And I'm John Ross. |
| 0:13.8 | Before we kick things off, we want to let listeners know that next week we're going to be talking all about the devil wears Prada, both the new movie, which is out next weekend and the original. We're going to be doing a little rewatch, so if you've been feeling like it's time for a rewatch yourself, do it this week. And we're also going to be talking to the writer of both films, Aline Brosh McKenna. So if you have any questions for her about the Devil Wars product, send them to Little Gold Men at vF.com. |
| 0:40.3 | And with that, John, how are you doing? I'm good. I went to the AFI Life Achievement Award, not Lifetime, Life Achievement Award this weekend, where they honored Eddie Murphy. It's a great event. They get incredible people |
| 0:57.5 | to give tributes. Eddie Murphy was no exception. And then he gave, you know, Eddie Murphy doesn't |
| 1:06.1 | love giving speeches, but he gave a funny speech at the end where he was like, you know, I'm getting this |
| 1:11.1 | award kind of young. I'm 65. If you guys waited until 80 or 90, I would have gotten on this |
| 1:17.7 | stage and said, fuck you. I deserve this younger, which was funny. And then Dave Chappelle |
| 1:26.4 | talked about, I didn't realize this, but Eddie Murphy's brother, Charlie, worked on the Chappelle show and was one of the stars. And so they talked about that. And he sort of mulled over maybe the Chappelle's show returning. And he was like, if Eddie would come and play Charlie's roles, |
| 1:47.1 | he would do it, which got a big rise from the audience. So it was cool. |
| 1:52.3 | That event is always impressive because, like you said, they get everyone, they get huge people to come out. |
| 1:57.9 | And it's not during, like, an award season. |
| 1:59.7 | Right. |
| 1:59.8 | There's no their motivation for |
| 2:01.1 | these people to do it other than they love the person being honored or they, you know, they respect them so much. |
| 2:06.3 | So that one always impresses me. I'm glad you had a good time. Yeah. So the special is going to be |
| 2:11.3 | streaming at the end of May on Netflix. It used to air for many, many years on TNT, but Netflix bought the rights, I think, |
| 2:19.3 | because they also have such a deep relationship with Eddie. |
| 2:23.2 | And Eddie thanked Ted Sarandos on the stage. |
| 2:26.3 | Interesting. |
| 2:28.3 | And the other big news of last week was CinemaCon, |
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