The daily gossip: Lil Nas X was into this morning's earthquake, the real reason Regé-Jean Page might be leaving Bridgerton, and more

1.

The Los Angeles area was rattled awake on Monday by a series of earthquakes that culminated in a 4.0 tremor — a magnitude that longtime California residents will dismiss, obnoxiously, as "a small one." Lil Nas X, though not a Californian by birth, nevertheless enjoyed Mother Nature's alarm clock: "the earthquake was nice," the rapper shared. "kinda turned me on." TikTok star GhostHoney also expressed gratitude for the unstable crust upon which California is unwisely built, and which will perhaps one day thrust it into the sea: "earthquake woke me up from a dream where I could not stop buying snakes," he tweeted. "kept saying 'just one more snake …... one more snake and I will be satisfied.'" [Los Angeles Times]

2.

Ready the fainting couch: Regé-Jean Page will not be returning for Bridgerton's second season, according to Lady Whistledown's Society Papers (by way of Netflix). "We bid adieu to Regé-Jean Page, who so triumphantly played the Duke of Hastings," the announcement read. Vulture notes that the second season of the show follows Anthony, and that fans of the books know that there are "diminishing returns for the Duke," while Page himself said he'd knowingly signed up for a "one-season arc." Yet "with Shonda Rhimes on a $100MM deal," writes Andrew A. Rosen in his PARQOR newsletter, "I can't help but wonder whether Page's agent tried to milk more out of Netflix for its new star, and hit a wall given the original size of Rhimes' deal." [Vulture, PARQOR]

3.

This weekend, the world celebrated the miracle of Salma Hayek discussing her pet owl in a chaotic interview with People. "I gave it to my husband as a Valentine's present and named her Kering because that's the name of his company and their symbol of the owl," Hayek said, as if this somehow explains inviting a winged predator of the night to live in her house. Admittedly, Hayek and the southern white-faced owl have a special bond: "When my husband is not in town, she sleeps in the room with me," Hayek said. She also revealed that Kering has turned into a bit of a sommelier. "Even though owls don't drink liquids because they take everything from their prey, she likes good wine, this one," Hayek said. [People]

4.

Breaking news: Mariah Carey is "actually a vampire." Or so she claimed, after getting her first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on camera and failing to bleed as she'd expected. In the video, a visibly nervous Carey chattered over her nurses' "medical narrative," describing how Prince was with her "in spirit" and how "I just talk and don't really think about it." Finally, the nurse instructed Carey to relax — "I'm filming, that's the problem, I'm in my filming stance!" Carey frantically explained. Upon at last receiving her shot, Carey released a piercing high screech that probably achieved exactly the opposite of her intended purpose of reassuring fans that the vaccine is no big deal. After her inoculation, Carey marveled that there was "no blood! Is that normal?" For Nosferatu, sure. [Instagram]

5.

Super Bowl winner Aaron Rodgers is poised to take on what may be his toughest challenge yet: pretending to be interested in Jeopardy! contestants' personal anecdotes. The Green Bay Packers quarterback is set to begin a stint as a Jeopardy! guest host on Monday. While he may seem like an unlikely pick, Rodgers actually won on Celebrity Jeopardy! in 2015. It seems he's done quite a bit of preparation, too, telling ESPN he watched "hours and hours and hours of episodes" and took "pages and pages and pages" of notes. Rodgers added that he'd once considered taking over for Alex Trebek to be "a dream job," and when asked by USA Today whether he'd host the show permanently, Rodgers said, "Hell yeah, I would." [ESPN, The Week]

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