Tongues are always wagging in San Francisco — and The Waggle is always listening. Got some tea to spill in our weekly gossip column? Email us at [email protected].

What do Lena Dunham, Michael Lewis, and Sam Bankman-Fried have in common? They were all in bed together on Saturday in front of 1,600 San Franciscans who’d paid to watch.

OK, Bankman-Fried wasn’t actually physically in bed with Lewis and Dunham, as he remains stuck in federal prison on Terminal Island after being convicted of fraud. But he was figuratively there as the two writers discussed how they met and became friends: when Lewis hired Dunham to write the screenplay adaptation of his book about SBF.

The conversation took place at the Sydney Goldstein Theater as part of the City Arts and Lectures series, curated by Friend of the Waggle Kate Goldstein-Breyer. As Dunham has traveled around the country to promote her new memoir “Famesick,” she has set up a bed onstage, inviting the audience to a simulated sleepover and approximating the “many hotel room beds” on which she wrote the book. As with everything Dunham, the setup was intimate, awkward, voyeuristic, and hilarious. 

However, the most awkward moments may have come from Lewis, who seemed at times to forget that he was not at his own book talk. “Michael Lewis needed to shut up,” one tall, beautiful woman said as she clutched her book and exited the theater when it was over. Her friend agreed, and then so did all the women within earshot. “He was mansplaining to Lena!” said another.

Eventually, Dunham fixed the situation by sarcastically remarking after a particularly long Lewis soliloquy, “Wow, you’re really good at interviews!” He got the message, and from that point on, the conversation between two odd bedfellows went swimmingly. And hilariously.

Jeremy Greco may be a long shot in the crowded, chaotic race for Sunset District supervisor this June, but he’s got a secret weapon most candidates would kill for: a Hollywood bestie. 

Adam Scott — of “Severance,” “Parks and Recreation,” and general internet-husband fame — has been sharing Greco’s campaign videos and even recorded a personal callout for the candidate. The two go way back. Like, eighth grade in Santa Cruz way back, where they bonded over a “kind of hippie” elective writing class, according to Greco. In an interview with The Waggle, Greco explained that their friendship was cemented for life when they took a show to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and wound up talking to a mutual hero, Alan Rickman. They even did an R.E.M. music video together (opens in new tab). Greco followed Scott to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and later the two survived a Pasadena basement apartment together — exposed wires, rent paid in penny rolls, meals sourced from bulk bins — but Scott stayed in L.A., while Greco followed a broken heart back up north to San Francisco.

Greco, 54, now a campus coordinator at Presidio Hill School, is running to represent the Sunset as the race’s lone voice for preserving Sunset Dunes Park — a position that puts him squarely at odds with the other four candidates, all of whom support reopening the Great Highway to cars. 

Before his sudden turn toward city politics, Greco had a solo show in the works — called “Rebel Without a Clue,” about growing up alongside his now-megafamous best friend. He plans to pick it back up after his political foray. The Waggle can only hope Scott makes an appearance at the premiere.

If you missed the Twitter outrage cycle about a one-night trip that a16z New Media Fellows took last weekend, we’re here to catch you up.

First, the facts: Venture capitalist Andreessen Horowitz’s firm created a “new media” fellowship this year, and on May 17, some of those fellows took to X to share photos from a retreat they had gone on together. Fellow Madison Kanna (opens in new tab) shared, “a16z new media retreat brought together my favorite terminally online people at a ridiculously beautiful location.” 

“A16 showed these people a golf course for the first time and it’s blowing their minds,” wrote a guy on X named Daniel. 

“the a16z new media people have descended on my quiet california hometown and it feels kinda ominous for some reason,” sniped a woman named Nicole. 

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People tweeted many tweets speculating on where the retreat took place, how much it cost, and who was invited. Some wondered how many babies would be conceived there. 

The Waggle called up one fellow in attendance, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. She clarified that the fellows are a “very tame” group and that no babies were conceived, as far as she knows. She also confirmed the location: Carmel Valley Ranch.

Meta laid off around 8,000 people this week, hundreds of them in the Bay Area — and the reactions ran the full spectrum, from desperate clinging to praying for a pink slip. The week before notices went out, employees coped however they could: drinking, crying in the shower, getting high at a Lake County nudist colony. Once the NDAs effectively loosened, the posts came fast. Senior software engineer Jeremy Bernier went viral on X with a screed opening, “Meta was easily the most toxic company I’ve worked for.” 

But the exit that really captured our attention belonged to Asha Raval, aka Asha the Maximalist Fashionista (opens in new tab), a product designer known for wearing spectacularly unhinged outfits to her very corporate day job. Dressed in a shiny green oversized dress shirt, she told her Instagram followers she felt “so happy and free” (opens in new tab) — adding that “no amount of equity, stocks, cash, accolades can fix the feeling of your soul slowly dying.” 

Raval is now pivoting to a founding creator role at what she calls “one of the coolest fashion startups in Silicon Valley.” She didn’t respond to our requests for comment, but we wish her well and hope to score a private tour of her closet soon.

Dozens of moneyed SF Symphony supporters gathered Thursday night at City Hall for a private reception for Elim Chan, the incoming, 39-year-old, Hong Kong-born music director of the 115-year-old orchestra. Chan’s appointment marks the end of a two-year search following the dramatic departure of former music director Esa-Pekka Salonen, who resigned after disagreements with the board over his ambitious — and pricey — plans for the symphony.

The mood was upbeat at the soiree, as donors such as Fred Levine and Barbro and Bernie Osher raised glasses of sparkling rosé to welcome Chan, the first woman to lead the orchestra since its founding in 1911. (As one attendee noted, following the departure of Salonen and the death of former music director Michael Tilson Thomas last month, the crowd needed some good news.) Mayor Daniel Lurie kicked off the festivities by calling Chan’s appointment “an incredible milestone for our city” and recounting how he and his son were so excited by her arrival they’d driven to school that morning listening to classical music. “That has never happened before,” he joked. 

Chan then descended the grand central staircase to a standing ovation, flanked by Symphony CEO Mathew Spivey, Board Chair Priscilla Geeslin, and two members of the orchestra. Behind them, a giant banner bearing Chan’s face smiled benevolently at the crowd. Chan took a few preplanned questions from Spivey, answering with candor and humor. (Her first inspiration for conducting? Disney’s 1940 animated classic “Fantasia.”) Of her decision to come to San Francisco, she said she was looking for a place to “pour myself into” and knew this was the right home the minute she first led the orchestra as a guest conductor in 2023. “I just knew from the moment the music was made,” she said. “The sound, it was full of care.”

Perhaps it’s unsurprising that the majority of attendees at the May 14 press preview for SFMOMA’s “Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal (opens in new tab)” were not traditional members of the press, but influencers. Following 20 minutes of curatorial talking points about Matisse and the exhibition’s eyebrow-raising Google AI installations, you could sense the panic among the creators rushing to get their money shot in front of the show’s centerpiece painting. 

The Waggle couldn’t look away from professional gossip Kat Ensign staging a full-on photoshoot in front of the masterwork. Creator Ally Chen (opens in new tab) and her friends did the same, lounging on couches in the gallery and recording clips of them fake laughing. BTS’ RM, who will host an exhibit (opens in new tab) at the museum in the fall, snapped an artsy pic (opens in new tab) with “Femme au chapeau” during a separate visit. Not everyone had a picture-perfect time at the preview, as creator Bunny McFadden recorded a scathing video (opens in new tab) about the AI activations that will likely get her blacklisted from SFMOMA’s press list. She’s right about one thing: Matisse is likely rolling in his grave over this.

The boys are back … from four years of mandatory Korean military service (opens in new tab). The utterly adorable, seven-member K-pop sensation BTS was all over the Bay last week for three sold-out shows at Stanford Stadium. Fans, known as the BTS A.R.M.Y., lined up (opens in new tab) for hours around Stanford’s track just to snag merch. Caltrain shrugged off its $75 million deficit for a designated BTS train (opens in new tab). Fan-made freebies outside the stadium reached new levels of creativity, including BTS-themed California and Stanford IDs that looked scarily legit (opens in new tab). 

“i haven’t cried this much in such a long time,” wrote Instagram user @jeonsann in a concert clip (opens in new tab) of her sobbing. 

In between shows, the group wasted no time exploring. They noshed on pizza at Redwood City’s Vesta three times (opens in new tab). Bandmember Suga joined the happy hordes (opens in new tab) running the Bay to Breakers 12K, quietly flexing on everyone with a race time of just over an hour. Jin dropped by Great America (opens in new tab) for a pretzel, churro, and outfit pics. RM posed by Stanford’s infamous Crying Tree (opens in new tab), a campus spot rich with K-pop lore. The Waggle didn’t attend a single show, and can barely hum a BTS tune, but we’ll welcome the boys back anytime.