From 'The Slap' to 'Harry and Meghan': Top pop culture moments in 2022

Taylor Swift was up. Elon Musk was in, out, and in. Tom Cruise was back. BTS stepped aside, and so did Serena Williams, and Tom Brady too — oops, scratch that.

But the slap? The slap was everywhere.

Ok, so maybe it wasn’t on the level of a moon landing, or selection of a pope. But henceforth all you need say is “the slap” and people will know what you mean — that moment Will Smith smacked Chris Rock at the Oscars and a global audience said, “Wait, did that happen?" Even in the room itself — maybe especially in the room itself — there was a sense that everyone had imagined it, which helps explain why things went on as normal, for a bit.

The pandemic was over in 2022, phew! Well, of course it wasn’t. But live entertainment pushed forward, with mask mandates dropping, and people rushing to buy things like, oh, Taylor Swift tickets!

We’ll take any segue to mention Swift, who already had a big year in 2021, but just got bigger — heck, she broke Billboard records and then she broke Ticketmaster. (No word if she got her scarf back).

It was a year of celebrity #MeToo cases like Harvey Weinstein (again), R. Kelly (again), Kevin Spacey, Paul Haggis, Danny Masterson. And the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial, its every excruciating turn captured on TV.

On the big screen, there were big comebacks. Mourning its dearly missed star, Chadwick Boseman, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was a box office triumph. James Cameron’s Avatar planned a December return.

Then there was Tom Cruise, turning 60 in ’22, just like the Rolling Stones, swooping into Cannes with his most successful movie, and showing, like those still-touring rockers, that when they tell you “The end is inevitable,” as they do in Top Gun: Maverick, you can always reply “Maybe so, sir, but not today.”

Will audiences one day find Cruise – or the Stones, for that matter – too wrinkled and past the sell-by date? Maybe so, but not this year.

Our annual, totally selective journey through a year in pop culture:

January

It’s Golden Globes time. But is a Globes with no telecast, boozy celebs or red carpet a Globes at all? The embattled Hollywood Foreign Press Association, reeling from stunning failures over diversity, holds a private event and plans a comeback next year. Hey, remember the original wardrobe malfunction? Well, Janet Jackson says she and Justin Timberlake have moved on, and so should we. The New York Times buys Wordle, and we’re all thinking in five-letter words (though W-O-R-D-L-E is six, just saying.) Meanwhile, it’s a month of loss, heading off a year of loss: pioneering Black actor, director and activist Sidney Poitier dies at 94.

February

What would a year in pop culture be without Britney? Just months after her liberation from her restrictive conservatorship, Spears is reported to have signed a mammoth book deal, but at year's end we're still waiting for news. Rihanna is pregnant! Tom Brady retires! (Stay tuned, on that one.) Taylor watch: Jale Gyllenhaal speaks out, saying he really has nothing to do with that song, that it’s about an artist's relationship with her fans — but fans shouldn't be cyberbullying, either.

March

Who wins Oscars this month? Well, Coda does, a feel-good drama with a largely deaf cast, and Troy Kotsur becomes the first deaf actor to win an acting Oscar. Alas, all anyone can talk about is — you know. Smith, who wins the best actor award not long after slapping Rock over a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, won’t truly address the issue until the end of the year, so keep reading. Kardashian watch: Kim K is declared legally single again in her ongoing divorce with Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West. And Brady, retired for 40 days, says, “Never mind!”

April

It’s Grammy time, and Jon Batiste wins big, taking five statuettes. The musician's huge year will later include performing at the first state dinner of the Biden administration, for French President Emmanuel Macron. The next day Macron will meet with Musk (thanks for the segue, Monsieur le President) who begins his acquisition of Twitter this month, leading to untold – and still unfolding – changes at the social media giant.

May

So imagine you’re sipping beverages at the Met Gala and a musician comes sauntering through, playing the melodica — of course it’s Batiste, because the Met Gala’s that kind of crazy party. The biggest splash of the night, though, is Kardashian, on the arm of boyfriend Pete Davidson, wearing the same sequined, skin tight gown Marilyn Monroe wore to sing “Happy Birthday” to JFK in 1962. In movies, Top Gun: Maverick opens, the highest-grossing domestic debut in Cruise's career, and his first to surpass USD100 million on opening weekend. Harry Styles fans rejoice! His album, Harry's House, is here.

June

Stunning news for the global fanbase of BTS as the K-pop supergroup announces it’s taking a break to focus on members’ solo projects. On the legal front, a Virginia jury hands Depp a victory in his very messy libel case over allegations of domestic abuse, finding that former wife Heard defamed him in a 2018 op-ed. On a happier note, Britney gets married….

July

Check back with us in 2023.