Madison Troyer


Entertainment & Pop Culture Writing

Stacker •

The best movies of 2025

As is often the case, movie releases in 2025 included some serious highs and lows. There were major box-office hits, like "A Minecraft Movie," which brought in more than $423 million at the box office and set the record as the most successful game-to-film adaptation of all time, along with some colossal disappointments, like Disney's universally panned live-action "Snow White," which is expected to lose the studio $115 million. And for every critically adored film like "Sinners," there was an un...
Benzinga •

From 'The Simple Life' To 11:11 Media, Paris Hilton Has Built Her Personal Brand By Focusing On These Two Things

Paris Hilton has been a household name since the premiere of her reality TV show, "The Simple Life," in 2003. Now, a serial entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of global media brand 11:11 Media, Hilton has managed to leverage her personal brand into serious success by focusing on two things: authenticity and kindness."For a long time, I felt like people had an idea of who I was that didn't reflect the real me," she told CNBC recently. "Early in my career, I leaned into the character I created o...
Stacker •

19 photos of Juneteenth celebrations over the years

Often called "America's second Independence Day" or "Black Independence Day," Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. It is celebrated annually every June 19 and is the first new federal holiday since 1983, when Martin Luther King, Jr. Day joined the calendar.

But its federal holiday designation in 2021 didn't come out of nowhere. It took decades of organizing by advocates like Opal Lee, the "Grandmother of Juneteenth," and more than a century of Black communities celeb...
Nicki Swift •

Taylor Swift's Romance Timeline With Joe Alwyn Explained - Nicki Swift

Amy Sussman/Getty Images


By Madison TroyerUpdated: April 19, 2024 10:55 am EST


Despite her massive level of fame, Taylor Swift has become one of Hollywood's most private celebrities. From the record-shattering musician's newest projects to her relationships, seemingly not a single bit of information about her life or career gets out without her express permission. As a result, we know next to nothing about certain aspec...
Nicki Swift •

A Complete Timeline Of Paris Hilton's Love Life - Nicki Swift

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images


By Madison TroyerUpdated: Oct. 10, 2023 3:45 pm EST


Out of all the celebrities in Hollywood, Paris Hilton seems to have the most charmed life. Essentially American royalty, she was born into the Hilton hotel fortune (her grandfather, Barron Hilton, was worth $4.5 billion at the time of his death), and was raised in the lap of luxury. Not content with relying on family money, she set out...
Stacker •

How 10 popular influencers got their start

Ten years ago, if someone had used the word influencer in casual conversation it wouldn’t have made a lick of sense. Social media wasn’t a part of our cultural fabric the way it is today, and people certainly weren’t earning a living posting on social media apps. That said, the idea of an influencer certainly isn’t a new one. All the way back in Ancient Rome, gladiators often endorsed products the way the top athletes of today do. Similarly, the first modern influencer collaboration dates back t...
Stacker •

30 toys that defined the '70s

In a 1973 letter to a colleague, then-ambassador to India Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote, "That's it. Nothing will happen. But then nothing much is going to happen in the 1970s anyway." And for a time that prediction seemed to ring true. Smashed between the white-hot 1960s and the "greed is good" attitude of the materialistic 1980s, the 1970s seem, at best, a troubled decade, primarily defined by the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal.

While it remains true that the '70s are often overlooked...
Stacker •

What decisions are made based on the census?

The U.S. census takes place every 10 years, when data is collected to determine the number of seats each state has in the House of Representatives as well as to guide distribution of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funds to local communities.

Information like demographics sheds a light on the changing makeup of America, and data on the fast-growing and slowest-growing states show where people are moving. These numbers feed into the list of the states set to gain seats in the House of...
Stacker •

18 of the most expensive celebrity engagement rings of all time

Elizabeth Taylor arguably knew more about being engaged than any other celebrity in Hollywood. The "Cleopatra" actress said "yes!" a whopping 10 times throughout her lifetime. Those proposals came with a wide variety of rings (and other jewelry, as neither Eddie Fisher nor Richard Burton had a ring when they got down on one knee), but there's one sparkler that stands above all the rest.

When film producer Mike Todd popped the question to the then-24-year-old Taylor, he did so with a 29.4-carat...
Stacker •

25 iconic outfits from film history

Judy Garland's Dorothy dress


If you're at all familiar with the making of "The Wizard of Oz," you're probably well aware of the fact that several pairs of Dorothy's ruby slippers have disappeared since the film wrapped in 1939. What you may not know is that her blue-and-white gingham dress was also lost for years.

It was only rediscovered in 2021 when the Catholic University of America (to which the dress was donated back in the 1970s) was doing a major cleanout of its d...
Stacker •

25 influential women artists of the 20th century

Augusta Savage


Through her sculptures, Augusta Savage transformed everyday moments in the lives of Black Americans into high art. A key figure of the Harlem Renaissance, Savage trained in Paris before returning to New York City, where she transformed her studio into a community art center; gave free lessons—other notable artists like Jacob Lawrence were students; and created commissioned projects like “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which was made for the 1939 New York World...
Stacker •

11 movies and TV shows that explore discrimination in the workplace

9 to 5 (1980)


- Director: Colin Higgins
- IMDb user rating: 6.9
- Metascore: 58
- Runtime: 109 minutes

In “9 to 5,” Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, and Lily Tomlin star as a trio of women who set out to get even with their “sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot” of a boss. Throughout the early portions of the movie, the ladies’ boss (Dabney Coleman) calls them dumb, demands they perform trivial tasks on his behalf, is sexually inappropriate, and promotes an underquali...

Let's get social