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Man shares the brilliant ‘Les Mis’ flash mob he gave his husband on their 10th anniversary

"And yet with you my world has started."

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A scene from the musical Les Misérables

Some love simply can't be expressed without a flash mob. And singing. Lots and lots of singing. For TV writer, producer, and actor Gary Janetti, this was the case. On the 10th wedding anniversary with his husband, popular TV stylist Brad Goreski, Janetti secretly gathered friends, family, and professional singers to pop up and sing "One Day More" from the hit musical Les Misérables (based on Victor Hugo's novel of the same name). And it was anything but miserable.

 Les Miserables, musical, play, French revolution, art A poster for the musical Les Miserables on a tall building.  Photo by Samuel Regan-Asante on Unsplash  

First shared publicly on Goreski's Bravo TV show It's a Brad, Brad World, this moment has been bringing people joy for over a decade. Here's how it went down: In the resurfaced Instagram clip, which Janetti rcently posted to honor their 24th wedding anniversary, Goreski is seated in a chair outside. It seems as though a man is serenading him with the fight song "One More Day." Encapsulating the Jean Valjean character, he stands in front of the crowd and sings his heart out. But then, out of nowhere, singer Jonah Platt (who happened to have worked with Janetti when he was a writer's assistant on Family Guy) appears to sing Marius's part of the song. "I did not live until today," he croons. "How can I live when we are parted?"

Goreski is already beside himself, showing off a huge smile. That's when Trish (Brad's college friend, as written on the chyron) pops in to sing Cosette's beautiful soprano duet with Platt. "Tomorrow you'll be worlds away. And yet with you my world has started." Goreski audibly gasps as his delight cannot be contained.

And just like that, Goreski and Janetti's friend Megan Mullally (a Broadway star in her own right, best known to many as Karen from Will & Grace) stands and sings Éponine's heartbreaking solo. "One more day, I'm on my own. One more day with him not caring. What a life I might have known. But he never saw me there," she sings, nailing it. Goreski laughs and exclaims, "Shut uuuuup, oh my God!" as the crowd cheers.

From the back, we hear a booming voice belonging to Goreski and Janetti's friend, Alec. The crowd shifts to watch as he sings a battle cry, "One more day before the storm…" as the others continue their parts. At this point, Goreski just doesn't know WHERE to look, as there are so many surprises. Much of the audience swarms the stage to sing as "chorus" when Janetti himself finds his inner-Javert and sings, "One more day to revolution, we will nip it in the bud. We'll be ready for these schoolboys, we will wet themselves with blood."

  - YouTube  www.youtube.com  

Just when it couldn't get more perfect, Goreski's own mother, Debbie, stands up and sings her solo, complete with cockney accent. At this point, Goreski is stomping his feet with happiness. The guests/chorus begin marching on stage as we flash to their friend James, who, of course, is also singing. People get hoisted up, as does a bright red flag—which luckily turns out NOT to be a metaphor for their marriage.

The crowd gasps and applauds as the flash mob brings it home. Goreski leads the much-earned standing ovation.

 standing ovation, Lin Manuel Miranda, Tony Awards, musical theater Lin Manuel Miranda at the Tony Awards.  Giphy  

The comments are nearly as delightful as the performance. Janetti explains, "Today is our 24th anniversary. I threw this flash mob for Brad for our 10th. I’ve been coasting off it ever since." To which Goreski hilariously retorts, "You sure have because I haven’t received an anniversary present from you since then."

Some beg the question many of us might have: "I’ll still never understand how all your friends and family are casually THIS good at singing."

Many point out how wonderful and inventive and romantic it all is. Though, a few were saddened this hasn't been done for them. As one puts it, "Well now I'm just mad at my husband...."


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Love Stories

A 30-year-old woman got dumped. Hundreds cheered her up with their later-in-life love stories.

You can still find the love of your life at 30, 40, and beyond.

via X
Couples who met after 30.

A lot of emotions rise to the surface after being dumped. It can leave a person feeling sad, lonely, confused, rejected and left with a sense that you’ll never find anyone again. People tend to think, “If that person couldn’t stick it out with me, then who will?” However, most of the time, it’s irrational worry. There are more than a few billion people on the planet to choose from, you just gotta put yourself out there. But that’s a hard thing to hear when your feelings are still raw.

A study reported by The New York Times found that today, the old “plenty of fish in the sea” cliche is growing truer by the day. We are nearing a point where there will be more unmarried adults in the U.S. than those who have tied the knot. The most recent Census data shows the share of American adults who were neither married nor living with a significant other had risen to 46.4%. That lines up with the demographics of dating app users; about 63% of the millions and millions of users are over 30.

So good news for you single folks, the dating pool just keeps getting deeper. Still, that doesn't mean it feels that way when you're in the thick of it.

kelsey huse, marriage after 30, real stories, love stories, marriage, love, relationships, dating, dating apps, relationshipsFirst dates are intimidating, especially as we get older. Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash

In 2020, Kelsey Huse, a software engineer from Austin, Texas, broke up with her boyfriend and at the age of 30, felt like she was never going to meet anyone again.

It's an understandable feeling. Our culturally accepted notion of love is that you're going to meet the love of your life in college or your early 20s. After that, you'll be lucky to settle for companionship. Huse wanted to know if there was any hope in her future.

“My bf broke up with me this week and I just wanna hear happy stories of ppl who found their partner in their 30s thanks,” she wrote on X.

Huse received an avalanche of responses from people who shared pictures and stories about how they met their special people in their 30s and later, giving her plenty of hope for the future. Her tweet went mega-viral earning nearly 7,000 retweets and 150,000 likes.

Here are some of the best responses.

"I strongly believe getting married in your 20s should be illegal. Sort of kidding, but I met my husband at 32 at a funeral. We make each other laugh just by being ourselves. He is the kindest person I know. We celebrated our 13 year wedding anniversary this year," one user wrote.

"I met my wife in my 30’s and we got married in our 40’s. Love her," added another.


Stories poured in by the dozens to prove that, yes, it really is possible to not only date close to and after 30, but to find love, and even to find the love of your life.

That's not to say that dating after 30 doesn't have its challenges and differences. Experts recommend re-evaluating your approach as you get older. In your 30s it's probably time to ditch the games and be more direct about what you want. Don't waste time with people who don't want the same things in life and love as you, but you'll also have to learn to give people some grace and patience — everyone has scars and warts at this age, including you.

Huse couldn't believe the incredible responses she received and better yet, that they really did lift her spirits.


kelsey huse, marriage after 30, real stories, love stories, marriage, love, relationships, dating, dating apps, relationshipsYes, even us elder-millennials can meet someone new and fall in love at any point in life. Photo by Sean Stratton on Unsplash

Huse may not have known it at the time, but breaking up at 30 may have been a blessing in disguise. Studies show that people who get married later in life have better mental health than those who get hitched at a younger age.

According to family ecology researcher Matt Johnson, those who married at the same age as or later than their peers reported higher levels of happiness and self-esteem—and less depression—than those who married early.

"People who marry early tend not to get as much education, have kids earlier than is optimal, and as a result get locked into careers they hadn't aspired to. In mid-life they're a little more depressed—or have a lower sense of self-worth—not because they violated some societal norm, but because they started down the path to family life early,” Johnson said.

Huse's story shows that there is no time frame for love and that it’s possible to find the perfect person well after the age of 30. It also shows that even though Twitter/X gets a deserved bad rap for being a pretty hostile environment, every once in a while people come together to do something beautiful.

This article originally appeared three years ago. It has been updated.

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Joy

Woman in hysterics after learning why her Hinge date thought she was 'blind'

"Sorry, I hope you don't mind me asking, are you blind?"

via Canva/Photos

A woman laughing at her computer.

Online dating is full of pitfalls. People can be picky and superficial, and if you can set up a date, you’re lucky if they look like the person in the picture. As if that weren’t enough, when you’re communicating over an app, there can be a lot of misunderstandings.

Becky_cxx, a woman in England who is very candid about her dating life on TikTok, had a hilarious misunderstanding with a potential suitor, and many understand how the mix-up happened from her photos. "You ain't gonna believe this," Becky began her video. "Some guy has just messaged me on Hinge saying, 'Sorry, I hope you don't mind me asking, are you blind?'" Becky said, totally blown away by the assumption. “What do you mean, ‘Am I blind?’”

@becky_cxx

I am dead 💀 🤣🤣🤣😅😭 #fup #fyp #foruyou #foryoupage #funny #relatable #dating #hinge

The man gave a pretty solid reason why he made that assumption. "A few reasons. But the main one is I thought that was a stick in your second-to-last photo,” the man said, referencing a photo that Becky took by a bridge where she appears to be holding a white cane, or a stick, as the English say.

"Let me show you the picture," she said. "It's London Bridge. That is a light, not a white stick.” It’s clear from the photo that she is standing next to a light resembling the white cane a blind person would use. The bright light also looks a bit like she’s holding a lightsaber, which would be great if she were into dating nerds.

In a follow-up video, Becky shared the other reasons he thought she may be blind, and he’s not wrong. She is wearing very large sunglasses in one photo, and in the others, she doesn’t look at the camera. Becky insists they are meant to be candid, but that doesn’t help her case. It is totally reasonable, from her photos, to think that she is visually impaired.

@becky_cxx

Time for a refresh x #fup #foru #foruyou #foryoupage #funny #relatable #funnytiktok.

The man’s mistake made Becky rethink her experience on Hinge. Could her photos have turned off countless men who weren’t ready to date someone who is blind? "I've got a complex. Do I look...Have I made myself look like something I'm not? I don't know. Is this why I'm getting no matches? I can't believe it, honestly. Is this my sign to just delete? I'm lost for words, genuinely," she said.

The sweet part is that the man didn’t mind whether she was blind or not. “Of course, it wouldn't be a problem if you were,” he wrote. This alone is reason enough to consider going out on a date with him.

Given the picture, many people thought that the man was right to assume that she used a cane to walk. "I’m sorry, but the reason he gave was valid," the most popular commenter wrote. "Now you’ve shown the photo, I can’t unsee it," another added. Another thought the fact he noticed the potential cane was a green flag. "I cackled. At least he bothered looking at your profile, and he’s perceptive," they wrote.

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Love Stories

Tinder is adding a new height filter. Fed up users have some creative ideas for the next one.

Sarcastic dating app users say: "Why stop there?"

Canva Photos

No one seems particularly happy about Tinder's new filter, for many different reasons.

Can we agree that no one really "likes" using dating apps? It's just that there aren't many better options anymore, and that's saying something because dating apps truly don't work very well.

A recent survey showed that about eight percent of people met their current or most recent partner on a dating app or website. That's...a pretty low number, considering these apps have been extremely popular and mainstream for well over a decade. Why aren't they more effective? Well, apps encourage people to look for stimulation and validation rather than real connection. They encourage shallow behaviors and preferences, and they make it easy to ghost and go find someone new at the drop of a hat—or just because you're suddenly not feeling the vibe.

All signs currently point to the problem, and dating apps in general, getting worse rather than better. And the excruciating "women only like tall men!" discourse will never recover from the latest development.

Tinder, widely considered the most popular dating app in the United States, recently added a new and controversial premium feature for some paying users. They'll now be able to filter out potential matches by height.

If you're a paid user with access to the setting in your profile, you'll be able to set a maximum and minimum height for people you'd like to match with.

tinder, dating apps, dating, love, relationships, sex, hookups, bumble, hinge, match, dating tips, online datingTinder is the top dating app in the United States. Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

Tinder actually isn't the first app to try this. Bumble previously had height filtering as a premium option before eventually removing the feature (though there's still an open spot in your profile to list it). Hinge has a height option as well. And now, Tinder. It's all part of Tinder's new rebrand to be taken more seriously as a way for Gen Z users to find real connection and relationships, as younger generations are less drawn to hook-ups. They're calling it a "broader effort to help people connect more intentionally on Tinder."

(To be fair, the height setting is not a hard filter. It's just a strong suggestion that helps guide the algorithm. It's also, for now, just a test and not a permanent feature.)

The trouble is that height seems to be the only physical attribute you can filter by, which plays into some really nasty stereotypes about heightism and online dating. But hey, preferences are preferences. Luckily, the announcement sparked a firestorm of interest and debate about the new feature—and dating app users have lots of ideas for new filters they'd like to see in the near future.

Weight filter

Yes, this is the obvious joke suggestion that's been made all over the Internet in response to Tinder's news. But it's kind of fair. Who gets to decide which physical preferences are offensive and which are legitimate?

Salary/Net income filter

It's perfectly reasonable to want a partner with a stable career. But do we really care about the actual career or do we just want to make sure they make enough money? Honestly. Some users would like to see a salary slider in the settings to weed out anyone who can't match their lifestyle, or who might get weird about splitting the bill on the first date.

Hair and eye color filter

You might prefer a partner with dark hair, and that might show up in your swiping preferences. But why bother swiping when you could essentially just erase light-haired people from your entire world with a filter? After all, what really matters is efficiency and saving everyone time.

Cup size / penis size filter

OK, look, I didn't say it, but this one has come up on all the dating app subreddits many, many times. Sometimes in jest, sometimes not...

Abs filter

It's not enough to be able to see whether someone has abs or not in their photos. To save everyone time and maximize efficiency, we should just auto-filter them out if they don't have a six-pack. Or, conversely, if you're not down with eating chicken and broccoli for every meal, you can filter the gym-heads out from the get-go.

Fishing/hunting filter

Women on social media have been clamoring for this one for a while, and would surely pay top dollar. We've got AI technology now; there's no reason we can't tell that a guy is holding a fish or a severed deer head in his photo and promptly remove him from the queue. The filter can work overtime for if someone's holding a gun.

Conversely, you might be really into these things, and the filter could end up working in your favor, too.

tinder, dating apps, dating, love, relationships, sex, hookups, bumble, hinge, match, dating tips, online datingA hunting/fishing filter on Tinder: Who says no? Photo by luis arias on Unsplash

Onlyfans filter

Similarly, there's got to be a way to run text analysis on a profile to find out if the person is hawking a paid NSFW profile online somewhere.

Married filter

You'd think this wouldn't be necessary, but here are we. One survey recently found that an astounding 65% of Tinder users were married or in a relationship. Whether they're polyamorous, looking for a third, cheating, or something else... can we auto-scan the photos for a wedding ring or something? Run the names against a marriage license database?

Spelling and grammar filter

There's no reason that Tinder and Bumble couldn't partner with Grammarly and give us a sense of people's reading or literacy level, filtering out anyone who doesn't meet a certain standard.

Old photo / heavily filtered photo filter

Surely, we have the technology for this. If people are misrepresenting the way they look with fancy filters or outdated photos, then premium users should reserve the right to have those people removed from their queue. If the photo was taken with an Olympus digital camera circa 2002, let the filter do its thing!

tinder, dating apps, dating, love, relationships, sex, hookups, bumble, hinge, match, dating tips, online datingSome users want the Tinder algorithm to weed out people with old or heavily filtered photosUnsplash

Some of the new filter ideas are clearly ridiculous. Others might actually be helpful. But put them all together and it paints a pretty bleak picture of modern dating.

Having preferences and likes or dislikes is totally fine, and a natural part of dating. The idea is that you're supposed to find these things out with your eyes or by actually talking to people and learning about them. Being genuinely curious about another human being you find attractive and interesting is part of the process. Skipping that by adding preferential filters that remove more and more people from your orbit is antithetical to what looking for love is supposed to be all about. And maybe that's exactly what Tinder and the other apps (many of whom are owned by the same corporation) are going for.

NPR cleverly points out that we shouldn't forget dating apps are run by for-profit companies. When two people meet on the app, fall in love, and settle down together, the app loses two crucial users. Keeping people frustrated, stuck on the app, and desperate enough to pony up for "premium features" and better filtering is the better move for them—and of course, spotlighting a few happy endings here and there just to give everyone some hope.

"Heightism" definitely exists in the dating world, and especially on apps, but it definitely seems like Tinder is intentionally stoking that fire to boost their paid user base. Now you've got short guys that are hurt and pissed off, and women that are sick of being accused of being shallow for their legitimate preferences, and everyone's angry at everyone else. It's a move that ultimately drives us further apart.

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