Is Sydney Sweeney More Famous Than Zendaya?

I’m in the midst of an existential crisis (don’t worry, it’s a fun one!) and I needed to share it here, with all of you. 

Through eBay rabbit hole-ing, I stumbled upon the 1992 In Living Color set — specifically a Homey D. Clown card.It got me wondering if the Fly Girls card in that set could be considered THE Jennifer Lopez rookie card. It is – although there is more than one “Fly Girls” card in the set, and it’s widely accepted that the lower-numbered one, being “first,” is the true rookie. Anyway, you can get a PSA 9 for about $40. And that seems kind of low for a J-Lo rookie, especially considering it’s also Carrie Ann Inaba’s rookie.

The set is actually stacked with “rookies” — Jim Carrey, J-Lo, Damon Wayans, David Alan Grier — but that’s a story for another day. This whole thing got me thinking about fame, and it comes on the heels of seeing Euphoria is back for another season and being hit with this conundrum:

Who is more famous: Zendaya or Sydney Sweeney?

Zendaya has more Instagram followers, is part of the Spider-Man universe (although technically Sweeney is too, through Madame Web), and has been nominated for more awards. But Sweeney’s autograph is worth 2-3x times that of Zendaya’s and seems to have a bigger share of the spotlight — and isn’t that as good a measure of fame as anything? At least in the Warhol sense?

I asked myself this question and I pose it to you: You’re at an event and your friend organizing it says you can meet, take a photo with, and get an autograph from Sydney Sweeney or Zendaya. You can only pick one. Who do you choose?

Part of me says Sweeney. Part says Zendaya. 

Sweeney’s bathwater soap sold out in minutes and has maintained a high resale value. She is omnipresent in pop culture — she was part of a Kalshi market as possibly being mentioned by President Trump in a speech, for instance — and if you saw The Housemaid or Christy… she was actually pretty good in them. Sweeney is not a bad actress at all (although I can almost guarantee she’ll get Razzie nominations just for their own publicity). So this isn’t like a Kim Kardashian thing where she gets thrown into movies because she’s famous; Sweeney is good! 

And Kardashian is a bad example here anyway because she is worth billions of dollars and most people thought she would fade away, too. She didn’t.

Zendaya’s kind of a boring, undynamic institution at this point. Even her prediction markets are just speculation on if she’ll be on late night programs, or show up at The Met Gala. 

Still, if you ask an AI engine who’s more famous, it insists on saying Zendaya. It even gets a little catty:

If you follow it up with “whose autograph sells for more?” it admits the vast difference in prices. But it still insists the answer for fame is Zendaya. And I don’t think the real world — at least not the collectibles world — reflects that. 

Just to keep the duality of fame going, we’ve talked a lot about women’s figure skating here lately. Amber Glenn has won far more than Alysa Liu lately and is probably the better shot for gold in Milan. Plus she has a heart in her autograph and skates to Madonna. But Liu’s break spots and cards are selling for more (and selling more quickly when they’re listed, according to my Fanatics Live research). Glenn may be better, but Liu has the panache.

To tie it all together, Sam Darnold was the butt of jokes for years with a Jets team that offered him no help offensively. And now Darnold is winning games at Tom Brady rates and his cards still can’t seem to eclipse Brock Purdy levels. The Jets stench can’t be wiped off. But Darnold should be more famous… and he’s not. We’ve been patient! There’s still time to grab some of his cards at a good price!!

Anyway, this is really about Sydney Sweeney vs. Zendaya. Let us know what you think on Mantel!

One last thing before we part ways – Progresso released “soup drops” – which are hard candies that taste like soup. Apparently they did this last year, too, and we missed it. 

I don’t have a take on this – I tried to get some and failed – but it’s... Interesting. And there are more chances to get them throughout the month!

Good luck everyone!