‘Ripped from the headlines’ describes a costume or joke built from a story currently in the news, the fresher the better. At the 2026 Tompkins Square Dog Parade, Chrissy Teigen and John Legend hoped to see 40 to 50 dogs dressed as Molly, the mechanical singing bird at the center of Kelly Clarkson’s feud with a Brooklyn shop — a saga so viral it jumped species. Their own outfits, an alleged fraudster and his phony coach, followed the same topical recipe.
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Mentioned in: Inside the Tompkins Square Dog Parade: Teigen, Legend and Hundreds of Very Good Costumes