American Actress Chase Infiniti Stars in ATEEZ’s “BAD” Music Video

From her humble days as a K-pop cover dancer to her rise to Hollywood fame in 2024’s Apple TV+ series Presumed Innocent and her breakout role in the 2025 film One Battle After Another, actress Chase Infiniti is the epitome of a successful K-pop fan-turned-industry-professional. Before her acting career officially took off, Infiniti attended Columbia College Chicago, where she co-founded the K-pop dance team, Duple Dance Crew. From 2019 until recently, Infiniti and its members would post dance covers to groups like NewJeans, BLACKPINK, aespa, and ENHYPEN.

But even as the actress’s career took off and she was thrust into the public eye, her love for K-pop hasn’t wavered one bit, with the 26-year-old mentioning some of her favorite idol groups like BTS and NCT in various interviews. However, one group that stands out above all in Infiniti’s eyes is ATEEZ, whom she’s specifically credited as her number one pick, with San being her ultimate bias. Now she’s officially the co-star of the octet’s latest comeback with “BAD,” playing the new human form of the sentient ruby-red magical spirit named Sopro – an essential player and adversary in ATEEZ’s lore. Throughout the video, all eight members vie for Infiniti’s attention, while she amplifies their attraction towards her. By the end, she uses her Sopro powers (and real-life experience as a K-pop cover dancer) to make the members mimic her dance moves, before exiting the courtroom with eight wedding rings on her finger and ATEEZ fawning over her.

With the Korean music industry solidifying its global presence, more and more Western celebrities – especially in Gen Z – are proving to be actual K-pop fans who have participated in fandoms and even grown up with some of their favorite groups. Sabrina Carpenter has long been a fan of TWICE, as early as 2018, while UK singer PinkPanthress has been very vocal about her love for many SM groups like NCT, EXO, and Red Velvet. The difference between that and celebrity K-pop adjacency is traceable history, and Infiniti has it – she has been vocal about ATEEZ since their 2018 debut, with San as her bias on record long before this collaboration existed. It also reflects well on the group. Rather than chasing a recognisable name for visibility, they found someone whose investment in the genre is documented and genuine. That's a harder thing to manufacture than it looks, and more groups would do well to apply the same standard.

Lisa Gets Candid About Privacy Concerns and Boundaries

On June 23, Vanity Fair published a cover story on BLACKPINK's Lisa titled "The Life of a K-pop Showgirl." The piece touches on privacy – specifically, what it feels like to have very little of it. When asked about public interest in her personal life, Lisa redirected to something more concrete: the sasaengs who have followed her into taxis and turned up inside her home.

"I feel like after I came out and talked about how there's no privacy for me, (fans) now respect that a lot more," she told Vanity Fair. "They know that being in this position is not easy. Sometimes it's just a little too much, and sometimes I just want to be normal."

That fans have responded by pulling back is something. That it needed to be said at all is the more revealing detail. Lisa is not the first idol to have drawn this line publicly – V, Jungkook, NCT's Haechan, and EXO's Baekhyun, Chanyeol, and Sehun have all spoken out against sasaeng behaviour – and the fact that the list keeps growing suggests the problem isn't resolving so much as being managed, one public statement at a time.

Ex-NCT Member Mark Lee Under Fire For Confederate Flag T-Shirt

On June 23, just weeks after the launch of his new agency Upper Room, former NCT member Mark Lee was seen wearing a Confederate flag T-shirt in photos circulating online. Immediately, the Internet lit up with criticisms, disgust, and shock, as the Confederate flag shown on his shirt has historically been a symbol for slavery, white supremacy, and anti-Black rhetoric and violence in the United States.

Following the controversy, Upper Room posted an apology statement on their Instagram story: "We would like to extend our sincere apologies for the concern, discomfort, and disappointment caused by the vintage T-shirt that appeared in a recently shared photograph…regardless of our intent, we recognize that this matter should have been handled with greater diligence and care. Upper Room and the artist unequivocally reject and do not tolerate racism, hate, discrimination, or any form of intolerance…we sincerely apologize and remain committed to acting with greater responsibility, awareness, and care moving forward."

The apology and subsequent attempts to blur the image in official content did little to contain the reaction. This is not the first time an idol has been photographed wearing the Confederate flag – Block B's Zico wore a jacket featuring the symbol in 2014, and WINNER's Jinwoo was seen in a similar item in 2017 – but Mark's background changes the context. Those incidents involved artists who grew up in South Korea, where U.S. history is not part of the standard curriculum. Mark grew up in Vancouver. The symbol's associations are not something he could reasonably claim unfamiliarity with.

What makes this harder to dismiss as simple ignorance is that Mark is from Vancouver, Canada – not an idol who grew up outside the reach of North American history education. The Confederate flag's associations are not obscure; they are widely documented and widely discussed, particularly in the years since its public use became a renewed flashpoint in North America. For the Black fans who have supported Mark since his NCT debut, the image landed differently than it might have for an idol with no connection to that cultural context. Upper Room's apology acknowledged the failure of diligence. The more important question is how it passed unquestioned in the first place.