Newsletter Monday, December 04, 2017

[LaineyGossip.com - Calling all smuthounds!] Monday, December 04, 2017 [Intro for December 4, 2017]( [Think of Emily Doe](Dear Gossips, Think of Emily Doe and not her rapist, even though her rapist is the one making headlines. Emily Doe was unconscious when her rapist was discovered by two passersby behind a dumpster – oh, wait, no, I’m sorry, ADJACENT to a dumpster (because location specifics are what make a situation consensual) – and didn’t wake up until three hours later, in the hospital. Think of Emily Doe, even as many news outlets insist on referring to her rapist as a “former Stanford swimmer/student”, like that’s the most recent thing on his resumé, like that’s what he’s actually known for. What he’s known for is rape. Brock Allen Turner is a convicted sex offender. That they insist on telling us that he’s a “former Stanford student/swimmer” is exactly the problem. Think of Emily Doe, whose life was irrevocably altered and, unfortunately, because everything sucks, does not get to move on now that Brock Turner, the convicted sex offender, wants to rewrite their shared, sick history in his favour. Emily Doe may have to relive this bullsh-t all over again because Brock Turner, the convicted sex felon, feels entitled to take back the life he had to give up. All Emily Doe wants is to take back the night. Think of Emily Doe, whose rapist has hired a team of lawyers insisting that “what happened is not a crime”, because she’s being told, AGAIN, that she doesn’t get to decide and define how her body is treated and who and what goes inside of it. And the witnesses to this “non-crime” don’t get to decide or define it either. Carl-Fredrik Arndt and Peter Jonsson were the ones who found Emily unconscious that night. They chased her rapist down. The experience was so traumatic, what they saw was so disturbing, that Peter [broke down in tears]( when he tried to recount what happened, becoming distraught several times during his statement to police. Think of them too. Because their observations are now being challenged. Because for Brock Turner, the convicted sex offender, his version is the only truth in this situation. Because Brock Turner has recast himself as the victim in this story. So think of Emily Doe, the real victim who became a survivor. Think of her as you [re-read her statement](. Think of her and all the other Emily Does, because they never come first, because they have to keep fighting. Think of Emily Doe and, maybe, we might get somewhere. Yours in gossip, Lainey [Click here for the rest of the photos.]( Posted at 2:07 PM [Show Your Work: Selena, Meghan, and Matt]( [Selena Gomez leaving her London Hotel in London heading to The Royal Albert Hall for The 2017 Fashion Awards]([Selena Gomez]( spent the weekend in London. Today she was seen several times in several different outfits promoting her single. Last week [Billboard named Selena]( the Woman of the Year. So we begin the latest episode of Show Your Work talking about Selena’s work in 2017 and how her work now was shaped the work she was doing as a child star, as a member of a Disney cohort that also includes Demi Lovato, Miley Cyrus, and the Jonas Brothers. What’s the common ground between their cohort and the one that came up in the era of Britney, Christina, and Ryan Gosling, etc, during the Mickey Mouse Club? While Selena may be Billboard’s Woman of the Year, the woman many people were talking about most last week was [Meghan Markle](. Did you know that Meghan Markle’s fate – to be engaged to Prince Harry – was decided for her… on television? Aaron Korsh, the showrunner of Suits, [revealed last week]( that he wrote the story, and wrote her out of the show, way back a year ago, well before Harry had even proposed. You could say, then, that her boss made a decision about her career on her behalf, based on her love life. Onside or offside? Of course the other big story last week was [Matt Lauer](. What happens to the workplace when someone like Matt Lauer gets removed? What is it, specifically, about morning television that made Matt Lauer’s predations possible? And how do we process the subsequent morning television reactions following her termination? During this part of the conversation, we reference Ijeoma Oluo’s [excellent piece on due process]( and Merrill Markoe’s essay on “[the unfunny thing about funny women](” that we here at LaineyGossip couldn’t stop talking about on our text thread a couple of weeks ago. Thank you, as always, for supporting our work on Show Your Work. We’ve been getting so many great emails and tweets and they are helping us so much as we continue to line up each episode and get into the work conversations that relate to say many of us. As always, send us your thoughts via email or Twitter at [@laineygossip]( and [@duanaelise]( and catch us weekly on [iTunes]( and [Google Play](. [Click here for the rest of the photos.]( Posted at 8:25 PM [Smutty Social Media, December 4, 2017]( [Armie Hammer attends The Trevor Project's 2017 TrevorLIVE LA at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on December 3, 2017 in Beverly Hills, California](I would like to think I keep up with the Foster sisters more than most, but I had no idea – not one clue – that Danny Fujikawa was Sara and Erin’s stepbrother. Did everyone know this but me? [A post shared by Kate Hudson (@katehudson)]( on Dec 3, 2017 at 4:48pm PST Busy Philipps is back on her Elf on the Shelf game. My kids have been looking for our elf for a week, I should probably tell them he accidentally got tossed with the broken Christmas decorations. [A post shared by Busy Philipps (@busyphilipps)]( on Dec 3, 2017 at 8:08am PST Someone in the comments asked Naomi Campbell if she knew Gianna Versace and she responded “were you born yesterday.” Which is actually quite restrained. [A post shared by Naomi Campbell (@iamnaomicampbell)]( on Dec 2, 2017 at 12:54pm PST In case you are keeping track (because let’s face it, most of us are) Selena Gomez hasn’t liked these yet. [A post shared by Justin Bieber (@justinbieber)]( on Dec 1, 2017 at 3:52pm PST [A post shared by Justin Bieber (@justinbieber)]( on Dec 3, 2017 at 11:30pm PST I like Kathy Najimy’s bread roll photobomb. [A post shared by Christian Siriano (@csiriano)]( on Dec 3, 2017 at 9:47pm PST Collectively, how many tears do you think Chrissy Metz and Sam Smith have inspired? Some of you are welling up just looking at this, I know it. [A post shared by Chrissy Metz (@chrissymetz)]( on Dec 2, 2017 at 5:21pm PST I think Armie Hammer will be back on Twitter soon enough, but until then he’s in a safe place: Instagram. [A post shared by Armie Hammer (@armiehammer)]( on Dec 3, 2017 at 6:53am PST I watched Home Again on a plane this weekend (I know, I know, I’m so current) and it was whatever. What I really want to talk about is Reid Scott, the guy from Veep. He’s a very specific type of comedic, a-hole character actor that I really enjoy (like Jason Bateman and Will Arnett). I think we’ll be seeing him more and more – he’s like a new(ish) Adam Scott. And they have the same last name, which ties up my theory nicely. [A post shared by Reid Scott (@mrreidscott)]( on Aug 30, 2017 at 4:43pm PDT Attached: Armie Hammer attends The Trevor Project's 2017 TrevorLIVE LA last night in Beverly Hills. [Click here for the rest of the photos.]( Posted at 6:41 PM [Ashton and Mila’s date night]( [Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis arrive at the 2018 Breakthrough Prize at NASA Ames Research Center on December 3, 2017 in Mountain View, California](Every year at around this time, The Social does a year-end gossip special. I am knee-deep in recap lists and conversations about who hooked up, who broke up and who made the most headlines in 2017. [Ashton Kutcher]( and [Mila Kunis]( did not hook up or break up in 2017. They are one of the celebrity couples who (so far) have survived another year. Ashton and Mila are not one of the couples I hold my breath for. For Maria, it’s [The Beckhams](. For Lainey, it’s her [Obsession](. For me, it’s The Obamas and The Knowles-Carters. Are the Kunis-Kutchers the couple you couldn’t bear to see break up? I don’t think I’d care if they did. I care about Mila Kunis individually but there are few celebrities I care less about than Ashton Kutcher. Ashton brings this couple down from “Awww!” to “Meh.” Here they are at the Breakthrough Prize Awards. According to PEOPLE, they were [giggling and holding hands down the red carpet](://people.com/movies/crazy-in-love-mila-kunis-and-ashton-kutcher-couldnt-be-cuter-at-breakthrough-prize-awards/). Meh. I am trying to care about Mila’s Dolce & Gabbana dress at least. It’s fine, I guess. Hey, here’s something I care about: her eyebrows. If we were still saying “on fleek”, I’d say that these brows were ON FLEEK. Some days, my eyebrows cooperate. Other days, one is darker than the other and one is thicker than the other. I’m bad at doing my eyebrows. Please send me your best brow tutorial videos. Should I stop being an asshole about Mila and Ashton? This couple is together and seems really happy. They don’t do red carpets often and they showed up for the cameras. Inside the event, they presented awards to people honoured for their achievements in physics, life sciences and mathematics. If you’re a scientist, are you nerding out that Jackie and Kelso presented you with an award? Is this really random? Anyway, if we’re playing Photo Assumption, Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher are going into the holidays solid. Should I stop being a Scrooge, admit that they look cute together and move on? [Click here for the rest of the photos.]( Posted at 5:41 PM [Channing Tatum: Jenna Dewan’s personal photographer]( [Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan Tatum in Los Cabos](It was Jenna Dewan Tatum’s birthday yesterday. Same as Tiffany Haddish. She and Channing Tatum celebrated in Los Cabos. I don’t think I would have posted about this had I not received an email last week from a reader called Krista who was “feeling concerned about Channing and Jenna based on my social media sleuthing”. Krista didn’t say what, exactly, this sleuthing turned up. But I’m not sure that matters anymore? Because according to social media, Channing Tatum is still her personal photographer. Like who else would have taken these shots while they were on holiday? [A post shared by Jenna Dewan Tatum (@jennadewan)]( on Dec 3, 2017 at 4:54pm PST [A post shared by Jenna Dewan Tatum (@jennadewan)]( on Dec 3, 2017 at 2:40pm PST And who else would have taken this shot and arranged the message? [A post shared by Jenna Dewan Tatum (@jennadewan)]( on Dec 3, 2017 at 1:08pm PST This is not the first time Channing’s turned their holiday into a photo shoot for his wife. A couple of years ago, she posted this: [A post shared by Jenna Dewan Tatum (@jennadewan)]( on Oct 8, 2015 at 11:34am PDT He’s really great at this job, non? She’s always well lit. There are always interesting textures and shapes to complement his subject. And I bet you he’s patient. I imagine he’s patient. Here’s where I tell you how impatient my husband is when I ask him to take pictures of me. And how he insists on shooting me from the worst angles. He is reading this right now because he’s the one posting today and I am making this point: can you be more like Channing Tatum? [Click here for the rest of the photos.]( Posted at 4:51 PM [Taylor did something bad](� should-have-been-her-first-single-on-reputation) [Taylor Swift performs during the 99.7 NOW! POPTOPIA at SAP Center on December 2, 2017 in San Jose, California](Taylor Swift’s reputation is now available on streaming services. Some of you have been listening to reputation for weeks. I refused to pay $13.99 for an album I was convinced was going to be sh-tty because the four singles Taylor released leading up to reputation went from embarrassingly bad (Look What You Made Me Do) to slightly less annoying (Ready For It, Gorgeous) to mediocre at best (Call It What You Want It). Last time I wrote about reputation, I admitted that I’ll f-ck with a good Taylor Swift [track any day](. It might be bad for my cool cred to admit but I really enjoyed 1989. It’s a great pop album. After being traumatized by the breakdown in Ready For It and underwhelmed by everything else, listening to reputation was a pleasant surprise. Every single song is better than the sh-t she’s released so far. I Did Something Bad is SO MUCH better; I’m convinced it should have been the lead single. If it had been, I think we would all be having a completely different conversation about this album. Lainey predicted that Taylor may have been saving her best songs for the album while teasing weaker tracks to build anticipation. She was right that we had to wait for the good sh-t but I don’t think Taylor did it on purpose. We know that Taylor Swift is petty and conniving. Kanye West’s wife [showed us the receipts](. In this case, Taylor’s pettiness got in the way of what could have been a brilliant album rollout. After Receipts Week, Lainey repeatedly wrote that Taylor Swift needed to lean in to the shrewd and devious persona that had replaced the saccharine, surprise-face Taylor of albums past. The Old Taylor was dead. Instead of coming back on the defensive like the mess that was Look What You Made Me Do, Taylor could have leaned in. Here’s what [Lainey wrote in August](: Will it be more of the old Taylor, positioning herself as the innocent, wrongly maligned party in this “narrative” between her and her opponents? Or, if this is to be a new era of Taylor Swift, the blackout – eclipse! – that precedes a brand new iteration, is she now embracing her Snake-ness, and fully owning the fact that, yes, she’s more sting than she is sweet? And here’s the chorus of I Did Something Bad: They say I did something bad Then why's it feel so good? They say I did something bad But why's it feel so good? Most fun I ever had And I'd do it over and over and over again if I could She also sings about “play[ing] 'em like a violin” and telling lies. THIS is the New Taylor that she’s been proclaiming during the reputation era but hasn’t delivered. The song was right there! If Taylor really wanted to lean into getting back at KimYe, wouldn’t it have been better to come out strong that she was the one who played them, not the other way around? Wouldn’t it have been better to kill off the Old Taylors while belting out “They got their pitchforks and proof/ Their receipts and reasons/ They're burning all the witches, even if you aren't one/ so go ahead and light me up?” Now may not be the best time to invoke the burned witches analogy but the message is so much stronger. Instead of blaming others for her actions with Look What You Made Me Do, Taylor could have owned the narrative with I Did Something Bad. She’s taking responsibility while refusing to apologize. It’s kinda badass. Plus, the song would have actually lived up to the excessive hype that lead up to reputation. If you’re going to do the traditional album rollout, you can’t bury your best music. You have to come out hard. Aside from a perplexing breakdown that sounds like [this hilarious viral video]( I Did Something Bad is really f-cking strong. I can’t get it out of my head. It even inspired Tony-award winner Cynthia Erivo to cover the song with a haunting, stunning version that really shows off Taylor’s songwriting. Plus, it doesn’t have the “skrrrt, brrrap brraap, skrrrrt” bullsh-t. Cynthia Erivo (and Shoshana Bean) elevated Taylor’s Something Bad into something EXCEPTIONAL. This cover is already going viral and it’s probably going to inspire a million more covers. Imagine this was the first single? And imagine Taylor Swift had followed up I Did Something Bad with Don’t Blame Me, an ambitious ballad that sounds like Haim meets Hozier? I mean that as a compliment. Then, her third single should have been Dress. God, I f-cking love Dress. I hate myself for how much I love Dress. I’m also really into Delicate, which sounds the most like a 1989 track and is clearly about her boyfriend Joe. If this had been reputation’s rollout, I don’t think she’d be sitting at #6 on the iTunes charts right now. I don’t think those of us who are not Taylor Swift stans would have written off reputation. In a year dominated by really good albums by Taylor’s peers, she couldn’t afford to botch the rollout. She also couldn’t afford [not to publicly denounce]( the white supremacists who hail her as their “Aryan Goddess” but that’s a whole other rant. When Lainey and I were emailing about this, she pointed out that she’s listened to Lorde, Kesha, Demi Lovato and Kelly Clarkson more than Taylor Swift. All of the aforementioned artists put out stronger work than Taylor this year. When we talk about the music 2017, is reputation going to hold up? Are we going to remember that the rest of the album ended up being alright or are we going to remember how weak her first singles were? Please email/tweet me your thoughts on reputation. I’m going to go back to watching Cynthia Erivo’s I Did Something Bad cover every 10 minutes. [Click here for the rest of the photos.](� should-have-been-her-first-single-on-reputation) Posted at 4:26 PM [Mary and Tiffany]( [Tiffany Haddish attends The Four cast Sean Diddy Combs, Fergie, and Meghan Trainor Host DJ Khaled's Birthday Presented by CÎROC and Fox on December 2, 2017 in Beverly Hills, California](Yesterday was Tiffany Haddish’s birthday. On Saturday night she was hanging out with Mary J Blige at DJ Khaled’s birthday party which I think was also a promotional event for The Four, the new talent competition show starring Khaled, Diddy, Meghan Trainor, and Fergie. Mary, as we’ve seen recently, has been working the award circuit in support of Mudbound and her own Oscar campaign for Best Supporting Actress which continues to build momentum. Three weeks ago she was a longshot for a nomination. Now she’s showing up on the [expert prediction lists](, not as a favourite, but she’s definitely heading in the right direction. And so is Tiffany Haddish. As [noted last week](, Tiffany was named Best Supporting Actress by the New York Film Critics’ Circle for her performance in Girls Trip. Her book, The Last Black Unicorn, comes out tomorrow. In the book, Tiffany writes candidly about being abused by her mother and growing up in foster care. Despite what she’s been through, Tiffany says all she wants is to one day be in a position to care for her mom, to buy her a home and provide care. [PEOPLE]( published excerpts from the book last week. It is at once a testament to Tiffany’s resilience and spirit but also another example of the impact of mental illness on families and, in particular, on children. For far too long, mental health awareness has been an afterthought and associated with shame and embarrassment. That Tiffany is openly discussing her experience with mental illness will hopefully encourage others to help reshape the conversation around the issue. In other Tiffany news, she’ll be on Ellen today. She talks about meeting Barbra Streisand and the story behind this photo: Just so y’all know I taught my big sister about [@CardiB_]( today [pic.twitter.com/sGt7R1hOwi]( — Tiffany Haddish (@TiffanyHaddish) [November 26, 2017]( OK but also? She buried the lede. Which is that she was invited to dinner at Ron Meyers’s house, the Vice Chairman of Universal. Girls Trip was distributed by Universal. It was a big hit for the studio. And Tiffany was the movie’s breakout star. Tiffany Haddish, who writes about being bounced around from home to home as an adolescent, is hanging out at the chairman’s house. And may even have the studio’s support behind her Oscar campaign. Which is significant. Because even if she doesn’t win, an Oscar campaign speaks to visibility. It means they could be investing in her career. There was a time in Hollywood when studios weren’t investing in the careers of the Tiffany Haddishes of the world. She goes on to talk about having dinner with Taylor Swift after they were on SNL together and bringing her some “joyful greens”. So Taylor Swift has now “[collected](” Tiffany Haddish. We can focus on that, sure. But if we do, then we’re not focusing on how Tiffany Haddish has shown us this year how to turn being a talk show guest into an artform. I’m hanging on every word. I can’t stop smiling (even though I’m annoyed at Ellen’s patronising attitude, because she’d be a lot more giggly if Jake Gyllenhaal or Ryan Gosling were sitting across from her, but that’s a conversation for another day). I cannot get enough of Tiffany Haddish. And, hopefully, during this book promotion and through award season, we’ll get a lot more. [Click here for the rest of the photos.]( Posted at 3:30 PM [Bryan Singer’s disappearing act]( [Bryan Singer attends the 25th Annual Elton John AIDS Foundation's Academy Awards Viewing Party at The City of West Hollywood Park on February 26, 2017 in West Hollywood, California](In the latest Weird F*ckin’ News, it broke over the weekend that Bryan Singer has vanished, abandoning production on the Queen movie, Bohemian Rhapsody. Fox, the studio behind the film, was forced to release a statement, saying, “Twentieth Century Fox Film has temporarily halted production on Bohemian Rhapsody due to the unexpected unavailability of Bryan Singer.” Apparently, Singer just never came back from a Thanksgiving break, and Fox has had to shut down production until, presumably, the new year. The Hollywood Reporter [added]( that Bohemian Rhapsody has been a rocky production, with Singer arriving late to set and the cinematographer stepping in to direct when he failed to show once before. Rami Malek and the producers, which include former Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor, are said to be annoyed, which is hilariously mildly put. A [rebuttal]( came from Singer’s camp, via the BBC, which stated that Singer’s absence is due to a “personal health matter concerning Bryan and his family.” Okay but if he or someone close to him is really sick, why wouldn’t Fox just say that? Bohemian Rhapsody is on hiatus while Bryan Singer addresses a private family concern, or some such. Remember that when [Zack Snyder left Justice League](, there was total transparency, even though it involved a deeply personal family tragedy. There is no transparency with Bryan Singer, which is why everyone’s bullsh*t detectors are blaring. That, and ever since the Weinstein scandal broke, we’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop with Singer. So has he skipped out on work before an expose drops? Maybe. But Singer has disappeared from productions before, pulling this vanishing act on X-Men: Apocalypse and Superman Returns. (Why does someone so unreliable keep getting handed major studio projects?) And allegedly he’s already done it previously on this movie. So, hiding from an expose, or just another diva director who has never faced censure for bad behavior? Singer, or someone around him, has [taken steps]( to keep his name out of the spotlight during this ever-spreading scandal. Given the timing, given the previous precautions, his disappearance does, in that light, seem like a preemptive move. But Singer is also a flake, and maybe the only reason we’re hearing about it this time is because everyone IS waiting to hear his name next. They’re not mutually exclusive, he could be a flake AND an expose could drop. But it’s also possible Singer just returns to work and nothing happens. Or maybe Fox replaces him—there’s plenty of [recent precedent](—and then nothing happens. It seems like something is about to happen, but it also seems like Singer just isn’t reliable. This is a weird story with a major inconsistency, and an actual possibility that nothing will happen. [Source]( [Click here for the rest of the photos.]( Posted at 2:39 PM [Privacy Policy]( - [Unsubscribe](