Newsletter Wednesday, April 18, 2018

[LaineyGossip.com - Calling all smuthounds!] Wednesday, April 18, 2018 [Intro for April 18, 2018]( [Adrienne Warren and Tina Turner pose backstage at the press night performance of 'Tina: The Tina Turner Musical' at the Aldwych Theatre on April 17, 2018 in London, England](Dear Gossips, If only we could open every day with a post about Ms Tina Turner and new pictures. Last night was opening night of Tina: The Tina Turner Musical on the West End. Adrienne Warren, who was nominated for a Tony Award in 2016, is playing Tina and everyone is saying that she f-cking nails it, that this performance is an undeniable powerhouse moment. But it really doesn’t matter what people say if Tina doesn’t approve. Tina not only approves, she also worked with Adrienne to make this happen. As she told the [BBC](, even though she initially wasn’t all that hot on the idea of a musical about her life… "A lot of people have asked me why I wanted to make a musical. I always found it a little difficult to answer... because I don't. Well first of all, it's difficult to see someone else do what we did for 40 years. I'm a perfectionist, so I look a little bit critically. But when I look and see it done so well, I feel proud. And I feel like I'm sending someone - sorry I'm getting emotional - I'm really sending someone out that's going to do a good job and make me proud." Can you imagine hearing that if you’re Adrienne Warren?!? Um, can you imagine working with Tina to get her moves down? Tina pop-quizzing you about doing “the pony”? *Coming this Friday 16th March @ 3pm* EPISODE 3 | [@AdrienneLWarren]( journey to becoming the Queen of Rock and Roll & live performance with [@loveTinaTurner]( Sign up to the [#TINAFamily]( & be the first to watch in full exclusively BEFORE everyone else! [pic.twitter.com/704S3lslTs]( — TINA the Musical (@TinaTheMusical) [March 13, 2018]( I have watched that video at least a dozen times this morning, with a combination of jealousy and a healthy amount of As IF – as in, As IF that could ever be me, being in a room with Tina Turner teaching me her signature tricks. That’s not an opportunity that happens to just anyone. Check her out – Tina’s 78 years old, moving around like a 28 year old. She is NOT messing around. And these pictures too… She looks unreal. Like…her skin? It’s amazing. And not just on her face but her neck and the chest area too. UNREAL. If you’re in the mood for more Ms Tina Tuner today, there was a good article in [The Guardian]( a few weeks ago ahead of the opening of the musical. It’s a brief overview of Tina’s career. And it’s a reminder of the artists Tina made possible. There are a lot of Tina Turner performances to choose from. For some reason, this is the one I’m feeling today: Yours in gossip, Lainey [Click here for the rest of the photos.]( Posted at 1:29 PM [Angelina’s new villain]( [Ed Skrein ](It was [announced yesterday]( that Ed Skrein has been cast in the Maleficent sequel, playing the villain opposite Angelina Jolie. Villainy is Ed Skrein’s thing – he’s been a villain in his last several projects. But he’s also been working on the film adaptation of James {NAME}’s If Beale Street Could Talk. This is Barry Jenkins’s follow-up to Moonlight. With this source material and writer-director, the film has strong award contender possibilities which means it’s a great career move for Ed. You always want to be in the orbit of someone like Barry Jenkins, someone who is asked for recommendations and is in the position to give recommendations. Back to Ed in Maleficent 2 though, now that he’s confirmed in the role, it’ll probably be only a matter of days before the UK papers or the American tabloids try to rumour that he and [Angelina]( are a thing. Look at him. He’s so f-cking hot. (He looks like he could be Nicholas Hoult’s grittier older brother.) And she’s f-cking hot, especially when she’s tapping back into her bad girl for this character. And, also, she’s available. Is he available? [Ed Skrein]( is not a household name which means we don’t know much about his household. Back in 2015, he lived [with his girlfriend]( and their then-four year old son, Marley. It’s been a full 3 years since we’ve had an update on that situation though. So… if there’s been a change in that situation, could you see it? Angelina and Ed? I could. I could A LOT. [Click here for the rest of the photos.]( Posted at 7:49 PM [Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom looks RIDICULOUS]( [Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom trailer](I have [not been impressed]( by [the trailers]( for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom thus far, but this new—final—trailer is SO F*CKING RIDICULOUS that I am now kinda feeling this movie. It just looks so dumb. SO DUMB. Exactly how dumb does it look? Does it look “bad guys having a secret black market auction for dinosaurs” dumb? Yes, it looks precisely that dumb because the bad guys ARE having a secret black market auction for dinosaurs! Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom looks like the kind of improbable movie plot they would joke about on Archer. So now we know that the dinos are being taken off the island—which is still a volcano, the floor is still lava—in order for rich people to bid on dino pets OH MY GOD and that Chris Pratt and the last surviving velociraptor are going to team up to take down the bad guys THIS IS A REAL MOVIE and the mosasaur is now apparently just out in the ocean eating surfers, which is actually pretty cool and also a nice shout to Spielberg by way of Jaws, and then [Chris Pratt]( dives through the T-Rex’s snapping jaws THAT PEOPLE PAID HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS TO MAKE and apparently there is a new hybrid monster-saur that Chris Pratt and the velociraptor will have to fight AND IS PROBABLY GOING TO MAKE ANOTHER BILLION DOLLARS and they’re going to fight in a little girl’s bedroom BECAUSE THE WORLD WE LIVE IN IS COMPLETELY LUDICROUS. So yeah, Fallen Kingdom looks like the stupidest thing this side of the Fast/Furious franchise, and ….now…I’m actually down for how dumb it is. If nothing else, it will be incredibad. And I don’t detect the sneering anti-audience tone of Jurassic World, so if we can have all this stupidity without being judged for enjoying the dumb thing you made for us to enjoy, that would be great. Also, after the Super Bowl spot I wrote, “I wish the spot ended with that dino drooling over the girl’s bed. It would be perfect.” Well this trailer ends with the dino drooling over the girl’s bed and it IS perfect. [Click here for the rest of the photos.]( Posted at 7:32 PM [Pulitzer Prize Winner Kendrick Lamar]( [Kendrick Lamar performs as a special guest on the Coachella stage during week 1, day 1 of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 13, 2018 in Indio, California](Kendrick Lamar Duckworth won a Pulitzer. KENDRICK LAMAR DUCKWORTH WON A PULITZER. The all caps are necessary. It’s a big f-cking deal. On Monday, it was announced that Kendrick’s album DAMN. has been [awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for music](. Kendrick’s win is historic not only because he’s the first hip-hop artist to earn this prestigious honour, he’s also the only artist outside of the classical and jazz music genres to win. This is why DAMN. winning a Pulitzer is so shocking and thrilling. It’s not because DAMN. is undeserving. Since the album dropped, there was little question about whether it was absolutely deserving of all the highest music honours of the past year but I don’t think anyone could have predicted that it would win THIS honour – especially after the Grammys snubbed Kendrick of Album of the Year. Kendrick winning a Pulitzer for the same album he lost the Grammy for Album of the Year is a poetic F-CK YOU to the Recording Academy. To quote Beyonce, “[ain’t that ‘bout a bitch?](” After Kendrick lost the Grammy’s highest honour, I wondered if the Recording Academy [was embarrassed](. If they weren’t then, they sure are now. Doreen St. Felix wrote an incredible, poignant piece for [The New Yorker]( about Kendrick’s Pulitzer and she put it like this: I certainly did not expect the Pulitzers to be what finally proved the Grammys irrelevant. There it is. The Grammys are officially less relevant to the current musical climate than the Pulitzers. They are less relevant than a prize that went to Angel's Bone by Du Yun last year. If you just went, “Who?” you proved my point. Go ahead and yell at me, classical music stans. The point is that the words “prestigious” and “hip-hop” have historically been at odds even though this is a genre that dominates mainstream music charts, has become the soundtrack of popular culture and provides searing social commentary on black American life. When Jay-Z became the first rapper inducted into the [Songwriters Hall of Fame]( last year, I wrote that it was a small vindication for a genre that is largely overlooked as a credible music genre. It’s not a leap to deduce that this disrespect is because it is a genre dominated by black people. Kendrick’s Pulitzer win is also shocking and thrilling because the spaces that include Pulitzer Prize music winners are not typically the spaces that welcome people who look like [Kendrick Lamar](. This prize is usually awarded to classical music artists and a few jazz artists. Before hip-hop, it was jazz that was denigrated as that lesser-than genre populated by black people. The Pulitzers have ignored hip-hop until now and in its 100-year history, it doesn’t have the best track record for awarding black talent. I’ll let Rolling Stone [break it down](: Duke Ellington was reportedly livid in 1965 when the jury rejected a special citation highlighting the preeminence of his work. Ellington would earn that achievement posthumously in 1999 – an overdue fate he'd share with other Black jazz geniuses like Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus and Louis Armstrong. Between 1965 and 1995, no living Black artists won at all. When one finally did, the award was tossed to Wynton Marsalis for his unimpressive jazz-opera Blood on the Fields. According to [The Guardian](, an African American wasn’t awarded the prize until 1996. With that context, Kendrick’s Pulitzer is even more stunning and significant. The Pulitzer Prize committee described DAMN. as “a virtuosic song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity and rhythmic dynamism that offers affecting vignettes capturing the complexity of modern African-American life.” That’s snob for Album of the Year. That description is a bit pompous but it’s not wrong. DAMN. is all of those things and more but since hip-hop has been left out of these uppity music conversations for so long, the question is now whether these artists even want to be rewarded in this way. I’m sure Kendrick Lamar is flattered by this recognition but he probably didn’t dream of winning a Pulitzer when he was growing up in Compton. He probably didn’t dream it because it wasn’t a dream that a black kid in Compton would dare to dream. Until now, it would seem impossible. And until now, a recognition like this may cause people to call a rapper a sellout. The fact that Kendrick’s music is so ubiquitous is partially why the Pulitzer Prize committee even considered his work. The Pulitzer Prize Administrator Dana Canedy (who I should note is the black woman responsible for [this hilarious meme]() said their [decision was unanimous](. UNANIMOUS. I will never get over this. To anyone claiming that Kendrick is officially not cool anymore because of this honour, here’s a quote from [philosopher]( Kanye West: “It's not cool anymore for no one to hear your sh-t. [T](� )[hat's just the hipster justification of failure.](” We’ve been calling Kendrick Lamar the greatest rapper of his generation for years on this site. DAMN. was Kendrick’s [definitive masterpiece](. Even though this newfound respect for hip-hop is long overdue, I can’t help but get excited about was seems like a definitive cultural shift to finally hold up this genre to the esteem that it deserves. It’s about DAMN time. Here's Kendrick performing at Coachella on the weekend. [Click here for the rest of the photos.]( Posted at 6:59 PM [Smutty Social Media, April 18, 2018]( [Goldie Hawn out in LA, April 17, 2018](Suri Cruise is 12! Almost a teenager. The way she is presented now is very, very different from when she was a baby – like the Vanity Fair cover (which Lainey revisited when Suri turned 10). Remember the [wild conspiracy theories](? They kind of went away when her dad did. [A post shared by Katie Holmes (@katieholmes212)]( on Apr 18, 2018 at 4:49am PDT Yesterday, Lainey wrote about [Posh’s birthday]( and how the family celebrated together, which means they are fine. For now. But look at this photo she posted later in the day (one of three she posted that mention him – he posted one of her). This body language. I’m never not worried. [A post shared by Victoria Beckham (@victoriabeckham)]( on Apr 17, 2018 at 9:23am PDT Brooklyn Beckham posted a photo from Coachella with Anwar Hadid, actress/model/heiress Nicola Peltz, an A&R rep from Interscope and a fashion photographer. The grouping of the next generation is interesting, especially when they are all somewhere together for an entire weekend. Do they hang out with Anwar’s sisters, Bella and Gigi? What about Hailey {NAME}, and Justin Bieber, and the Jenners – do they acknowledge each other in the VIP areas, or do they all go to their separate corners and ignore each other while they Snapchat? [A post shared by bb (@brooklynbeckham)]( on Apr 17, 2018 at 1:51pm PDT Of course this is how Goldie Hawn wears her tank top. [A post shared by Nancy Meyers (@nmeyers)]( on Apr 8, 2018 at 10:58am PDT This is absolutely true. (Same with turkey, don’t yell at me.) No one on Earth has ever said, "Hooray! Salmon burgers!" — Conan O'Brien (@ConanOBrien) [April 17, 2018]( I have never related to Katy Perry more; I have a ghost postal code. It is not recognized by most systems and if you try to use GPS, you will end up at a house 5 blocks away. It’s a total pain in the ass for mail/taxis/food deliver etc. (But Amazon is never a problem.) high of the day: 0 cavities 🙏🏻 low: [@washingtonpost]( won’t deliver physical newspapers to my zip code. Alas, I guess I’ll just have to stay w/my singular perspective of [@nytimes]( (also I am purposefully @ ing WP so I can possibly get this “problem” fixed) anyway, keep scrolling. — KATY PERRY (@katyperry) [April 18, 2018]( So many people showed up for Eva Longoria’s star ceremony: Marcia Cross, Felicity Huffman, Kerry Washington, Reese Witherspoon, Olivia Munn, Holly Peete. It shows her reach in the business is beyond acting. [A post shared by Eva Longoria Baston (@evalongoria)]( on Apr 17, 2018 at 10:06am PDT I’ve been laughing about this for 2 days, I think it will sustain me until Friday. [A post shared by The Betches Sup (@betches_sup)]( on Apr 16, 2018 at 7:02am PDT [Click here for the rest of the photos.]( Posted at 5:35 PM [Welcome to the Hotel Artemis]( [Jodie Foster in Hotel Artemis trailer](Jodie Foster’s new movie is a straight-up John Wick knock-off, and I do not care, it looks super fun. It’s called Hotel Artemis, and except for the near-future, vaguely dystopian setting, it might as well be called Hotel Continental. The Hotel Artemis runs on rules suspiciously similar to the Continental in the John Wick movies: Refuge for criminals with art deco styling, no weapons/killing on the premises, criminal overlords with dumb nicknames like “Bowery King” and “Wolf King”. The protagonist is even a guy who couldn’t quite manage to quit the criminal life. The likeness is striking, to say the least. The cast was assembled from all the internet’s favorite things: Sterling K. Brown, Jeff Goldblum, Dave Bautista, Charlie Day, Jenny Slate, Zachary Quinto, Sofia Boutella, Atlanta’s Brian Tyree Henry. (Zero degrees of separation: Henry is currently starring on Broadway with Slate’s twice-ex, Chris Evans.) Headlining is Jodie Foster as the doctor—nurse?—who runs the secret criminal hospital in the hotel (AKA the Winston role). She is obviously having fun and I love that shot of her talking on the oversized phone receiver. This is the feature film directorial debut of screenwriter Drew Pearce (best known for writing Iron Man 3), and it looks solid. I mean, it looks like the 100% unquestionable John Wick knock-off that it is, but at least if you’re going to rip off a recent action movie, John Wick is the way to go. And there is that nice Cool Hand Luke visual reference, I feel like we haven’t seen that in a while. As for the plot, it seems functional. Sterling K. Brown and his heist crew have to lay low at the Hotel Artemis, and a bad guy comes knocking because his pen containing diamonds has been stolen. It’s the good ol’ diamond pen heist plot, top-lined by Jodie Foster and her New York(???) accent, with a dash of The Raid in the whole “fight your way through a building” bit. Does Hotel Artemis look derivative? YES. Still looks cool, though. [Click here for the rest of the photos.]( Posted at 4:51 PM [Shuri in New York]( [Letitia Wright leaving Good Morning America in New York, April 18, 2018](If you’ve been visiting this site a while, you’re familiar with the fact that I’m super into the Avengers. I’ve seen the first Avengers movie probably over 50 times now. As I’ve said multiple times before, whenever it’s on TV, it’s the only thing I can do, I can’t move. So I’m pretty jacked up for Infinity War, opening next Friday. To the point that I’ve been trying to do homework – like last night before bedtime I started watching Civil War and then, when I got impatient because I’d forgotten some key elements, I just ended up texting Sarah and making her give me the answers. That’s basically what I call Avengers homework: texting Sarah like it’s a cheat sheet. Still, Infinity War is on my calendar. So I’m not sure why I waited until this morning to get my tickets. Which is why I’m not going until Sunday, April 29, two days after it opens. Because I waited too long and all the good seats are gone for the Friday and Saturday showings at my favourite theatre. So if you haven’t gotten yours yet, don’t wait. Now that we’re so close to the release, Marvel continues to step up the marketing, selling the movie on the “[family and friends dynamic](” between the characters and on nostalgia and anniversary commemoration. May 2, 2018 marks the 10 year anniversary of the release of Iron Man, the first building block of the franchise we now know as the Avengers. There was a class photo taken [a few months ago]( to celebrate the milestone. And a new featurette has been released to further highlight the 10 year legacy that takes us back to 2008, just before Iron Man opened, the beginning of Robert Downey’s reign as the Godfather of the Avengers: So we’re working with nostalgia here. And it’s effective, but to a point. Because Iron Man and RDJ aren’t going to be around forever. What’s the next decade going to look like? How do they get to May 2028 (I just shuddered while typing those numbers) and who’s going to be leading that effort? The challenge for the next 10 years is ensuring that the franchise is just as valuable – even more valuable – with new leaders. Like Shuri of Wakanda! Here’s [Letitia Wright]( in New York today presumably doing promotion for Infinity War. When Black Panther came out, the comparisons between Shuri and Tony Stark were immediate – they’re both smarter than anyone else in the room, they KNOW they’re smarter than anyone else in the room, invent sh-t all the time, and they’re both cocky and witty and irreverent. The difference? Well, Tony’s logged a LOT of mileage and Shuri is fresh as f-ck. This is why she was the breakout star of Black Panther. Shuri is the future! [Click here for the rest of the photos.]( Posted at 4:12 PM [Spielberg + DC = False Advertising]( [Steven Spielberg arrives for Gwyneth Paltrow and Brad Falchuk's engagement party in LA, April 14, 2018](Yesterday afternoon a flashy headline blared across the internet: STEVEN SPIELBERG DIRECTING SUPERHERO MOVIE! Nerds everywhere sh*t their pants. The thing is, it’s a little misleading. Technically, yes, Spielberg is developing a movie based on a comic book for DC Films. But he’s not making a movie for the DC Extended Universe, which includes Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. Spielberg is adapting an old adventure comic called Blackhawk, about a group of World War II ace pilots who operate from “Blackhawk Island”. Basically imagine something like The Rocketeer. Or Red Tails, but about sensationalized white people instead of historically awesome black people. And let’s not act like Blackhawk is a stretch for Spielberg. Yes, it’s based on a comic, but that’s not even a first for him, having previously directed The Adventures of Tintin. It’s also in line with the kind of adventure-serial-inspired movies Spielberg has been making since Raiders of the Lost Ark. Short of making a sequel to Tintin, Blackhawk is exactly the kind of comic book movie you’d expect from Spielberg. Is it a good deal for Warner Brothers and DC Films? Sure! They just collaborated with Spielberg on Ready Player One and that is going perfectly okay. It’s just hardly earth-shattering when it’s right in line with the type of adventure movies Spielberg has been making since 1981. It’s also not happening any time soon. Spielberg has a fifth Indiana Jones movie teed up for 2020 (I LOVE Indiana Jones and even I don’t need that), and then he’s going to remake West Side Story because he hasn’t heard the word “no” since 1975. So the soonest we will see a Blackhawk movie from Spielberg is like 2025. There are three possibilities: 1) Spielberg directs Blackhawk and we don’t see it for nearly a decade. 2) Spielberg hands it off to another director, and we see it a few years sooner. 3) Theatrical movie-going collapses, and projects like this are abandoned in the wreckage. Seriously you guys, by the time Spielberg gets around to making this movie, Hollywood could be VERY different. We’re about to lose a major studio in the Disney-Fox merger, and there is no one positioned to replace it. The industry is contracting, not expanding, and nothing on the horizon suggests a turnaround is even possible. The subscription service MoviePass is making waves with a Netflix-style monthly plan that allows people to see movies for less, but not all theater chains are excited about it and their business model is, right now, even more unsustainable than Netflix’s. There is a huge amount of uncertainty about where the industry is going and what the long-term prospects are as viewing shifts away from the theater and the gap between North American and world audiences grows (making it harder for those big budget investments to pay off with foreign box office). Who knows what Hollywood looks like in 2025. Who knows what it looks like in 2020. The advent of sound in cinema ended careers and caused studios to collapse. Cinema survived, albeit in a new, advanced form. Well, we’re living through a paradigm shift equal to or greater than the arrival of sound, and there will be casualties. I’ve been warning about this for nearly a decade and we are finally here, on the cusp of the change that must come to accommodate a new technology and changing audience expectations. There is an assumption that Spielberg will always be able to get his movies into theaters—which is why he doesn’t understand the younger generation of filmmakers finding more support from [streaming services](—but the truth is, who knows? So, yeah, enjoy the headline about Steven Spielberg making a superhero movie for DC Films, because the headline might, in the end, be all that we get. [Source]( Here's Spielberg arriving for Gwyneth Paltrow and Brad Falchuk's party the other night. [Click here for the rest of the photos.]( Posted at 3:20 PM [Harry & Meghan for the Commonwealth]( [Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend a reception with delegates from the Commonwealth Youth Forum at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting on April 18, 2018 in London, United Kingdom](Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped out in London today at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) to hang with delegates from the Commonwealth Youth Forum. This is significant because Meghan is not yet officially a member of the royal family but she’s there to represent the royal family – and the royal family is the Queen. The Queen is the Head of the Commonwealth. Given her age, this could be Her Majesty’s last CHOGM. It’s a title that means a lot to her. And there are currently discussions underway as to who will succeed her in the position as it’s not hereditary. Prince Charles wants it…but it’s really not up to him and there is a possibility that the membership could decide on a different way to appoint a symbolic leader. Theresa May has expressed her support of Charles continuing his mother’s work but [there are others]( who think that it might be time for change. The job for the royals then, especially this week, as all these dignitaries are in their ballpark, is to remind people of their traditional significance (however you want to define them) and show everyone how they can still maintain their value while also staying modern. And a lot of that work will fall on the young royals, William and [Harry]( – and now, of course, Meghan too. With that in mind then, it’s a tremendous vote of confidence in Meghan, that they’re sending her out there, even though she’s really only been part of this for a few months, during such a critical week. At the same time, they’re also clearly recognising what a tremendous asset she is, especially right now, just weeks before the wedding, when the entire world is curious about the woman who will marry the most popular prince of England of the last few of years. The royal communications team is making the most of that today: Delegates tell Prince Harry, who opened the forum earlier this week, and Ms. Markle what they have learnt from each other over the course of the last few days. [#CHOGM2018]( [pic.twitter.com/1tre7CfAnM]( — Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) [April 18, 2018]( Prince Harry and Ms. Markle also meet past winners of the [@QueensLeaders]( Award, who were taking part in the forum too. [#CHOGM2018]( [pic.twitter.com/5x2OhfRv5j]( — Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) [April 18, 2018]( Royal reporters say that [Meghan]( is becoming more and more comfortable in the role, noting that she hasn’t really seemed uncomfortable at all, not from the very beginning. I’m not sure how comfortable she was with what she decided to wear today though. Why the jacket over the shoulders, especially when you know you’re going to be shaking hands with people non-stop? On practicality alone, I’m not feeling this outfit, although I appreciate the boldness of the shoulder-showing. Pearl-clutchy old-timers get really, really up their asses about women showing their shoulders, like it’s enough to incite an international crisis or something. I kinda love that Meghan is flouting that, intentional or not. Back to wearing the jacket over her shoulders though – in addition to the impracticality of it, it also doesn’t look that good either. The blazer isn’t falling neatly off her shoulders and it’s not creating any clean lines. If you want to wear the jacket, just WEAR the damn jacket, you know? [Click here for the rest of the photos.]( Posted at 2:36 PM [The Philosophy of Kanye West]( [Kanye West](Kanye West is writing a book of philosophy. In conversation with interior designer Axel Vervoordt [for Pret-a-Reporter](, Kanye revealed that he’s working on a book called Break The Simulation. Of course, he is. The same day, Kanye West reactivated his Twitter account. That was not a coincidence. This is clearly step one in introducing the new phase of Kanye West. The philosophy of Kanye West and Twitter are directly correlated. Without Twitter, we wouldn’t know Kanye’s philosophy on marble conference tables… … or water bottles. (Click to expand) Those are classic Kanye West tweets that have since been deleted. They have been replaced with gems like this: Some people have to work within the existing consciousness while some people can shift the consciousness — KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) [April 16, 2018]( Kanye West is good at a lot of things but one of the things he is best at is building a STRONG brand. Kanye West is known for the outlandish but often oddly enlightening observation. Kanye’s philosophy on self-love has always been clear. He’s been boldly proclaiming how much he loves himself for YEARS. It used to be portrayed as radical before it became a punchline. In Jay-Z’s [recent interview with David Letterman]( he told a story about Kanye standing on tables in the recording studio yelling that he was the saviour of Chicago and he didn’t even have an album out yet. This is Kanye West. If nothing else, the man is consistent. There have been valid critiques of Kanye’s re-emergence on Twitter and news of this book because, well, remember that time Kanye said he [would have voted for Klan President]( and did that ludicrous photo op [at Trump Tower](? People have rightly decided they don’t want to read the musings of a man who would align himself with the racist currently residing in the White House. That’s valid. But you all know that I’ve been a Kanye West fan [since day one](. And it may be my bias talking but I think of that time in Kanye’s life as a mental breakdown (he was hospitalized for 10 days) and lapse in judgement due to serious health issues. I will admit, however, that I’m not sure I would give the same slack to someone else. I will probably buy and read Kanye’s philosophy book. I know that’s likely because this isn’t Kanye’s first book. His first book [was called Thank You and You’re Welcome]( and I owned two copies. I tore pages out of the first copy and hung them on my dorm room wall – pages with words of wisdom like, “Believe in your flyness, conquer your shyness.” Kanye’s writing may have evolved since 2009 but that may be the calibre of writing we can expect from Break the Simulation. Here’s what else Kanye said about his new book: I'm writing a philosophy book right now called Break the Simulation. And I've got this philosophy — or let's say it's just a concept because sometimes philosophy sounds too heavy-handed. I've got a concept about photographs, and I'm on the fence about photographs — about human beings being obsessed with photographs — because it takes you out of the now and transports you into the past or transports you into the future. Think about who Kanye West is married to. And now think about why Kanye would be ruminating on the idea of “human beings being obsessed with photographs.” I’ll just leave that there. The fact that Kanye West is back on Twitter is exciting because Kanye on Twitter is always good for entertainment but my favourite Kanye story of the week involves Steve Harvey describing to Ellen what Kanye was like on Family Feud. The Kanye West who gets so excited to play Family Feud he smiles the whole time is the Kanye West I will forever be a fan of. I hope that guy is the one we’ll be getting more of in whatever this new phase is. [Click here for the rest of the photos.]( Posted at 2:08 PM [Privacy Policy]( - [Unsubscribe](